Tuesday 3 September 2013

Visualisation...all you need to know...and more!

Fantastic information from one of our very lovely students - Starlit Energies ♥

Visualisation, also known as Mental Imagery, Visual Mental Rehearsal, Meditation, Journeying, Mindfulness, and Astral Travel is a technique that has been proven to be extraordinarily successful in producing a specific outcome. Whenever we imagine ourselves performing an action in the absence of physical practice, we are said to be using visual imagery also known as our imagination, our intuition and our astral self. Visualisation techniques have been used with great success in sports since the 1970s apparently, attempting to calm the nerves of those competing/playing, a sort of healing of nervous tension before any sporting occasion.

Our brains are wired in such a way, that they can’t determine reality from imagination so the reason visual imagery works is because, when you imagine yourself performing a task or imagine your body doing what you want it to, or your emotional-self getting better, you are physiologically creating neural patterns, or circuits in your brain, just as if you had physically performed the action. These patterns are similar to small tracks on a record, which gets played over and over. Visualisation is intended to train our minds and create the neural patterns in our brain to teach our bodies to behave in the way that we want them to I believe this is why you can train your shield for example by touching an object or thinking of a word, it’s also why positive affirmations work.

Hundreds of recent studies have found that guided visualisation is a powerful technique that enhances a person’s coping skills. Many people dealing with stress feel loss of control, fear, panic, anxiety, helplessness and uncertainty. Research has shown that guided visualisation can dramatically counteract these effects and it can also help people overcome stress, anger, pain, depression, insomnia and other problems associated with illnesses and medical procedures.

Understanding the various ways in which your thoughts affect your body and your body affects your thoughts is really pivotal to understanding visualisation - this type of mind-body healing works with you to reduce your stress and change your behaviours if done regularly. In fact I believe, through understanding how your mind-body works, you can take control of your life and be free from stress and pain, I’m not saying entirely, I also believe we have to experience some pain/stress to balance out but we can, when we come through the initial AHHHHH moment learn to not let it get to us to the point where we are incapacitated or we turn to rather more unhealthy options - drink, tobacco, drugs.

All very well and good I’d say if you have the patience to learn visualisation and the time/inclination to practice every day! To me visualisation is just another way of saying meditation and what does Buddha say about meditation?

“Meditation brings wisdom; lack of meditation leaves ignorance.
Know well what leads you forward and what holds you back,
And choose the path that leads you to wisdom.”


Meditation means many things to many people; to some it means simple relaxation, a deep blissful surrender to the divine, a meticulous and structured program, or exploring a unique path to the self. To be fair it can mean any of these things, but it’s defined as a practice always! Whether that practice means sitting still or moving, reading inspirational words, or emptying the mind of all words, meditation is something we do.

Meditation involves choice. You chose to be in the present – now, now, now and now! Meditation is a practice of training your attention by focusing it on something in the present moment, a flower, candle, crystal, herb, sound or your own breath.

The medicinal approach to meditation includes all healing, therapy, wellness, and health-maintenance goals. Studies suggest that meditators live longer, and suffer fewer degenerated diseases than others who do not meditate. Specifically meditation has been studied for use in chronic pain relief, lowering blood pressure, and treating insomnia all of which can be treated with medication but some would suggest meditation would work just as well.

When illness occurs meditation is most effective when the illness is emotional or stress related – hence the use in spiritual and energy healing, because after all a lot of stress and emotion issues come about when our energy and spiritual centers are off kilter. I’ve noticed a lot of spiritual meditators will drum, dance, and do yoga – these are not new techniques, my research took me back to a cave on the side of a hill, surrounded by primitive paintings on the walls of bison and stick figures with spears, evidence of fires and cooking herbs and spices, and tools, this was of course a left over dwelling of a shaman in the Native American path but you get the picture, these practices are not necessarily that of the modern neo-pagan only!

I’ve been using one form of visualisation/meditation for a few months now, which seems to really help out with my stress levels… this is the meditation based on white light healing:

Sit back and relax, feet firmly on the floor, nothing crossed. Take some deep breaths and close your eyes, as the world melts around you….

Visualise your 7 spiritual chakra centers as being hollow coloured infrastructures.

Visualise a stream of divine white light coming down from the heavens...

Visualise the white light coursing like a liquid through the crown chakra the divine connection

Visualise white light coursing like a liquid through the third eye the intuitive

Visualise white light coursing like a liquid through the throat chakra the communicative

Visualise white light coursing like a liquid through the heart chakra the emotional

Visualise white light coursing like a liquid through the solar plexus chakra the confident

Visualise white light coursing like a liquid through the sacral chakra the sexual center

Visualise white light coursing like a liquid through the root chakra the connection with mother earth


Notice warmth and a bright glow as each one fills up with liquid white light. As each chakra is completely filled with white light move on to the next chakra.

As the liquid white light courses into each chakra use your awakening perception to inhale breath into that chakra.

As you perform this visualization the chakra center will become warm and in due time hot.


Note: Most people haven't done this before, so take time to practice this feel and become intuitively aware of the vibration. The white light has a smooth languid sensation as it courses freely through each chakra. By now all your chakra centers are full and they should all be blended into each other, with an influx of white light. Allow the white light to flow through and into the earth out of the root chakra and feel any stress/upset/pain/emotional nasty’s having been swept up with the white light and drained out into Gaia to be recycled.

This is just one meditation/visualisation… there are literally thousands out there, this is one that I use quite often as a self-healing ritual, a moment in time where I connect with the divine and the divine connects with me. More often or not I go on to travel the astral plane to receive the messages I need to from the divine.

My thoughts on this are simple – I’d say mostly everybody can learn meditation/visualisation and the great thing is in my opinion there’s very few ethical concerns with telling someone to be more mindful, more present, more… aware! You can instruct and guide another person through these practices, and you can do them on your own in your own living room. You don’t have to be certified, verified, or medically aware as such, you just need some patience to practice and an open mind!

Admittedly meditation/visualisation won’t work for everyone, especially the classic image of someone sat crossed legged “oming” so as I researched I noticed other practices that could be classed as meditation/visualisation that I didn’t even realise I was doing, and perhaps this is the same for everyone! One example is mindful walking, this means walking and being mindful of the sounds, smells, sights around you and being one with nature – I know that one of the best ways to heal my soul is to go to the New Forest and just be, I never thought of this as being a form of meditation/visualisation but I can see now that I do loose the nasty’s when I’m out and about, and I do come back feeling very refreshed and healed. Another practice is journalling, now I try to journal – doesn’t always work, I’m up and down with it, but I can see now how it can be likened to meditation/visualisation, you’re emptying your mind on to paper after all and feeling better for it.

To sum up, personally this form of energy healing is the way I’m headed as opposed to other forms, I can put that white healing light into objects and give them friends and family if I really want to, and I can do it myself for myself without having to spend a lot or take up too much time on it… for me this is a simple and effective practice which is proven to really assist in the things I personally struggle with: my stress levels, and my emotional well-being! It doesn’t take away the amazing works of shamans, reiki masters, angelic healers, acupuncturists etc etc etc etc etc but I do believe it can add to these things and I will go as far as to make the statement that visualisation and meditation is the backbone of most healing techniques in the spiritual/energy realms.