How about you Marko how would you have done mental rotations with a blank screen and once you were able to start seeing images in your minds eye was it natural for that image to be able to be manipulated through mental rotation for you. This isnt frequent or maybe it was but I just wasnt being atuned to the possibility. Contrary to your belief, aphantasia is a real thing. Again, think of retracing this particular part a few times. For example, I am unable to see the shapes Ive drawn on piece of paper (ironwheals first exercise) because the white piece of paper appears black to me so I cant see anything Ive drawn. Start maybe with 2-3 paragraphs a day until you get better. Practice this daily and your visualization skill will improve bit by bit. There seems to be talk of the afterimage eventually transitioning into a mental image. So thats all new experiences for this week. If thats the case, one may practice in daylight, or use fluorescent or LED lighting, or even go really old-school and use candles or oil/kerosene lamps (which also add to the atmosphere if youre doing something occult). The feeling of intense euphoria after seeing cute things is not an isolated incidence. I think progress is a matter of persistence practise. I tried to train visualization for like 1 month but without constancy. I can control them and direct the scene, but it takes a lot of mental effort. Try visualiying the scenes of the guided meditations. I tell you after i get more progress, but for me very important is that this exercises to see any changes can take more than just 1 month, before when i stop train imagination after 1 month, i dont saw any progres and stop with thinking i will never done that. If you cant see mental images at all dont waste too much time. But now Im back, and I can actually see the after-image of the candle flame (even though it is tinyliketiny..). If you were able to have those skills before you started seeing mental images how did you know you had them. SO HAPPY :). The images are more like silhouettes or outlines moving about behind a cloud of black fog. or i need to practise on other exercises (like seeing an image and reproduing it in mind, etc) to master this skilll? Dont give up on it and keep at it. Black dot on white paper. Hi Alex, Now, I am able to keep the image of my window effortlessly for ~10 seconds (+ 3-5 seconds disolving) but more than that: I can see the fine texture of the window curtain. Please try practicing with some real but simple objects (spoon, dice, perfume bottle, ). Hi Luke! Meditation 2 hours (not planned that much, but was good to stay there, doing nothing). That means, for example, inhale in 4 heart beats, then hold your breath for 16 heart beats, and slowly exhale in 8 beats. Especially in the beginning its every easy to give up. This is my new toy! I need to make this work, for the love of my family. Daily activities dont require it, because of this it has become harder to manipulate objects in my head, but thankfully I can still do it to some extent; but the objects have never really been clear, bright, and sometimes the objects become in visible but I can still see them in a sort of way in my head, but not with my eyes. It makes me very happy :) Im going to keep practicing, until I can visualize everything. Especially in the beginning, you may find it easier to keep your eyes opened. Afterimages are an optical illusion and are caused by the eyes continuing to send signals to the brain after staring at an image for too long, and are not created by the mind itself. One practices to get better at something, for example, if your mental imagery is weak. Whatever it is you want to visualize, make an effort to involve your mental hands, your imaginary feet, and all body parts. The problem was that most images disappeared after a very short time and others I couldnt control. It seems I am trying to reconstruct the image and paint it in the black space when I closed my eyes. So, thank you and God Bless. Or focus on your your breathing and only that for as long as possible. How many mins a day you have to practice ? A lot of coloured bubbles rotating in cylindrical shape. Kittens trigger serotonin and dopamine in peoples brains, making them more loveable to people. Visualize for about a minute, then get back to the book. No joke! And also, when I feel the next breakthrough and report it back here, other people might be encouraged as well. Let me explain. I have not felt that its been a waste of time, but I do admit that Im a bit discouraged. Perhaps, every night, when you go to bed, rehearse your daily wins by reviving them in your mind adding the successfeeling to it. Thanks. Ill go back to practicing the previous exercises. Mark, thanks a ton for your article! Im certain, if you stay with it, youll find you can recreate images in their true colors. Maybe you could use the videos images as after-images. And, if you allow me so, Id like to garner your reports and put them together into a dedicated success post. I notice that if I even notice the outside world at all, I am often at a loss of words to describe it. I would love to hear about your progress. when you visualise something, does it show up in the same place as those weird swirly patterns do when you rub your eyes too hard? It turns out its something more scientific. Could you sense that without having to tell your self that I was going North driving straight now I am going west, in order to get back going north I must make a right., Did you have to talk yourself through those things before you begin imaging in your mind or is mental rotation nd mental imaging a different skill and not something where you have to have the mental image before mental rotation. Ive tried the candle exercise for the first time tonight (Im leery of looking at a candle as it can burn your retina if you do it too long). Gotta keep at it, sight is the only sense Im completely missing in my mind. Some of then in near photographic quality. At #3 and #4 excercises i have troubles too: I can see single parts of the images when i close my eyes, but they are blurry and i cant hold them more than a fraction of seconds. And I think the process is somehow comparable to dreaming and the ability to recall dreams. People that cant picture things in your mind clearly, do you also suffer from poor memory. I should stop doing this while Im driving. Thank you for all your help and kind words. I tried to picture more complicated shapes but are too blurry and faded to distinguish them. Please test working with emotional, meaningful photos, and landscape photos. I have a question Are you actually trying to see images behind your closed eye lids?? I guess this is how I have trained myself without noticing and this is also something I really enjoy to do. Im happy to know Im doing it correctly and Im not full on mentally blind. If I keep looking into the darkness, after a few seconds another after image will appear, though this one has the colors inverted (only light/dark at this point) . In one of your examples for observation you referred to taking a glass, touching it, feeling at and then trying to mentally sense it. Perhaps if recognize that some image is in my minds eye though I didnt try to develop it I should observe whatever it is for how long I could but again at least at this point when I consciously think about the image that appeared that is the end of the image just as quickly as the random image showed up when consciouly trying to keep it on the mental paper it vanishes. Ive managed to complete the whole track only once. It actually sums up the topic very well and Im very happy I found it. :) Read a line and internally replay it on your mental screen. Not a photographic memory of course but more of a database memory system however if too many things are going on at the same time at a faster speed I dont have the time to memorize everything so something has to drop out where as if everything wasnt pivoting on memory I woudl suppose that the memory would just enrich the mental imaging and roation most people take for granted. That is my goal. Id suggest you pick 2-3 exercises you feel comfortable with. Personally, I think I had the biggest breakthrough with the videos from the HonestGuys. A car in front of you So Marko any suggestions on how to practice mental rotation. Did this happened to you ? Playfulness During my research I found out that at least for some people (I didnt really have this issue) common incandescent lights present a huge problem. I am doing the same but I visualise better with my eyes open than closed eyes. Try visualizing something. Same with the quadrants. You dont want the police to see nothing. Visualise at night with open eyes after turning off the light ? This week I changed a little bit my afterimage training: candle & random images from google (in the morning on daylight and before sleep on dark 20-30 minutes each). To train your whelp in a given mode, follow these instructions: Haste buff: Stand within the healing target dummies in Valdrakken and cast on yourself; Crit buff: Recording Ability Storing away visual information in great detail requires training of analyzation, focus, careful observation and perception. Download the YouTube to MP3 converter here. Dont know why but I think that the key (or a quick way) is to work more with those short video clips to keep them more when we become aware of them. Hopefully these exercises will work. Make sure to be relaxed, when you do these exercises. Thank you very much. And once again, thank you to Dorin for your progress reports. Aphantasia is a spectrum, like autism is a spectrum. Or just when i visualize consciously? Currently you have JavaScript disabled. As a note, for some reason it seems easier for me to to work with happiness-teasing photos like beautiful beaches, lush landscapes than with anything else. I started doing these exercises 3 days ago and have only had success with the first three, with a tiny bit of success with the fourth, and none at all with the fifth. Youre making progress, thats good. Ill keep it up! First of all, thank you from the bottom of my heart for all these clear steps and the hope you gave me. Please share your thoughts and theories below. But everyone is different. I am really close to solution why whole life my brain just didnt work and develope. After some lines and paragraphs close your eyes and try to picture whatever you have just read. I plan on starting the exercises today and staying consistent for at least 30 days. Keep practicing and youll gain both clarity and stability. It has the same effect. I tried another Image Streaming exercise that I found on the web the other day and I had a lucid dream that evening, so Im hoping that means that there is hope for me with consistent practice. Thank you for sharing your experience and progress such a level of detail! To train your whelp in a given mode, follow these instructions: Haste buff: Stand within the healing target dummies in Valdrakken and cast on yourself; Crit buff: Stand in the middle of nowhere and target yourself; Single target damage: Find an isolated mob and target it; AoE damage: target the cleave target dummies in Valdrakken; Single target heal: Target Sometimes it doesnt work for me, but other times, never before ~10 min, but once I really zone out, stop TRYING TO SEE like straining my eyeballs, my brain must take over and I can get some shapes and things. Every time you close your eyes make sure they are absolutely relaxed. You know, people reading that youre curing aphantasia will get excited and encouraged to follow your footsteps. A part of me made the recent mistake of seeking advices from all over the place. So, yes, if youd need to practice rotation if your skills is still weak. Found a different aphantasia cure? I basically paused all my projects/work for today. I just read your article about visualization and I find it very interesting. Hi Marko. All I know is that with endurance and persistence you will improve. Or is this maybe a bit more advanced? Another example is when I do the candle exercise, I can see the black rubber band on my wrist, but it shows up as a fluorescent white color. It was discovered accidentally when a man in his 60s underwent a cardiac procedure and afterward complained about no longer being able to visualize. Ive already begun using my minds eye every single night, I listen to a couple songs and imagine the lip movements and dancing of the band-members. Marko, let me just say that I am happy to have found this site! Ive tried Oxiracetam this week (purchased from nootropicsdepot) many people says that it is a good nootropic for the brain but in my case I couldnt concentrate on meditation (my mind was a complete mess on meditation, A LOT of thoughts), I had less flashes than before. Are you sure it would work if I practice persistently ? Im an artist and have been creating for quite some time. Marko, after one week practice with candle and shapes I finally started seeing after image. 5. So, I got that for me in terms of progress. After youve overcome the initial phase of seeing nothing, try focusing more on details when you observe an object (before visualizing it). Again, thank you so much! Once again, visualize, correcting the difference. I mean, neurofeedback is about fine-tuning your brain through electric stimulation and changing unwanted behaviour/thinking, so I dont think it was unreasonable to except SOMETHING. Also try looking at something intentlyto the left/in front of you and try to physically draw it on paper next to the item but with your eyes closed. My training was aggressive this week too. Now, before we get into the how-to part Lets quickly talk about why you would want to visualize. Thanks so much for this info! I read the books about visualisation I read and listened to everything I could find on the subject. To my mind, there are three depths or levels of visualization: Level One - The Mind's Eye. Am I am doing correctly ? Youll be able to automatically capture more details with a single look. I thought I was alone in my struggle. # How long should I do the exercises every day? They only last a second or so, although one time a few months ago I had an image last five seconds. Many of us can only see pure blackness. Also use images that are meaningful to you and evoke emotions (breathtaking landscapes, images of your goals, family photos, ). Before you open your eyes again: Try to recall the image by thinking of all its details. The Three Levels of Visualization. It looks just like the candle and Im aware its there, but it fades too quickly to hold onto, sometimes I can barely see it. This is the particular after-image you should try to hold on to. Now open your eyes and compare your mental image with its real prototype. Or do things come to your mind randomly at times? However, a large reason why I am depressed right now is because I cannot visualize, and keep failing school consequently. Now after 1 month and 6 days i see little better pictures and when i hear song my mind alone visualise moments from music video, i did not have that before. Im trying to work out whether I actually have this or if Im just overreacting (like normal!). The simple phrase of awh cant help but escape your lips when you see big brown eyes and a delicate button nose. Appreciate it immensely. nice advices, thank you. Did you have to talk yourself through those things before you begin imaging in your mind or is mental rotationa nd mental imaging a different skill and not something where you have to have the mental image before mental rotation, etc Thanks. Barrett Boesen Park. I feel youre on the right track! Like with the other imagination exercises, this is about patience and details. Just think about the idea of how something would look like. Click here for instructions on how to enable JavaScript in your browser. Perhaps, you are as different as two people with different colored skin. Took a longer than intended break. Two days ago I was working on a project that allowed me to only get like 2 hours of sleep. Ive probably tested hundreds of guided meditations and found that these two guys on YouTube stand head and shoulders above the rest: The Honest Guys. Seeing their face does trigger memories of previous encounters, but the memories are usually more about what was said, or descriptions of things that happened instead of pictures. Ive explained this, likening it to telling a person with no arms to try to pick up a penny off of the table. Surprisingly, I could see half the triangle (the area where I was focused on). If I could manage somehow to create a link between the verbal part of my brain and the visual, I think I would be a great writer. (100% free). Scan your eyes and make sure you release any tension.Now, do you see an after-image? Be it a table, desk, chair, shelving or otherwise, ensure what you buy serves its purpose for use. I will report all progress, now its 2 months 25 days, well see later. Now shut your eyes and take the object with you so you still have the image in your head, almost in front of your eyes, even though they are closed. Some black and white images seem to work for me, though not the whole image. I appreciate your efforts here and believe it will help some who are mildly different. Make the experience vivid and full of details. What did you do after you left the house? You could do this anytime during your day. There are no set rules when it comes to meditating. They apply it naturally on many occasions during the day to review the past, to rehearse the future, etc. For some people it appears to be easier. What does the environment look like? I dont know, maybe youll condemn me but Ill lay this out anyway: Couple weeks ago, I went abroad and tried magic truffles, tampanensis (where it is legal) to see if I could visualize. Sorry for this long comment, I know youre not my confessor. In a month (or so) I will also start image streaming technique. For them its always been normal.. What do you think? No one understands. Visualize twice daily for a total of 10 minutes. There's this book, 'The Cube' where you're asked to visuslize things that together create a picture that when interpreted says things about you as a person. Jim Harbaugh dropped out of the running for the Broncos head coaching gig yesterday, ahead of todays interview between Denver and Sean Payton. Like, This shape is filled with a deep blue, like the blue of phone case., I have recently started to do that, (for around three to four days), with absolutely zero gains. Now, Im glad you want to find out for yourself if you can turn your inner light on again. And I can only attribute these moments to the visualisation practices. I understand that when you are able to create images you can play around with memory-palace etc but what about the above? Your advice is interesting.Thank you. # You can reach into all directions. Even if I imagine painting on a canvas well, I see the canvas, but I dont visually place it in front of me. All of them are flat/2D nothing 3D so far. However one of them was a few nights ago, so Im encouraged a bit. And, I guess, youve already heard people saying, your mental blindness is called aphantasia. Thanks for the suggestion! F.e. I havent used this skill on a daily basis. :) But myself, I actually never watch the videos. Maybe incorporate more high contrast things to focus on in person that dont need a screen (lights in the screen might be worth seeing if they have an effect or not.) They just assumed Id know how to do this. But they are just that, afterimages. I imagine things all the time. Your goal is to learn to hold those mental pictures for at least two minutes without losing them or getting tired. Frequency What did you miss, what are the differences? Alhough I never pay attention to the candle itself, only to the flame, in the after image I often see the solid outline of candle and only a tiny glowing yellow part of the flame, which is never the same size or shape as the actual flame. Well, in my experience, learning to visualization (from scratch) is not impossible. I think of it as a gift; it keeps me more down to earth and realistic, and better at solving problems. Ive heard some people say that they dont have complete control of their visualization. Anyhow, I managed to bring up two of my words in my mind randomly, which is an amazing improvement. Can you "see"/visualize things in your head? Then create a vision board (either a real one, or online) and give it a prominent Ive had the image for several seconds blurred, but sharp enough to see small details. So, if you find you get better results using a different approach, please keep at it. All the exercises here are simply a means to an end to gain more control and clarity over the images you fashion purposefully though willpower. Win Wenger called this Image Streaming and this exercise helps you to kick start your visualization. Do u think i could recall my experiences and memories easier and with more details? Yeah, the swirling/cascading stuff is strange try image streaming on them (record with your phone) and listen later. That way, your sessions wont get interrupted by annoying ads. This, I think, helped me most. What is frustrating is not only that I am not seeing mostly anything, but after trying hardly (moderately hard), I only can see extremely blurry images which stays almost 1~2 seconds . Ive been practicing visualization for a little over 3 months. When I close my eyes am I suppose to be able to see it behind closed eyelids with my eyes? Week #2 Unfortunately, I havent heard back from Brandon yet. When I asked my friends about it, told me they can see whatever they want to imagine. In my experience the two things seem to be linked in my brain and its like I cant have one without the other. I have to see it in my mind, there is no other way. Just started the visualization technique. If you currently cant visualize your goals with your minds eye, express your goals, your visions in writing. Describe it all as if youd have it right in front of you. Employ all your senses in writing. Breath life into your goals by adding all the details youd want to see. But I know from many women in my manifesting community that they have a problem with this. Im so happy that I found your explanation and exercises. And maybe more encouraging is that I was able to see lime-green colour. The same can happen with our mental eyes. Did you know that you can get better at visualising with self-hypnosis? Practice. I hope you find a way that eventually works for you. Not very clear but was unexpected. E.g., when you visualize a dice, trace its contours continuously keeping your focus in motion. Yesterday I listened to the guided mediation/hypnosis from Michael Sealey you recommended (in the comments on 7/13/2016). 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