The Practical Power of Visualization: Part Two

Envisioning Good Health

by Van Ault

T

he practical power of visualization has been known to special individuals and groups for untold centuries. But its effectiveness, and disciplined use has been kept largely secret. Only recently has its transformative magic become known to the mainstream including the medical world.

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Modern medicine has been obstinate in many ways about trying alternative therapies, but even its practitioners have finally started to acknowledge the role of the trained mind in healing. Visualization is now being employed more routinely in cases of serious illness and can be credited with assisting in countless recoveries.

The human mind stores information and ideas within images. These patterned thoughts, held within our awareness, communicate to the body how to act and feel. The body takes direction very well and reproduces with as much authenticity as it can what the mental image has ordered. For example, if you were to vividly imagine that you were about to be mugged, your body would go immediately into the fight or flight syndrome. Your heartbeat would speed up, sugar would be released immediately into your bloodstream, providing a quick rush of energy enabling you to repel the attack or escape quickly. The image, real or not, triggers this physical response.

The conscious manipulation of mental imagery can be used to heal and regenerate us physically, as well as psychically.

The imbalances that bring disease into manifestation occur often by a tacit agreement on the mental level. By changing that agreement and the images that uphold it the physical can change. We employ images that, by rational or medical standards, might seem childish or absurd. Yet they are effective because they engage the cooperation of the subconscious mind, sometimes called "Younger Self."

A Younger Self that harbors negative ideas/images about living, dislikes its physical body, and isn't sure about its commitment to being alive on Earth, may work against one's conscious desires to be well. Through visualization, we can effectively engage its cooperation in any healing or other change we want to make. Our Younger

self likes pretty pictures, crazy cartoons, and gets off on adventure and thrills. We can appeal to it through our fantasy and heightened imagination. It is much more likely to get into the mental movie we create if we visualize, for example, our white blood cells in the form of great white sharks, hungrily devouring an intruding virus imaged. as schools of black fish in our bloodstream, than if we simply imagine the white cells' actual biological form as brighter and stronger. Our emotional Younger Self, aroused through the interesting pictures, will supply the necessary energy to activate the picture on the physical level. With repetition, the body accepts the pattern of wellness, and forgets the "sick" one. Younger Self fully cooperates with the new pattern.

Visualization requires that you really examine your feelings and what your needs are. It challenges you to inspect your commitments to yourself, and what you're doing with your life. The Mental Movie

There are two basic parts of a healing visualization. If you are already ill, the first part is visualizing the healing process you imagine and encourage the necessary changes to take place: bones knitting, wounds healing, blockages disappearing, viruses being destroyed, inflammation cooling out, etc. The appropriate images are selected to represent the "actors" in the drama. Then, the scenario is played out accordingly in

your mental movie...and the good guys win!

The second part is to visualize yourself completely well calling up into your imagination all the images and feelings that represent comfort, ease, harmony, beauty, radiance, and peace. Let me give an example.

One of my clients was diagnosed with a rather substantial case of hepatitis. In addition to good medical care, he wanted to know what he could do mentally to speed up his healing. I suggested he have a talk with his liver & find out what it needed, and then

visualizing yourself posing in a leopardskin brief, flexing your oiled up muscles, looking incredibly healthy, with a very silly smirk on your face, while the rest of the world looks on and applauds." Needless to say, his Younger Self loved that idea. Every time the deathbed image flitted through his mind, he immediately released it from his attention, and concentrated on the picture I recommended. This sent him into gales of laughter! Laughter can dissolve negative nonsense quicker than anything. Comical images are the most powerful of all, I have found.

Exercise: A Healing Visualization

Find a quiet place where you will not be disturbed. Outdoors is preferred, if possible, but anywhere is okay. Un-

From Outside of Time, photos by Nina Glaser (Beaux-Arts Press).

Our Younger Self likes

pretty pictures, crazy cartoons, and gets off on adventure and thrills. We can appeal to it through our fantasy and heightened

imagination.

visualize the healing process. His own Younger Self, I knew, would supply the image of the inflamed organ which he could directly communicate with. After relaxing deeply, and calling for the image, a picture of a frightened little child twisted into a fetal position appeared. "Give me a break!" whined the child. It went on to explain, in a very childlike way, that it was being beseiged with more stress than it could take and needed a rest.

My client visualized himself picking up and cuddling the child, telling it how he loved it and wanted it to get better. Then he visualized himself as healthy, strong, rested, and energetic. He performed this visualization three times a day, pursued a cleansing diet, and got lots of rest. He regained his liver's cooperation and quickly recovered. His physician was astonished at how fast it all happened..

As the mind thinks in images, and Younger Self expresses its fears in the same way, you may find all kinds of negative pictures floating through your mind. The pictures can, with enough attention and fear, be fed with sufficient energy to cause it to actually manifest. Visualization can be useful here.

Another client I had was, like many people, terrified of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. The fear kept producing mental images of himself wasting away in a hospital bed. This was doing him no good at all, emotionally. I suggested an alternative image rather hilarious in fact: "Try"

buckle your belt if it's tight. Get.comfortable. Close your eyes and relax. Mentally, tell yourself, "Relax, relax, relax." Breathe slowly inhale to the count of four, hold four counts, exhale to four counts, wait four counts, then begin again. (Adjust the count if four is uncomfortable for you.) Get into the rhythm of the breath. Breathe out any tension you feel in your body let it

go.

Visualize a brilliant sun above you. Feel the warmth pouring down on you. Get a strong, clear image and feeling of it, and just relax for a few minutes. Feel the golden light penetrating every cell of your body. Keep breathing. Imagine that every breath you take pulls that golden energy into you. Feel the warmth soothing, relaxing, and invigorating you. See the light, especially, shining into the center of your heart. Watch it coalesce into a golden flame, radiating more energy throughout your whole being.

Keep breathing. Consciously direct that energy now into your blood stream. Visualize streams of golden flame spreading throughout your body, burning up any toxins or viruses which may be there. Send the energy into your vital organs, cleansing and regenerating them. Send it into your muscles, bones, and into your skin.

Visualize the light streaming out of the pores of your skin, surrounding your physical form with a brilliant radiance. (Pretend you're a god.) Relax into this radiance as you see and feel it all around you, emanating from within you. Appreciate your body say thank you to your body for its service to you. Even if you're not in perfect health, or don't look the way you want, let yourself be grateful for what you do have. Love your body. Love your Self. Bask in the glow another minute or two. Then, when you are done, say, "So be it." It is done. Drop the image. Get up and go about your business.

The benefits of this kind of visualiza-

tion exercise, regularly performed, are multiple. It provides relaxation, obviously so necessary in counteracting the often intolerable stress levels of today. It can raise your basic energy level substantially, elevate your personal self-esteem, and boost confidence. It's a wonderful antidote to fear and empowers you to move beyond feelings of helplessness. Last, but not least, it's fun!

Some Pointers on Technique:

Don't approach visualization as a deeply serious, heavy experience. Keep it light, be playful. Enjoy! It's an adventure, not a chore.

Don't drag it out. Most people's attention span isn't long. Ten or fifteen minutes at first is quite enough. If you become good at it and really enjoy doing it, you can extend to twenty or even thirty minutes. Longer doesn't mean better, however.

If your concentration drifts, don't beat yourself up. It happens to all of us. Gently return your attention to your process. If it wanders off, just gently bring it right back. Practice will improve your concentration.

Repetition is what really energizes the process. If you are seriously ill, three times a day is called for. Otherwise, once daily. Try visualizing daily for a month. Notice the changes. You may want to keep a journal detailing your progress, discoveries, and techniques.

Make up images of your own that stimulate you. Start thinking about images that embody well being, beauty, harmony and peace. What do you want most to be, feel, or have and what does that look like in your mind's eye? Try getting together with other interested friends to visualize as a group. Sit in a circle, and have each person describe his vision, while the others silently visualize it with him. This is especially useful for lovers, roommates, business partners, or organizational leaders.

Visualization is not a substitute for good medical care, or healthy habits. Just as health is not strictly all in the body, it is also not just in the mind. Use your common sense, and don't neglect things like nutrition, exercise, and rest. Visualization works exceptionally well in conjuntion with other healing methods.

If you want to go further with visualization and similar techniques, find a good, qualified instructor, or do some extra reading and teach yourself. Common Ground, a directory for growth-oriented classes and groups, is available around the Bay Area, and may be of assistance to you. Naturally, use your intuition about deciding if a teacher/group is right for you.

Most of all appreciate, value and nurture your imagination! It contains the seeds of the future, and empowers us to cultivate a moment-to-moment experience that is fun, interesting, healthy, and challenging. Enjoy!

⭑ ⭑ ✩ Recommended Reading: Seeing With The Mind's Eye History, Techniques and Uses of Visualization Mike Samuels, M.D. & Nancy Samuels; Joy's Way: A Map For The Transformative Journey Brugh Joy, M.D.; Getting Well Again O. Carl Simonton, M.D.; Cutting The Ties That Bind Phyllis Krystal; Love Is Letting Go Of Fear Gerald Jampolsky, M.D.

✰ * * Van Ault will teach a six week course, "Visionplay", in September. The course teaches the applied use of visualization as an aid in stress reduction, relaxation, energy raising, grievance healing and guilt clearing, self-image enhancement, and more. The main emphasis will be on playful self-discovery, joyously discarding old patterns, and embracing visions of our own choice. For further information, contact Van at 415/864-1362.

August 1, 1985 Sentinel USA 7