Visualization?

Dishthehappyfish wrote on another board:
"Has anyone ever had a visualization manifest? I just wonder. Being goal-less and apparently purpose-less, I have tried to visualize myself in circumstances in which I might be happy. I am actually very good at it, seeing my surroundings and feeling like I might feel in the situation. I have read books on the ins and outs of such visualization, and used their techniques, but with absolutely no success. It seems even my reticular activating system is faulty...that is the thing that brings that which we desire to the forefront of our brains. For example, if I am shopping for a new Nissan sedan for my son, suddenly I start seeing Nissan Maximas everywhere! And eventually the right one with the right price tag come surfaces effortlessly. Unfortunately that hasn't happened. I'm still shopping...hoping to grab a deal before prices go back up.
So now we are all visualizing buyers for Colette's house. And I must say, I have prayed (visualized, meditated) for others and every once in a while see results. So I am game.
I would love to know if anyone else has tried this. "

Some interesting concepts about visualization...
Visualization (American spelling, but we know they haven't spoken English in years...) is an old fact for the kahunas in the Polynesian Islands and Hawaii, but, as usually happens, got distorted and confused by the reading of the missionaries who invaded their lands like a plague. The Christian culture, on the Gnostic side, had hints about it, however the persecution unleashed against their groups resulted in the loss of such knowledge if indeed they knew how to practice it... I had joined people who were trying to rediscover the mechanisms at work regarding this phenomena over four decades ago (when I was in my early twenties...). I should say that it is more to it than the entertainment media's picture shows.
First, it isn't about the wished for results, but about the process that would take us from the present status to a future which might include what we wish for... And the process has to be well thought in depth... to include all (at least everything we could think of) the alternatives... additionally the visualization of such process (steps and consequences) should be wetted about how the steps would be increasing the common good, not only the beneficiary of the wished for results... if along the way there would be harm done to oneself and/or others, it would decrease the chances of achieving the expected results enormously... (something grasped at by the saying: "be careful about what you wish").
The Kahunas are keepers of the secret (Huna) and they base their knowledge on the oral transmission of their knowledge from one generation to the next... apprenticeship is required...
The Western thought haven't gotten the grasp on all that's included in this phenomena, suffice to say that by neglecting to understand the phenomena of consciousness they miss the process totally... Of course there is plenty of writers selling books about their wonderful shortcuts, but they never work, as they fail to consider the process itself, in favor of an emotionally gratifying focus on the results... there is no such thing as a Visualization for Dummies manual... Of course again, they will assure you theirs is just it... you can do with your bucks whatever you like, it would be faster just to burn them with the Fall leaves as you clean your backyard, than wasting them buying such garbage...
And, yes, a process along these lines is what helped me to heal myself from cancer... and it has been twenty two years since it went into remission... and so far I am staying free from it...
The experience is a very personal one, and what worked for one person, would mean nothing to another, that's why I say that there is an apprenticeship involved, with the help of somebody who's mastered the process... other than that, in reality, it is all in our consciousness and how we work at achieving unity between the differently focused portions of it... and very straightforward and simple... But also requires to let go of any tendencies toward laziness most of us harbor. There aren't shortcuts and it demands honest willpower...
And that's the truth of it...

Something I forgot to include above...
Talking about visualization, what's important is to visualize the path that would take you from your present to that one future which would fulfill your expectation... one at the time, from this particular present, each action and consequence had to be seen in our mind... and then to the next action and consequence... and so on... We also need to remember that we need to consider the most probable responses of others involved in such path, not what we would or should expect from them, but what would be the most likely reaction based in their own interests and emotions... This stresses that the whole exercise of visualization is also an exercise of our empathic skills...
Additionally, I found that the people who have the greater difficulties at attempting the visualization are the people who are more rigid in their beliefs, especially the religious beliefs... for most religions visualization is akin to practices of witchcraft and they instill a strong sense of guilt associated with such attempts, very difficult if not impossible to overcome... even when individuals might not be aware of such sense of guilt... in effect, I know a few that would say that such guilt is hogwash... but in reality they are subject to it without realizing the shackles their religion put on themselves...

Atheists have an equally hard time with it...
I know a few atheists as well, who have an equally hard time dealing with visualization... Here the problem is usually related with issues like consciousness... Highly trained scientific minds look for concrete evidence for the nature of the human consciousness, and usually also, restrict themselves to considerations directly related to our biological nature... The way I see it, is that we haven't figured out a way to study the phenomena of consciousness; we haven't discovered how to find the hard evidence required by the scientific methods... so most of the science practitioners tend to ignore or deny anything pertaining this fundamental aspect of our nature... except what can be detected in the physical workings of our neurological system...
And of course, empathy is a nebulous concept, forgivable for those who dwell in Psychology's jungle... they haven't found science's accepted methods comprehensible yet, but there are hopes for them...
So, the atheists usually draw a blank when trying to attempt visualization... and few are those brave enough to risk crossing into scientific anathema territory... to start getting a grasp of what it is entitled here... Unity of consciousness is something that still is part of an imaginary and distant future... Just as bad if not worse than what afflicts the convinced believers...
http://natureandspirit.yuku.com/topic/27