Methods of Visualization

[Plenum]

From the way Ra uses this particular word, Visualization is more an active 'impressing' quality, which is used as a sort of tuning or alignment mechanism for the consciousness of the individual.

so, developing inner concentration:

The type of meditation which may be called visualization has as its goal not that which is contained in the meditation itself. Visualization is the tool of the adept. Those who learn to hold visual images in mind are developing an inner concentrative power that can transcend boredom and discomfort.

representing the 'singleness of thought':

The key is first, silence, and secondly, singleness of thought. Thusly a visualization which can be held steady to the inward eye for several of your minutes, as you measure time, will signal the adept’s increase in singleness of thought. This singleness of thought then can be used by the positive adept to work in group ritual visualizations for the raising of positive energy, by negative adepts for the increase in personal power.

and it's use in ritual:

Each visualization, regardless of the point of the working, begins with some work within the indigo ray. As you may be aware, the ritual which you have begun is completely working within the indigo ray. This is well for it is the gateway.

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That is Ra's use of this term.  Like I said, it has more of an 'active' quality in terms of it's 'assertion'.  It is like a direction or a conduction, to focus and harness.  Visualization is definitely in the inner eye, the same place where we 'witness and experience' our dreams (not with our two physical eyes).

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For me, I relate to 'Visualization' in a different way.  I believe that it is still something taking place in the same 'location', that of the inner eye, but the approach is different.  Mine is more observational, and more akin to a tv/computer screen, onto which one receives or has images flash onto it.  It is less about asserting, and more about witnessing.

It is extremely close to Jung's version of 'active imagination'.

As developed by Carl Jung between 1913 and 1916, active imagination is a meditation technique wherein the contents of one's unconscious are translated into images, narrative or personified as separate entities. It can serve as a bridge between the conscious 'ego' and the unconscious and includes working with dreams and the creative self via imagination or fantasy. Jung linked active imagination with the processes of alchemy in that both strive for oneness and inter-relatedness from a set of fragmented and dissociated parts. This process ultimately resulted in the Red Book.

Key to the process of active imagination is the goal of exerting as little influence as possible on mental images as they unfold. For example, if a person were recording a spoken visualization of a scene or object from a dream, Jung's approach would ask the practitioner to observe the scene, watch for changes, and report them, rather than to consciously fill the scene with one's desired changes. One would then respond genuinely to these changes, and report any further changes in the scene. This approach is meant to ensure that the unconscious contents express themselves without overbearing influence from the conscious mind. At the same time, however, Jung was insistent that some form of participation in active imagination was essential: 'You yourself must enter into the process with your personal reactions...as if the drama being enacted before your eyes were real'.

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that said, I utilize both methods.  The former, more ritualistic, I use for tuning and preparing for deliberate higher work.  The second, more to experience and explore the resulting effects.  I would use the term Visualization to encompass both; as it pertains to the same area of consciousness, and, of course, the element of inner sight is extremely pertinent to both.

And just because it's taking place in the inner eye, doesn't mean it doesn't/can't have experiencible and observable effects.  In fact, the goal of inner eye work is to have an altered flow of consciousness.