Visualization.

[anagogy]

I'm going to start visualizing in my daily meditations.

For those who visualize:

1) Do you visualize the same thing every time you meditate?

Nope.

2) Are your visualization exercises separate from your meditation? Or is your sitting quietly, not thinking meditation combined with visualization?

Depends. A lot of my behaviors are not so much structured and disciplined, as they are more spontaneous.

3) What do you visualize?

Whatever suits my fancy.

4) This thing that you visualize, did you invent it yourself? Or did someone else mention that they use the image, and you adopted it?

The object of visualization doesn't matter too much, from my perspective, what *is* important is getting 'absorbed' into the image without losing self awareness. If you lose self awareness, you will in all likelihood enter a dream state, which you may or may not remember depending on how much you've practiced (of course, it also depends how deep you are trying to go). A dream is essentially just an unconscious trance state. If you are sitting upright, you likely won't fall asleep (but it can happen). Sometimes you have to develop the ability in stages. What I mean by that is you might start off by spending a month to a couple of weeks setting a timer for like 15 minutes and focusing so deeply that you might well lose self awareness. And then after you get a good focus going on, gradually attempt to reintroduce self awareness into that intense focus. Once you get a 'feel' for the type and depth of focus that makes the images life like, self awareness isn't too hard to develop in concert with it.

5) Are you 'attached' to the image you visualize? Or would you switch to something else? What governs your choice?

Whatever I can become fascinated with. I often visualize a blue, translucent, iridescent, round, glass sphere, but not because it contains any innate value, rather because it was one of first things I ever clearly visualized to the point of it becoming a crystallized image that looked 'real' rather than just a ghosty semi visualized mind image. And so I became sort of enamored with the image. I've often recreated things like the image of a penny, or a crisp red apple.

6) What does your symbol represent? For example, the first thing that I thought of visualizing is a deep beautiful turquoise rose. But its meaning lies just in the fact that it is beautiful and ethereal. Do I search for some symbol that carries more meaning?

You could certainly visualize a symbol, or something of that nature, if you like. Sometimes practicing the same image repeatedly can help you more easily get where you want to go. But by the same token, you might become bored, and then lose your focus. There is a point where the image becomes apparently self sustaining and it almost seems like is has an independent reality (like a dream), at that point, you can start to plug into other realities, which at first feels like you are just imagining, but it sort of requires a bit of faith, because the nonphysical merely reflects your beliefs. So if you believe it is real, you begin to move into sympathy with real nonphysical realities, but if you think its a hallucination, you will move out of phase with them into the orange ray personal zone (lower astral/self projection). It is an extremely subtle line that takes a lifetime to fully souse out the fine details of. A fine line between distorted delusion and pristine clarity. But if you aren't looking to plug into other realities, and you just want to crystallize or polish your 'window' or '3rd eye', consistent practice will net you crystallized results. You can polish the window without necessarily shining a light out of it or into it. You can look out of the window at night, and during the day, but even though it is harder to see at night, a clean window will allow you to see a lot of things even in low illumination. I must apologize, I'm addicted to metaphors these days (they are so fun haha).

Visualization, when you get good at it, can be better than any video game, movie, or [insert other means of entertainment] and as Ra said, its a powerful way to transcend boredom and discomfort.

One of the keys for me was repeatedly doing an exercise (at the time, I was trying to learn self hypnosis), where I would set a timer and visualize a raisin, and then keep asking myself questions about the raisin. What is its texture? Examine its nooks and crannies. Mentally 'feel' its surface. What does it smell like? What does it taste like? What is its history? How did it become a raisin? Every time you are tempted to think of something else, ask yourself another question about the raisin. What you are doing is gradually training yourself to become fascinated by the object of focus. You are learning to control your conscious and unconscious attention. It is a powerful skill. You begin to get a subtle sense of the 'momentum' behind conscious attention. You'll gain an awareness of what 'noncontradicted focus' means. You know how when you read a book, you get so focused you don't see words anymore, you just see the story in your minds eye? That is a clue to how trance states work. The key word is 'absorption'.

I'm no expert, these are just some helpful pointers I've come across. Hopefully you will find them useful.