I have been a meditator since I was very young, at least 16 for formal meditation, but even as a kid, I used to be able to do it, but didn’t realize I was meditating.

As a young child, I could visualize very clearly, especially while lying in bed at night and in the morning. Also, I could control my circulation in my hands and make them go red and hot or cool them down just by willing it.

Now I know these things are formalized in the system of Autogenic Training.

The basic stage will take you into very deep relaxation and autonomic control.

Getting to the stage beyond this is where myself and many others get stuck. At the advanced stage of Autogenic Training, you begin to meditate, and for many people, the visualization of colors and imagery comes spontaneously, as it did for me as a child.

Stress and trauma in life can put a spanner in the works, as the body subconsciously gets stuck in fight or flight mode, and the imagination gets squelched. It can stay literally switched off by the brain. The spontaneous visualization and opening of the mind’s eye, in this case, just stubbornly won’t happen.

There is a simple solution: Image Streaming. In Autogenics, you can do it yourself or with a therapist. The subject (you) will simply describe out loud in detail what they see in their mind’s eye. This connects the subconscious right brain with the conscious verbal left brain. Over time, the imagination becomes conscious. The brain is designed to be interhemispheric, and the state of most people’s brains is dysfunctional.

So image streaming is the next technique to master after the basic Autogenic exercises. If you are lucky, the visualizations will come spontaneously. If they don’t, it’s no problem, as they will certainly happen with the assistance of image streaming.

You simply describe in great detail everything you sense in your mind’s eye. You can add all senses. You literally let the images flow from your subconscious right brain. This is a natural reflex, so they will come abundantly and eventually more and more vividly.

You will, with a little training, experience more vivid mental imagery. It will become 3D and very detailed.

Now, all this training is done in a state of deep, restorative Autogenic Relaxation. It’s a restorative process of brain repair and growth.

There are of course other things going on neurologically apart from interhemispheric communication and the development of the corpus collosum. There is also a neural polarity switch when imagery comes from the imagination rather the sensory organs.

But you dont have to take this into account for the training to work.

There are plenty of very detailed books on Autogenic Training and Image Streaming.

• Image Streaming by Charles Roman
• The Genius Code
• The Einstein Factor
• Autogenic Training by Luthe
• 5 volume set of text books on Autogenic Therapy by Shultz & Luthe
• Autogenic Training by Sadigh
• Advanced Autogenic Training And Primal Awareness by Endredy

I strongly suggest you use both methods as part of the same training system.

You may also want to take a look at the book The Right Brain And The Unconscious Discovering The Stranger Within. In addition Luthe wrote a book called the Creativity Mobilization Technique which is a kind of art therapy.

Now with strong skills in Autogenic Meditation and Image Streaming you will have very formidable cognitive capability and resilience.  To go beyond this you may delve into advanced self hypnosis.

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