Thread: Who here can actually SEE what they visualize

I hear that some people can actually SEE what they visualize. I know I am not one of these people. I can visualize it but I can't 'see' it. This seems like an interesting ability to have for inducing a lucid dream. So can any of you do this?

People have different levels of visualization naturally. Lets say i tell you to visualize an apple. Some people can visualize the apple perfectly in a clear vivid images. Others can get a vague blurry image of what is looks like, while others just think of the concept. A way to increase this visualization is to practice mediation and/or dream yoga. Im not sure if there is a class on mediation, but there is a dream views academy class on dream yoga for sure. Good luck!

Interesting, thanks for the info. What is your level of visualization? As for me I can only think of the concept

Originally Posted by Daredevilpwn

Interesting, thanks for the info. What is your level of visualization? As for me I can only think of the concept

But you can still lucid dream?

I've always had very visual dreams. Even more so when they are lucid.

Originally Posted by bluemoon

I've always had very visual dreams. Even more so when they are lucid.

Thats cool, but thats not what I mean. What I am talking about is when you visualize something do you actually see it.

Only if I wake up in the middle of the night and visualize (sometimes) or if I've taken lots of benadryl (read: recreational doses, meaning doses of 300 mg+ [for me usually between 400 and 600 mg] which results in delirium--if you feel like trying this, read up on it first, because next to nobody finds it enjoyable, though for whatever reason I do).

Personally, i can get a blurry image of what I'm thinking of. I don't have great visualization either xD

Well its better than me. I can't see anything. I can 'see' the concept and 'see' what it would look like but I can't actually see it from my eyelids.

Yes I actually see was I am visualizing.

I've had past life dreams where I am looking in the mirror. It's me but I look different and am wearing period clothing. Just to give you an idea how well I see in my dreams.

Not sure if this has to do with anything related with eidetic memory, but ever since I started to build up on my dream recall when I first joined this forum, I can look at certain dream journal entries I made, and literally get snippets of what I experienced.

Though I had those fleeting images before, but never really gave it much thought...sometimes it ends up bad, and I can imagine cruel things like bullets piercing through someone's head, things like fire forming, etc.

Whenever I want to draw myself in some kind of outfit and/or situation, I can quickly imagine an image of myself in it. Though it tends to look better in my mind than when I actually draw it.

I guess with practice, anyone can develop eidetic memory (to some extent, unless you're already lucky in the gene pool for things like that).

Originally Posted by Linkzelda

Not sure if this has to do with anything related with eidetic memory, but ever since I started to build up on my dream recall when I first joined this forum, I can look at certain dream journal entries I made, and literally get snippets of what I experienced.

Though I had those fleeting images before, but never really gave it much thought...sometimes it ends up bad, and I can imagine cruel things like bullets piercing through someone's head, things like fire forming, etc.

Whenever I want to draw myself in some kind of outfit and/or situation, I can quickly imagine an image of myself in it. Though it tends to look better in my mind than when I actually draw it.

I guess with practice, anyone can develop eidetic memory (to some extent, unless you're already lucky in the gene pool for things like that).

how can i develop eidetic memory ?


btw yesterday i created similar topic, .dreamviews. com/f36/how-learn-do-vivid-visualizations-so-vivid-will-confuse-real-world-physical-things-135046/

there are some ways to do it but its very hard and very long and complicated....

Originally Posted by memtest81

how can i develop eidetic memory ?


btw yesterday i created similar topic, .dreamviews. com/f36/how-learn-do-vivid-visualizations-so-vivid-will-confuse-real-world-physical-things-135046/

there are some ways to do it but its very hard and very long and complicated....

Beats me, I don't try to focus on developing it seriously, but if I wanted to, I would just focus on trying to fuse left and right brain hemispheres (in a nutshell, seeing and learning things subjectively and objectively), imaginative thinking and anything related to locking in images in your head. You should look up on some articles, or even simulations that might help with eidetic memory.

-But with those alone, you'd have to take into consideration of what else it could be developing instead of one aspect you want to improve on, which might skew the whole ambition in that development in the first place.
-Then you have to worry if it's just rote memory, and try to find ways that could improve working memory, an aspect of short term memory. I would assume that if you can strengthen short-term memory, it can help with sustaining images inside your mind until it's consciously or unconsciously moved to long-term memory.

However, being able to memorize certain events etc. visually in your mind in precise detail for a few seconds or minutes, compared to imaginative thinking and development (where you go beyond the still image manifested in your mind) are completely different, and that takes way more initiative than you had in the first place.

Working memory, as far as what I learned from professors specialized in neuroscience and other fields, is still something new to be researched on.

could you ask this professor about: (remove this character from url '_' in ww_w)
ww_w.bio.net/bionet/mm/neur-sci/1998-May/031862.html
and if he knows some stuff to make it easier to create this mhv mcv jumps without drugs meds ?

Originally Posted by memtest81

could you ask this professor about: (remove this character from url '_' in ww_w)
ww_w.bio.net/bionet/mm/neur-sci/1998-May/031862.html
and if he knows some stuff to make it easier to create this mhv mcv jumps without drugs meds ?

I have lost all communication with him unfortunately. Good luck though.

And the link you showed seems to be going into biochemical processes, and that discussion itself would just make things off-topic. I think.

As I child I would close my eyes in bed and instead of seeing blackness I saw all kinds of random stuff floating by in my vision. Yes, SAW.

I have full natural eidetic memory - I'm going to fix some things some people said above.
1) Full eidetic memory can not be learnt nor taught. You are either born with it or without it.
2) Eidetic memory does not enhance your visualisation - that DOES have to be learnt. However once you can visualise eidetic memory enhances and makes what you see extremely more vivid.

Original question: I can visualize in extremely vivid detail everything over the past month instantaneously, a year if I concentrate, and more if shown pictures that spark memories.
Only one in many thousands will possess an ability like this - therefore rare and somewhat sought over.

Cheers,
Zero

When you actually see what you visualize, aren't you just hallucinating? Never knew somebody who could do that. (Unless they where on drugs, or meditating)

Originally Posted by Ekyu

When you actually see what you visualize, aren't you just hallucinating? Never knew somebody who could do that. (Unless they where on drugs, or meditating)

Nope. Some people have the ability to create visible images when they visualize something. I wonder if they could use this ability of great visualization to enter into dreams better. Who knows what the possibilities are with people with super visualization.

Originally Posted by zeromention

I have full natural eidetic memory - I'm going to fix some things some people said above.
1) Full eidetic memory can not be learnt nor taught. You are either born with it or without it.
2) Eidetic memory does not enhance your visualisation - that DOES have to be learnt. However once you can visualise eidetic memory enhances and makes what you see extremely more vivid.

The reason why it can't be "learned" nor "taught" are many factors:

We do not have the technology and the competence to understand the human brain fully, as yet (it's always going to continue to grow...as long as we're still alive of course). We know that lucid dreaming itself introduces to many many many unique states of consciousness, and eidetic memory is simply a part of consciousness that has yet to be taken seriously rather than putting it as a cold case as something you are born with or not.

It's a unique process in retaining information, but it does not mean you shut it off completely as something that can't be learned. It IS a process in a brain, and again, technology and research can help alleviate that, but it simply has not been shown as YET to show consistent results.

It can be learned and taught before adolescence stage, because by the time you're an adult, you will already be used to processing data and interpreting in a specific way. It's just not a common habit for a parent to train their babies to become "little eidetic prodigies."

Those who do claim to have full eidetic memory do not necessarily have absolute "photographic memory" where it can be permanently stored and accessed over and over and over and over again after it's been taught of. Usually, when it does come into mind, it is very rare to actually bring it back to full and exact detail. Of course, training can help with sustaining major parts of a "snapshot" image, but the brain itself has its own flaws in processing information, and this "photographic" memory has to be processed in the brain, which means its just a unique way the brain processes data to give "snapshot" images.

Research may not be done as abundantly in the process of this eidetic memory and seeing if it can be applied constantly, but those who claim to have it have been shown in many studies that it's simply a way the brain processes data to reconstruct into an image.

And working memory IS a factor in possibly eradicating this set in stone notion that it's only an ability that you can be born with, and like I've said before, even if you claim to have natural eidetic memory, this does not mean you have the traditional sense of it. It is an aspect of having extraordinary working memory, which means the images WILL fade away at some point.

Please don't declare it "not being possible to learn unless you were born with it" as an absolute law without challenging the many levels of human consciousness. But if you have unlocked all levels of human consciousness without going insane from the limits mortal minds can hold, please tell us.

Everything thought of, gained, learned, and such has a pattern, everything has a process....if you are able to connect the dots, it can be possible, it shouldn't be set in stone like that with modern beliefs of eidetic memory vs the traditional definition of it.

Originally Posted by zeromention

I have full natural eidetic memory - I'm going to fix some things some people said above.
1) Full eidetic memory can not be learnt nor taught. You are either born with it or without it.
2) Eidetic memory does not enhance your visualisation - that DOES have to be learnt. However once you can visualise eidetic memory enhances and makes what you see extremely more vivid.

Original question: I can visualize in extremely vivid detail everything over the past month instantaneously, a year if I concentrate, and more if shown pictures that spark memories.
Only one in many thousands will possess an ability like this - therefore rare and somewhat sought over.

Cheers,
Zero

I can see where you are coming from but I respectfully disagree with you. I think it can be learned with the right training. Who knows maybe binaural beats which are used for doing a crap load of things could probably be used to 'program' your brain to process information like a person with eidetic memory. But don't just write it off as just either being born with it or not.

Ok to be a little philosophic here... How do you know that you can even see at all? It's not your eyes that see, ears that hear etc. They are just receivers of the information, it's your mind that see, hear, feel and taste.

But when I visualize I do it with my mind and I don't mean a third eye kind of way, I just mean that I don't see it with my physical eyes by looking at my eyelids or whatever.
You can practice visualization with eyes open to really confirm that you don't see it with your physical eyes. Look at an empty surface, like your desk for example and then imagine as vividly as you can a pen laying there or a mug you choose. And don't expect it to suddenly pop and see it in full detail, but more of a feeling that all your awareness is on the visualization and makes it vivid for just a millisecond. If nothing happens and yo don't understand what I mean, don't worry you use your minds eye all the time, try this instead. Keep your eyes open and think about a memory, and try to experience it as vividly as you can, you can't do this wrong so just make a try. Learn how it feels to do this kind of exercise for you!

Now CLOSE YOUR EYES! and do the same exercises over again but try to not look at your eyelids, close your eyes as you would do if you tried to fall asleep and relax. Another good way to practice visualization is to visualize things that you normally do n waking life, like opening a door, holding a pen and write, clap your hands, anything you can think of and always visualize as vividly as you can and don't stain yourself, because you already know how to visualize vividly you do it every time you think during the day as well.

I hope this helped. And read some of my dream journal entries where I mention dream flashes to see if you experience something similar.

Good luck!

I think that I 'see' what I visualize. Some people's brains work in concepts, others in words, equations, pictures, etc.

I tend to think in pictures and concepts. When I think of an apple as someone else stated, an apple pops up in my head. I can even block out what I'm really seeing and see the apple. I can be so into a daydream sometimes that I see the daydream and completely block out what my eyes are really seeing in front of me. It is as if I am in a trance. But once my concentration falters, I loose the day dream. When I was younger I thought everyone was able to do that, but as I got older I realized how differently people's brains and imaginations work.

Interestingly enough, on the topic of dreams: my dreams are almost always vivid, especially with sight and feeling. At times hearing as well (but usually I somehow know I'm not really hearing what is going on in the dream... although I've had some interesting dreams where I've spoken in Spanish and Japanese fluently (I'm just about fluent in Spanish and I'm learning Japanese now). BUT... I've never had a fully complete lucid dream - I always wake up once I begin to realize I am dreaming and attempt to attain lucidity.

Originally Posted by SaMaster14

I think that I 'see' what I visualize. Some people's brains work in concepts, others in words, equations, pictures, etc.

I tend to think in pictures and concepts. When I think of an apple as someone else stated, an apple pops up in my head. I can even block out what I'm really seeing and see the apple. I can be so into a daydream sometimes that I see the daydream and completely block out what my eyes are really seeing in front of me. It is as if I am in a trance. But once my concentration falters, I loose the day dream. When I was younger I thought everyone was able to do that, but as I got older I realized how differently people's brains and imaginations work.

Interestingly enough, on the topic of dreams: my dreams are almost always vivid, especially with sight and feeling. At times hearing as well (but usually I somehow know I'm not really hearing what is going on in the dream... although I've had some interesting dreams where I've spoken in Spanish and Japanese fluently (I'm just about fluent in Spanish and I'm learning Japanese now). BUT... I've never had a fully complete lucid dream - I always wake up once I begin to realize I am dreaming and attempt to attain lucidity.

I think you can do something with this. If you can try and visualize that apple, then try to 'touch' the apple and pay attention to how it feels. I think when one visualizes you are creating a dream world but you just can't interact with it, but with those with super visualization skills like you can interact with this 'image'. So go ahead and try it.