Improving Vividness of Mental Images:
 
On page 54 the GMS manual (public) says, “…a person can imagine…images only vaguely, as if in shadow or through a fog.” I completely agree with that statement and have wanted to improve the vividness of my imagined visual images for years, and further the manual says, “ … when you are imagining a visual image, you need to imagine it as detailed as possible and try to notice its tiny details. As the result of such an exercise, you will soon learn to imagine vividly.”
 
My question is how vivid does it get. Currently, my imagined images seem to be at an almost subliminal level. If my images were the reflection off a mirror, they would probably only be reflecting some very trivial amount of the light back, like under 1 %, because when my eyes are shut I basically only see blackness. In contrast, my hypnogogic images when falling asleep might sometimes represent a 10% reflection of light back, but they’re still usually transparent, like the reflections off a window at night. I am wondering if the teachings of the course will reliably allow me to increase my waking controlled visualizations (with eyes shut) so they are more vivid than even my hypnogogic images.
 
I’ve read on the forum that using visual thinking is actually foreign to some people, especially the type of person who goes into law or accounting and believes thinking is something that is entirely done with words and numbers. I want to let you know that this is not me, visual thinking is already a big part of my life. I spend a great deal of time thinking about things visually like the mechanisms of machines. For over 20 years (since high school), I’ve wanted to improve the vividness of my imagery. I suspect that my subliminal images in the blackness will be good enough for using this course to improve my memory. After all, I remember the images presented in the GMS manual well and can play with them in my mind. But I would like to improve my vividness.
 
However, I have some doubt as to whether the course will do this. My current images have so little vividness that I can’t really get any feedback to use to strengthen them. In other words, it’s like trying to strengthen a muscle that you can’t move (or at least tell that you’re moving). It’s like someone telling you to control the acid level in your stomach, such a thing could easily be done via biofeedback if a sensor were in your stomach, but without a sensor there’s no feedback or control.  I tried to follow the manual’s advice and notice more detail in my images, but I’m still seeing blackness even as I consider the details.
 
Main questions:
1. Could you clarify what the manual means by “learn to imagine vividly,” for example, if the “vivid” mental images were a mirror what percentage of light would they reflect (with eyes closed), say nearly 100%, 50%, 10% or some trivial percentage that looks black?
2. How likely is it that the techniques in the course will enable this level of vividness for someone who starts off with blackness?
3. Does the course include some crucial advice other than just “try to notice its [an image’s] tiny details” because that by itself isn’t working for me?

Hi timberind,
 
First, I have to say that your description of how little you see is very vivid in itself, so you have the verbal side covered.
 
More importantly, though, after all that great rhetoric, you said, "However, I have some doubt..." Clearly this is important to you. My first instinct is simply to say, "Doubt no more," but that's unkind (no matter how important it is). Instead, I will answer them to the best of my ability.
 
1. Clarify "learn to imagine vividly"
This course isn't like a high school or college history course, where learning is proven after the fact by comparing percentages on exams. Instead, it asks you to tap into your natural resources in order to achieve the goal of a phenomenal memory. A person who learns how to ride a bicycle at first doubts their sense of balance, even as they are standing next to the machine on two small feet. The level of my "light reflectivity" when I started GMS was probably about 1 or 2%, much like you. But after a few lessons, I was up to about 5%.  Now, after being finished for more than 6 months, I have about 50% (controlled). On really good days, it is much much higher but requires discipline and strength and willful receptivity to the strange. I don't think I can say that I "learned" it, though. It honestly came about by trying and doing the lessons. Don't worry about percentages right now: the ability will come.
 
2. The Liklihood of penetrating the total blackness
That depends on you. The doubt can paralyze you (make you blind), or it can make you work very slowly. Either path is tragic. This isn't the fruitful kind of doubt that causes new schools of philosophy to be born. The doubt you are experiencing is mere delay.
 
3. Does the course include crucial advice...
The entire course is crucial advice. And it comes when the time is right.
 
have fun,

The level of my "light reflectivity" when I started GMS was probably about 1 or 2%, much like you. But after a few lessons, I was up to about 5%.  Now, after being finished for more than 6 months, I have about 50% (controlled). On really good days, it is much much higher but requires discipline and strength and willful receptivity to the strange. I don't think I can say that I "learned" it, though. It honestly came about by trying and doing the lessons.

Wow! That's very encouraging. A course that can do that is worth the money even if it couldn't improve memory. With imagery that vivid, I'd think a person could do things like project an image on paper and draw it by tracing it. Understand mechanical things faster and in greater detail. Design buildings in your mind in great detail, mentally walk through them and draw them. Take a quick glance at a girl and look it over in your mind for 30 seconds as if you were lewdly staring at her.
 
Thanks Frin, it would also be interesting to hear from other people who started with almost no "light reflectivity" and greatly increased their vividness. I'm sure there must be a lot of interesting stories about new abilities that aren't even based on memory per se.
 
Finally, the reason I used the word "doubt" is that I've already spent so much time with my low "light reflectivity" imagination visualizing things over the last 20 years. Although not very vividly (in terms of light reflectivity), I have imagined/invented very complicated machines and have produced 100 of pages of drawings and text in order to disclose them for patents, even though they only existed in my mind. Although my ability to work with complicated things in my imagination has improved since high school, my vividness (light reflectivity) hasn't. Now, someone is suggesting (in the manual) that my vividness will improve if I visualize things in this course like figurative-code images and support images, instead of my inventions. Hmm, maybe. But I have no idea why. What about visualizing support images increases vividness as opposed to visualizing mechanical inventions?

Simplicity, manipulation (of image), persistence, meditation.
 
And yes, it will help your drawing.
And yes, looking at a girl for 30 seconds (actually 10) and then not having to stare. But you get more accomplished if she sees you staring. And it still helps to smile at her.

It has definitely helped me a lot when studying anatomy in med school. I can visualize anatomy in 3d and color, and name parts visually in my head. This leads to a much deeper understanding than the people who just takes notes and forgets it 5 minutes later.
 
When I got my exams results back last time I scored 90% for anatomy. And I read for like a week before the exam. The majority was stuck in the library for 3 months, and most of them got bad grades (and several flunked it) even then.
 

We also had a discussion about this in the student area. Some people have experienced clear, almost life-like images.
 
This lead to some interesting discussion, here is one reply by Peter J:
 

Quote:

Congratulations. What you are conciously experiencing are "hypnogogic/hypnopompic" images. They are certainly nothing to be afraid of, but a good indication that you are becoming more aware of subconcious processes.
 
A hypnogogic state is experienced just moments before you fall asleep, and hypnopompic states just before you wake up. Those who are conciously aware of the images forming in their minds will describe images in perfect detail. It is true that Nikola Tesla could create engineering diagrams and models in his mind with detail down to a 100th of a millimetre. As you abilities in visualisation develop, you will become more proficient at controlling and creating these perfect vivid images.
 
Once again, congratulations. A side effect of memorisation, yes, but in the same way a perfect body is a side effect of months of continuous physical training.

Simplicity, manipulation (of image), persistence, meditation.

Although I've always tried to manipulate the image and have been persistent, I cannot say for sure that I have always kept it "simple" enough and my past attempts at visualizing while mediatating have made me fall asleep. Perhaps, the course will be clearly tell me how to deal with these two issues.

It has definitely helped me a lot when studying anatomy in med school. I can visualize anatomy in 3d and color, and name parts visually in my head. This leads to a much deeper understanding than the people who just takes notes and forgets it 5 minutes later.

Vincent Thanks for sharing that. I've known that some people could visualize in 3d color, but what I'm most curious about is what your level of visualization was before you started the course. If your images were reflections off a mirror or dark window at night, how much do you think would have reflected back (before the course)? In other words, were they nearly subliminal.
 
Also about your quote from Peter J:
"Once again, congratulations. A side effect of memorisation, yes, but in the same way a perfect body is a side effect of months of continuous physical training."
 
I've always assumed that vivid imagery was the foundation of excellent memory, but here it suggests that it might be the other way around. That is very interesting.

Vincent Thanks for sharing that. I've known that some people could visualize in 3d color, but what I'm most curious about is what your level of visualization was before you started the course. If your images were reflections off a mirror or dark window at night, how much do you think would have reflected back (before the course)? In other words, were they nearly subliminal.
 
Also about your quote from Peter J:
"Once again, congratulations. A side effect of memorisation, yes, but in the same way a perfect body is a side effect of months of continuous physical training."
 
I've always assumed that vivid imagery was the foundation of excellent memory, but here it suggests that it might be the other way around. That is very interesting.

You should probably ask Ruslan about the more advanced aspects of how memory works. He is very knowledgeable in that area
 
My own perception is along these lines, and i think your previous assumptions are right:
If you are a boxer you'll win more matches if you are strong, but you'll not be a good boxer just because you are strong.
If you have a good visualization skill you'll be better at memorization, but you won't nessecarily have a good memory just because you are a good visualizer.
You have to take into account that memorization is a skill as well.
 
Before I started the course I didn't visualize very much at any levels, at least not that I'm aware of. Both my memory and visualization was.. Average I guess.

Hi ya'll. For those of you that desire to improve your ability to visualize with more vividness and clarity I know of one technique which is a very hard task to accomplish. I'm not sure this idea has ever been introduced to this forum but I've been mulling over this idea for a couple of years now. You can read about the idea at the link given below:
 
http://www.winwenger.com/ebooks/guaran3.htm
 
If you don't want to read this now the basic idea is that you can profoundly increase blood flow to your brain by held-breath diving. The author of the article claims he practiced this for one summer as a recreation. By "complete accident" he soon found himself profoundly more intelligent than before. Also he could all of a sudden easily visualize things in his mind while before he couldn't see anything at all in his own mind.
Of course this technique isn't without risk unless you make the right precautions such as never to dive alone, always allow the equilibrium of oxygen and carbon dioxide to stabilize before each dive, so like if you dive for a minute you must breathe for at least a minute after that dive etc. The problem is that this is really time consuming, especially if you take all precautions not to mention that this can be hazardous to your health if you don't do it right. Don't get me wrong...it isn't that hard to do if you have a lot of free time on your hands.
 
It would be really cool if the School of Phenomenal Memory would provide this service in Hawaii...I'd be the first to attend, given the right price.
 
Tell me what you guys think about this idea.

John Doe,
 
Thanks for providing the link, it's got a lot of good information concerning visualization. However, the stuff most relevant to visualization doesn't require going underwater, it's safe and you easily could do it anywhere. Also, even the part that requires going underwater isn't as dangerous and difficult as you make it sound. I think if you had access to the shallow end of a swimming pool and an underwater stopwatch (& maybe goggles), you'd be all set. For those who haven't read the link, the point of this is holding your breath underwater for longer and longer periods of time. This is said to increase the blood supply to your brain and allow you to take longer and longer breaths. The author suggests that longer breaths equate to better concentration, for example, being better able to read longer sentences because you can take them in in one breath.
 
The part of this link most relevant to visualization doesn't involve going underwater, instead its main advice is that you should describe with words as if talking to someone else the faintest impressions of what you see with your eyes closed. If you don't see anything at all, you should try to jump-start the process by flashing a bright light in your eyes and then closing them in order to see an after-image. Let the after-image morph around describing it as it changes. In short, it's the opposite of many self-hypnosis and visualization scripts that ask you to visualize yourself somewhere like a beach. Instead, you don't try to see anything you just describe your impressions. The author says that this process will make them become more vivid.
 
Thanks again for sharing this, this is the kind of discussion I was trying to encourage!
 

Hi ya'll. For those of you that desire to improve your ability to visualize with more vividness and clarity I know of one technique which is a very hard task to accomplish. I'm not sure this idea has ever been introduced to this forum but I've been mulling over this idea for a couple of years now. You can read about the idea at the link given below:
 
http://www.winwenger.com/ebooks/guaran3.htm
 
If you don't want to read this now the basic idea is that you can profoundly increase blood flow to your brain by held-breath diving. The author of the article claims he practiced this for one summer as a recreation. By "complete accident" he soon found himself profoundly more intelligent than before. Also he could all of a sudden easily visualize things in his mind while before he couldn't see anything at all in his own mind.
Of course this technique isn't without risk unless you make the right precautions such as never to dive alone, always allow the equilibrium of oxygen and carbon dioxide to stabilize before each dive, so like if you dive for a minute you must breathe for at least a minute after that dive etc. The problem is that this is really time consuming, especially if you take all precautions not to mention that this can be hazardous to your health if you don't do it right. Don't get me wrong...it isn't that hard to do if you have a lot of free time on your hands.
 
It would be really cool if the School of Phenomenal Memory would provide this service in Hawaii...I'd be the first to attend, given the right price.
 
Tell me what you guys think about this idea.