Silver crayon

Earlier this year I started listening to a guided meditation for increasing visual imagination. I doubt the meditation was rigorously researched for developing mental imagery, but it sure helps me get to sleep. The speaker’s voice has the same effect as a hot bath before bedtime.

The image I use while going through the meditation is a silver crayon. I picked that object because it reminds me of one of a time I was praised for creativity. I drew a scene from Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH which showed a large brown rat standing in an air duct. That air duct used a lot of silver crayon. Flecks of silver would rub off and I would either have to brush them off of use my finger to squish them into the page.

I can’t remember if I had strong mental imagery then, but I know that today my imagery sucks. I know it exists, but my access to it is indirect and I’d like to have more access to experiencing and maybe even controlling mental imagery.

So, I’m going to try more rigorous exercises than the guided meditation. I’ve found a few practices I can research.

• Image streaming is a technique where you close your eyes and narrate what you are seeing in order to build a stronger connection between the left and right hemispheres of the brain.
• Vajrayana visualization is a Buddhist technique where you take on the identity of a deity through visualization, mantras, and ritual movements in order to experience your own identity as a construct.
• Sports psychology uses imagery to practice sports skills when not physically engaged in order to improve those skills.
• EMDR is a closely guided technique for visualization and free association in order to reprocess traumatic life events.
• The Memory Palace technique is used to associate knowledge you want to memorize with physical objects arranged in a mental setting in order to improve memory.