The Sensory Secret of Working with Imagery

Terms like Visualization and Imagery can put people off, people who think that they can't "see in their mind's eye" to do effective work in the imaginal realm.

For humans, the power of sight is by far the most dominant sense. Being physically blind might be worse than the loss of any other sense since our modern definition of reality has so much to do with our sense of sight. Perhaps this is also why using inner sight eludes most people.

It could also be because we tend to isolate our senses when speaking of them when they actually work together. Just as what and how we smell determines what we taste, what we hear can influence what we see. Even though we have sense-specific parts of the brain, we also have "association areas" that combine information from multiple senses that help us with our overall perception. This is known as sensory integration.

Sensory Integration Example

There's a song that illustrates this beautifully. Music to My Eyes, by Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga, from the 2018 remake of the movie A Star is Born.

Cooper begins the song with the following lyric, combining the senses of sound and sight.

You're music to my eyes, I've had to listen just to find you.

When Lady Gaga begins to sing, she does the same.

Your voice is quite a view, I heard a song and then I saw you.

Not only is the entire song a masterpiece, but it also does a great job of amplifying and integrating the senses through the lyrics.

Sensory Integration and Visualization

How does this relate to visualization and imagery work? It busts open the door for those who feel that inner sight isn't their strongest inner sense. By using all the senses and allowing the imagery to be more like sensations and "sensory impressions" instead of technicolor movie-like images, the work and healing become available to all of us.

THIS IS THE SECRET

Our senses work together and "seeing" in visualizations uses all of the senses, in varying degrees, and in tandem.

By using all five senses, in addition to the sixth sense of intuition, our imagery explodes with potential! We have more intense experiences with the imagery and our recall of those experiences is vastly improved. And, these benefits extend beyond the imagery work into our everyday lives.

Proposed benefits for you, ones that I and others have experienced! ~Improved dream recall ~Increase in meaning derivation from dreams ~Better detection of illusion and delusion, in the inner world and outer world ~Better memory overall (where did I put my keys?) ~Increased awareness and attention ~More appreciation for nature and surroundings ~Improved presence in the NOW ~Less distractedness, better focus ~Easier to re-focus after an interruption ~More accomplished with Less Multi-tasking ~Enhanced lucidity in waking life

Why is it a Secret?

It isn't actually a secret at all. Experts in guided imagery scripts are well aware of the power of our senses to transport us to virtually anywhere our imagination will allow. It just feels like a secret because it isn't taught in school; it isn't encouraged in daily life.

The essence of amplifying imagery beyond the sense of sight is about embodiment. Our bodies are sensory vehicles. We cannot do anything without seeing, smelling, hearing, tasting, touching, and even intuiting, at every moment of the waking day. Even when one or more of the physical senses is impaired, the others step in to provide more sensory data for our experience. The inner senses also come to the fore when there is space for them.

The brain processes the experiences of our imaginations as real. When we use our senses in our visualizations, we are tapping into the best of our imagination potential. We can anchor those imaginal experiences in ways that help us learn, heal, and evolve.

Imagery can be defined as any inner perception that comes through any of the senses.

The secret is that the power of visualization isn't just in any one sense but in the effort involved in combining them all.

What do you see? What do you hear? What can you touch/feel? What can you smell? What can you taste? What can you sense/intuit?

Most Secrets Aren't Secrets At All

A secret is something withdrawn or set apart. It reminds me of the parable of the treasure. The gods put the treasure of our power in our hearts, where we'd never think to look.

The Hindu legend of divinity.

Humans abused their divinity so it was hidden inside them by the gods, where we'd never find it. It's a parable of outer seeing, which we are accustomed to. This is why Brahma refused to hide our divinity in a cave, in the ocean, in any outer physical reality because we'd always look there and then find it. And so the secret of the senses is indeed within us, even closer than at our fingertips...