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Cant visualize stuff.


canino1997

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I dont have much of a imagination. I did try to force but the only thing i was seeing was darkness. I could not even visualize a glass of water. I dont rarely have dreams. If i have one. I get tortured and my eyes get gouged out. I belive in the concept without doubt and i dont have intrusive thoughts. But i cant visualize anything. Can anyone help with that?

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First off, you DO have dreams every night. Apart from some possible very rare disorders, everyone does. You just almost never remember them. I'm the same way -- I only remember dreams if I wake up during one, and only then if it's the thing I'm thinking about at a certain point on the way to being awake.

 

You say you try to visualize and only get darkness. This sounds like you're trying to get something to appear against the backs of your eyelids, properly visible like during a dream. For some people that's more or less how it works, but for others it's like it appears somewhere other than your vision -- your mind's eye. At least for me it's a little like two or more 'planes' of vision, one stronger than the other. Focusing on one makes it a little stronger and the other a little weaker.

 

Your first task is to find your mind's eye -- see this guide I wrote ages ago. The idea is basically to create something there that's vivid enough to help draw your attention to it.

 

Once you're a bit more comfortable with visualizing vs. seeing, it shouldn't be hard to visualize at the same time as seeing things IRL. It's like daydreaming -- you're still seeing real things, but you aren't paying much attention to them because your focus is on what you're visualizing in a different part of your mind. The more you can shift focus from what you're seeing (or the darkness behind your eyelids) to what you're trying to visualize, the more vivid and detailed it will become. And the more detailed it gets, the easier it will be to focus on it.

 

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Guest Anonymous

Guys i think i may have aphantasia. I am about to cry.

 

Ah well, what can ya do.

Good luck with that.

 

Note: I dont think you have aphantasia. Im sure you just need to work on imagination a little. Not everyone is good right off the bat.

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I'm with Monsterkid on this, I'm skeptical if you have aphantasia. I was crap at visualizing when I first started, but visualizing is basically just using your imagination (for most people anyway). Have you ever had a song stuck in your head? Then you can imagine songs. Have you ever done something really foolish that you feel bad about, or something really embarrassing and had the events of what happened keep playing over and over in your mind? What about a really happy birthday memory? If you can recall the events of what happened, as well as details from the event, then I'd say your capable of visualizing, you might just not interpret your thoughts as being visual (that may or may not make sense, if not, then don't worry about it). Just keep working at it, you'll get better at it.

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Guest Anonymous

You know what? Over time I have learned to admire the tulpamancers who are "visualization challenged" a great deal. It is my personal belief that in the end you have a stronger tulpa. You have to be more focused and dedicated to create one and that affects the end result. I am basing this off a lot of things I have read from people on the forum. It is a personal observation. Also, like you mentioned, you will have less trouble with intrusive thoughts. My mind is full, totally full of intrusive thoughts and imagery.

 

I think there are a certain number of tulpamancers who have achieved something with their tulpas few of us will be able to relate to. Tulpamancer masters. LOL I will forever be a novice tulpamancer, because the whole idea is just play and day dreaming to me. Because I can visualize too easily, I will forever be just shy of a fully autonomous tulpa. Too many intrusive thoughts and imagery and I am too damn lazy and set in my ways to do anything different.

 

In short, your difficulty may turn into an advantage and I admire your efforts. Don't be discouraged. There are people on this forum who are visualization and imagination challenged who have created more than one tulpa and who do advanced things such as possession and switching.

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Aphantasia is supposedly really common, but I don't remember ever actually talking to anyone on here who had it. It makes me wonder if people who are just "out of practice" with visualization get misdiagnosed as having aphantasia all the time.

 

How are you at Tetris? In theory, someone with aphantasia should have a lot of difficulty with Tetris, as before fitting the pieces together, you have to visualize how the pieces would fit together.

 

You probably just need practice with visualization. Most people who haven't done a lot of visualization are pretty crap at it.

"Some things have to be believed to be seen." - Ralph Hodgson

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You know what? Over time I have learned to admire the tulpamancers who are "visualization challenged" a great deal. It is my personal belief that in the end you have a stronger tulpa.

 

Hey thanks. I guess I'll add for the OP then that visualization is not required for creating a tulpa. It's sort of like being blind, although not quite as bad. Yes, you lack an entire sense, and that'll change how you do a lot of stuff. But I know plenty of highly functioning blind people, and I know plenty of people who tulpamance with nearly no visualization whatsoever. I'm no aphantasiac, but for me getting anything more than a vague and foggy picture of my tulpa when we speak is rare. And that's how it's been, save a few times in our past where we've had the dedication to practice for a week or so, for years.

 

And I mean, I actually try to visualize forms for my tulpas. But there are people here who never even gave their tulpa a form, and I'm sure there are a lot more that don't try to visualize them when they speak like I do. It's totally not necessary to see them, even if it helps.

 

 

Also, Mistgod's comment made me think, maybe my tulpas are "stronger" because I have poor visualization. Blind people have amazing spatial awareness compared to those who can see, because they have to really put effort into doing so. People who lose their legs have extremely strong arms, etc. My tulpas rely much more on feelings and thought to exist than sight, and I think that's directly related to their very nature of existing. Where other tulpas consider life boring if they aren't constantly doing something in the wonderland or otherwise, mine are perfectly content just to be thought of or have a conversation. That is to them what exploring the wonderland is to others, I think.

 

And I second that Tetris thing, that's interesting. Visualization can be like dream recall to people just starting to use it after years of not - it's a mental muscle that might have shriveled from disuse. There's a difference in aphantasia and not being able to make a picture in your head though. You can probably visualize things subconsciously, like a picture of a pink elephant, just without you realizing it. Foggy and more thought than sight of course. But maybe you can't, I dunno.

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Guest Anonymous

Also, Mistgod's comment made me think, maybe my tulpas are "stronger" because I have poor visualization. Blind people have amazing spatial awareness compared to those who can see, because they have to really put effort into doing so. People who lose their legs have extremely strong arms, etc.

 

You're welcome. I like your analogy to a blind person. That is a great way to think of it.

 

I spend a lot of time day dream puppeting Melian. Mainly because she is cute and it is a life long habit. I am not about to stop doing it. Imagine if I could not "see" her but only talk to her and feel her emotions. Would she be more autonomous do you think?

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Hmm. Perhaps you might be expecting a more solid image than what visualization usually refers to. Have you ever thought back to a memory and 'seen' that memory in your head? That's basically visualization. It doesn't have to actually appear in your field of vision -- just somewhere in your head.

 

You might be discouraging yourself a bit by trying so hard to close your eyes and see something behind your eyelids, when it's much more of an in-your-head thing than an actual field of vision thing.

 

But yeah, it basically appears to you like a memory, except it isn't a memory. Does that make sense?

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