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By Reisen
Guided meditations often have someone lead you through a walk in the forest or along the beach or some such, effectively describing an environment for you to visualize with words. They might even add natural sounds to help. But for a lot of people, that sort of thing feels too weird, or otherwise uncomfortable. In the context of practicing visualization, there's really no reason someone has to specifically guide you through it - intentionally, at least.
Guided visualization can be as simple as closing your eyes while watching a Youtube video. Any type of video you're comfortable with really, but in our case, we do best with video game let's plays. As an example, we are intimately familiar with Super Mario 64, and are a big fan of the Game Grumps, and their let's play of it. Crude language warning, if you decide to watch them. Earlier I spent 40 minutes 'watching' the first three episodes, except I had my eyes closed. Just based on the game's sounds, and sometimes the grumps' reactions, I visualized what I thought was going on in my mind the entire time. Sometimes I opened my eyes for a moment just to check what was actually going on, and understandably was off by a bit. But there's nothing wrong with that, all that matters is that you're practicing visualization! You can almost forget you're even doing it for practice and treat it like a game, for fun. You may want to find a less chatty let's player if you have trouble filtering out their conversations though.
Or you know, don't even watch a let's player. I would say the possibilities for this are pretty much endless. For video games, it may help to actually be familiar with the game you're trying to imagine (though I suppose you could also try it blind). But for anything dealing more with "real life", all you need is your imagination. You probably won't be visualizing what's actually going on very accurately, but again, that's not the goal. If you want to be more accurate, open your eyes/check the video every so often. It's not cheating, and if you have particularly poor visualization it might help give you something to work with. In the case of video games it'll probably end up being a necessity to stay in the same place as the video, but that's fine.
Other examples of videos that may "guide your visualization" include sports (play-by-play announcers help a ton), TV shows or cartoons/anime (again being familiar with them can help, or you can go in blind), perhaps how-to style videos where someone details what they're doing every step of the way, and really anything else where either the talking or the environmental sounds provide enough information to form a continuous mental image.
It probably goes without saying that audiobooks (or just generally books being read aloud) are the epitome of guided visualizations that aren't directly telling you to imagine something. I'm not sponsored by Audible though, so I definitely won't tell you to check out that site. But most big Youtubers will, and come with some kind of discount too.
Lastly, I want to note that you don't have to be sitting in front of a screen to listen to a video, nor do your eyes have to be closed. You can download an MP3 of a Youtube video (or just play it) and put it on your ipod/phone and take it with you, perhaps on a walk. You can also practice open-eye visualization by simply not looking at the source of whatever you're listening to, perhaps on a walk. Seems like that would take quite a lot of focus however, so sitting down in front of a screen might be better if you can't get sufficient visuals in whatever activity you do with it. In the end, all that matters is there's a picture in your mind. Accuracy and content are only as important as you want them to be.
Good luck! Aside from wonderlanding, this is the only visualization practice we've ever done. Ours is too poor for more standalone methods, and that's why I thought of this one.
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By sushi
In the past I've put art guides in the art forum, but this is art aimed at playing a trick on your mind, so I think it fits the guide section better.
So you have a form for your tulpa, but it's difficult to visualize because you have no reference images? Then this is the guide for you.
Example pictures (NSFW!):
Why are there naked people in my guide? To that, I can only answer: Why doesn't everyone have naked people in their guides?
Actually, these people aren't naked. See?
This technique comes from Japan, where it's known as 水玉コラ (Mizutama Kora) or "Bubble Collage". It works because your brain is so good at filling in missing information that it does it automatically. It's how you can (sometimes) understand what the other person is saying when their cell phone is breaking up, or how you can piece together that the shopping list is asking for "a dozen eggs" even though in your girlfriend's handwriting Gs look like Ws.
And of course because this is the internet, this interesting illusion has been used almost entirely for porn.
Well, let's divorce it from porn now. Here's how you can use the same technique to help you visualize your tulpa.
Take a look at this woman:
Would you believe that she's really six women stitched together like Frakenstein's monster?
Well yeah, probably, because you're reading a guide about that, and also there are differences in skin tone and the pieces don't always fit together quite right, and also I showed too much of that one elbow. But this was a rush job so that I'd have an example for the guide, and the point is that at first glance, she looks like a normal person.
The bubbles were obviously added by bubbleimage.net. She should really have a bubble separating her face from her hair, because they're from two different sources, but they blended together well enough that I didn't feel like I needed it.
Here's what she looked like before the bubbles:
[hidden][/hidden]
That image was put together with Pixlr Express using only the "Add image" and "History" tools. I'm sure you can do better if you want to used paid apps like Photoshop, or if you wanted to learn to use more than two tools, but I wanted to show how this can be done easy and free.
And here's what she looked like before that: 123456
As always, I use Shutterstock for stock images because it allows you to search by model, for when you find a model you like, but you need her in a different pose or in different clothes. Shutterstock does have watermarks on the images, but you can usually avoid them -- I cut all the watermarks out of my example, except the one on her pants (and a little bit in her hair). I'm sure I could have found a good photo of pants without a watermark on them, but I took the lazy way out.
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By Nikodemos
So, another visualization guide, meant for those who have difficulties seeing anything at all with their mind's eye. It is quite simple and involves using actual physical objects.
First, pick up an object. It can be a marble, a tennis ball, a Rubik's cube, your piggy bank or anything similar as long as it's relatively simple in shape and fits in your hands. Once you have found an appropriate object, start to examine it thoroughly, feel it's bumps, dips and texture, listen to the voices it makes, smell it's scent, see how it fits in your hand. Do this for as long as you need to in order to have a good feel of it. Once you're done with that, stretch out your arms forward in a way that you can see your object without looking down. Remember where that object and your arms are located in your vision, and close your eyes. Next, start imagining that objects, it's bumps, dips and other properties in the same place in your mind's eye, along with your hands alternatively.
You should see something, the edges of the object, the color of the object or even a fully imagined, 3D object. Repeat this process a few times a day until you can see it clearly. When you have a solid feel for the object, next you should try and manipulate it. Roll it, twist it, squeeze it, anything you can do with your hands, whilst keeping your eyes closed and simply imagining how your manipulation affects the object. Opening your eyes occasionally to see how close you got to the real object looks like when you manipulated it physically with your hands.
Once you feel like you have mastered this, the next step would be to do these exact same things, but not using as many senses this time. You could place it on a table and simply look at it, then visualize it in your minds eye again, moving and manipulating it. Keep this up, gradually moving to more complex shaped objects, until you are able to simply imagine all the objects you want within your minds eye without external input.
This is meant as a guide to practice visualization, and it should help yoh visualize objects better. It worked for me, and I hope it works for you too. Any questions you have regarding this guide, feel free to contact me and ask. Good luck!
-Niko
TL;DR: Get as many senses as possible to visualizing objects, such as touch smell, hearing etc. Gradually work yourself to not needing senses for visualizing in your wonderland.
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By Squir
This is a technique that I found helpful, and I think it'd help people whether they're good or not at visualization. Visualization can easily get really vivid for me, and this should be a good way for building up details. This should also work for lucid dreams. This involves your dreamworld, so just basically imagine yourself doing stuff in an imaginary place to start off with.
Imagine a huge computer/television screen in your dreamworld, possibly like a huge magical wall stretching off infinitely wide, or whatever comes most naturally. Imagine your Tulpa being drawn on the screen. This is normally easier than imagining them in "thin air", because it's more logical to see them in a "picture". Start with the most basic, low-quality picture you can think of, and gradually increase the quality by reading/thinking details "into" your tulpa, like refining a drawing or loading a video/JPEG, except knowing that you're downloading it from your dreamworld. This step is useful because it can start from practically 0 detail, and it can show visualization progress.
Gradually imagine them like a digital model in a 3D program, rotating either them or the "camera" of the screen. Imagine lighting, the way light wind would sway their hair/clothes, and their weight on the ground. Imagine them just being there, giving them a (pleasant) interesting environment.
Gradually imagine yourself importing sentience/AI into your tulpa in the "program", by imagining how they interact with their world, by imagining if they look back at you through the "screen", and imagining their response. If needed, have your information written in a list and read it "into" them like a programmer. Gradually increase the number of interactions they have with the world, situations and stuff they interact with. Throw in a pillow or something.
Focus on making it feel like an interactive Youtube video, gradually increasing quality. Focus on all the steps above, then eventually reach your arms and hands into the screen in your mind. It can be invisible or visible, but it needs to be "your" hands. If your tulpa lets you touch them, do so, feeling them from top to bottom, every part that isn't awkward/distracting to touch. They should be reacting to your touch. Then, ask them to touch your arms and hands. Feel their hands on your skin, how they react to your touch. This type of interaction is actually very useful, since it convinces your mind that there's actual touch, actual events going on. Try things like poking their nose, etc.
Once you get good with this, let the screen fade away, to where your whole body is a (possibly invisible) digital avatar in the same dreamworld level your tulpa is in. Interact with things the same ways your tulpa would, such as actually bending down to pick things up, in the presence of your tulpa. This will immerse you into the mindset that your tulpa is in, giving your mind information on how your tulpa thinks, since your tulpa will have to "imitate" your real world's physics when being imposed into it.
Then start putting them into reality that same way, since your mind will have learned how to "impose", and use real life situations instead of fictional ones. Hope this helps.
TLDR: Imagine a computer, imagine them into the screen, and start from there. Then start imagining them into reality the same way.
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By devano
I have read through a few blogs today and talked to a few of the users on the IRC channel to find out a common problem is that some are just not able to render their entire tulpa. They are only able to render a portion of the body, face, torso or legs. i learned a exercise during art school that helped us render entire images in our heads without forgetting bits, distorting portions or mixing things up.
Take a look at this picture above and pay close attention to the lamp pole that has the cross walk signs on it.
I want you to study this pole as best as you can. Try and study the stain right below the Hand stop sign. The bolts and everything about it. Now take about 10 minutes and think about this pole with your eyes closed. Only this pole.
Try and cutoff other all other information from your brain such as how your day was or any other distraction. Its ok if you talk to yourself about the pole, I did this. "This pole is tall and dark. I see the red hand and the blackness next to it". As long as your focus remains on this single object. You will need to focus on this pole for an average of 10 minutes about five times. Be sure to examine the photo in between exercises. This process should Last you a day or two. You can attempt to do this first step all in an hour or half a day. This will not work. I don't know why, it just doesnt.
now that you have completed the first step of memorizing the pole with the red hand sign start to examine the sidewalk. Only the sidewalk, ignore the trees, garbage bin and all other objects on this sidewalk. If it helps you go ahead and imagine a flat concrete area where the building should be. focus on the edge front of the sidewalk and study this in as much detail as you have the pole. This process will take much much longer than the first step. Now close your eyes and do the same that you did with the pole but try and render the sidewalk as well. Keep both objects in as much detail as you can. You will have trouble focusing on tiny details such as where the paint has eroded on the sidewalk or the bolts on the pole. Focus on what you can and Render what you can. This will take much more than five or ten minutes. Spend at least fifteen to twenty minute each exercise. This time instead of doing it X many times you must do this until you can fully render the sidewalk and pole. This step may take three days to an entire week. Do not give up! Learning this can be far more useful than just visualizing your tulpa!
Now rinse and repeat this step through the entire photo adding more and more objects each time. You can take your time by adding one object each session or you can add several objects during each session. The end result should you being able to Render that entire photo in your mind with ease. This first photo may of taken you up to two to three months to render. That is ok. Now I want you to find a new photo and do the same thing. It should be exponentially easier than the first. Your mind is already starting to examine and visualize multiple things at once. Not only are you able to render things better in your mind but your visual memorization has increased exponentially.
i rushed this a bit and I will rewrite some bits of this later.
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