Visualization as a Spiritual Process

Sometimes I am asked why I do not recommend or teach visualization as a spiritual process. The reason is that I have no confidence in it. I found it to be unreliable. My experience is that the psychic nature is both responsive and resistant to visualization. It is mostly responsive to what is natural. It is unresponsive to what is unnatural.

However this does not mean that visualization is ineffective in all cases. In fact we know that some people have a powerful visualization ability through which they can make things happen in psyche and in the external environment. For such persons, visualization is an effective method.

For instance we have heard of people who have fetishes. There was a man some years ago who had a fetish where merely by seeing a shoe lace tied in a certain way he would have a sexual orgasm. That is not normal but it is factual nevertheless. Thus we can accept for some persons have powerful responses in their natures when their senses make contact with certain features of this creation. I have seen people come to tears just thinking or visualizing incidences from the past.

However since we practice Patanjali yoga, visualization is not recommended. Instead, the suggestion is for the student to develop mystic insight through cessation of visualization.

If someone can use visualization and master yoga, then I am not against the process or the person.