Creative visualization

It is a technique in which we use our imagination to create what we desire in life. William Blake called the human imagination the "Bosom of God". Creative visualization is a very dramatic tool, given to us by God. There is nothing new or weird about it. We already use it on a regular and daily basis, whether we are aware of it or not. Everything in life starts as an idea in somebody's mind, a visual image which is then translated into reality. Albert Einstein said "imagination is more important than knowledge".
We are able to re-arrange our whole world with our thoughts, our perceptions, and our images. Visualization is based on the subconscious mind's inability to distinguish between reality and daydreaming. In his famous equation e=mc², Einstein proved that energy and mass are equal and interchangeable. In dealing with the subconscious mind, thought is the energy and the outcome of that thought is the mass.
We are all energy, and everything around us is energy, energy that vibrates at different rates. The density of mass determines this rate at which it vibrates. For instance, a thought is a very light form of energy and can therefore change very quickly and easily, whereas a rock is a very dense form of energy that does not change easily. And yet, the fine, light energy of water eventually changes a rock.
We are all one with everything else in the entire universe, but at the same time, we are not one with everything else - the great paradox of life. God created us as very unique individuals and there have never been anyone else like the authentic-you, and there will never be anyone else like the authentic-you, but we are also energy like everything else around us, and therefore at the same time that we exist on our unique levels, we are also one with it all, one with the universe that serves us and feeds us.
Dr Deepak Chopra explains the above with his analogy of two candles. Imagine two candles standing in front of you on a table. It is night-time and you light them. To you they appear separate and independent, but the light they cast fills the whole room with photons. The space between them, is bridged by light and therefore there is no real separation between them.
Now carry one candle outside and hold it up against the night sky, the background of stars, billions of light years away from you. On the quantum level each star is connected to your candle because the vast space between them contains waves of energy that bind them. And as you look at the candle and the far-away stars, photons of light from both the stars and the candle land on your retina where they trigger flashes of electro-chemical discharge. It belongs to a different vibratory frequency from light, YET they are part of the same electro-magnetic field. You are thus another candle or star whose concentration of matter and energy is just an outcropping of the infinite field that surrounds and supports you.
We should not be afraid to dream. We need to believe in our dreams. The visualization of a project is done as though it has already happened, and the rest is left to the subconscious mind to do what it does best, to transform thoughts into reality.

Countless studies have been done on the medicinal effects of meditation, specifically in reducing stress-related ailments and psychosomatic diseases. Harvard psychologist Dr. Herbert Benson, claims that 60-90% of visits to the doctor's office are stress related. He believes that the neuro-chemical effects of meditation oppose the "fight-or-flight" mechanism, due to the effects meditation has on the autonomic nervous system. He calls this effect that meditation and prayer have on the brain, the "relaxation response". The amygdala that is part of the limbic system, controls this response. This is also the part of the brain that is associated with religious faith.
The psychological effects of deep relaxation strengthen the effect that mind and body have upon each other. It also supports a theory that we have set-points and feedback loops in moods and mental states. Drug addiction centers have been using various relaxation techniques to mediate in confronting the acute attachment to drugs or alcohol and to assist the addict in recognizing the ability of mindfulness in countering his cravings.
We have two minds. The conscious mind and the subconscious mind, sometimes also called the unconscious mind.
The conscious mind is the "awake-mind" - which is only used when we are awake. The subconscious mind goes on working 24 hours of every day. It is not a physical entity, and thus not located anywhere in the physical body. It cannot be seen with the naked eye. It cannot be measured, it cannot be weighed and it cannot be taken apart for scientific research and study. Gilbert Ryle, the author of "The concept of mind", talks about the human body as an engine that is governed by another engine inside it. IT IS PART OF YOUR IMMORTAL BODY.
Dr. M. Scott Peck, psychiatrist and author of many books, says when he begins to work with a new patient, he frequently draws a large circle and at the circumference he draws a small niche. Then he points to the inside of the niche and says to the new patient: "That presents your conscious mind. All the rest of the circle, 95 percent or more, represents your unconscious. If you work long enough and hard enough to understand yourself, you will come to discover that this vast part of your mind, of which you now have little awareness, contains riches beyond imagination".
Some facts of the subconscious mind:
It operates like a modern day computer, but has a storage capacity and memory system that outdistances ordinary computers in general. The subconscious mind is a personal computer, and the authentic-you is the computer-operator. It records everything that happens in the personal, sensory and intellectual world - from the day of conception until the day of death.
It takes directions from the conscious mind and follows these directions implicitly. It is called the world's most obedient servant. It can only say "yes".
It has no limitations, only individuals have. This will be discussed under visualization.
Every thought becomes part of the never-failing memory system of the subconscious mind. EACH INIVIDUAL IS WHAT HE THINKS. We ought to be careful and selective with our choice of thoughts. We alone chooses our thoughts and our thoughts create and shape our world.
The subconscious mind does not know the difference between reality and a day-dream. If a person imagines himself driving the car of his dreams down the road, the subconscious mind accepts it as reality and not merely as a day-dream. For this reason, visualization is as effective and successful as it is.
It has no past and no future, it only has a present tense. When we do visualizations and affirmations, we do it only in the present tense and we only see the end result, as though something has already happened.
It is the possessor of extraordinary knowledge. Dr. Scott Peck , based on Carl Jung, uses the analogy of the subconscious mind as a rhizome, an incredibly deep and hidden root system that nourishes the tiny plant, the conscious mind, sprouting visibly from it.
The subconscious mind can be reprogrammed positively, by using two remarkably powerful and potent methods: visualization and affirmation.

FROM: "THE ROAD TO DAMASCUS"