Copy: The effect of strong imagination on the energy body?

[Symbiote]

Sometimes while reading a story, or being a part of a fiction in some way (books, movies, video games), or even creating my own, I get very intense energy surges. I was wondering, how much effect on the energy body does a creative or imaginative process have? When I say imagination, I mean more than visualization of energy work or energy bodies. If someone was to imagine themself as something else, or be apart of a very intricate imagination for a long period of time, could it have a long lasting effect on the energy body? How do imaginary processes effect the energy body?

[CFTraveler]

Well, it's said that energy goes wherever the attention goes- so I imagine there should be some effect. However, I think it's relative. When you read a story or watch a movie, there is a degree of built-in meta-awareness, so I think that the effect on the energy body is less intensive than real-life experiences, because of the foreknowledge of what you believe and what you don't.

[Seeuzin]

If you are actively getting into it with your imagination, and "being a part of the fiction," I would say absolutely!


If someone was to imagine themself as something else, or be apart of a very intricate imagination for a long period of time, could it have a long lasting effect on the energy body?

Most definitely. There is a book by Lama Surya Das where he talks about just that - doing very detailed visualizations, imagining yourself as a wise deity / shining Buddha, and the spiritual effects it produces. I will find the page and type some of it out to you when I can. And like CFT said, if you believe it is "real" enough to produce an effect, it would be more powerful.

[sleeper]

i suspect that the powers of the mind are underutilized during meditation.

if our focus could flow while we retained lucidity we could do lots of things, including various types of energy work.

just my 2c

[Seeuzin]

from "Awakening the Buddha Within" by Lama Surya Das p. 366-367 (emphasis added):


Visualization is a powerful and profound way to use the mind and its brilliant beacon light of awareness ... Through visualization practice we see how we continuously project - every single day - the current visualization or self-concepts we maintain of ourselves and our experiences. ... we are not necessarily stuck with who or what we think we are; we could be almost anyone or anything. Therefore, why not exercise our power of choice and the intrinsic wisdom of awareness by manifesting oneself as a radiant, empowering, and protective female Buddha Tara, or as a gentle forgiving Avalokitesvara, the Buddha of love and compassion? Wouldn't this prove far more satisfying than any negative self-images we may currently hold?

These meditations are primarily meditations on identity and its transformation - how we create ourselves and our self-image; how we create and recreate our karma and our world. ...

Tantric practices involving visualizated meditation deities and primordial archetypes remain one of the least-understood aspects of the rich world of Himalayan spiritual practice. They also represent one of the most recondite facets of the Buddhist culture of awakening. Many Westerners have found it difficult, if not impossible to understand and master these complex techniques that involve constructing and holding an image in one's mind with one-pointed attention. Sometimes practitioners spend long hours studying these techniques only to find that the inner principles and deeper meaning elude them; then they return to simpler, more basic, and fundamentally comprehensible practices such as breathing, mindfulness meditation, and various forms of self-inquiry.

Actually, it is less important to be able to visualize or graphically imagine the forms and attributes of the deity than it is to viscerally "feel" the presence of the invoked meditational deity. There are no deities per se in Buddhism. Instead these numinous forms are archetypes embodying the most noble and sublime qualities we can aspire to achieve - mere personifications of spiritual principles like wisdom, compassion, healing power, and so on. People often ask me if these deities exist outside and independent of our own minds. One might just as well wonder whether we too exist in such a way. As I often reply, they are as real, or unreal, as we are.

He didn't go into it as much as I thought I remembered him doing, but I do remember reading this and thinking, "ahh, so it works with the belief-system," (which alters flows of energy in the energy body) and also wondering what kind of blocks I could work through by sitting with the "feel" of the presence of the meditational deity, and letting it chip away at the "edges" of the dark spots / blocks in my energy.

Anyhow, that's what came to mind for me when you posted your question. :) Based on this and on personal experience, I definitely think folks with good ability to "get into" a story visually and viscerally can produce the energy flows you talk about :)

[psionickx]

Sometimes while reading a story, or being a part of a fiction in some way (books, movies, video games), or even creating my own, I get very intense energy surges.
most of the things mentioned are designed exactly to produce the reaction you talk of.
"energy surges" could* in this instance tantamount to "adrenaline rushes"


Well, it's said that energy goes wherever the attention goes
This is the part i agree with but i dont equate imagination/visualization to be energywork (apart from just being conducive to see* it through)
The difference lies in the fact of thinking or assumption and ipso facto things consequentially vary.
"Imagine energy going through your your feet to your subnavel storage center"
"Feel the energy going through your your feet to your subnavel storage center"

...but at the end of the day it always comes down to whatever floats your boat.