Why Imagination Works

I agree that imagination is perhaps the most important technique. Or it's memory. (I can't really tell the difference between memory and imagination. You can't imagine anything you never saw, so even though formally imagination is defined as visualizing things that you didn't see, it is still composed of things that you did see. At least, imagination and memory feel the same to me, so far. But Dr. Bates did discriminate imagination and memory.)

It turns out the imagination is as essential as vision itself. People with normal sight continuously imagine what they're looking at, and in this way they see it. The normal mind is focused on imagining the regarded object, and vision just follows it, filling the imagined detail with real data. The strained mind is focused on the vision — blurry vision, and imagination is suppressed. David is right in saying that imperfect sight is a disorder of attention. Imagination drives attention and shifting from one detail to another. Without concurrent imagining the object you're looking at, you cannot shift and therefore cannot see.

I have been ignoring imagination techniques for a long time. I found it kind of boring and childish. There seemed nothing interesting to remember or imagine. Besides, when I tried to imagine anything I began to conjure up words. Pictures didn't really come to my mind, and I was wondering if I understood imagination the right way at all. I couldn't understand how much really vivid and visual the pictures should be.

It turns out that the imagined pictures should be just as vivid as vision, and getting them is easy. You should just want to imagine something, let it come to you and stop preventing it.

I recently watched an old series "My name is Earl", where Earl tried to compose an essay, but couldn't imagine anything. His imagination was screened as a plain white space with no objects around, except Earl himself, and a black-eyed gymnast, a haunting image from another guy's essay, about whom Earl didn't want to write. The gymnast kept popping up driving Earl crazy and then he (the gymnast) said "I won't go away until you stop thinking about me!" Then Earl somehow managed to let go of the fixed idea and his imagination immediately fountained.

After a good laugh I thought that the gymnast is exactly what happens to me when I try to imagine anything, where by gymnast this time I mean the focus on vision. My mind cannot imagine anything until it's locked on seeing, even with my eyes closed. When I somehow manage to stop worrying about seeing just for a second, I am immediately flooded with a bunch of shockingly vivid images and memories. So far it doesn't last longer than a second, because it's just overwhelming, and my scared mind jumps off to habitual "seeing" again. But I am sure that with practice, it's possible to persuade the mind that it's okay to keep imagining.

Even glimpses of imagination do wonders to vision. All tension and pulling sensations around eyes disappear, redness of sclera clears up in few minutes, and clear flashes begin immediately. And what's great about imagination-induced clear flashes, is that it feels different, like if you already have the detail, you're no longer making it out.

So I'm now a big fan of imagination techniques. It is important to find inspiring images to imagine. Personally I find it good to imagine well-lit objects like rocks, trees, sea shore on bright sunny days, surrounded with bright blue sky.

One other technique I currently use is to keep telling myself to not try to see under any circumstances, even when I "need" to see. Trying to see always fails and is therefore useless, but the habit is deeply ingrained, an it increases the strain to the degree when you can no longer imagine anything. So take a couple relaxed breaths, stop trying to see and then imagine. Swinging the head slightly, noticing the movement relative to stationary shoulder or feet is another good way to stop trying to see. Keep repeating like that all the time. We need to persuade our minds that not trying to see is okay, and go for imagination. Gradually.