The third aspect of C-Viz, and in many ways the most important aspect, is feeling. Feeling can be broken down into three separate but related aspects: emotional feeling, bodily feeling and energy-body feeling. The energy-body feeling (which is directly related to the Hindu Chakra system or the Chinese Taoist system of energy centres (Dantien)) is more esoteric and for higher level meditation practitioners, so for the sake of simplicity we will ignore it here. However, it is worth being aware that if this type of meditation is something that you wish to pursue, then it is likely to arise in your practise sooner or later.
The body-scan (which utilises bodily feeling) is a simple, common and popular form of C-Viz meditation; I use it on a fairly frequent basis myself, so let’s examine it. Start by lying on your back with your eyes closed and your arms by your side. If the room is very light it may help to cover your eyes with some form of covering. Bring your attention to the top of your head. You are trying to feel the sensations in the top of your scalp; nothing else matters. This is a form of one-pointedness meditation and in this case the body (or perhaps more accurately bodily sensation) is the object of meditation.
I find that if I keep my attention on the scalp long enough, anywhere between about 10 and 30 seconds, I can actually feel a sensation of heat energy in my scalp. Once I feel this heat energy, I start to slowly move it down through my body; first through my head, then my shoulders, then my arms and abdomen, then my pelvis, then my legs and finally through my feet until I feel it in the ends of my toes. You can either stop there or bring it back up again until you get to the top of your head. Now that I have been doing this type of C-Viz on a semi-regular basis for almost twenty years I can palpably feel the energy flowing through my body. In the beginning, you may not feel this; it may take you some time, but if you persist, it is very likely to happen sooner or later.
I often use the body scan to prepare myself for other C-Viz meditations, such as visiting my inner sanctum and dialoguing with my inner cast of characters or for undertaking a Metta ( Metta is a word from the Pali language (the language of Siddhartha Gautama – the historical Buddha) that is usually translated as Loving-Kindness.) meditation. I am naturally more narrative in my thought process, but since using Creative Visualisations as a form of meditation, I have developed my visual and feeling (emotional, bodily and energy body) capacities. You will probably find that you are naturally more inclined to one aspect of C-Viz (visual, narrative or feeling) than the others, and although it may be advantageous in the short term to play to your strengths, in the longer term it is best to develop all three. This is not an exclusive list, as previously mentioned musicians may also think in sounds as well as narrative and then channel it through their hands or voice, but these three are the most common.
As part of my experimentation with different forms of C-Viz I’m now able to generate a strong feeling of Metta, or loving-kindness. This is a skill which has, beyond a shadow of a doubt, improved my mental health. With a loving-kindness meditation, it is good to draw on your memory in order to generate feelings of peace and love within yourself. I have drawn heavily on the strong feelings of Metta I have experienced on occasion in my shadow work, and more frequently in my recreational use of MDMA, LSD and magic mushrooms. Although it is not necessary to have taken psychedelics to recreate these feelings during meditation, it has certainly helped me.
Think of a time in your life when you experienced strong feelings of love / kindness / joy and move yourself back to that time and feel the feelings inside your body; in a sense, you want to relive the experience. You may experience these in the area of your heart rather than inside your head; frequently, this memory will involve another person or people: parents, children, a friend or lover, for example. Initially, it doesn’t matter if it involves another person or not. When you can generate these strong feelings of loving-kindness, you should begin to radiate them to yourself as a form of (non-narcissistic) self-love.
You may find that you need to forgive yourself in some manner or other, and this is linked to the feminine path of healing. When you have a certain level of experience, you may want to generate these feelings for other humans, but it is best to start with yourself. Many people have a hard time generating feelings of loving-kindness towards themselves; sadly there are many people in the world who hate themselves, or at the very least dislike themselves quite intensely. All I can say is carry on, and with time it will become easier. A loving-kindness (Metta) meditation is an extremely useful skill that anyone can add to their meditation toolbox and is absolutely necessary to undertake a deep and profound healing.
Three books I would recommend on C-Viz are Into the Magic Shop: A neurosurgeon’s true story of the life-changing magic of mindfulness and compassion by Dr James Doty and Creative Visualisations and Meditations both by Shakti Gawain. Shakti Gawain’s books absolutely changed my life. I read Meditations during my third year working in Oman in 2009-10, and after some planning and reflection decided to construct an Inner Sanctum in my mind, and so I did. For over a decade and a half I’ve been using it to dialogue with different members of The Committee.
My mind is not one single unit, rather it is a committee of characters, some largely dysfunctional and others largely functional. To get a better idea of how this committee works I recommend reading Multiplicity by Dr Rita Carter, The Chimp Paradox by Dr Steve Peters and Internal Family Systems Therapy by Richard Schwartz and Martha Sweezy. In my understanding (which is heavily influenced by Jungian psychology) my body is like a car that is owned by a committee and different committee members are driving the car at different times. The dysfunctional aspects are the Shadow-Aspects and the functional aspects exist in what Jungians would term the Golden Shadow. If you have ever looked back on your life and thought, “why the fuck did I do that?” you can be fairly certain that it was one of your Shadow-Aspect characters that was driving the car (your body) at the time.
Some members of the ‘Golden Shadow’ may be attempting to use the delusionary nature of the mind to ‘your’ advantage. Think about the future, visualise, imagine and write about this desirable future; once it’s clear it becomes easier to achieve. Simply assume that it is reality and then carry on living your ‘actual’ life, assuming that you can operate in a reasonable manner in the outside world (within the system / Matrix or whatever you want to call it), then it will become a useful delusional narrative. Use your delusion to your advantage. If you don’t it may end up using you.
In 2010, while I was living in Oman, I started using exercises from Shakti Gawain’s book Meditations, and I built myself an Inner Sanctum of my Mind. This inner sanctum consists of three different locations on Planet Earth, I can picture them easily in my mind because I have been to them all many times and I have a strong positive emotional feeling towards them. In reality, they are far apart geographically, but that doesn’t matter because my inner sanctum, although based on literal places that exist in reality, is a psychic structure that I have built in my mind. This is an intensely personal act, to build this psychic structure, and I have never revealed the details of my inner sanctum to anyone, and I suspect that I never will; some things are best kept to oneself. The patterns, however, are easier and more straightforward to discuss.
I use this inner sanctum to dialogue with members of my committee and/or other psychic characters (such as archetypes or my inner child) that exist on different (largely) subconscious levels within my mind. The first time I went into my inner sanctum to dialogue with my inner child a very strange scenario played out of its own accord, by which I mean my conscious mind had no control over the situation; it just happened in an unplanned manner. These types of experience are intensely personal and are either best not shared, or only shared with a person with whom you have a great deal of trust. For those people who think that this is “woo-woo nonsense” or complete bullshit, don’t take my word for it, read the books I’ve mentioned and follow the guidelines and see how it goes. Or don’t bother, whichever you prefer.
At the end of the day, if you never examine the programming you received in childhood, and none of us escape this programming, you will remain a victim of circumstance. That victim-narrative may end up becoming a core part of your identity, but it is not serving you. To quote Socrates, “The unexamined life is not worth living.” He was not wrong.
Carter, R (2008) Multiplicity: The New Science of Personality, Identity, and the Self
Doty, J (2018) Into the Magic Shop: A neurosurgeon’s true story of the life-changing magic of compassion and mindfulness Yellow Kite
Gawain, S (1995) Creative Visualization – The Complete Book: Use the Power of Your Imagination to Create What You Want in Your Life
Gawain, S (1996) Creative Visualization Meditations
Peters, S (2015) The Chimp Paradox
Schwartz, R and Sweezy, M (1996) Internal Family Systems Therapy
