Power of visualisation

Oasis

There is a legend about a prince with a crooked back. Many were the remedies that his physicians tried, but none proved to be of any help. 

Finally the prince called his sculptor and said, ‘Make a statue of me with a straight back, so that I might see myself as I ought to be.’

Everyday he hobbled up to it and stretching himself to his utmost, gazed upon the figure. The sight set his mind afire and his body tingling. 

After a time, the people around him began to whisper, ‘His back is not as crooked as before.’ 

Then one day as he stood before the statue, he realized that he did not have to strain himself as before. 

What was his surprise to find that his back had become straight! He was now what he had longed to be! ‘A miracle’, they said, but was it?

 

Not really, for what had actually been at work was his power of visualization. 

 

He had stretched out the faculties of his body, mind and spirit in order to reach his goal. 

Anyone who wants to achieve his dreams or to create something new must be able to do the same. 

He must look beyond the existing present and perceive clearly the object of his desires. 

 

Nothing worthwhile can be built unless there is first a vision of what is wanted. 

It is common belief that the best way of improving a skill, for instance dancing, is to put in many hours of practice. 

No doubt physical drill does result in improvement, but the faster way to progress is to combine physical and mental practice. 

 

Scientific studies show that when you imagine yourself performing a task well, the brain undergoes electro-chemical changes within the cells and produces new behaviour. 

It is worthwhile to remember that mental rehearsals are always closer to the perfect than physical ones, the reason why Olympic athletes and sports enthusiasts visualize intuitively.

High achievers, it is seen, are keen visualizers. 

Discovery, as we know well, consists in seeing what everybody else sees, but imagining what nobody else does. 

But for this, Newton could not have postulated the Laws of Gravity or Galileo that it is the Earth that revolves round the sun and not vice versa. When the great Italian painter, Raphael, was asked how he painted such wonderful pictures, he answered, ‘I simply dream dreams and see visions and then I paint around these dreams and visions.’ 

The ability to look beyond and imagine gives us besides improved focus and added inspiration. To see with the mind’s eye is the first step in giving shape to concrete reality.

 

Visualization, at its very best, is the search for truth. 

This quest has therefore a spiritual aspect too. Dr Radhakrishnan has pointed out Nature works in qualitative leaps – ‘from matter to life, from life to mind and from mind to Intelligence. 

At the heart of reality is a Supreme Spirit at work in the whole cosmos.

’It is visualization that takes us closer to this higher plane and enables us to see what we can and what we ought to be. 

It is this force that changes ordinary mortals into visionaries capable of reaching higher realms of thought and investing greater meaning into everyday living.