An Introduction to Tactile Visualization

There are two widely accepted types of visualization: visual and tactile. The first is purely seeing in your mind what you want psi to do. The latter is "feeling" what you want the psi to do. I will not argue over which one is better, as I use both depending on the circumstances, but I have noticed that I have better control when I include tactile (or kinesthetic) visualization to the task.

Since most everyone can daydream, the visual method is used most often. Recently I've seen many people asking about tactile visualization. I'm aware that a lot of people have problems using this, and since there are no articles purely on that subject, I'll offer my methods on enhancing tactile visualization. However, it should be known that although these techniques have helped me, I have not yet had anyone else try it. Anyway, onward to the HOWTO's.

First off, notice that there are five generally recognized senses: hearing, seeing, smelling, tasting, and feeling. All of these senses are just specializations of feeling. As such, it is possible that there is another sense. You have probably noticed it before but disregarded it. The easiest way I have found to feel it is to take your hand and put it over your ear. Now, slowly pull it away from your ear and notice how you can still feel where it is without seeing it. It is just a "feel" of proximity. Move your hand back and forth and try and pick up on this feeling. It seems to be a mixture of feeling and hearing. Obviously, the hearing is only because we are using our ears, but the feel is what we are after. Try moving it around your face and still feel it and its distance to you. Once you have become accustomed to this feeling, you're ready to move on.

Rolling up your sleeves:

Roll up your sleeves (if you have any) and, without touching, place your hand over your opposite shoulder. Notice the heat coming off of your hand, as well as feel of "proximity" from your shoulder. Move your hand down from your shoulder to your wrist, all the time noticing using spatial awareness. Try moving your hand to other places around your body. Move it over your chest, head (again), etc. Just take this time to experiment. After not to long, you should become sufficiently bored. Perhaps you're asking, "How does this apply to psionics?"

Energy manipulation:

We'll start off with a simple psiball. Feel the energy inside you as a pool of water. To get the idea, watch T2: Judgment Day and notice how the T-1000 (liquid-metal boy) pools together after melting. In a similar manner, feel all the energy in your body coming together in your sternum. Slowly move it back and forth between your hands and your sternum. Spend about five seconds moving down and five seconds back. Now that you have a pretty good connection with your energy, send them down into your hands and let it pool there. Slowly push it through the skin. Feel where the psiball should be, and feel it turning from a liquid into a smooth chrome ball, a rubber ball, anything that means "solid" to you. This is to keep its shape. Congrats, you made a psiball using only tactile awareness.

Shielding:

Go through your normal warm up procedures, and then feel energy collecting in your sternum. Feel a slight bubble form in the middle of this "liquid energy", and make it start to expand. Feel it as a fluid, ever-changing object. Try to be aware of where it is at all times, and make it grow until its comfortably around your entire body. Then, to keep it around, just feel it becoming less flowing and more like a solid object. To get the idea, stand next to a wall, and feel the wall with your awareness. Notice how static and inflexable it is. You want to recreate this feeling once you have made your shield to keep it from dissipating. You may notice that you can feel the shield all around you, and that is using your spatial awareness.

Another method that I actually use more often is as follows. Feel energy permeating your skin, all over you. Then, by an act of will, push it from every pore in your body, and feel it collect about six to twelve inches from your body. Use the same feeling that helped you keep it's shape with the psiball and feel all of the giant egg-shape becoming solid. Examine it carefully and try and "feel" the weak spots in it. Send more psi out and direct it to these areas, freezing to the egg much like water would freeze on top of ice.

The only thing keeping you back now is practice. Imagine pyramids of energy in your hand feeling as solid as if they were matter. Feel psiballs flying around you. Try to feel the entire room you're in. All you need is a little imagination to show how versatile this new sense is. I realize this is a basic article, but I hope that everyone who reads it gets at least something out of it. I've learned all I know from the articles at PsiPog, and I'm glad that I finally get to give back to the community. Cheers!