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techniques. Given no viable alternative, you obviously cannot do development exercises properly and simply cannot develop yourself if you have a problem with what we might call "visual visualization". Understanding exactly what visualization is and is not thus becomes a crucial issue to all aspects of development. Yet everyone, without exception, can visualize easily and perfectly if taught correctly. The development exercises and techniques in this book are based not on visualization, but on a concise, nonvisual imaging system I developed called tactile imaging, based on the active use of the sense of touch and feel and body awareness. This is very easy to learn and is extremely effective, far more effective in energetic manipulation and development than visualization-based techniques could ever be. People who actually see what they visualize may be at a slight disadvantage when they begin using the nonvisual tactile imaging techniques in this book, if they do not change their way of doing things. They will have to stop trying to see what they are doing and learn how to feel what they are doing for these techniques to work effectively. If you are like most people and cannot visualize very well, you are going to do very well indeed with these new techniques. Using Your Imagination We are all capable of easily creating and visualizing the most complex scenario in our minds, without training and with no exceptions. Over the years, I have asked many people who claim they cannot visualize if they ever reminisce, fantasize, daydream, or imagine things. The answer is always "Yes!" Everyone is perfectly capable of using imagination to build complex and detailed fantasies in the mind's eye. So, let's get something straight here: Imagination is visualization. Visualization is imagination. They are one and the same. And neither is truly a visual ability. Visualization is not a visual ability. You do not actually see what you visualize, just as you cannot actually see your imagination or fantasy. True visualisation is pure imagination. Imagination is the generator of all daydreams and fantasies, whether memories are relived or something fictional is created based on memory. You cannot really see memories or fantasy creations, but they are so vivid and realistic that they are indistinguishable from any mind's eye creation that is more visual. Concise imagination and concise imaging are terms that are much more apt and workable for the use of imagination to construct detailed fantasies or visualizations. Memory plays an important part in constructive imagination. Imagination is based on memory. If you have ever lost anything, you have most probably tried to re-create your past actions in your mind's eye to help you remember where you lost it. You have replayed these, using imagination, going over your every movement step by step. This is perfect visualization, concise imaging — based entirely on memory. As a sample exercise: get up and go to the kitchen, get a drink of water, and return. As you do this, carefully take note of everything you do and see and feel along the way. Then sit down, close your eyes, and relax. Remember what you just did, from the beginning, and re-create this sequence of actions in your mind — in your mind's eye. It is important to feel everything as if you were actually doing it. This is exactly like creating a fantasy based on real-life events. Remember getting out of your chair and how the room looked as it moved around you as you turned; remember your steps as you walked to the kitchen, what you saw and felt when you arrived, and how your hand looked and felt as it reached out for a glass; remember filling it and drinking; remember how the water tasted and smelled and felt; and remember returning the glass, walking back to your original position, and sitting down again. Do this in real time, taking roughly the same length of time to re-create it in your mind's eye as it took to actually do it. You cannot actually see these actions, but you can remember them and feel them easily. This is exactly like any fantasy you have created in your mind's eye. You can almost see a good fantasy, they can be so real. Fantasies are constructed with imagination. Today this is more commonly called visualization. Again, relaxed and with your eyes closed, try constructing a completely fictional scenario in your mind's eye, with all the necessary parts taken from memory. Remember what it's like to brush your hair. Rehearse this action in your mind, in your mind's eye, without actually doing it first. Imagine there is a table in front of you with a hairbrush on it. Carefully feel yourself reaching out 45