Keeping The Visualization, 
Nurture the Vision

By Kim Whiting

For years, I've been one of those people spouting, Keep the vision! You want a bigger bank account? Keep the vision! Great relationship? Keep the vision! Better job? Keep the vision! Thinner body? Keep the vision!

As in so many areas of my life, I learned I really haven't had the first idea what I'm talking about. What I should have been saying all these years is, "Keep the visualization!" I've always thought visualization and vision were the same. I now know a visualization is magical and wonderful, and a vision is miraculous and totally life transforming.

There Are Four Levels Of Consciousness

1. To me - At this level we see events in our lives as happening to us. We believe our lives to be controlled by some outside force, whether God or the Devil, or simply people and situations. This is the place where we would see the victim mentality.

2. To it - At this level we judge circumstances as good or bad, and work diligently on changing that which we label as "bad." The ego, heavily involved in this stage, decides what it is we need to be happy as well as what is causing our unhappiness. At this level we see visualization as the process of harnessing the power of our minds to manifest that which we believe will make us happy.

3. Through me - We surrender to a higher force and open to a bigger idea about ourselves and our lives. In this place we accept all things as perfect and there is no "bad" situation. We also believe situations are not responsible for our happiness or unhappiness, and happiness comes from within. It is here we see vision - the process of allowing Spirit's Dream/Will for us-to come through us.

4. As me - Complete unity with Spirit/God. We are not merely letting God live though us, as we are in the previous stage, we are letting God live AS us. Our thoughts are God's thoughts. Our actions are God's actions. We live as a physical manifestation of God.

Visualization is in the "To it" level of consciousness, because in visualization we use our thoughts to make our lives "better." Visualization comes from the belief that our thoughts literally create our reality. I think that this process is demonstrated with people who have Multiple Personality Disorder. In Multiple Personality Disorder, a person has separate personalities that are normally unaware of each other. What's fascinating is that one of the person's personalities might have a disease as severe as diabetes (I actually read a case like this in grad school) while another personality does not. When the person is in one personality, they require insulin. When they are in the other personalities, their pancreas works just fine. Different personalities may also have different allergies. For example, peanuts may cause the body to swell in one personality, but will have no effect on the body when the person is in another personality. The person may also have different physical abilities and aptitudes depending on the personality they are in. Another incredible example of the mind's power is seen in hypnosis. While in hypnosis, a person's skin may blister if they believe they are being burned, or their skin may bruise if they are reliving some abuse from the past. What our mind sees and believes becomes our physical reality. You also see the power of the mind at work with faith healing, as well as the "placebo effect," in which a person's symptoms are alleviated, even though they are only taking a sugar pill - they believe they have taken actual medication and their belief changes their physical reality. The mind is very powerful.

Attitude and expectation are other ways the mind changes our physical reality. In fact, an interesting study was done in a school system where a group of teachers were told the smart kids were the dumb kids and the dumb kids were the smart kids. By the end of the year, the smart kids were the dumb kids and visa versa. The teachers' beliefs and expectations for these students completely altered their academic progress. I could go on about the power of the mind, using examples from quantum physics (sub-particles actually "behave" differently depending upon how the person observing them thinks and feels) and numerous psychology texts. However, I think on some deep level, we know the power of our minds and know what we visualize is nothing compared to what our minds are really capable of.