One tip I would suggest which helped me is a bit counter-intuitive...

Instead of trying to visualize with your eyes closed, try it with your eyes open instead. It sounds like it should be harder to do but it works much better for some people.

Hope that helps.

I have a friend who used to have the same problem. Later she tried to visualize well-known places such as her kitchen, her bedroom, the city where she lives, and events like birthdays, Sunday lunches and so on. She was doing these while she was at her workplace or on the way there. After a while she tried to do the same with very new places and events. And then not only with places but with anything she wanted to achieve. And now she can do it! I hope it will help everybody with similar problems!

A lot of great advice has already been given.

Basically the more clearly you can see things in your mind's eye, the better. But on the other hand it's a fact that most people - me included - can't visualize very well. I believe we can get better with practice but until then we need some "workaround" to keep us motivated. The best advice I was given is that even if you can't see the object of your visualization clearly you have to know it's there. For example, look at something in the room, say your desk. Now look away. Now you don't see the desk but you you have no doubt, you know it's there, right? If you can apply the same kind of attitude towards your visualization your practice will be successful.

I have problems with visualization as well. In the Master Key System by Charles Haanel at the end of each chapter has a meditation exercise. It starts very basic and then gradually increases with difficulty.

You have many good answers to consider already. I'll add just a few additional points that could help. As someone who has difficulty visualizing, too, I've found that it helps me to have the object, or a picture, photo or drawing of the thing you want to visualize. Focus on it for a while, until you've observed all its details, then close your eyes and try to see the image. If nothing comes, open your eyes and focus on the picture again for a while, then close your eyes and try again. Continue the procedure until you start seeing it in your mind's eye.

As has already been mentioned, emotion plays an important role in visualization, so do some pondering ahead of time about what this object means to you, how you feel about it. As you look at or visualize the object say, "I feel .... about this because ...."

Finally, it's said that the most effective trigger to our memories is our sense of smell. Whether or not that's true, it makes sense that the more of our 5 senses we employ as we consider and focus on the object of our visualization, the more intense will be our experience of it. If I want to visualize myself sitting by a fireplace sipping warm cider with a cinnamon stick, it would help to have a real cup of warm cider and cinnamon with me to trigger the participation of my senses of smell, taste and feeling.

Don't give up. Keep practicing. It gets easier and more effective the more you do it.

You must feel good and positive when you perform visualization.In other word,put and add love to the subject of your visualization.And...Be patient and have a open mind

In my opinion the most important thing in visualization is practice. As you must practice really hard to be able to read in other laungage, or play some musical instrument, you must also try hard to be good at visualisation.

There are some basic steps in developing this ability:

1. Master passive observing of your thoughts, be aware of your disconnection. Do not immense in your thoughts. Watch them as you were watching some other's person mind.
2. Master concentration. That means you concentrate on a single thought without any interruptions of your thoughts.
3. Master meditation - keeping your mind completety blank.
4. Master five astral senses - visual, auditory, sensory, olfactory, gustatory - that means you are able to imagine a picture, sound, or sensation with great accuracy, and your imagination is very clear.
5. Combine your previously mastered astral senses. For example use visual and auditory senses in one visualisation.

This is very brief. It originates from Franz Bardon's Initiation into Hermetics. This process isn't easy, it can even take few years to fully master that. Now you see that the whole "visualisation" thing isn't as easy as it seemed.

" When you stand praying BELIEVE THAT YOU RECEIVE, and you shall have it". Like you, I am learning the process of visualization, over time though, i have learnt that applying a process of 'spiritual logic' helps. E.G. If I start to think of how big and vast God is, how immeasurable, and then think about myself as part of God as a wave is to the ocean, or a leaf to a stem, and a branch to a tree etc. that so am I a part of God, And then proceed to ' IN him I live and move and have my being'. I come to the clear conclusion that I am a part of God, and at that point feel and know the oneness.

Once I reach this understanding, then, I reason, that God does not give sickness to itself, nor, lack of any sort, why would God do that. Then, I begin to think of the object or situation that I am seeking for, and somehow, it becomes a bit clearer to visualize it. Perhaps it is because after doing 'spiritual logic/reasoning" subconsciously I have removed the block and therefore, with the clarity of my connection to the Creator, and knowing that we are ONE, in that moment I am able to better see the outcome of what I a want to visualize. Always, I see the end, as done.

And yes, visualizing comes easier when believing for some things than for others, perhaps it has to do with how deeply we have to dig within ourselves to BELIEVE, because of certain blocks in our minds/subconscious about really getting what we are visualizing for, we somehow draw a curtain across our inner eye. Maybe we think it too hard, too big, or we put time in the equation, thinking in human terms instead of God's terms.

We all have different approaches to visualizing, so try different ideas, and find one that works for you, but most of all, do not become discouraged.
Blessings.

I think you have to just relax and don't put pressure on your self. Example if you were told to imagine and circle around you that was gold about 4ft. in diameter just imagine or think of yourself with an circle around you an couple of feet from you that is the color gold. Now don't get caught up in is this 4ft or 3 ft. is this gold I am imagine is it dark or light enough or is it even the color gold. You see you are getting caught up in the doubt syndrome leave doubt out of it. You just imagine or think of it as best you can and believe it is OK and leave it alone and don't worry about and continue on with what you suppose to do.

We visualize clearly every day in our life what we want to do, and see. And we have no problem doing it, because it a natural part of our being. We are spiritual being, and visualizing is a part of the spiritual nature of human beings. Although exercise and relaxation is a method used to produce a calming, and relaxing atmosphere for this purpose, it is not the sole technique for visualizing.

I can visualize what I think you look like by simple forming an impression in my thought, and making the picture real in my mind eyes. I can think of something that I want to do, and then I can visualize the process of doing it from beginning to end. I can go to the movie, and afterwards I can visualize scene from the movie that I have seen. I can look at strangers, and then visualize who I think they really are, and a picture can pop in my mind eyes, and I will see them as different individuals.

I can close my eyes, and I can visualize my dream house with red bricks on the out side, and I see the red bricks on the house in the far distance in my mind eyes. I can visualize the same house with my eyes opened, and I can see the same house in the far distance with my eyes opened. I can look at something with my eyes open for several minutes, and when I close my eyes, I will see the same thing in my mind eyes. When I am reading a book, I visualize every scene, behavior and character in the story. I can visualize, the dress I wore on my Wedding day, I can see it, I can feel it, I can smell it, with my eyes opened, or closed, because visualizing is what we do all the time.

You can visualize what you think I look like, just by think the thought in your mind eyes, with your eyes opened, or closed, and you will get the same result. You should try it right now, and you will see that it is what we humans do naturally. So, take the pressure off of yourself, and know that with every thought that you think you are visualizing.

It may be useful for you to listen to some gentle relaxing music

The best way I can think of, and perhaps the best way possible, is to go through mental excercises from Initation into Hermetics that greatly develop visualisation power (which, in fact, is development of astral senses; what is an astral sense? For example astral hearing is hearing imagined sounds).

Brief look at the course:
Step I - thought mastery, concentration and meditation
Step II - training each of five astral senses
Step III - using astral senses in combination, visualizing objects, places, animals, people

Steps IV-X are more advanced work so they are not within the reach of this question.

Bardon says that step is mastered only then when you can hold your visualization crystal clear, that it almost appears as reality.

This is very interesting to me as I costantly experience true see-through full color visualizations of just about anything on a daily basis and i even sometimes hear songs or voices that I've heard before in my head. I've done this ever since i was a small child but they have escalated greatly since about 2 years ago when I started experimenting with certain recreational substances. Anyway to answer the question many of the the things that are written here like being very relaxed and clearing your mind. I have recently discovered that using binaural and isochronic tones and putting myself into a trance (kind of a quicker alternative to meditation) definitely increases their intensity and diversity Also i find being in a dark room makes them clearer and easier to distinguish. I've found using certain (usually hallucinogenic) drugs helps to put your conscious and unconscious minds closer in contact with each other based on how much more intense and complicated they became over time (even after taking a break). I'm not saying hallucinogens are good for you or that i think you should try them but personally don't think I've been affected that much and i do think that with moderation they can be very spiritually fulfilling.(just throwing this out there but dreams are actually a hallucination caused by small amounts of the prohibited substance DMT found naturally in the brain) Anyway I'm still not sure why i experience this but I don't think it's schizophrenia. It's possible it may have something to do with my ADD but I'm not sure because there's not a whole lot on the internet but I'm still searching.

the best way i feel to enhance your ability to visualise is by doing this exercise. sit still, relax your breath. now take your vision up, i.e. without moving you head, take your eyes up, as if to see the part of the ceiling right above your your head. actually this exercise stimulates the region in the brain that helps in visualisation. its just behind (or at) the area between your eyebrows. so actually, you are not really aiming to look at the ceiling, but at your eyebrow centre. this is an amazing exercise. do this for as much time as you are comfortable. initially you will get baffled. initially, when you return to normal, you may have a sensation of whirling in your head. but with 'time' that will go. infact this is an exercise that helps in the activation of the 3rd eye. its called 'shambhavi mudra' here in india. but most importantly, an enhanced visu/alization is its primary benefit. just in 2 or 3 sittings, you may start seeing change. i feel that improving visualization by visualizing more and more is a tough process, and is frustrating as well. why not directly stimulate the ganglion supporting the third eye, which will almost immediately give you an incredible visualization. obviously if the practice is prolonged, other powers of the 3rd eye will start developing.

I've not read any of the answers so if I repeat someone else then there's a good reason for it. I use words to help with visualisation, by that I mean I speak out loud and describe what I want to visualise. You have to discipline your mind to concentrate on what you want to visualise only and this is just a matter of daily practice.