OK ...... Keep your eyes open.

What did you have for breakfast today?

Did you have an answer to that question?

When you answered it did a vision of you eating breakfast awaken in your consciousness?

It would have come to you in a "flash" of inspiration

All the information is in that "flash"

Then you use your slow molasses like thinking mind to convert that flash into a thought.

It is worse if you have to actually answer this question in words to somebody else.

Now you have to convert the "flash" into a thought and then sort the order of thoughts into words and then speak the words to get the answer out, a slow...slow...slow process.

Or you can stay with the "flash" and not convert it to anything.

Then you will call this "flash" INSPIRATION.

But of course you won't call it inspiration; instead you will call it as "Ah-ha I just remember!" or "OK I got it"

But then you are not trained to be satisfied with this purity of information. You are trained to translate it into a Slow....slow...thought so that your ego can manage it, analyze it, sort it, and often smash it into irrelevance.

The exercise is trying to train you consciousness to stay in "vision" without converting that vision into a slow....slow...thought.

If you can answer a question with your eyes open you can envision with your eyes open.

Just realize it is the exact same thing as visualizing with your eyes closed. Except now instead of blackness there are other objects around.

Don't worry if it doesn't appear quite as vivid as it would with your eyes closed at first. It will probably require a bit more effort from you.

You could try visualizing the line first with your eyes closed and then open them, holding onto that image and 'projecting' it outward onto the wall. Another option is to start out doing it at night/early morning with the lights off keeping your eyes open and then learn to do it with lights on/in daylight.

Most people just tend to get more distracted with their eyes open, so their mind isn't as focused and images aren't as clear. Ignore everything else in your vision where possible (thus him having you look at a blank wall).

It really is the same thing - it just requires a bit more effort to concentrate appropriately in your case. :)

It's just the same as doing it with the eyes closed. Have you ever daydreamed (let's say, when bored at work)? Weren't you with your eyes open?

What works for me is lying down on my bed, so no bodily movement distracts me, and stare at the ceiling. I daydream for a while, and once get into that mood, I start visualizing what's asked in the book.

I hope this helps!

BJ09

Actually you do it all day long without even being conscious of it. You think of all you are going to do for the day and you picture the activities automatically. If you are going to the museum, you start thinking about it before you get there. It is the very same thing. Think about what you want and the mind will attach a picture. I have read that the mind thinks in pictures and not words. If that is true all you have to do is create the thougt of what you desire.