Travelling: A hallucination
I think that window
seats are perhaps equipped with magnets that attract humans. While travelling by a train or a car most
people prefer to be on the window seat. As children we used to wage wars to be
on the window seat of school auto, van or bus. And as we grew one more
attraction got added: driving bike on straight roads with no traffic jams. Yes,
there's definitely something special about these experiences.
Sitting by the train
window you start noticing everything that comes on the way- railway tracks
competing with you to be first; approaching-receding platforms, different kinds
of people running for different things; bridges and the river under it,
fisherman in his small boat. Slowly you get in to a mode where you start
observing things passing from the view of the thing you are observing and while
watching fields with scarecrows and a little hut by the side, you feel the ears
of grains while swinging in the air popping a message "I am happy";
electrical towers and mountains saying "Come soon my friend, I will be
here itself doing my work"; the flowing river exclaiming happily "I
am off to meet my friends"; etc.
You become one with the surroundings, living each passing moment.
Gradually you slip into your own thoughts of your present life, then advancing
in to imagining yourself as you wish to be in the future.
What just happened?
From the state of your mind busy contemplating your "Things to do list", you were left
on the threshold of the present moment that took you further into a deep
meditation that ended in Creative Visualization. How does this
transformation occur and what it has to do with travelling/driving? As you draw
your attention to the surroundings and start observing, before you comprehend
one thing completely second is ready for you to comprehend. Here the rate of
shifting attention is high. This sets your mind free to let go off the thoughts
that pass your mind screen such that this distraction doesn’t allow you to
concentrate on your anticipations. With this de-concentration you reach the
first stage of meditation. The whole phenomenon is effortless and resists all
your forces to come back and contemplate on your routine thoughts. Slowly you start enjoying the surroundings.
Everything that you see or think gives you a positive vibe; even hardships are
taken as a means for reinforcement of fortitude. It makes you realize that you
are one element of this macrocosm thereby you come out of your small sphere and
feel and participate in the bigger picture. The never ending land plunges you
in to the deepest of your thoughts.
At this stage you will
most of the times also enter your territory which has formed and is forming with visions for yourself, I call it 'v-territory'. At this point your mind will
screen movies of your aspirations. The positivity of this will make you feel
fresh. Series of thoughts come wherein you imagine yourself doing what you have
always dreamt of. Crept in these hallucinations you see yourself successful in
achieving your goals, you relish the fruits of success and live here those
moments that you long for in its entirety. This whole surreal experience
somewhere stimulates your mind towards your goals (in all spheres of life) by
simulating the whole experience you wish to live. This fills you with
positivity and fortifies your optimism. This brain exercise is identified as Creative
Visualization,
To understand Creative
Visualization better, let us consider its opposite- Psychosomatic Theory. The
word 'psychosomatic' represents the powerful influence that the mind
(especially the unconscious) has on bodily diseases. Psychosomatic diseases or
disorder have physical symptoms but originate from mental or emotional causes.
Thus, a person who fears the consequence of being delivering a presentation in
public will suddenly develop a bad headache or cold, or even be injured in a
traffic accident. It's a real cold or headache or accident. Yet, according to
the psychosomatic theory of medicine, his unconscious made him susceptible to
the cold germs, caused headache, or forced him in to the path of the car. A
psychosomatic disorder actually exists insofar as symptoms are concerned
(headache, pains, heart palpitations), yet there is no organic cause within the
body. The cause is within the mind.
Creative Visualization
and psychosomatic tendencies are two different reflections of the same mind.
Psychosomatic tendencies develop out of pessimistic outlook and Creative
Visualization on the other hand arises out of optimism. Here you actually rehearse
moments or situations you want to live. Powerful thoughts leave deep impact on
our mind and mind in turn controls our body and things we do. As quoted by
Shakti Gawain in her book, "Thoughts and feelings have their own magnetic
energy which attracts energy of a similar nature. For instance, at time we
'accidently' run into someone we've just been thinking of, or 'happen' to pick
up a book which contains exactly the perfect information we need at that
moment". Applying this aspect it becomes possible to change our outer
world by changing or guiding our inner thoughts. This is the underlying principle
of Creative Visualization. Nowadays this technique is used for healing
purposes, achieve success in various spheres of life and frequently used by
athletes for bettering their performance.
Perhaps this is the
reason why driving or journeys by train leave me light, levitated and fresh.
For now, I just wish to be seated by the window of Palace on Wheels with a scotch
to get the best of hallucinations...
PS: In one of the most
well-known studies on Creative Visualization in sports, Russian scientists
compared four groups of Olympic athletes in terms of their training schedules:
Group 1 - 100% physical training
Group 2 - 75% physical training with 25% mental training
Group 3 - 50% physical training with 50% mental training
Group 4 - 25% physical training with 75% mental training
Group 4, with 75% of their time devoted to mental
training, performed the best. "The Soviets had discovered that mental
images can act as a prelude to muscular impulses." (Source: Wikipedia). To
know more on creative visualization visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creative_visualization
