Miss Twist's Weblog

My backs quite sore and the hens night at Witches in Britches (theatre restaurant for those not in Melbourne) was fun though my knee is officially fucked. The trip home was interesting to say the least. My usual confidence was shot because my knee was hurting quite badly whenever I moved on it or tried to pivot and I was on my own feeling vulnerable…

Dark ended up keeping me company most the way home. He/it/ze is currently curled up beside me on the bed, taking up most of it really. He is very tall after all. It’s strange being alone but not at the same time. He’s not real, at least not in a physical form. He’s a servitor-come-guardian-come-companion. Having him nearby the entire trip home got me to thinking about visualisation. I’ve been asked about technique a few times lately as I’m very good at producing strong visualisations and Dark is by far one of my best achievements in that field. Believe me it’s not that easy to visualise soemthing that changes according to its own will not yours.

Anyway point is I was asked and now I’m writing about how I achieve the results I do and here’s a rather vague 2am post…

For me it’s about engaging the senses, as many as possible. I don’t just see Dark. I hear him and smell him. I’m still working on physical sensation. There have been a few break through moments but not thing that wasn’t entirely fleeting. It started with snakes. For those of you who have not been exposed to the pleasures of handling a snake or are simply unwilling to allow me to describe what I visualise. I’ve been handling snakes since I was really little so am able to really get into this which is why starting visualisation exercises using something you’re familiar with is the best start. I tend to work with small snakes. First thing I notice about snakes is that they’re heavier than they look, so there’s pressure against your skin. They’re quite warm despite being a reptile, though usually a touch cooler than your own skin temperature at first. So you’ve got a weight on you and it’s about the same temperature as your skin, I focus on that until I’ve got that down. Then I work on the little details. Making the visualisation move requires a fairly good understranding of anatomy. Snakes move on a horizontal plane, their scales grip at the surface beneath them and they move forward by pushin off of this surface, always flexing muscle side to side rather than up and down. The scales are important here, snake scales are not, despite how they may seem, slimy. They’re fascinatinly dry and textured on the underside, smooth on the upper body, so you’re feeling thr rougher scales push against your skin and the body is basically rippling muscle squeezing and releasing to create motion. I follow this through with the slight tickling sensation of the snakes tongue as they tend to flick it in and out frequently, this is how they sense/smell. By the time I’ve gotten to this point I’ve usually automatically brought smell into it. Snakes smell of their environment, so a rainforest tree dwelling snake will generally smell sort of loamish. Visuals are easy from this point, if I even bother. That’s it really. I learnt that then just applied it to other things.