visualization Techniques FAQ: Can You Visualize With Your Eyes Open

Visualization is a big topic in my manifesting community, and in the Q&A session, I get asked many questions about how to use visualization to manifest.

One question I was recently asked was: Does having your eyes open or closed make a difference when you visualize your manifestation? And can you even do a visualization with your eyes open?

Yes, you can visualize with open eyes, and we all have already done it; think daydreaming. So you could call visualization advanced daydreaming. Many even find it easier to visualize your goals and dreams with your eyes open than to visualize them with your eyes closed.

But first, let’s have a look at what visualization actually is. Visualization is basically a technique to create a picture in your mind.

When manifesting, we mainly use visualization to create such a mental image of our goals, to see ourselves as we have already manifested our dream.

But visualization can do much more than help you picture what you want. I use it as a practical tool to make your manifestation goal feel clearer, more emotionally real, and easier to connect with.

Visualization can also reveal where a goal still feels uncomfortable, unrealistic, or disconnected from you. That gives you useful information about the beliefs and subconscious resistance you may need to work on.

Visualization isn’t just something used in manifestation. Mental rehearsal has long been used in sports and performance settings, too. The idea is simple: you mentally practice an experience before you live it.

This is also the reason why visualization has been used in the Olympic sports sector for many decades.

But let’s now talk about open eye visualization and why you might want to try it.

Eidetic and Non-Eidetic Vision

There are people who have a problem imagining a clear picture when they visualize with closed eyes.

You have to know that this is completely normal. Only about 10% can really see images like a movie; for others, it is often more like thoughts.

This is called eidetic and non-eidetic visualization. I can visualize things in my head like they are real, so I’m definitely an eidetic person. But I know from many women in my manifesting community that they have a problem with this.

The eidetic memory is the ability to vividly recall images from the memory after one has seen or experienced something only for a short time. Or, in the visualization process, this would be the pure imagination of something that has not yet happened.

The good news is, it doesn’t matter in what group you fall.

If you are eidetic, you probably have no problem visualizing with closed eyes. You then see your vision playing like a movie in front of your mind’s eyes.

As a non-eidetic person, you might want to test the open-eye visualization, for which I’ll give you step-by-step instructions below.

Important: as with all manifesting tools, apply it in a way that is best for you. I don’t believe there is a right or wrong. These tools have the most power when they give you a good feeling.

It’s all about emotions when you manifest.

Open Eyes Visualization

1. Look at a picture that has a symbolic effect on you when you think about your dream.
   
   For example, a beautiful beach if you want to manifest a trip to Hawaii or a picture of a toned fitness model if you’re going to lose some weight and get into shape.
   
   The picture can be a printed photo but also a drawing. And it can also be on a computer monitor or your mobile phone.
   
2. Relax your eyes. Try to look slightly downwards, with your eyes half open or upwards. Choose what is most comfortable for you.
   
3. Start visualizing; just think about daydreaming. As I said earlier, we’ve all done it already, so you can do it for sure.
   
   Keep looking at your symbolic picture. Start with a kind of story to build this picture and your goal around.
   
   If you have practiced this a few times, you can try in a further step to look at the picture only at the beginning, and then from step 2 on, look at an empty wall or into the distance (the sea, a lake, a meadow…)

You see, visualization works just as well with your eyes open as with your eyes closed. And if you want to know more about visualization, don’t forget to read my visualization guide.

In this guide, you can learn more about what visualization is, how to visualize images in your mind (with your eyes closed), and how you can skyrocket your manifestations with visualization exercises.

PS. If you want to learn more about vision boards, sign up here (and get your free vision board checks as a gift!)