mental imagery
Mental image
A
mental image or
mental picture is the representation in a person's mind of the physical world outside of that person. It is an experience that, on most occasions, significantly resembles the experience of perceiving some object, event, or scene, but occurs when the relevant object, event, or scene is not actually present to the senses. There are sometimes episodes, particularly on falling asleep (
hypnagogic imagery) and waking up (
hypnopompic), when the mental imagery, being of a rapid, phantasmagoric and involuntary character, defies perception, presenting a kaleidoscopic field, in which no distinct object can be discerned.
mental imagery
Noun
1. the ability to form mental images of things or events; "he could still hear her in his imagination"
(synonym) imagination, imaging, imagery
(hypernym) representational process
(hyponym) mind's eye
imagery (mental imagery)
Method expounded by general practitioner Martin L. Rossman, M.D., in Healing Yourself: A Step-by-Step Program for Better Health Through Imagery (1987). Therein, Rossman recommended consulting "inner advisors" or a "small voice within" regarding such matters as attitude, emotions, environment, exercise, faith, illness, nutrition, and posture. He stated that such "advisors" come in the form of angels, animals, deceased relatives, fairies, gremlins, leprechauns, long-lost friends, the ocean, Buddha, Winston Churchill, Mahatma Gandhi, Jesus, John F. Kennedy, Moses, Eleanor Roosevelt, and the "Star Wars" character Yoda. Moreover, Rossman distinguished between "inner advisors" and "impostor advisors" ("inner figures" who are heavily judgmental, punitive, and hostile).