Arbitrary Visualization

This is something I do before I go to bed ever since I was young and continue to do it because I enjoy it.

Make sure the room is as dark as possible. Now close your eyes for a momment. Picture a colour for instance blue. Or think of something often associated with that colour say for instance a blue sky on a beautiful sunny day. If you think about it long enough you can actually see the colour while your eyes are closed.

Does anyone know what this is called?

When you close your eyes, your brain can imagine images, which can be stored as chemical impulses at the back of your optic nerve (connects to the eye). This creates an imprint in the form of an image.

I had a bizzare experience today, which has never happened to me before (except during meditation). When I woke up from sleeping, I was in a semi conciousness. When I slightly opened my eyes (only a little) a black and white image of a man's face with a beard appeared in my brain. Very weird. But even more crazy, I experimented with this, and was able to control the amount of faces appearing. Each time one or two or three faces slid across my area of vision. For the first few minutes, men's faces(predominately with beards) were seen. I couldn't quite make out whether they were famous people, but they all appeared randomly. Then I decided to get my brain to have women's faces appear. This was all after just having a sleep.

during meditation i have visualized a vast array of colors, shapes and objects. this is a common phenomenon, but the exact mechanics of it are still up for debate. i would say that the chemical impulses account for the majority of these occurances, but a small number seem almost too surreal and have no relation to prior events.

This article is quite similar to this topic. Not identical to the experiences mentioned above, but it gives you an idea of brain imagery. I'll search and see if there is a further explination to the cases already mentioned.

How The 'Mind's Eye' Works

"Our research helps clarify how the mind's eye works," said lead author and UCLA neurosurgeon Dr. Itzhak Fried. "Visual images can be generated in our mind's eye in the absence of actually looking at the image. Our study reveals that the same brain cells that fire when a person looks at a picture of the Mona Lisa are, in fact, the same neurons that excite when that person is asked to imagine the Mona Lisa." ........

........Researchers implanted the electrodes in areas of the brain involved in memory and social behavior. They recorded impulses from single neurons in the human medial temporal lobe while the subjects were asked to imagine previously viewed images. They found that single neurons in certain areas of the brain - the hippocampus, amygdala, entorhinal cortex and parahippocampal gyrus - selectively altered their firing rates depending on the stimulus the subjects imagined. .........

........A series of images was shown on a monitor and each picture was repeated several times. Subjects viewed images of faces, household objects, spatial layouts, cars, animals, food, drawings and photos of famous people and complex patterns. Subsequently, subjects were asked to imagine previously viewed images. .......

.......The researchers found that when patients were imagining the images, the firing rate of the brain cells was almost as high as when the study subjects were actually looking at the photos. .......

......"When you look at something, it's really vivid and when you close your eyes to imagine it, the image is not so vivid," said Fried. "So, we were surprised that the brain cells fired at almost the same intensity."

The full article is here: clicky

Definitely interesting Summit. But do you ever do it?

Well yes but in other forms of visualization. However nothing experienced as bizarre as when I saw all those black and white bearded faces sliding past my area of vision.
Sometimes I can visualize people in a room that I am in, using similar techniques, which can subsequently give me chills down my back. These people that I visualize just stand there either looking down at the ground or looking at me. This is something that I usually don't consciously choose to do, but rather it comes sub-consciously.