black

[David]

Sometimes, 'black globe' palming technique doesn't work for me. When that happens, I conjure the image of spilling black ink. That does the trick, usually. Just wanted to add.

Yikes, I'd be thinking about what a horrible mess I have to clean up if I thought of spilled ink!

Sometimes I think of a letter on the eye chart, shifting to another spot once every second or two, a classic Bates thing. It really does work to help you keep an image if you get the approximate timing between shifts down right and keep at it for a while.

Otherwise I might think of what I would call the feeling of black. I feel it as a hollowness in my stomach, and conceptually sense a pinpoint of pure blackness.

Dave

[Minesweeper]

Dave, I may try your letter suggestion sometimes when palming.

However, let me show you something non-messy when you think of black ink being spilled (or should I say, similar to how you would view a plunge waterfall in the sense that you're imagining the water/ink falling somewhat vertically and concentrating at the bottom). For clarifying purposes when palming, this is exactly how I do it:

While I imagine spilling black ink, it's as if I were using a kitchen sink faucet that I can coordinate/move. I move the faucet to a position so the running water hits the bottom of the basin instead of falling through the drain.

In my mental field of vision, I picture never-ending, smoothly pouring black ink and it is similar to the above image with the water turned on and hitting the bottom of the basin, except the water is pure black ink and when the black ink hits the bottom of the basin, the blackness concentrates itself and gets stronger in the precise spot it's hitting, while also spreading.

There is no kitchen sink faucet in my mental image, only spilling of black ink in a concentrated spot, and spreading. I notice that this seems to have a very relaxing effect and then I see absolute blackness where the blackness has concentrated. You should try it sometimes. Does this make sense? What do you think of this kind of visualization?

Blackness while palming is a very interesting topic.