What Are You Supposed To See When You Meditate?

When people are in a meditative state, it’s not like they start seeing a concrete sign they are on the right path or a voice letting them know they are meditating properly. 

Novices starting out with meditation don’t know what they will experience, and they open themselves up to anything. Ranging from spiritual experiences to mere relaxation experiences that aid them if they are scientifically inclined. 

So there isn’t one concrete answer on what we should see when meditating, as it’s just allowing thoughts to pass by without judging and then bringing back our attention to the breath. 

The closest thing we see is a reflection of our thoughts, which are dynamic in the first place. 

You are unlikely to have one exact meditation sensation replicate to the exact degree it did the last time. But it can happen. 

However, that doesn’t mean you’re likely to see something specific as meditation is a way to relax the senses and genuinely disconnect. 

It’s almost as if we were to picture with exact clarity the dreams we have or exactly what we see when we close our eyes. 

But there are those that see certain visualizations, either because they were already visual individuals, to begin with, and meditation is just stimulating their creative area, or they could also have an experience that some would consider out of the bonds of reality. 

After all, meditation can be what you make of it. The fact that meditation can be anything makes it so adaptable to everyone and is why it’s so widely recommended. 

Writing Down Your Meditation Experiences

An experiment you could do is to write down your meditation experiences, as it could stimulate your creativity and critical thinking, and you may be able to boost your memory even further. 

But the same can happen when you write down your dreams, which increases your chances of having lucid dreams. 

If you concentrate on something specific, you would be doing a specific type of meditation that many wouldn’t even consider a meditation, because the premise is for you to let go of thoughts after acknowledging them and focusing on your breath, or something else that keeps you present. 

Writing down your meditation experiences is a great way to track your progress, and thus, it may help you to build a routine, which in turn can lead to deeper meditations. It’s during deeper meditations people may experience certain visions. 

Deep Meditations and Visions

During profound sessions of meditation, you open up yourself to receiving any thoughts while conquering your inner peace, and your readiness for anything becomes wider. 

While you once had tried to turn away from a certain thought or vision, you reach an undisturbed state where independently of what you’re presented with, your state remains intact. 

This is a glorious stage of the meditation, and while you’re not guaranteed to see something in specific, you may have esoteric sensations that would be hard to put in words, given how there being in a profound meditative state can make you question reality, and at times, manifest hallucinations. 

However, no matter at which stage you’re at, if you ever feel like the meditation becomes too much or unbearable, or simply turns darker, you’re in no obligation to continue it. 

Meditation is supposed to be more blissful than pleasant over time, assuming you’ve passed the stage of discomfort. 

In fact, some meditators may never experience the discomfort of their thoughts, despite having traumas, because the mind chooses to gravitate to something pleasant, and because these individuals aren’t explicitly doing shadow-work meditation.

Response To Visions

Just like with thoughts, if you see anything specific during the meditation, give it the same treatment you give to your thoughts. 

Namely, start with the acknowledgment of such a vision, let go of that vision, and lastly, bring your attention back to whichever thing you were focusing on that was keeping you in the now. 

Visions, just like thoughts and sounds can be used to throw a meditation practitioner off the practice. It can be a gimmick from within to test our mental strength. 

Visions we get during meditation, just like thoughts, are dynamic. Unless you are doing a meditation where you specifically focus on one object, or environment or hold your vision on something specific. 

There’s nothing wrong or alarming about seeing things when meditating. At times, your mind will express itself visually as a response to your meditation.

The exception to letting go of a vision is if the vision helps you to remain in the present moment, in which case, it can be helpful to hold on to it to reach a deep state. 

Deliberate Visualizations

Some meditators use object-specific meditation, where seeing something during meditation is natural and the purpose of the practice. 

Other times, seeing something comes as a byproduct of already being in a certain state. In fact, it can be another means to stay present, apart from focusing on our breath. 

Staying present is difficult enough when we are used to distractions that surround us every day. 

It’s impossible to escape distractions but it’s possible to learn to be indifferent. Some report seeing a white light when meditating and interpret it as a sign that their intuitive sixth sense (also known as the third eye) is activating if we choose to see things spiritually. 

Is It Common To See Things During Meditation?

I will just speak from my personal experience when using breath-focused meditation. Because when I don’t engage my visual senses, aleatory images may pop up in my mind that are no different than when I close my eyes. 

During deep meditations, I reach a state that can be compared to a sleep-like state or a hypnagogic state, while fully maintaining awareness. But still not seeing something in specific. 

If you are like me, you are unlikely to see anything specific during meditations, so from my perspective, assuming you’re doing breath-focused meditation, you’d engage your senses and attention into your breath, and thus, it’s almost like taking a break from deliberate sight, even if you can’t completely blank out the mind. 

It’d be hard to put in words since meditation is an experience that can’t be described as a black and white or logical experience. 

It’s more of an abstract practice where a handful of individuals end up becoming a better version of themselves. 

There are some, however, that see colors during meditation, which can indicate a certain emotional state they are going through. 

However, some people that fall asleep during meditation and see hypnagogic imagery for the purpose of lucid dreaming may start getting visions that resemble the dream they are about to enter. 

But assuming you don’t meditate with such intent, you may or may not be prone to these visions, as even entering a lucid dream through meditation can happen spontaneously, as conscious dreaming on its own is a practice that can be hard to learn. 

Visions can at times be interpreted as a sign of progress and that you’re seeing fruits of the meditation, but it’s something you’re more likely to perceive than see since what you see during meditation is usually no different than what you see when you close your eyes before bed.