Visualization

On March 3, 2010, I sent John Van Auken the following question:

I hope you can help me understand this reading I came across. It has me a little puzzled and disturbed, but maybe I just don't understand it fully.

Reading 705-2 1/27/35

(Q)[683]: To bring a desired THING or CONDITION into manifestation, is it advisable to visualize it by making a PICTURE or just to hold the idea in prayer and let God produce it in His own way without our making a pattern?

(A) The pattern is given thee in the mount. The MOUNT is within thine inner self. To visualize by picturing is to BECOME idol worshipers. Is this pleasing, with thy conception of thy God that has given, "Have no other gods before me"? The God in self, the God of the universe, then, meets thee in thine inner self. Be patient, and leave it with Him. He knoweth that thou has need of before ye ask. Visualizing is telling Him how it must look when you have received it. Is that thy conception of the All-Wise, All-Merciful Creator? Then, let rather thy service ever be, "Not my will, O God, but Thine be done in me, through me." For all is His. Then, think like it - and, most of all, act like it is.

I don't understand the reference to the "mount." More than that, is this saying I should not visualize an outcome? If I have a relative with cancer, should I not pray and visualize that person being cancer-free? Could it be that I should just not visualize a material outcome in others because it may be going against their will? Can I visualize my sore knee becoming well? It seems a lot of healing involves a belief of becoming well and some of that could be through visualization. I've read many of your articles on meditation. I often visualize a flow of energy moving through my chakras.

An answer to my question was published in the Fall 2010 Venture Inward Newsletter, by John:

As the disciple Paul wrote, "We see though a glass darkly" (I Corinthians 13:12), not clearly, as we often assume. And though our intentions may be the best and we only seek to visualize the best, we don't always have the "big picture" of an incarnate soul--its karma, its tests, or God's plan for the soul. "God the Father has not willed that any soul should perish but has with every temptation prepared a way of escape." (949-11) Therefore, it is best that we raise our hearts and minds up to God and then in love and patient prayer allow God's Spirit to flow through us. As Cayce pointed out, souls often learn more and grow wiser and stronger when they are challenged, even Jesus: "Though he was the Son, learned He obedience by the things which He suffered." (900-232) The "mount" is physically a reference to our crown chakra, the mount of our body temple, where God has promised to meet us. Mentally it is a reference to a state of consciousness in which we enter the Holy of Holies in our consciousness and meet God as face-to-face, as Moses did. (262-37)
The meditative technique of using the "imaginative forces" is different from visualizing an outcome.