Visualization techinque

[Miomek]

Hi I'm currently reading "Modern High-Security Locks: How To Open Them" by Steven Hampton. While reading i found visualizatio techniques and my questio is how effective is this? :

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Visualization Techniques
Visualization within this context implies a deliberate, conscious effort to "see" the inner workings of a lock within the mind's eye. Below is an old, secret, Tibetan Buddhist tantric visualization exercise. Here I have modified it for the reader to use for lock picking, but the essence of the technique is the same.
Step One
First, remove your shoes and put on comfortable, loose-fitting clothing such as sweats or shorts and a T-shirt if it is warm. Remove all tight jewelry, such as rings (you may keep your wedding band on if you wish), chokers, and bracelets. Remove eyeglasses (contacts are OK) as well. Remove as much metal from your person as possible.
Step Two
You may begin the technique by sitting upright in a comfortable chair with your hands in you lap and feet flat on the floor. Don't slouch or recline, as this will make it too easy for you to fall asleep. Keep your spine straight, but not stiff. The chair should have a comfortable headrest. Most newer car seats are good examples of an ideal chair, as comfort and
alertness are important. Also, a good office chair will work very nicely. Or you may choose to practice the traditional method by sitting cross-legged on the floor on a four- to six-inch cushion. The point is not to let your head tilt back. Your neck should align comfortably with your spine. Tuck your chin in slightly. Your tailbone should be tilted slightly forward, but with your hips at a comfortable angle. If your hips are properly aligned forward, you will not need a headrest, as your straight spine and neck will comfortably balance your head, which is in the ideal position.
Step Three
The room should be quiet, with no music, and dimly lit or dark, with no candles or incense. Sit down and settle in for a few minutes.
Step Four
Now close your eyes. Breathe in deeply, but not forcefully, through your nose. Feel the life flow into your lungs, filling you with vitality and lightness. Do not hold the breath, but let it flow out naturally, dissolving into the room, filling the space. Do this for several breaths.
Step Five
Now breathe normally, relaxing any tight muscles in your body. This can be accomplished by just focusing attention on various parts of the body and letting go of those parts. Just abandon them. If you feel an itch, abandon it—it will go away by itself.
Start by relaxing the jaw muscles. Let them go, but don't gape your mouth completely open. Just crack your lips and let the breath come and go gently, naturally through both lips and nose.
Relax your facial muscles. Relax the tiny muscles around the eyes and forehead. Then let go of the neck muscles. Now relax the shoulders, let them drop comfortably back and down, gently drawing the shoulder blades closer together. Relax the shoulder blades. Relax the rib cage and chest with each out-breath. Let go of the upper arms. Relax the forearms, letting the fingers open naturally in the lap.
Let the stomach muscles go—feel the warmth in the belly. Let go of the thigh muscles and calves. Then feel the feet dissolve away as well. Let the whole body dissolve away. Just sit there for a few minutes and enjoy this pleasant, tingling warmth vibrating through the whole being.
Step Six
Now, with eyes still closed, gently bring attention to the forehead—the focal point between the eyes—about where the eyebrows join. With eyelids closed, focus the eyes there without straining. Just let the breath come and go without strain, without clinging. After a few minutes or less, a series of images will flash into view. In this darkness these images will even take on the shapes of faces. This is natural; don't be alarmed or concerned with them. Gently concentrate on forming a simple, round white ball between the eyes and keep focused on it. Here, size doesn't matter much, but for reference, imagine the size of a softball at arm's length away. Don't let it become anything but a smooth, white ball.
The ball will want to rise. But gently bring it back down into view. If you let it rise above your head, you might lose consciousness and fall asleep. Gently hold it level between the eyes with the mind, casually viewing it as if you were an isolated, detached observer. You have no investment in this ball, but you will not let it stray from your empty gaze, either.
Practice this technique for 20 minutes. You may set a timer if you wish, as long as it is not loud. When you are finished, you will rise refreshed and alert.
After practicing the above technique for a week, you will be ready to color and texture the ball. You can make it any color or texture you want—a silver moon or a dimpled orange, for example. But it must have a texture of some sort, the more complex the texture the better. Hold that image for 10 or more minutes during your 20-minute practice. Each
day find a different ball-shaped object in your daily routine with texture that you can use in your visualization.
For the third week, visualize a cube. See it from all sides by very slowly rotating it from various directions and angles. Make it solid the first day and hollow or transparent the second day. The third day give it a more dimensional quality, such as dividing it into eight cubic sections with white intersecting lines. The fourth day give it 27 sections or nine faces per side. Then each succeeding day divide the cube until there are too many smaller cubes to count. But don't count any of the cubes, just see them.
By the fourth week, you will be ready to "imprint." You can skip all of the above steps. In good light, gaze (with fixed intent) unblinking at the first detailed lock illustrations in this book. (If you wear glasses, leave them on.) Start with Figure 2A or 3E. Gaze for as long as you can—at least three to five minutes—or until your eyes water and obscure your view. Then, remove your glasses, close your eyes, and gently cover them with your palms, making a slight vacuum with your eye sockets. View the negative image against your closed eyelids. Hold it for as long as you can. The following day, imprint the next detailed lock in the series. Imprint no more than one lock per day until you have viewed all 20 keyhole locks detailed in this manual. This will help to commit each lock to memory.
Should you have to pick one of these locks, occasionally close your eyes and remember the above technique. Simultaneously relax all your muscles (except your fingers, of course) and "see" the lock before your closed eyes. Having imprinted the "X-ray" illustrations of this book, you will have a clear, almost mystical view of the inner workings of the lock that you are picking. You will "see" each tumbler move into place as you pick it. Generally, the more practiced you are at visualization, the better puzzle and problem solver you will become. -- by Steve Hampton

Anybody tried it did this work?
By the way i'm just a beginner and i doing DB's Beginners Exercise(currently 4 pins ) I think i pretty good at that but i don't know if i should try that techniqe , i don't 'see' pins but i can feel them and its enough for me, what do u think guys?

[Eyes_Only]

What!?!? No music? Are you kidding me? I'm always blasting various forms of music from Io Echo to Straylight Run when picking locks.

I guess you could follow his guidelines and get some success but to me it feels like most of what Steve Hampton mentions there is kinda too hokey for locksports and geared mostly for absolute beginners. Which is odd cos the book is about picking high security locks.

I bought and read this book myself years ago when locksports was still unrecognized and unorganized in the US. And since this site showed up and I bought the LSS book, I have never since picked up any of Hamptons book. His stuff is like a person trying to out do Marc Tobias while high on extacy and codine would accomplish. We're all better off following the simple guides posted all over this site instead of crummy books like that.

[FarmerFreak]

I believe having the ability to visualize what is happening inside the lock makes locks massively easier to pick. So much so that certain locks would be virtually impossible without this ability.

Have I tried those techniques though?
No, but maybe I have!?
I have had the ability to visualize objects in my mind for a long time. I can't say for certain how long I have had the ability to the extent that I have now.

I use to play chess at a tournament level. And it is possible that this helped develop the visualizing skills I have today. Since I was always trying to see with my minds eye how the position would look in a few more moves, that haven't been played yet. And based on what I was reading in your post, and how chess tournaments are played. You sit there in a quiet room carefully studying the position. Moving pieces around in your mind until you like the outcome. I did that for several years, and at some point just after high school I discovered that I can play a game completely in my head. (My dad has stopped playing with me even when I can't see the board). I have been using my minds eye on locks for a long time now.

So my point is that even though I haven't specifically tried the techniques mentioned. It is possible that I have, and that they work very very well. (It is also possible that I am just lucky to have this gift). So if you are having problems "seeing" what is happening inside the locks. I recommend you give it a try and maybe let us know how well it worked for you.

Farmerfreak

[papa_delicious]

I find I pick locks best when I can totally relax and focus on them yet not focus on them at the same time. that is to say, I'm not actively trying to open the lock, I'm just feeling and visualising, relaxing. sitting in my comfy chair, listening to some relaxing ambient music... in a way, it is meditating. no distractions, is what it's really about. I can't create a mental picture if my mind is trying to do other things.

in fact, I think I'm often better I've gotten a good chance to *relax*
a nice cold brew, or some sort of smoke if that's your thing, anything you do to get away from your days' woes, before/along with picking goes a long way towards clearing your mind and getting those locks to fall open for you.

I don't really think you can follow "meditation" or "visualisation" guides too closely - what works for someone may not work for you. You just need to find another means to the end, and that's really what picking's all about anyway. You can be told what to do by a thousand people, but you really need to do it for yourself to understand it.

[raimundo]

Steve hampton writes pamphlets that he sells for book prices, then he spends most of the pages in explaining what hampton knows about picking pin tumblers, then he gives one paragraph to picking the medeco and asserts that it can be picked with a twisted diamond pick (don't twist your pick, that statement alone proves hampton knows nothing about picking medeco)
The "visualization" stuff is just another way to fill a few pages so he can get 50 pages in his pamphlet, although some of them at the front and back contain nothing but page numbers.
Any book by stevehampton is a waste of money. the guys in the pamphlet business, and knows little about locks or picking

[WolfSpring]

I'm still a high end beginner, but I find i SPP best when i'm talking in depth to someone and not paying attention to the lock, i just feel the "click" and i get to the last pin and it goes pop and the person I'm tlaking to is like "did you just pick that" "oh yeah i guess i did" I'm not saying this happens alot, but when i've had a bad day of picking and i start talking while I was already tryinga lock, it's worked about 6 or 7 times.

[Miomek]

Thanks for replies.
I think i will just try to fell the lock and the rest of "visualization stuff" will com in the right time by itself.

[Schuyler]

I'm still a high end beginner, but I find i SPP best when i'm talking in depth to someone and not paying attention to the lock, i just feel the "click" and i get to the last pin and it goes pop and the person I'm tlaking to is like "did you just pick that" "oh yeah i guess i did" I'm not saying this happens alot, but when i've had a bad day of picking and i start talking while I was already tryinga lock, it's worked about 6 or 7 times.

Same deal. Particularly is I am explaining to them how locks function and what it is I'm doing. I've specifically struck up conversations while doing lockouts to tap into it.

[raimundo]

try just using light tension and feeling around in the lock lightly while watching tv, some program that absorbs your interest. less focus and frustration and more just touching the pins, moving on to the next one while not concentrating on the lock.

[djslacker]

Here's something that might help you. Know what you are supposed to be visualizing. Take a lock apart, put it back together, and then do it again. If you're a beginner, you might learn something new every time you take it apart. What do the pins look like, how worn out are they, how worn out are the springs, is the lock masterkeyed, etc. I like to look through the patent papers (http://www.google.com/patents) to see what is inside the lock and what should be moving where.