Mario Nistri:
So, if it's a matter of intent, then, considering that I'm not much of a visual guy, I think that it's reasonable to assume that for me mantra work will be more effective? Or is there something about visualizations that, things being equal, they work better? MAybe something that has to to with symbolism?
It depends how you want to work. I think you can do a lot with mantras and affirmations, but there is something added by visuals. It might have to do with the fact that for most of us, "seeing is believing." The visual sense gives the greatest feeling of reality, which key to manifestation. If you can see something it tends to seem more like it already exists in a concrete way than if you're just talking about it. Think about stuff depicted in movies seems more tangibly real than descriptions in novels.
Another aspect of the powers that would require visuals is traveling to other realms. Daniel mentions this in his section on the powers in MBCT, but he doesn't go into a lot of detail about. Basically, you can travel to all kinds of mythological spaces and get entirely different perspectives on reality that way. It's not for everyone, but I've found it extremely valuable and enriching. I use a process called shamanic journeying to access these other realms, but a similar concept exists in Western magick under the name astral travel. Journeying to other realms requires a different kind of visualization, more of a passive, receptive visualization rather than a consciously constructed visualization. It's visionary rather than visualized. I've gotten pretty good at receiving visionary images, but I'm still not great at consciously constructing visualizations according to my will. I've been working on it lately by doing vipassana with my eyes open and taking the external visual field as an object. I figure that by dissolving and integrating the visual field, I'll also learn about how to mentally recreate aspects of it. That's how it's gone with other modalities that I've done vipassana with.
Best of luck,
Avi
Spiritual Direction