Image streaming is a cognitive exercise devised by Win Wenger.

In brief, image
streaming can be characterized as a cross between Einsteinian "deep thought"
experiments and Socratic questioning.

By capitalizing on the strengths of tools faithfully used by great thinkers for tapping
creative and intellectual potential, image streaming develops one's ability to harness the
power of synthetic mind for personal enrichment.

I.M.S. (in short) is practiced in five basic steps:

1.) Find a quiet, relaxing setting and close your eyes.
2.) Begin to notice sensory impressions of the mind.
3.) Describe those impressions rapidly in fully sensory detail. (Project Renaissance
recommends describing these "streams" of sensory experience to either a tape recorder
or human listener.)
4.) Continue this process for 10 minutes or another predesignated length of time.
5.) Summarize the session by reviewing your insights, and possibly relating them
through another medium (such as: writing in a journal).

—
Inspired by its original form, image streaming has evolved into a variety of exercises.
Many of these exercises share key similarities, but it is important to distinguish between
variants of image streaming, for practice of each produces widely different effects.

Important variants include: advanced image streaming (AIS), quantum wave streaming
(QWS), non-verbal image streaming (N-VIS), thought/ontological streaming (TS/OS),
multi-dimensional quantum wave streaming (MDQWS), mathematical streaming (MS),
and eidetic streaming (ES).

Each variant is performed differently and offers distinct practice benefits.

—
Thought/Ontological Streaming: A form of image streaming which aims to develop
profound analytic capability.

Unlike image streaming, which mostly describes concrete sensory impressions, thought
streaming describes a fuller range of cognitive phenomena, including highly abstract
thought.

Because thought streaming is intended to integrate low-level cognitive processes which

often escape articulation by normal image streaming into the light of full awareness,
thought streaming depends on a specialized language of its own.
This specialized language is richly conceptual and flexible enough to accommodate an
(unusually) wide range of abstractions.

The specialized language of thought streaming derives from a script of ontological

categories - known as relational frames in some research.

Ontological categories are the cogs of human cognition; they are also at the heart of all
language. Humans use them everyday, rapidly and continuously; could not think or use
language without them.

Nine basic ontological categories (ALL, DIFFERENCE, ACTION, DIVISION,

CONNECTION, UNFOLDMENT, PROJECTION, ENCOMPASSMENT, COMPLETION)
give birth to a full set of 27 ontological categories used in thought streaming.

Keeping in mind that thought can be divided by two basic features, concreteness and
abstractness, thought streaming enables description with the specialized language of
both the concrete and abstract properties of thought.

Just as ordinary image streaming describes properties of concrete mental content and
phenomena, thought streaming describes logical relationships of concrete & abstract
phenomena and content.

Rather than saying, "I see in my mind's eye an apple, and it looks like X, feels like Y,
smells like Z...", one might say, "the apple is contained by the room in which it is
located. It has the logical property of containment, which relates to the ontological
category of ENCOMPASSMENT, or "the contour of the apple which sits next to a pear in
my mind's eye is different from that of the pear. The difference in shape logically relates
to the ontological category of DIFFERENCE."

Logical relationships, properties which allow us to make sense of reality, are described
strictly in terms of ontological categories in the thought-streaming process. Ontological
categories, by name, are used as descriptors just as ordinary-language descriptions of
sensory detail are used in image streaming.

The key to solid progress with thought streaming is fluency. Rapid descriptions using
ontological categories results in the quickest and greatest results.

The 9 basic ideas are manipulated into inner and outer forms.

The inner forms of these 9 basic ideas are:

Inner All (Collection)
Inner Difference (Inside)
Inner Action (Internal Action)
Inner Division (Subtraction/Isolation)
Inner Connection (Middle/Nexus/Center)
Inner Multiplication (Sustain/Support)
Inner Projection (Infinitesimal/Reception)
Inner Encompassment (Swallow/Engulf)
Inner Completion

The outer forms of these 9 basic ideas are:

Outer All (Copy)

Outer Difference (Outside)
Outer Action (External Action)
Outer Division (Pluralization)
Outer Connection (Possess)
Outer Multiplication (Expansion)
Outer Projection (Infinity/Projection)
Outer Encompassment (Puff out)
Outer Completion

To reduce redundancy, I'll mention the inner and outer manifestations, or rather their
differences, leaving the individual to personally infer the synthesis (the archetype)
between the dualistic inner and outer forms. The script itself may seem redundant on its
own; but after applying the context of the observer, which is present no matter what we
are contemplating, one realizes the marvelous ingenuity that goes into a system which
inherently pays due acknowledgement to observation. And which by its very structure
encourages the analyst to consider the thought in the context of the dualism which
naturally embodies it.

Now for the descriptions:

Inner & Outer ALL

Inner All means (from a prospective looking in) the collection, the whole of something.
Outer All means (from a prospective looking out) copies or likeness.

From the vantage of a single orange among a bunch of oranges, the orange itself, as a
singleton, would be Inner All. (Note the heterogeneity.) From the same perspective as
Outer All, the other oranges are replications of itself. Note the emphasized homogeneity.
Inner & Outer DIFFERENCE

Inner Difference means inside, within.

Outer Difference means outside, without.

Pretty self-explanatory. The any perspective we takes has both that which is contained,
that which is not.

Inner & Outer ACTION

Inner Action means action upon the self.

Outer Action means, rather than just action, action by the self (but not upon the self).

Inner & Outer DIVISION

Inner Division is division from the perspective of the divided, so self-removal or

isolation.
Outer Division is subdivision.

This is a good example where the concrete manifestation of a letter comes in handy.
Outer Division is often translated as mark, like the marks of a ruler. The observer sees
the objects which is divided, becoming more fractionated. Inner Division is simply
removal without awareness of that divided from, though the same event is transpiring.
All about the frame of reference.

Inner & Outer CONNECTION

Inner Connection means the center, nexus, middle, or hub.

Outer Connection means possession, ownership, an inversion of the former.

Inner & Outer MULTIPLICATION

Inner Multiplication means to support or heal.

Outer Multiplication means to unfold, grow, blossom.

Perhaps a good way to think of Inner Multiplication is, when one increases the density
of something, the unit itself is reinforced, supported, or strengthened. When something
multiplies (in the basic arithmetical or duplicating sense used to teach kids the skill of
multiplication) as does Outer Multiplication, the individual unit doesn't strengthen.
Inner & Outer PROJECTION

Inner Projection means to project toward or receive.

Outer Projection means project away from (infinitely).

This one is like sight. When light enters the eye, light is travelling towards the self.
However, the span of one's eyesight *can* be viewed as beginning at one's self and
extending outward.

Inner & Outer ENCOMPASSMENT

Inner Encompassment means to push outward, or expand from the inside.

Outer Encompassment means to engulf, or expand from the outside.

(This duality reminds me of Chris Langan's notion of conspansive duality.)

Inner & Outer COMPLETION

Inner Completion means upright or virtuous.

Outer Completion means sturdy.

The distinction here seems more superficial than the others, perhaps because it seems
more idealistic than mathematical. Nevertheless it is part of the set, and looks can be
deceiving. Maybe the usefulness of this distinction will become more apparent after
getting into the swing of applying the letters to quantum wave streaming. If for no other
reason, it might serve to keep the ubiquitous observer-object relationship intact. While I
intend to use all 27 letters, feel free to include or exclude this last one based on
preference.

—
You might have noticed that there evidently is a general redundancy at play; that is, that
the nine archetypes are mostly set in pairs, or mirroring from the end backwards as it
proceeds alphabetically, or reverse alphabetically from the beginning forward.

All, Difference, Action, Division, Connection, Multiplication, Projection,

Encompassment, Completion

All pairs with Completion

Difference with Encompassment
Action with Projection
Division with Multiplication
Connection by its lonesome.

The design might be a process among the archetypes, leading from the undifferentiated
to the differentiated but unified, with Connection being a bridge or connection on a
self-referential level between the first and last four. It's possible the redundancy serves
to relate to the hierarchical nature of information and reality.

In any case, there needs to be some justification (besides versatility and considerations
for frame of reference) to prevent anyone concerned with simplicity from pruning the
alphabet down to the original 9, or even only the latter 18 without the first 9. The most
cogent justification I've found so far says (in so many words) that All - Division are
analytic functions and Multiplication - Complete are synthetic functions. This would
make sense if the script was also used as a creation narrative by mystics.

You see, the analytic/synthetic divide is based on the nature of the action and the
inner/outer divide is based on perspective. The relationship between analytic/synthetic
divide and the inner/outer divide is the nature of an act from differing perspectives.

Take the inflation of a balloon. An inflated balloon, which consists of the balloon and the
gases therein, has certain cause and effect dynamic which depends on perspective. The
balloon is inflated to the opposition of the sum of contracting forces of the balloon's
material which would expel or compress the gases if it weren't for the gases'
overpowering force. As it concerns this simplified example, there are two forces and two
agents upon which the two forces act.

From the perspective of the balloon, we are the cause of the contraction and effect of the
expansion. From the perspective of all the gases in the balloon, we are the cause of the
expansion and the effect of the contraction. Though, mind you, we were crossing
identities in one sense (Inner/Outer), we were deconstructing and constructing in
another (analytic/synthetic). This example might be used to analogize the distinction
between Inner & Outer Difference and Inner & Outer Projection, by the way.

One is free to permanently adopt a reduction of this system, a subset of the characters -
maybe the first 9 or latter 18. I think Relational Frame Theorists might be working with
a "dumbed-down" set. But the alterations to one's ability to analyze by internalizing all
27 ideas will likely dwarf those reaped by any reduced system. It may help to ease into
the system slowly, taking the integration of the 27 ideas in small steps, rather than one
bold, gigantic leap.

—
Each of the 9 categories mentioned above, due to its subjugation to language,
necessarily abides by a duality. This means, quite simply, that each category - or
principle, if you will - has (under this script) two inseparable "perspectives" from which
it can be viewed. This concept might become more clear in the cursory descriptions
below:

ALL - ONE - EVERY

Any "thing" that is subject to logic and language is at once a unit and an aggregate; a
whole and a collection of copies.

DIFFERENCE - IS - IS NOT

Any logical thing is known through distinction. Identity utterly depends on what
something is and is not.

ACTION - CAUSE - EFFECT

Any logical thing is, or is a result of, cause and effect.

DIVISION - SEPARATION - REMOVAL

Division entails separation from a "global" perspective and removal from a "local"
perspective.

CONNECTION - NODE - LINK

All logical connections consist of that which connects and that which is connected.

NUMEROSITY - MULTIPLICITY - CONCENTRATION

The act of changing an amount looks like multiplication from an "aggregate" viewpoint
and concentration from a "whole-unit" viewpoint.

CONTAINMENT - CONTAINER - CONTENT

All logical instances of containment involve that which contains and that which is
contained.

PROJECTION - INFINITY - INFINITESIMAL

Projection, in absence of obstruction, tends toward infinitesimality from a ONE
perspective and infinity from an EVERY perspective.

COMPLETION - SUFFICIENCY - LIMIT

Completion implies having enough and not too much; or perfection.

—
(More on AIS, QWS, N-VIS, MDQWS, MS, and ES at a later date.)