Abstract: This exploratory stuck, examined the nature of visual and somatic experiences during mirror gazing. 'Mirror gazing' is a meditative technique wherein the meditator holds a direct focus on his or her reflection in a mirrored surface. In so doing, meditators experience a variety of visual anomalies and often experience the perception of coherent though fluid visual images. The protocol used in the study included a copper mirror and a magnet suspended above the participant's head, in accordance with one format for mirror gazing meditation. It was hypothesized that participants who engaged in mirror gazing would report greater alterations in visual perception and more personal meaning in those perceptions than would a control group. To a statistically significant degree, participants in the experimental condition were able to supply more descriptive elaborations of their visual experience and include greater degrees of detail than did the control group who gazed at a similar but nonreflective surface. The visual imagery and related descriptions more often held personally significant meaning for experimental condition participants than for control condition participants. Study participants consisted of 24 volunteers (9 males, 15 females). The study used 2 groups in a controlled design. Standardized personality assessments were the Tellegen Absorption Scale (TAS) and the Revised Transliminality Scale (RTS), which did not show significant correlation to more elaborated visual imagery. The study documented the process and phenomenology of mirror gazing over the course of two sessions, MIA has not previously been reported in the literature. The study found that participants reported a connection between the images they perceived, the stories they told about those images, and participants' own life issues. Results suggest the importance of top-down processes in the development of visual imagery and identified a wider range of perceptual experiences than has been described in visual alteration literature.* *This dissertation is a compound document (contains both a paper copy and a CD as part of the dissertation). The CD requires the following system requirements: Adobe Acrobat.