Forums IMPORTANT: PLEASE READ PhotoReading, Memory Optimizer PR Infomercial is Misleading

I am from India - in India we are always told that our country does not and will not reach its potential because there is too much greed and deceit in the fabric of the society which impedes progress. We are also told the US is very similar to India but reason it's so far ahead of us is because the society is far more scrupulous than ours. I came to the US in 1997 as a graduate student and for most part I have experienced pretty much what I expected. However, when it comes to selling I sometimes find it hard to believe how people are able to not only get away with scams but also thrive upon them without any intervention by the justice department. And the reason this happens is because they manipulate the system by their masterful play with words that "shields" them incase some buyer attempts to take them to task. Frankly speaking I do not know whether Photoreading is a scam or is it something that genuinely gives people who use it properly a clear edge over those who don't. However, the claims it makes about individuals being able to read 25000 words per minute seem sinfully obnoxious - also claims like "it's more natural and easier to learn than speedreading" seems like an yet another selling ploy. There is no mention that there is a fair amount of skimming involved in this process because that will turn off consumers who expect to become supercomputers based on what the claims that are made about the product. Fuerthermore, from what I have read on this forum people have to indeed spend a fair amount of time on this program to be able to get a hang of it - this is a similar effort that it takes an individual to learn speedreading. I am a speedreader and read at the rate of 1700 words per minute with around 65% comprehension - the program I trained on cost me a mere $10.25. I trained twice a day on it - 30 minutes in morning and 30 minutes at night for about a month and I learnt the program pretty well. My wife who also completed the program is a much faster reader than me. We don't suffer from "chronically fatigued wrists" or "tiring of the eyes" as the photoreading infomercial claims. The "no pain no gain" philosophy is something that works and it is the reason the world is as advanced as it is today - the infomercial scorns on this approach and suggests that it has a short cut to the ultimate prize. If they are authentic, short cuts may get you to a place faster but I believe the person loses out on the real learning experience.

I would like to let everyone reading this that this is not an attack on the program but rather the infomercial which has been deceitfully created - it plays and preys upon the feeble of mind and will by promising them something that will rightaway enhance their lives

Agreed...

Wow I've never seen the infomercial. I bought the course based on the premise that the company had been around some 20 years, it offered a money back guarentee (extentable) they have a forum and live coaching available and ironcally enough you can just buy their book to get an insight about the course before you spend a lot of money. And you find it is not only a reading system it is a learning system. As for it taking a long time to learn. That is up to the individual. If they choose to listen to the tapes or participate with the tapes makes a difference in how long it takes to learn.

The program only claims you can 'PhotoRead 25000wpm'.

As with all advertising caveat emptor (buyer beware)I don't know how many bottles of coke are sold giving the public the impression that drinking that stuff will make your life fun. My workmates used to guzzle the stuff and I assure you it didn't have the effect on them that the ads portray. New clothes and suddenly your part of the 'in' crowd. Ice cream that has ... erotic powers. The lynx and CC's ads have gone into the bad taste mode to be hip.

Infomercial at least allow a person to view the product critically. You don't even have to watch them. The rest of the ads just come 'in your face' spoiling what you are viewing. And you know what.. those products don't have a money back guarentee.

Alex

I am from the U.S. and I have never seen the infomercial. I first read of PhotoReading
in "The Einstein Factor" by Win Wenger.
But, anyway, everything takes practice. and I have found out that NO comercial or informercial is 100percent.

I've never seen that infomercial either, but it sure does have a bad reputation.

For someone who reads as fast as you do, maybe PhRing is not worthwhile for you. But, if you're interested to try another approach, why not give it a try? Return it & get your money back if you're not satisfied.

I know this: I took a book & PhR it w/ the stated intention of finding out the most dramatic part and main characters in a book of around 200 pgs. I then turned the book upside down & stopped 3 times & had what i wanted. It all took around 15 minutes. So, that's pretty fast for me. It would have taken me awhile to read it since i never learned how to speed read.

If you were willing to work twice a day on speed reading, photoreading would be even easier to learn. Never buy anything based on an infomercial. Whenever you see something interesting, look it up on the Internet or call the number and ask for more information. I do not expect my government to protect me from my own ignorance.

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Originally posted by astrowill:
If you were willing to work twice a day on speed reading, photoreading would be even easier to learn. Never buy anything based on an infomercial. Whenever you see something interesting, look it up on the Internet or call the number and ask for more information. I do not expect my government to protect me from my own ignorance.

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That's true - infomercials do really push the limits - I can't believe how authorities are able to raise a hue and cry over the Howard Stern radio show for its content and they let infomercials go on unabated. Have not seen a Photoreading Infomercial on TV for a while but it often pops up on radio. Since so many people have asked me about the speedreading program I used, here is the website
http://www.roadtoreading.org/arc/individual_request.html

It's non-profit and the program is really pretty good.

Thank You

Joe

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Originally posted by astrowill:
If you were willing to work twice a day on speed reading, photoreading would be even easier to learn. Never buy anything based on an infomercial. Whenever you see something interesting, look it up on the Internet or call the number and ask for more information. I do not expect my government to protect me from my own ignorance.

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Joe, what was your reading speed before you took the speedreading course? What did you have to do to reach your present speed, and how long did it take? Just curious.

Thank you for the link. It's very worthwhile what they are trying to do there.

I never saw the infomercial before but I did try out Mega-Speed reading and that didn't workout for me. When I watched the video-tape sent out to me from the company I thought that was fine. Photo-reading so far has given me an amazing learning process. I'm going to school for electrical engineering and in the past allot of people think I'm not a very smart guy and that I just get lucky when I pass a class. I tried very hard to learn stuff in the past and didn't. So for me it's made the impossible, possible. All of the components presented in the program have been very usefull. The reading part in the program wasn't the most important part to my learning to learn, All the other ideas in the program have quite effective at increasing comprehension, I do spend the same amount studying, if not more than my class mates but at least I make progress now, instead of not.

As far as loosing out on learning experience goes. I hate the formal education system. When I ask an instructor about something I don't know they don't want to help me out when I have an F going in their class. Once I understand the class and say raise my grade to a B then they'll help me out and answer my question.