Hello nvictor
To answer your question, I have never really had to resort to looking at a hard copy of something to get into the ALS. But I am 99% sure it would work if done correctly.
The best way I know how to describe the ALS so you can judge for yourself whether by looking at the photo or image you are entering the state or not goes something like this.
There are two states we have. Now picture this if you could. You are standing by yourself minding your own business, then all of a sudden someone you truly dislike comes into your personal space. The whole time they are there you are wishing they would go away, trying to ignore them. That is the first state known as the 'PUSHING AWAY' state and is the completely opposite of the ALS. To explain this further, if asked a week later to describe that scene, I would bet you would have tremendous difficulty because the whole time were blocking and shielding yourself from that memory.
Now at the other end of the stick, if you happen to be a hetrosexual male and this gorgeous girl comes up to you, a girl that generates enormous and at times uncontrollable emotions you would just happen to be entering the ALS. You are 'PULLING IN' information about what they are wearing, how they smell etc.
The ALS is a state of mind where you allow yourself to 'open-up' and absorb information, whether that be how hot the day has turned out to be OR black text on a page in a book. You don't want to block the information by consciously pushing it away.
The ALS opens the mind up to absorb information. This puts you into the perfect state for photoreading. When you photoread, you are taking a picture (snapshot) of the text with the mind exactly the same way when you very quickly glance at an object by looking at it for a split second, say the ceiling fan in your house then turning away so you cant see it anymore. Then when you go back and commence the other steps of the PWMS a sense of familiarity will occur. The conscious mind has a blurry outline of a page with black markings on it (the text) but its when you go back over it multiple times that blurry image becomes clear. Its like you are burning the writing into the mind
