SD,
You ask:
If someone can give me the feeling of gelling.. Get relaxed and go over your experiences of when you first learned to ride a bike or when you first learned a sport. That's the feeling.
More specifically, that's YOUR particular feeling for learning Look for the same thing w/ activating in PhRing.
Next you ask: What should I be looking for when I activate the material?. You are beginning to scare me 
You are looking for the material to make sense Do you know when you are hungry? Do you know when you have to pee? Do you know when you are happy? Do you know when you know?
TAKE A SMALL BOOK. TAKE A LITTLE BOOK OF 200 PAGES OR LESS. TAKE A BOOK THAT IS FACTUAL IN SOME WAY. PHOTOREAD IT AND ACTIVATE IT----TILL YOU KNOW YOU KNOW IT.
Once you do that, you'd better practice on a bunch of other small books till you actually know what you are doing. LISTEN, YOU CAN'T JUST ACTIVATE ONE BOOK AND THINK THAT'S IT. It takes time and practice so that you eventually figure out how to do it.
ANYONE WHO WANTS TO ACTIVATE W/O MIND MAPPING OR W/O ANY NOTES IS CRAZY. 
And even after that it takes some review to retain it.
PLEASE GET AN EASY SHORT BOOK TO ACTIVATE.
