I already can get dejavu from the Photoreading session complete with hunches and feelings and all that, my theory as to why is above. In the end (isn't that a Linkin Park song?) the only thing I'm even doing anymore is the Photoreading step. Everything else I'm doing is what I always did before.
Photoreading is the one step that's unique to "photoreading." Everything else I already knew. It was just called something different by someone else. Photoreading has not made me faster at actual "reading." It has not made me faster in any aspect. As a matter of fact, doing all the steps slows me down and I actually read less than 100% of the words in the book. When go thru all the steps all of my understanding comes to me only during the rapid reading step. Information that I didn't know about and couldn't ask a mind probe about comes to me plain as day in the text when I read it and I slap myself on the head and go, "DOH! Here's something new."
A while ago I found an old book "The one minute manager meets the Monkey" and it's just a stupid 80's management positive thinking book and I wanted to time myself PRing it but after about 20 pages I backed up and read it cover to cover really fast because it was kind of funny, I actually enjoyed it. It was so stupid that it was funny and even though I could have gotten the "4-11%" in 10 minutes there was a story behind the whole thing that just flowed so fast that I realized something. The same eye movement that skims over 'unimportant' information is the same eye movement that could just read it as long as your there anyway. The difference is just a few seconds.
Another thing to consider (I still laugh about this) is the forward or preface in a book is always written to relax you. So if you relax then superread and dip you invariably skip over the forward. The time that you would take to just read the forward is probably close to the time you spent with your eyes closed. You're not getting ahead. 6 one way, 1/2 dozen the other. Some people skip to the summary too. If you actually read the chapter and also the summary at the end, you've got 2 exposures to the 'important' information right there in your first pass plus you got all the supporting information that makes you believe and see the references the author has for what he's saying. I do think it's possible to skip over 90% or more of the info in a book and get the main points but your missing the authors' personal viewpoints, attitudes, references, leverages and all that stuff. And if your arguement is "you'll get that out of Photoreading" fine, that's your first pass, rapid reading is the last pass you'll need because important information is repeated enough.
I PR'd a couple books about arthritis because my wife has it and the doctors can't do anything about it other than prescribe a drug that my insurance doesn't cover and I wanted to learn all about it. I figured that 3 reasons could have caused it, genetics, diet and lifestyle. You can't change your genetics so I focused on diet and lifestyle when I read. My purposes and mind probes were focused on those 2 things because they're in our control. I PRd and activated 6 books and some pamphlets I got at the doctor and a couple web sites. I did all the steps and made a mind map and all that. The only thing I didn't do was rapid read. I found nothing that we either didn't already know or that the doctor told us or whatnot. My wife can't photoread so she's on page 220 of the first book and I'm done with everything and give up. She looks up from the book and asks, "What's my blood type?" I don't know so I root through her paperwork and I say "Your type O. Why?" She says, "It says right here that Gluten or Wheat should be avoided if you have joint pain especially if your blood type is O." She spends the next week not eating Wheat or any form of it and I rapid read those 6 books and 5 of them said the same thing. She's off the Celebrex and I'm off of Photoreading for a while. My purpose was stronger than any purpose I ever had before, my mind probes covered every area I could think of except for the one idea that worked. The one book that didn't say gluten was the culprit said that dairy was equally bad for someone with blood type O. She's off that too and thank god, more cheese for me. All thanks to reading every stinkin word in order so that I could understand it.
I don't come here to be a naysayer or to tick people off but I'm also not going to lie about results in order to make friends. Photoreading and activating causes me to miss too much information. I've also timed myself and I can rapid read faster than I could previously activate so that's what I'm going to do. I came here recently to find out if others do the same thing and the answer I got is no, it seems as if I'm the only one that really wants to read all the words and skip the tangerine stuff. The overall consensus is 'it works.' Paul made the comment that speedreading is tiring and you have to do the drills everyday or you lose your speed and most people don't keep it up. Since I read everyday I don't consider it "a drill" and I personally think that superreading and dipping is tiring so I guess it's different strokes for different folks. If it works for you and your happy, I'm happy for you. I'm only happy if I read every word and I know it. I'm conditioned.
