Forums IMPORTANT: PLEASE READ PhotoReading, Memory Optimizer Scientific Evidence that PR works

If any of you had any "proof" anywhere you certainly would have posted it here by now.

Proof would be something other than your opinion.

I have test scores and have read books and been quized by others and I have "proof" that Photoreading does not work AND I AM ACTUALLY QUESTIONING MYSELF ABOUT THIS. I'm doubting my own conclusions and trying again.

Evelyn Woods Speedreading has rooms full of tests from students showing a reading speed of an average of 1500 wpm and about 75% success rate with test scores of about 75% or higher. When I set a timer that allowed me only 1500 wpm to read a test, even though I was able to make multiple passes, I averaged less than 40% using PR. When I used the standard "forward only finger pacing" technique I got around 80% correct at 1000 wpm which to me the slower speed is worth the increase in comprehension.

I think that the concept of Photoreading is fascinating and it would be nice to be able to do it but it "if it works, it works" and "if it doesn't, it doesn't."

"There is no failure, only feedback."
-Paul Scheele

Here's a simple receipe for achievement:

-Relax! Release any your stress, tension, and anxiety.

-Step into your own personal physiology of success and excellence.

-Consider all the things you can do differently to facilitate developing your skill with PhotoReading. Write these down.

-Begin trying each one of those new responses until you discover which ones begin revealing positive indicators you are moving in the direction of your goal, and which ones do not.

-Witness the results you have and the results you do not.

-Make adjustments

-Continue cycling these steps.

Any questions?

Yes.

What if I "change my approach" so much that what I'm doing doesn't even resemble the initial system I started with?

That could be the whole reason you have struggled so much already.

I sense a breakthrough opportunity.....

Go back to the basics. Work the 5-step system of PhotoReading. Do all the techniques in each step just as Paul tells you to.

Use the Mind Map on page 68 of the little blue PhotoReading book as your quick-reference guide. The whole system is laid out on that mind map.

Post back when you fully activate your next book and it completely "GELS".

I too am a struggling photoreader; meaning, I have yet to successfully photoread and activate. Instead of listening to reassurances about photoreading, I would like to hear descriptions of the photoreading experiences of everyone who has the time for it. What does activating feel like? How long did it take you to learn to photoread proficiently, or at least satisfactorily? How long have you been photoreading? Get vivid because I think these descriptions could help me with my own attempts. Hey, maybe they'll help Mark.

TOPIC FOR SCIENCE RESEARCH PROJECT

I am enrolled in the science research course at my high school. It turns out the topic I chose isn't a great one. I told my teacher about PhotoReading, and he said that would be a great thing to research. Does anyone have any ideas as to what I could research in Photoreading? I guess the obvious one would be to PROVE that photoreading does work. PLEASE if you have any suggestions, POST or EMAIL me at MoSox@msn.com. THanks!

quote:

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Originally posted by blue:
I would like to hear descriptions of the photoreading experiences of everyone who has the time for it. What does activating feel like?

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I've posted in detail an experiment/test of photoreading that took me down to the level of rank beginner with poor reading skills. http://www.learningstrategies.com/forum/ubb/Forum8/HTML/002346.html

The most important thing with activation is to keep going after your first session. Sometimes it takes a couple of layers to get the breakthrough that the book is making sense. That is also why it helps to record your findings on a mind map and keep building on it with each activation session.

It doesn't matter how long it took someone else to learn to photoread. It matters that you learn because you want to learn. Everyone has different experiences in their lives and some things prevent some people from devoting their full attention to photoreading so what seems to take longer for one may take even longer for another. If you are too busy comparing yourself and how long it's taking you to learn you are pulling yourself away from actual learning. Photoreading is a doing it experience.

The feeling that one has just prior to activating the first time is often frustration, confusion, anxiety and it's only when we 'do it'. make an attempt to manually activate a book with a few activation session, despite these feelings, that we reach the point were something within us clicks and goes ah huh! Once you've reached that point you know that there may be some books that confuse you and all you need to do is keep going do another activation session or two. The frustration is identical to learning a new subject at school it sometimes takes a few classes before something within you clicks. Try it for yourself and see.

Alex

To MarkP4:
I understand your wanting to have solid proof in order to believe in the PR whole mind system. It seems to be a sort of comfort before going off the diving board into 'strange waters.'

The truth of the matter is quite simply, "seeing is not believing, believing is seeing." You can only look at the information that seems somewhat inconclusive to you at this point (this is not a criticism or a cut down) and wander "if."

The real issue is that you have to make that decision that it is at least possible, and once open to the possibility you can begin to experience the evidence for yourself. That is the correct order of things. How can you truly experience concretely what you don't really first believe is even possible? If you first decide that it can't be possible at all to PR, you have cancelled out your ability to truthfully and realistically consider it as a possibility. If you do open yourself up to the possibility then you can begin to at least test the waters and gain some 'concrete' experiences like spontaneous activation and the feel of a book beginning to "gel."

You can't expect your mind to respond to a reality that you have predetermined is no reality at all without proof. You've locked the door expecting some kind of mysterious proof to come along and unlock it for you. This is experience oriented discovery of a very personal kind. The feeling of 'ah ha'my mind is capable of doing these things because I have experienced it for myself, can begin to transcend any proof you could ever read in any journal, (not that the articles aren't interesting). The real power of "proof" usually comes after you have experienced it for yourself and it becomes a kind of confirmation that what you have experienced is valid.

10 years of a Christian walk with the Lord has proven this theory to me in a very personal and important part of my life, as well as PR. I'm telling you this from experience. Give it a try. What have you got to lose?

I've been PRing for over 2 years. It will be 3 years in January. For alot of that time I went through the cycle of Belief where you get yourself in that state, do something and then see what the results are.

We humans are so egotistical in our belief that if we don't believe something, then it won't happen and if we do believe in something we will make it happen even more so. I've had MANY things happen to me in spite of the fact that I DID NOT BELIEVE IN THEM. Belief is not a requirment for truth or reality to occure. To believe in something in advance of knowing if it's truth or not is PRE-BELIEF. If pre-belief is a requirement of something working or not then it's an internal representation completely personal to the perceiver. It's very similar to a religion where one person agrees that what they believe is like what someone else agrees so they "SEE" the same things the same ways and therefore feel "close" to each other. This puts them at automatic odds with those without those beliefs but I'm getting off the track.

There is scientific evidence available for everything. The volumes of subliminal research that's been done would fill all of our homes. I was just asking if someone was aware of some of the more relevant references so I could read it.

There is a phrase "live by the sword, die by the sword" which means if you use something, you must prove it. Anyone fluent in NLP can notice all the times we are expected to prove something for ourselves when the burden of proof is ALWAYS on the one making the claims, NEVER on the one hearing the claims.

Besides, if we all had to pre-believe in everything then we would be already so busy with everything else that we wouldn't even have found PR yet. It's our non-belief of other things that made room for THIS.

Think about it.

By the way, to have received little evidence over the years that PR "works" and to still be going at it, isn't it clear that I do believe in it but I'm just trying to get it to work? Wait, better cover my ***, I'm not trying, I'm "doing."

Mark...mark....MARK...*Sigh.*

I don't know what to say to you anymore. Except that I would suggest you quit trying to figure out if it REALLY works or not, and just go get it to work for you. I mean, in the end, what more detail is there to it in order for it to work?

I understand where you're coming from, and my NEW tutor that my dad hired for me against my will seems to want me to do things that I don't believe in. If you truely feel that it can't work, get rid of it. Hell, she's telling me to use FLASH cards, FLASH CARDS. Can you believe that? This isn't even the 90's anymore, as they used to say - it's beyond the 90's. P-LEASE.

Don't get me wrong, it can work, but it's not the best or most effecient solution. Just because you've brought in some results that are coming down short to say the least, you just have to pinpoint exactly where you're going wrong. Whether it be your mindset, or something within the system, it's like being Batman, and figuring out the deception that the Joker has brought onto a dramatic crime scene. (Hey, I know, I know. StarWars, Batman? But...Paul Scheele used Superman, so...)

There's just going to be one thing that's out of place. When it hits you, it will be like a revelation, a new age dawning that will strike your heart all throughout your entire existence because YOU'LL REALIZE YOU DIDN'T KNOW ANYTHING, AND WILL NEVER KNOW ANYTHING.

Like being 18, and then at 24, many say they look back and realize how "stupid" they were. It's about EVOLVING, Mark. Not change, but EVOLUTION. There's a difference. The base of what you began as is the same, but evolution is soon.

-youngprer

"Trust your instincts."-Qui-Gon-Jinn