Forums IMPORTANT: PLEASE READ PhotoReading, Memory Optimizer confusion

i did tape 2a

dictionary got me down, though i'm keeping state of mind that i can do it. star of wonder did nothing for me, though i'm keeping state of mind that i can do it. 'speed reading' exercise [tangerine stuff] did little as well, though i'm keeping state of mind that i can do it.

please help. i'm confused. i'm going to continue, but i'm having bad results, should i redo anything?

andrew / agent orange

No need to redo anything. Just keep going.

Dictionary game you did fine. I read your post. Star of wonder most people have trouble with and that is exactly the point Paul was trying to get across. So you did fine there too.

For the Tangerine actually use your hands and go through the physical motion of tossing it and then touching your head. Notice the feeling when you do. That's your focus. It gets more interesting with more use. (The fireworks display and chorus singing comes later - well, the wow experience anyway , usually after you've gone through the course at least once.)

The confusion is a natural part of the process. Just relax and keep going. By the last tape you will have an overview of the whole course and you will see that each part was a step up to the next stage.

Yes you can do it.

Alex

Alexk, how nice... Wish you could say same about me... =(

I'm not sure the Star of Wonder does anything at all, although I must confess when I went through the course I did not own any mirrors, so I had to use the edge of a well-polished knife to see the star. Very difficult when you've only got one inch of visual space.

As far as the dictionary game goes, it's more or less an amplifier for how you're already feeling. I'm not trying to give you new-age guilt here. I'm sure that you can understand every word in this post, so you really don't need to have any comprehension of the dictionary. As far as knowing where a word is in the dictionary, if you understand alphabetical order you can find it consciously. All in all, it's a game. Games are fun when we win.

I've been on the posting boards for a while now, and one thing I remember is a poster had amazing success with the dictionary game the first time around, and then could not duplicate the results. Alex's advice (at least I think it was Alex, he's a font of useful advise on PhotoReading and other topics), was to do something more that play games with the dictionary. Really, did you plop down your hard-earned money to play around with a highly abridged dictionary, or is your purpose to quickly gain useful information from books?

I consider myself a fairly skilled PhotoReader, and I still use the index and table of contents to find information I desire conscious access to. Knowing where something is instinctively is useful, there is no question of that. Rabis, from what I've been told, spend much more time memorizing the layout of holy texts than memorizing the content. The reason is the importance of transmitting correct information unaltered by the genralization, delition and distortion that effects human memory. However, different people come into PhotoReading with different goals. If you're like most PhotoReaders, the bulk of your reading materials is going to come from libraries. If this is the case, as it is with me, then content is much more important than placement.

I hope this has given you some perspective.

Interesting... Kaiden is alive...

i totally konw what you meant about not enough room to see the star; i had to use the back of a cd because we dont need a hand mirror at my dads. what really confused me was this tracing thing, i dont even know where that comes in. you're not tracing at all, you're just drawing a star and trying to imitate the one you see in the mirror

it doesnt even make sense
i'll continue, i figured you'd tell me to, so i will. my first game experience was very encouraging though, i knew exactly where elephant was

cool
andrew/agent orange

Last time I played the dictionary game, I got a brightness where the word was. It was like something right out of "A Beautiful Mind." When I tried duplicating the results, I found three to six "bright spots" in my imaginary dictionary, and when I tried to limit it to one, I limited it to the wrong one. (oops). I kept trying until I got so fustrated I started using negative self-talk starting with an invocation to the divine, (e.g. "God, I'm stupid. God, this isn't working. God, what is wrong with me.") Suddenly, I had a feeling that I knew exactly where on the page "God" was, and it had nothing to do with the earlier visual image that lead to my first success. Rather, it was a totally kinesthetic. I opened the dictionary, searched for God, and found His name right where I thought it was.

The dictionary game, you will be told later in the course, is an example of spontaneous activation. The thing with spontaneous activation, is that it's rare. To quote the FAQ:
"To increase the likelihood of spontaneous activation, PhotoRead ten books a day for a couple of months and fully activate at least a couple of books each week."

In this context, any success with the dictionary game is amazing, considering you've PhotoRead a section of one book without giving yourself any incubation time.

I am in the same page as you are Agent Orange. I am so glad we have this forum to share our difficulties, as I just start this PR course and am confused. My confusion is with the blip page. I have no problem seeing 3D image, but when I am trying to follow the tape instruction and reading the dictionary, I see a shifting "blip" page and my eye strains afterward. I guess I am not relaxing and not doing it right. Any advise from anybody.

Let the blip page shift and disappear. Remain relaxed noticing the white spaces created by the text and the outer edges of the book. It stablises with experience.

Like learning to ride a bike... you might be a bit wobbly at first and the harder to try the harder it seems. When you just relax and gently go with 'your' flow. It becomes easier a lot faster.

Now if you are still having trouble relaxing while learning to photoread for fear of 'getting it wrong'... scatter some cushions around your chair... it's sooooo much easier knowing that you'll be ok if you don't get it right the first time/s. (smile) Go easy on yourself, photoreading is fun if you let it be. Blip page or no blip page your mind still takes the mental snapshots.

Alex

But every time I turn the page, I lose my focus. And end up spending more time going thru one page. Is that ok to go slow at the beginning? Or I should stick to the tape's timing or the "Re-lax, 1-2-3"?