Hey Adam,
It's been a while since you tried using the system, right? Persistence is important. Keep tackling those steps. I myself am cultivating the virtue of hard work. Try to do all the suggestions, but don't worry about accidently leaving any behind if you forget them.
For activation, perhaps you did have hunches, but were consciously so dominant in the left brain that you might not have given them a chance.
Just because you did not post everything you did in the system, I'm not going to assume you didn't use trigger words, purpose, etc...but they all do play a role in successful photoreading. So consider the suggestions given to you. 
