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Originally posted by kognition:
Hi,I have read through the photo reading book up to chapter 11, and decided to write this list of questions.
I have an interest in psychology, but I am not a psychologist. I was recently given A Little Book on the Human Shadow, and decided to photo read it. Heres where I had problems:
1. Purpose for reading??? I just want to read it for fun.
No you don't want to read for fun. You have an interest in the topic and obviously are looking for anything new that you can use in your personal development. Anyone who has an interest in psychology and isn't a psychologist is researching for personal development. So realistically your purpose has something to do with your interest in personal development. In such a case I find the the purpose of, "finding anything new that is useful to me." works on subject that usually come under interest.
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2. I believe I entered the idea state with the tangerine concept - but surely when I open my eyes and fidget a bit, this state is lost almost immediately?
The tangerine technique is the ideal state for reading. Notice it there, as you read. This applies to all reading and it is a good practice to use the tangerine whenever you read.
If in doubt touch the top back part of the head. When you move your hand away you feel the remains of that touch. Be aware of that as you read. [I notice it while I am writing.]
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3. Surveying is simple enough it seems
Perhaps not the following questions are part of surveying. Since you have problems with them somewhere along the line you might have dropped the ball.
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4a. Pulling out trigger words - this lost me. I walked through the material, page by page, and I had to consciously choose a word to be a trigger word, rather than one jumping out at me. I have a very slow reading speed, so this took me quite a while! I notice it says jump through every 20 pages, but nothing was coming so I felt compelled to search more...
Check the instructions again. You look every few pages, never page by page You grab 5 to 20 pages and look. You have 3 to 8 minutes depending on the book. A trigger word is any word in the book that carries meaning. You don't have the time to be so picky, Just write down 20 to 25 words that you see in the book. They are not going to play leap frog and jump off the page any more than the underwear you put on in the morning jumped out of their storage area. Just grab the first word and be done with it.
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4b. To find trigger words, do I *READ* the lines of text, or just float my eyes across the words and look out for something that jumps out? This seems ot be a skill in itself. Furthermore, given what it says on page 35 about previewing leading to core concepts whch lead to understanding, failure at this stage seems to rule how well the next phases come along(?)
You are struggling with it more than necessary. Open a telephone book at random and then identify what the category is. It takes less than 30 seconds for even the slowest of readers to see enough cues. Without reading every single word on the page.
In a book the cues are often bold, Italics, underlined, headings and subheadings. It's amazing how informative they are yet we usually ignore them. You will probably find the best trigger words there too. In the absence of these you'll notice words on a page, here and there.
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5. Once in the Accelerative Learning State and I open my eyes, pick up my book, move a page, etc, surely my conscious mind is back in the picture, and the information I am reading is not going direct to the unconscious?
As soon as you change your focus to using the perpherial vision you are directing the nonconscious mind to do the reading. Just Photofocus, say the chant and turn the pages in a steady rhythm. With the affirmations that you said before you started just know that the non conscious mind is handling it.
Keep the conscious mind at bay by saying the chant and turning the pages rhythmically.
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6. Maintaining a steady state I found difficult. I was relaxed to start with, but felt myself come back to a less relaxed state, much like a door on a pistoned hinge eventually glides back shut having been opened.
Wecome to to being human. You will find that everyone at some point has that problem and it occasionally resurfaces once you've become more experienced. It doesn't mean your doing anything worng, just having an experience. Know, with use, this becomes less of a concern and in reality is similar to reading a few pages in the book and then realising your mind was elsewhere and have to go back to actually read. It happens. Grow with it.
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7. Postviewing (and previewing): I am not sure what the playfully concept means in respect to going over the text. Do I just move my eyes over the text, or am I actually supposed to be READING the text? Given I am a slow reader, only 10-15 minutes wouldnt seem enough for a whole book, which creates more anxiety for me.
Playful like the curiosity of a child fishing for tadpoles and guppies. Poking an ant with a stick, peeling away the bark of a tree, tasting pudding for the first time. Or seeing if you can hide your broccoli in a glass of milk instead of eating it.
During preview and postview you go through the book with a similar playful curiosity. You're not looking to know everything in the book at this point just enough to spark that playful curiosity. Of course 10 to 15 minutes isn't enough that's the point. not having enough from the book so you become more inquisitive. So you walk away from the book wondering and asking yourself questions about it. This leads to mind probing questions and tentative guesses that you look forward to confirming with activation.
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Activating
8. Probing, asking questions about the material has been impossible - I havent really got a clue what the books content is, having photoread, so how could I possible probe and ask questions? I genuinely do not understand this part of the process, though I understand what it is to achieve, how it is done elludes me.
In this case the problem clearly started with a lack of a real purpose. The knowing why you are bothering with this book what you want from it or what you need from it to make it worthwhile to spend your time with this author. Check your purpose, be playfully curious and then ask questions.
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9. Super Reading - given I am no good at reading to start with, just moving my eyes down the middle of the page looking for stuff to jump out, was a total waste of time. This is also related to the fact I dont have any questions to start with, I suspect.
Without questions you are not looking for answers. Having failed to have some decent mind probing questions your mind does not know what answers you want so it's not going to give you any direstions for what to read.
Considering you never had a purpose, try again once you have your purpose and mind probing questions sorted out.
A lack of a purpose is like building a jigsaw puzzle without tipping out the box. Finding the right pieces is build it and leaving all the pieces in the lid where you cannot even see the picture.
Purpose is tipping out the jigsaw, preview is like noticing the size and deciding how complex this particular puzzle is, trigger words is the start of putting the edge pieces aside as you turn over the pieces. PhotoReading is casting your eye over each piece. Postview is deciding whether you should group certain colours for certain areas. Superreading and dipping becomes the sorting of the colours and stopping to connect the pieces... starting with the trigger words becauses it's easier to build a puzzle from the edges. So you dip where-ever you seen an edge, if that's not the right one you put it aside where you can find it again knowing it will fit somewhere later.
A second warning the first superread and dip in a book is rarely going to be all that you want from the book. Build in layers. The comprehension is built in more passes not just the first one. So go easy on the evaluation about how you went at this point.
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10. Rapid Reading, which actually is refered to as reading as I would normally read (which is extremely slow), is not rapid reading for me. Sitting down and reading text properly takes me down to around 180 wpm, which isnt rapid by any means!
Well for this particular book you were not ready for a rapid read. You should repeat the activation step until the book has gelled. Rapid read only when you have exhausted activation but still feel like you're missing something from the book. Because through activation you will have seen most of the book you should find that you're reading the stuff you've seen before almost as fast as superreading and slowing down for the bits that you haven't really looked at yet.
Once you become experienced in PhotoReading you will find that you prefer to use rapid reading only when for pleasure reading. For most books you will not need rapid reading at all.
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I am going to re-read the book now, but I would love some support and guidance.Many thanks.
Go easy on yourself 
Alex
[This message has been edited by Alex K. Viefhaus (edited March 06, 2005).]
