As I have said I am a beginner. I bought my copy of the PhotoReading book on 12 August. I think there are at least two key points at which PR differs from speed reading, each of which pertains to the deliberate engagement of the other-than-conscious (OTC?) mind. First, there is the possibility, and the eventuality with practice and stimulation of conscious-OTC coordination, of causing 'direct learning'. The information is absorbed by the OTC mind, and somehow influences behavior. The examples typically pertain to physical skills such as playing pool. I don't see why it wouldn't also apply to factual learning. Related to this is syntopic reading, in which one PRs a handful of books and activates one; the others feed the process without being absorbed consciously.
The second point of difference seems to be, in my experience, that having looked at the book in the PhotoRead step, it becomes known to the mind in a way that doesn't seem to occur in another method. When I activate with my question or purpose, I just go and go, and very quickly pass over material that isn't relevant--I know it isn't relevant because when I decide to test the matter, and take a close look at a passage that I have 'decided' to skip, it indeed turns out to be the case that it does not answer my question. When I forget to activate with a question or purpose in mind, my reading becomes more like regular reading; then with the purpose, I speed up again. You could say that with a purpose one can skim a book rapidly in any case, but of course I have done that before, and my point is that this PhotoRead process feels different. It really seems much easier to find what I am looking for, whether it be a very specific need I have, or just the meat of the argument: give the mind a question, and having seen the material, it races to the answer.
