Forums IMPORTANT: PLEASE READ PhotoReading, Memory Optimizer I dont believe you people!

Hi, I'm new to PhotoReading and this forum. This thread caught my eye. I have to ask ruthless--what have you read exactly about PhotoReading? Is it just stuff from the website? Have you read the book?

I might have an advantage in accepting PhotoReading quickly (I only started reading the book this past week) because I've done a lot of studying on learning and the brain. It makes total sense to me that the right-side of the brain, which deals mainly with whole picture kind of things and images, can do this. It is the left side of the brain (mainly) that picks out the details.

When you ask about remembering all the words in a dictionary, you are thinking only about conscious details. That's not what PhotoReading is about. It isn't about memorizing the details--that's a conscious, left-brained activity.

What I find so interesting about PhotoReading and why I'm starting to use it is that it incorporates the use of both the big picture work and the details--you preview the book, which is part details and part big picture, then you PhotoRead, which is big picture, then you postview, which is taking that big picture and adding in some details and thinking (that conscious element). You sleep on it, then you go back, taking the impressions you got from your PhotoReading and picking out specific details of interest to deepen your knowledge or understanding. A variety of activities are encouraged to do this.

Incidentally, I did very well in school and naturally used a number of the strategies that make up PhotoReading--although not the actual PhotoReading step: preview, flip through for the parts you want to know more about, take notes of some sort of what you actually remember, flip through again, etc. (Although, now that I think of it, just flipping through a textbook, which I often did, may have been the equivalent of the PhotoReading step!)

Ruthless, you asked how the brain can grasp so much so quickly. Our brains are grasping things all the time that we aren't even aware of. Patterns of speech get learned without conscious development, just from hearing something often. You might see a painting out of the corner of your eye somewhere but take no conscious notice of it; some time later, you might see the painting and go, "I've seen this before. Where did I see it?" I don't consciously think about the sound of the engine in my car when I'm driving, yet the sound tells my brain about how fast I'm going and I non-consciously monitor my speed that way.

There are all kinds of examples in real life where the non-conscious part of our brains is absorbing information without us even being aware of it. We would go insane, and would be stupid, if we had to consciously set out to learn and process everything.

Why don't you just give it a shot? Read the book the way it says to and start applying it to other books. What have you got to lose? Which leads to another question: your first post asked about how many people have been helped by PhotoReading and you mentioned that you'd tried MindMapping. What is is that you are hoping to gain?

TryingPR; Brilliant. Absolutely Brilliant.
Photoread4me

If you belive mindmap wont work, you may be using it incorrectly (eg trying to put in information instead of words that reminds you of the information), since its absolutely works.

And if youre afraid of losing money for nothing, try the book, its not as expensive and you can learn it from there. (like I did very recently, and I got my first evidence that it works yesterday)

Also, why they dont teach it at school etc. It is probably partly because people are sceptic (and want proof). And the schools, well, they can be pretty slow with new information. A good example is that we learned in school that different parts of the tounge represents different tastes (like sweet and salt). That is complete wrong. I (or we) checked the year and it was proven wrong about 3-5 years before they taught us that. =P

[This message has been edited by drakilor (edited November 08, 2005).]

although i havent replied, I'm very much reading all the posts here on a daily basis. And I really appreciate the responses (although I hope you understand I am not trying to cause any arguments, but merely a friendly debate)

on a side note, let me explain where I'm coming from. I used to get really good grades in high school (but only if i worked super-duper hard), I used to go 3 nights without sleeping sometimes because my aim was to get into the best business school in the country (which I did). So I'm here in the best business school, but the problem is the people here are brilliant. They dont need to pull three all-nighters to get the grades they get. Also, I'm on average 10% below class average in terms of my grades.

Now, I think the fundamental problem is not how fast I read, its how my brain is wired - it takes me a while to comphrehend and grasp information (nope, i am not retarded!)... i'm slower in grasping information... (than the people here at this school - generally i consider myself reasonably intelligent)

what programs should I try out? and can they fundamentally change the way I learn and handle information? Can I increase the rate of my comphrension whilst simulataneously increasing my speed?

although I am willing to try out products from learnings strategies, please also recommend some other tapes or books I can read that can fundamentally change the way i grasp information.

[This message has been edited by ruthless (edited November 08, 2005).]

From what you write you are struggling to understand what you learn at a conscious level quickly. However since the conscious mind can only handle 7 plus or minus 2 bits of information a second you will find learning difficult going.

You put in long hours which is destructive to learning. Do you realise you can learn more in an hour by taking frequent breaks than working one hour without breaks?

With PhotoReading you allow your other than conscious mind to process the information you read so even as a beginner you can cut your reading time to 1/3rd. (There is research that proves we do process visual information non-consciously.)

What does that mean for you? Well for starters what took 3 days to do would only take one. And by learning some study techniques that uses the creative procastinataion (incubation) you can save yourself unnecessary stress.

Okay you want other stuff that can help you with learning.

Silva, Sedona, Hypnosis, Paraliminals, memory techniques, relaxation techniques, books on those subjects, courses on those subject. The list is endless. At least when you have PhotoReading you have the means to read the books that teach all those techniques without robbing yourself of valuable study time.

The benefits of learning PhotoReading,

Learn the benefit of having a purpose before you start studying. Real time saver there. This has uses beyond studying.

Get into ideal state... things go much easier when you can get into the flow. In PhotoReading book you learn the technique that lets you create a trigger to access it. Been used for reading, writing, exams and sports.

You learn to enter Accelerated Learning State. Stress is a blocker for the working memory. Information is difficult to absorb and retrieve when you are feeling stressed. Learning the simple technique for entering Accelerated Learning State will open the flow.

You learn a reading method that improves your ability to understand the information you read quickly. In my classes people are amazed how just changing how they move their eyes over the words improves speed flow and comprehension. It helps you to read for meaning. They notice the results in less than a minute and when combined with one of the other techniques a minute later they notice not only has there ability to understand the text improved so has the speed. If you only take this technique from the system you can easily double your reading speed. (I'm talking about rhythmic perusal, page 63 of the book) This one is often missed when you learn PhotoReading.

You don't need to "get" PhotoReading to see an improvement in your ability to learn. PhotoReading is rocket fuel for reading. The rest of the stuff taught is to make activation easier. You just need to use all the steps consciously for a while. Like learning to drive a car or ride a bike it becomes automatic once you know how. That's why when you learn PhotoReading you improve your traditional reading and study skills.

You got nothing to lose by reading the book.

Alex

Books are information people have to share.

I think it works, I photoread a book on CFD(computational fluid dynamics) last night, today I could remember part of that book without activating! it was amazing, but still I can not activate it, I think I need to go over the course manual again.

[This message has been edited by yas1891 (edited November 08, 2005).]

Ruthless; you need 3 things for true learning to take place.

The 3 things you need for learning to take place are (1)Input.(2)Synthesis. (3)Output.

Why can't children just watch tv and learn.There is certainly enough information on there. If content alone were the criterion a child should be able to stare at the tube night after night and walk away with the equivalent of a B.A; or better.

The reason this doesn't work is you only have input. You don't have synthesis, you don't have output.

A video game supplies all 3 of the requirements in an almost ideal ratio. Think about this when a person plays a video game they have input(the first stage of learning) they must observe the changing configurations on the screen moment by moment. But as every beginning player knows that's not enough. The maze and jumble of visual information thrown at you is difficult to sort out. It takes the second stage of learning synthesis to acquire comfort in play.Synthesis occurs when you compare what you observe each moment (the new input)with previous experience recorded in your memory.While you play the game you store up a fund of experiences on which you evaluate the new input.As you get familiar with the game your ability to relate new input to past experience grows.

Output is the third stage. You can't just passively watch, you've got to respond to whenever anything happens on the screen.As input & synthesis improve so do responses and scores improve.

These 3 things needed for learning input,synthesis and output are used in Photoreading. They are based on Georgi Lozanov the brilliant Bulgarian educator the father of accelerated learning. They are decoding, concerts and activation.They correspond to input, synthesis and output. The decoding, concerts and activation in photoreading are preview,photoreading & activation. Decoding would be preview a once over lightly a quick overview of the material to be learned.During the concert session learners enter a state of relaxed alertness to receive a more complete exposure to the material information is presented in a story or play with classical music playing in the background.The concert session would be photoreading.Activation in photoreading involves bringing the material to the conscious mind by group discussion, games, skits rather than drill sessions & rote memorization.

Ruthless; you do yourself a dis-service by comparing yourself to others. Comparing yourself to others does you no good & you do not gain anything from it. As far as you mentioned about debates who needs debates? What you need are results.
Photoread4me