Forums IMPORTANT: PLEASE READ PhotoReading, Memory Optimizer ummm...isn't this just skimming?

Sasha

I totally sympathise with what you are saying. Before learning to photoread, I skim read anyway. I had to for my work. So I was already very good at extracting information from documents. Yet I would still miss stuff - skimming takes a lot of concentration on a large text because you are still consciously processing the text, albeit sampling the words and looking for keywords.

So photoreading taught me a few extra things that made my (conscious) skimming better... previewing, the importance of purpose, and state management for concentration. Those alone were enough to make it worth while, whilst I remained highly skeptical about the benefits of the photoreading step.

So just for experimentation, I stuck with the PR step and took the view that if it works, it works. Then after a few books I decided to play with it. After PR'ing a book and leaving it alone for half an hour, I took a deep breath, relaxed, and wondered if there was a page in this book that told me everything I really needed to read that met my purpose. A number popped in to my head and I turned to that page and there it was....

Since then I've begun to listen to my unconscious mind and find that it directs my attention to the sections that are of interest to me, and I don't really have to (consciously) skim the whole book, I just know if a page is of interest to me or not. I've even photoread commercial documents followed by a postview just minutes before a meeting, and surprised with deep, intelligent comments on the document that even impress me!

So my suggestion is stick with it - the PR step takes only a few minutes extra, and free yourself from the need for proof, and I think that you will be pleasantly surprised!

Matt
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