Maybe I can provide some perspectives which at least have no personal bias. But by the same token, I must make the following disclaimer: I haven't been trained in photoreading. I've read the book, but that was not intended to be a substitute for a training seminar. I am familiar with the concept, but have not trained to actually do it.
You decide what that means.
I'm actually here for the Memory Optimizer course, which I did take, and am currently working on integrating.
Now then, is it possible that the problem with asking for "objective" studies is that Photoreading is rare enough, and involved enough, that someone who is not on board is unlikely to be able to do it?
Obviously this is not something that you study for 10 minutes and you can do it. First you take a seminar, then you do significant practice. (that said, I am just about to offer some information that contradicts what I just said--but there might be a reason for that).
So people who can do Photoreading are likely to be "insiders". People who can't, outsiders. There's your problem with objectivity.
It's sort of like advanced meditative practices. Now there is something I can do.
The way to decide whether a state such as Nirvana Samadhi has a real existence is to experience it for yourself. But the same problem arises: "outsiders" can't do it. Neither can they experience what is in the mind of the meditator. They can look at a brain-wave scan and say "oh, I see some interesting activity is going on there". But they can't experience a SUBJECTIVE state OBJECTIVELY. There's a fundamental epistemological problem there!!
Now then, there is at least one "outsider" who can do something analogous to Photoreading.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycHhiv5g_8kDerren Brown claims to be an atheist with a scientific mindset, and a skeptic of all sorts of hocus-pocus, even while using hocus-pocus as an entertainment medium. Sort of a modern-day Houdini.
What contradicts what I said earlier is that the documentary creates the impression that he taught Glen how to do something analogous to Photoreading extremely fast. Perhaps within some minutes or hours--the voice-over does not specify but they only have 1 week total.
However, Glen contacted the owner of a blog about Derren Brown and stated that DB spent "a lot of time" with him.
I think the timing of the starting date was calculated, because Darren Brown is on record for claiming elsewhere (one of his books I think, or maybe his blog) that the information absorbed through these sorts of unconscious absorption methods fades beyond recovery in about a week UNLESS you reinforce it.
Now this issue I know something about, because I practice memory enhancement: you only need ONE exposure to the information to have it in your memory. The reason you often can't recall the information--at least, without some training--is because the neural connection is too weak. That's why we need the "activation" phase.
People who perform feats of memory such as memorizing whole books word-for-word typically read the information once, then pull it from memory, and keep exercising the neural pathway to that memory, over and over again. They don't do a lot of re-reading, except when they absolutely can't remember even with the hints and cues they give themselves, because that is inefficient. You remember things better by experiencing them ONCE then recalling the memory over and over.
It is possible Glen was picked precisely because he might have tested well for some attribute that would make the technique sink in fast. Or, perhaps it's just that if he flopped, they wouldn't have aired that episode!
Maybe the time needed for Photoreading to sink in varies.
Here is a newspaper's account of the pub quiz:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/1903777/Derren-Brown-turns-average-man-into-pub-quiz-genius.htmlPhyllis, who works for Mr. Brown, says:
DB can read at speeds of over 65,000 words per minute with the right book, a very strong coffee and with a recall rate of just over 94%. However after 5-6 minutes he starts emitting smoke from his ears and always states that he does not enjoy it.
65,000 words per minute is far beyond speed reading. Most people max out at about 800 or so. So this is not speed-reading, but something comparable to Photoreading.
DB does not work for Learning Strategies, nor does he offer a competing product. And he promotes himself as a skeptic.
Take that for what it's worth.
He also says that his version of the technique, at least, works best for memorizing information in isolation, in other words, picking out facts, figures, names, places, dates, that sort of thing. In one episode where he demonstrated the technique, he was able to recite a passage verbatim, by being told the page number. But he would not have been able to summarize a deeper analysis of a different type of book.
The librarian ostensibly picked the book, but not really. DB used a "forcing" technique on him, so that he would pick a type of book (an encyclopedia) that doesn't have any "deeper meaning" to analyze.
Oh, by the way, many people who can either speed read and/or Photoread say that they switch techniques, even dropping down into word-for-word reading if that seems appropriate to specific sections of text, depending on the nature of the text. So, this isn't really a secret. And Paul Scheele has already stated that you need to prime your mind with a specific purpose.
