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Stweet,

So are you telling me you cannot go to a bookstore or a library and take a fiction book that has absolutely nothing to do with school and just enjoy a book?

Are you saying you cannot touch a fiction book that is not related to school and just enjoy the fiction story?

Are you saying that a fiction book that has no test or examination attached to it that you cannot simply enjoy the book for reading pleasure?

Photoread4me

Stweet,

I suggest you follow the steps of the system. I think all the problems you are having are because you do not follow the steps of the system.

Photoread4me

Why would one not have any purpose when he holds a book in his hands? I don't remember when in my life I just turned pages of a book aimlessly. I would rather find it tough to go through a book without a purpose! I verified this by asking 8 more people around me, and they all find this idea of going through a book without a purpose really ridiculous; regardless what technique of reading they employ.

Stweet,

When you asked the 8 or more people around you did you share with these people that you yourself attempted to activate without having a purpose.

No one is telling you not activate with no purpose what I am trying to tell you is that if you do not have a purpose you will not have success in activating a book.

You asked why would anyone not have a purpose when they have a book in front of them well ask yourself why you did not have a purpose in your previous activation attempts.

You would need to ask the people who choose to ignore purpose why did they choose to ignore purpose when activating a book.

Another factor that could be involved in why some people do not have a purpose may be that they are learning and they have not yet developed the skill of setting a purpose.

I do not understand why you are so reluctant to establish a purpose. I think we have already given you all the information you need to succeed you just need to apply the information we have given you.

Photoread4me

Stweet, - I'm interested in knowing how you measure your success or failure with a book? How many activation layers and how long before you decide?

Lot of people pick up a book and think they know their purpose but they cannot articulate it. If you cannot do that you're not building that body mind connection. For some the book is part of the course. And that they think is their purpose. It's not. The purpose or prepare and tapping your purpose is identifying what that book can do for you. What is Your purpose when you read a non-fiction book?



If your purpose is to summarise the book in a few pages, yes it can be done. Naturally you need to acknowledge this is your purpose. >>>so that I can<<< summarise the book for others to consider reading.

Good reading actually tries to predict what the author will say next or how what suggestions they offer to solve the problems they discussed? Have you even followed the authors train of thoughts? Do you realise, How to (title) often cover many things involved in a subject you can always have more than one purpose.

Your purpose of summarising a book is one of many possible, So that I can help my son, daughter, mother, father. So that I can start a new career, so that the interviewers can tell I know enough to be considered for a job.

If you think a purpose is redundant then for you reading the book is even more redundant. Because you told you greater mind that you think it's redundant. You're succeeding in making a mess of reading.



When I read that. I couldn't help groaning. That sentence is a wonderful example of self programming. Now consider is that a statement you want your non-conscious mind to act on? Because act on it will.

We always, always have a purpose for everything we do. Most of it is habit driven. And acknowledging our purpose is our greatest taboo. No I'm not joking.

As kids when our elders asked us why we did that? Didn't we think things through? How did we come up with such a dumb idea?

What do we say? I don't know... Auto response when asked what is your purpose the habitual answer is I Don't Know. But yeah I got a purpose.


The point is you're not consciously allowing yourself to acknowledge it. Stop saying purpose is redundant. And answer my challenge either here or in private.

Name 5 books you activated and what was your purpose and if you discovered more than one liSt it.

Very rarely do those who hope to learn PhotoReading do that with me. Those who do start to understand how to bring their purpose to conscious mind..

To say that purpose is redundant is giving in to I 'Don't Know' And if you don't want to know you aren't going to succeed with activation.



I prefer short term goals. Often students have books that will see them through 3 or more years of education. They work with the book over the course of a year. Keeping an eye on the long term goal and working with the book for the more immediate goal of passing this particular section of the course is a huge stretch and a harder stretch on self motivation.

It's easier to focus on the more immediate goal of "activating this chapter for 20 minutes so that I can understand the lecturer better tomorrow." Will give you better insights than a goal of, "being successful in my own business which I'm planning to start in 1 or more years."

Alex

WHAT I BELIEVE IS MISSING OUTin all the attempts is finally why we need the book and what we want to comprehend.any book has a theme.Primarily one has to look into how the entire book is divided .The author in her/his table of contents provides a theme.but that doesnt help much cause we understand only when we process the information conciously in a certain way .That certain way is guided by our purpose.let me elucidate further.take a book.lets say we are motivated to read it.now whatever process we adopt to read ,we need to first get to know whats the big picture.then we need to know how that picture is painted or described by the author .Then we need to be clear what we want from the book.Let me explain further.I am reading Tony RObbins latest book "Money,Master the game" for me its an easy read.616 pages.the first few activation helped me divide the book into the following:
part 1 motivation and fluff( i love it though!!!)
part 2 debunking myths
part 3 investment strategy
part 4 interview with billionaires.
Now my purpose is "to develop a investment strategy for a lifetime and get my finances handled so that i can enjoy a great life and protect my wealth."now because i arranged the book consciously into the 4 parts above where do you think i will spend more time!!! Part 3 of course.Mind you most of the investment ideas TOny speaks may not apply in India.But the philosophy is amazing.
He not only helps uus with understanding how to set our goals he also tells us to create asset allocation adn then explains how to get income from the investment when we retire.Its full cycle .

What photoreading helped me is to get to the stage i am in now to activate further.Out of 616 pages 200 odd pages are at most helpful so i will be developing my questions and strategies to activate these first.

Once i get answers through these section i dont feel motivated to do any other parts.I may , for example ,on the interview part is going to do "one rapid read".Cause tony asks questions and the experts answer.In case on review i need to understand further i may activate again.

Now Paul and other experts like Alex give you a generic way to attempt the books but one needs to understand what they mean .the power of photoreading is multifold.2 of the most important aspects as per me are:
1.its goal oriented.
2.the skills dont deteriorate in time. once you learn to categorize books and ideas and consciously work on deciding where you must focus ?what is your purpose? and do it more and more and more consciously you will extract the required info from the books faster and faster.

That's why so much emphasis has been laid on mind maps.

Mind maps do just that it categorizes information.But then one must go further and decide and use the mind map to understand where to focus further based on what they want from the book.
where do you want more and where can you find more.
My mind map for the above tony robbins book is only on the part i want info on...i will not mind map the whole books.Earlier i used to go chapter wise and do the entrie drill and over a period of time i kept honing my skills i asked myself what do i really want and now its easy .in fact the first 4 or 5 activation session i dont mindmap at all i have a general form in my mind about the authors tehme and i decide by then what i want and zoom into the parts i want.

Thats why paul says "mind map what you want from the book" not the entire book.

We are not conditioned to be goal oriented so Photo-reading appears cumbersome and repetitive.

the first few Activation sessions should help us decide where we want to focus what is our purpose and then zoom into the areas we can get more.

That's why activating textbooks doesn't help us to develop skills in this way ,cause in a textbook everything is important,especially when it comes to preparing for an exam.Of course if we activate textbooks for a particular skill ,the game is different.But developing skills help us with texts book also,one cannot describe it but the game (activation)gets easier and easier !!

And i am not saying anything new all this has already been said many times on this forum

My question to you is why have'nt you quit photo-reading if its troubling you?is there anyone pointing a gun on your head and forcing you to do it?

I doubt it!!!

And since we develop skills in super reading and skittering to pick words and phrases to get the content of whole paras and pages Novels also become great fun.And mind you its because we have already photoread the book we get the full import of the text by reading the words and phrases (the 4 to 11 % that contain meaning).Get to getting good with that and you have got into the game.Get to proving to yourself that the 4 to 11% will get me the full meaning of the text and you will get creative enough to activate!!!Thats the challenge,thats where the mind-probes help you!!

But you get there by lots of activation ,you get to getting the entire import of words and phrases by lots and lots of activation.So thats why do more and more of the 5 day test and dump frustration.Dump frustration doesnt mean you are going to get it in the next book but you are certainly going to get frustrated with the next book so dump it again.

Get the bigger perspective first and arrange and categorise and summarise and then zoom into what you want.That in a nutshell is my view of photoreading!!!

THe biggest obstacle is "I want to know it all"

Really? even i have been doing this...i used to take a book and get down to the whole drill and due to professional and personal commitments i used not get time to get to the book for a brief period or for a longer time in some cases.

Then on coming back i used to feel hey !! i don't need to go further i have had enough info .So what was missing,my self analysis told me "did you set a good purpose did you decide what you want from the book where you honest ?" so that's why i now make time to make that clear and get brutally honest with myself every time i activate.may take more time but helps me get the info i want very fast!!

The time the period the the gap the intervals where helping me clarify what i want?That's the whole idea behind Purpose?

Even Novels can have a purpose ...to enjoy and that's a big purpose ,of course ,"to enjoy ",now with the time available the choice to activate at super speeds or recite it like a poem is a choice we have to make based on our circumstance and that's what photoreading ---prepare tells us "get honest" what do you need and how much time and effort are you willing to make?" don't lie to yourself you just have 10 mins and you want to read through "war and peace like wanting to script to a movie ?" really can you?No zip through the essentials and come back to it when you retire!!!

have a nice day!

Hello Alex,


Bit misunderstanding here, it was for photoread4me's statement. I meant, Photoread4me mentioning the importance of purpose almost everywhere regardless the original query; is reduntant. He is a nice helpful veteran on this forum, but his statements about purpose are so highly repeatative , that they really have started to loose their meaning. And, also because they dont fit in this context as well.

Why would I say purpose is reduntant! I just cant.

My purpose is to consume information. Because I need to. My profession and further studies deal with huge amount of information and data. I play with information day and night regardless I need it for my future benefits. It is a part of my profession. So, this slightly differs with the reading goals of majority of people who have posted on this forum. Many need to find something in the book. They are not interested in everything. They have questions that need to be answered. In my case, I need to understand and remember huge amount of information.

I am having a tough time dealing with this issue. Thats why I raised this query to make sure Photoreading could help me make this easier for me. I must mention, Photoreading has helped me increase my speed with text material.

Though the query is originally mine, I also found something that goes on the same lines. Darren Brown; in his book- tricks of the mind, pages 63-64, also raises the same question.

Thank you,

Stweet

Hello Adarsh,

Nice post. I am interested knowing if you have used photoreading for writing reports. Also, where you feel it isnt suitable.

My belief with photoreading goes as- it can help me with my purpose of savoring huge amount of information with ease and with better memory. There is no point quitting it. No one really likes pushing their eyes word by word for the entire book! I also believe if all of the people in the world started photoreading, we would build a better and more meaningful world.


What if I really want to know it all?

Thank you,

Stweet

How much time are you willing to put in to know it all?It will take as much time to know it all.The method to extract information and getting the picture will reduce as you do it more and more.

Writing reports.
I use the concept of PRWMS on everything ,not necessarily photo-read everything.
Even sometime if i need to read an article word to word i use the system.
Paul says in one of the cds you will not go at lightening speeds to fetch some material from a grocery shop which is just few yards away.Similarly i find the concepts of superread and skitter useful in short articles.I don't photoread them.

The whole idea is multiple read and that too in a structured way.Helps us get better and better.

Let me tell you what i have understand after going through this system.The biggest obstacle for us is to acknowledge wether the system is working for us!!!thats why we get all these doubts.

You will want to know whether you have got it.And since every book is a new one and a new challenge it will be difficult to gauge things. That's when frustration builds and you ask yourself does it work?

Best is start mastering one type of knowledge or work one particular area which you are motivated to know.Say finance or geography or something related to your work or profession.

Work on the text books.then work on all type of books in the field thats when you will know this system is marvelous.
cause your knowledge keeps building ,your recognition is faster your assimilation is faster,your mind maps get easier.the tony robbins book i spoke of earlier ,for each chapter its hardly 3 or 4 words and i know what he is speaking here.partially because i pursued an MBA in finance and i know what he speaks most of the time.I have so much background knowledge i easily connect to my earlier database.

So the best way to judge PRWMS is work in one field in one ara for a considerable amount of time and see if your knowledge builds ,if your recognition builds.

thats my view .Thats how i find it working for me.

Even if it is a struggle for some time ,you will recognise the speed you will start building as days go by.If you work on too many areas at one time you will not know if you are making progress,you may be but i feel the brain is at a disadvantage by being judged on multiple areas simultaneously.Once your beliefs are in you can explore anything.I see my understanding in Physics has also increased.I photo-read Halliday and Resnik and keep activating for 20 ins a week on important definitions and theories and i understand it much better and connect to them easily!!!

Also since you work n one area you will also reduce lot of stress!!

Focus is the key here!!

i also worked on an important limiting belief.See if this works for you.We all want to be or prove that we are smart to the external world.We want to be acknowledged "wow he gets this very fast".This limits us cause to prove this time becomes our deadliest enemy.Now i believe, i get it ,when i get it and i put in all the effort until i get it!!!

i cannot prove this scientifically but i know that each of us have our own way of learning ,so its about how much we are motivated.our purpose!!!!

There-in lies your purpose. Recognise it and you'll recognise what you need from the text.

You're not the only one who consumes information. I have read over 250 books this year. And by that, I mean, I went in for the details. Not just one or two activation layers. Activated to a point where I could write a similar book as I have just read. Why? Because I like to stay informed and be of service. I know not everyone around me takes in information.

It's made a huge difference to me when I articulated my purpose. It doesn't require much thinking anymore. It made a huge difference to my learning.

Misunderstanding or not. Words have power and words you voice are yours. You can look at your words and see where you're thinking and limiting yourself or you can explain them away for yourself and others.

As it is, you've not met my challenge to name a book and your purpose with that book. You have a broad purpose but it doesn't apply with every book

An example.

ONe walk onto a campus with a certain intention of talking with a particular professor. To simplify finding the directions to his office one ask someone along the way. One sees someone outside the janitors office next to the janitor trolley. One ask them if they know the way to the professors office. Janitor says, yes and gives one the directions, but... and one take off not noticing that the janitor was offering more information. One is so focused on the sole purpose of getting information from this professor that one won't stop listening to the janitor. If one had stayed and listened, one would have learned that the professor is not in the office.

With that information ones purpose would have changed and one would now have the purpose of finding the professor not just his office. Now the questions is where is the professor? With that one is told you're talking to him. First perceptions can be deceiving.

The corridors of the campus is the book. The Janitor is some of the pages of the book. If you don't watch your purpose you wind up roaming the corridors (the book) never actually finding what you're looking for. You miss the It's not here, and yet here is something else of value if you're in touch with your purpose.

BTW - You haven't explained how you determine success or failure with the PhotoReading system. How are you measuring this?

Alex