Forums IMPORTANT: PLEASE READ PhotoReading, Memory Optimizer Photoreading

As Pete so kindly put it in another post, I’m one of those—albeit affectionately referred to as a couch potato—people who, on occasion since they are up all night will sit through an infomercial on photoreading. And while the ‘host’ of the show was scripted and/or was not giving off the most intelligent image, I was sufficiently impressed with the demonstration of the computer-based reading to seek out the web site and cost of the Photoreading package online. And while I realize and acknowledge that most of the recent products and innovations that have this underlying back-end flying around in Spiritual psycho-babble are usually all based on the same foundational principals, I also confess that my explorations to date of consciousness and subconsciousness on a personal level would lend me to think there might be some value to this product.
In any case, I’m somewhat suspicious of a product that attempts to make subconscious storage and retrieval appear as though it can be instantaneous and quick to learn. I don’t think any course could be so well engineered that ‘most people’ could grasp it quickly enough to really understand anything thing they read, regardless of pace. And while that’s cynical and perhaps downright mean to some, it is nevertheless true.

It is my contention then, and I know this could probably not be publicly declared, that this course is actually for those already with a reasonable, centered, realitively developed mind, that can ‘jump into’ the mindset needed to handle this operation. That degree of dynamicness in personality and mind comes after much work, and I don’t think this course has that potential or existing capability to handle it (though my cursory review could hardly be considered informed, which is the reason I’m posting this).

So, my question to the creator(s) is this: I am a 19 year old male, apt, reasonably intelligent, aware, and well-read, emotionally stable, able to focus intently for long periods, with a knack for mental visualization and an existing ‘odd’ memory that can sometimes be totally on cue and othertimes nowhere to be found --- what level of results could I anticipate from the book? And then, from the course?

It’s not that I’m too cheap. $245 is NOTHING for the skill that appears to be for sale. I would pay it in a heartbeat (and at my age and income, $245 is a substantial quantity of many other immediately tangible and satisfying things). I guess what I’m asking is whether or not possessing some or all of the prerequisites insofar as the mind-set is concerned will have any bearing on your overall, all said and done, performance. Given sufficient ambition, existing mental talent, and the thought that this is potentially a reasonable skill to harness the power of, can you achieve greater results than most?

Do you have any recommendations? Can you offer any other information that might be useful to me?

[This message has been edited by jedi (edited December 20, 2001).]

There is a difference between skepticism and cynicism so don't worry.

I think most of what you said is right on. Just like with Hypnosis. I learned recently that you can't hypnotize an idiot, they're already in a permanent form of hypnosis anyway (if you pour red paint into a bucket full of red paint you get... no change.) I think you do have to be on the "slightly above average side" to get PR to work. I think you also have to be able to notice small changes. We all know people who (for lack of a better word) are "plump" but think they're not. You can't see what you don't want to see.

My biggest problem was I already was a fast reader so doing PR was at first slower than what I was already doing. It was the VERY SMALL THINGS that kept me going and kept me from quiting, because I was going to.

I'm sure the last thing you want to hear is "Errr, yeah, it's the greatest, buy it, blah blah blah..." so I ain't going to say it. I'll say that at first it's not, and then it is.

I agree with Andy...in fact, you can learn a lot about Photoreading by doing a search on all of Andy's posts and reading his insights.

I'd like to compare Photoreading and learning how to walk. My son is 16 months old. He was a little behind developmentally because we were afraid to put him on his stomach (any new parents can understand that) so he only recently learned how to crawl. For him, crawling is were it's at!!! He can get around to wherever he wants to go, he has gained a sense of independence and freedom like he has never seen before.

He has only recently started to pull himself up to stand. And my wife and I take his arms while he is standing and encourage him to walk. He tries to take a few steps, but then gets extremely frustrated and threw a mild tantrum until we give up the walking practice and let him crawl. I thought this was particular until my wife realized that he does want to walk because crawling is so much faster to him. He will only realize through practice and experience that there is a limit to what he can do and where he can go when he is crawling. Then, once he realizes that through his experience, he will begin to want to walk.

The same is true for me in Photoreading. I took an Evelyn Wood class years ago and have since comfortably read at high comprehension at speeds over 2,400 wpm. I breezed through high school and college. I was fascinated with Photoreading, however, because Pete seemed to effortlessly breeze through materials at speed more than 100 times my fastest speeds....

Until I got the program. I was so used to speed reading being a conscious mastery of mechanical skills that the whole deep breathing, visualization, relaxation, neuro-linguistic, sub-conscious processing, accelerated learning hocus-pocus seemed absolutely bizarre. The first time I tried to "get into state" and maintain Photofocus it took me 25 minutes....in that time I could have read the book that I was trying to Photoread. Man was I frustrated. I was happy with my current reading and this Photoreading thing was too slow. But for some reason I continued to try to Photoread. Why? I couldn’t tell you. I just thought maybe I was missing something

Then, one day, I decided to stop crawling and started walking. I started noticing little things too... things like my dreams started to be about the texts I was Photoreading or I had an even greater command of language or that I was aware that I was using more of my natural genius (an experience that cannot be explained only experience) or mind mapping started becoming useful... and then, Photoreading clicked. I knew a book inside and out in less than 30 minutes....incredible.

For me, it took a complete reversal of everything I knew or thought that I knew about how to read and learn for me to get Photoreading. And I was able to accept the changes in my paradigms and do it. Photoreading was everything I didn’t know that I didn’t know.

That being said, I don’t think everyone can Photoread because everyone is not willing to challenge or accept changes in their paradigms of anything. If you are one of the fortunate that can, however, then successful Photoreading is only a matter of time.