Tully, The day I left school I think is the day I actually started learning. It's been a hit and miss affair for over 20 years. One of the most valuable lessons in learning for me was having to study by correspondance. Distance learning was not unusual in Australia. Now with the interent things go a little bit better and a lot faster. We have more interaction with other students in the form of forums etc.
The school I went to cheated on my school certificate. Said I studies Art, Music and didn't even have teachers for the subjects (they gave me a passing grade) if it wasn't for the fact that I studied German by correspondance they would have had to fib about that too 
The accerated learning side of things I fell into through the Silva Method which I learnt in 1990 I was ready to do the instructor training after having completed the inital pre instructor training courses.
The article mentioned in how to catch a butterfly post has been written. Since it's rather long (18 pages)I've asked someone to review/proofread it for me in case I should chop it down or elaborate some more. I'll let you know when it becomes available.
For activation probably the easiest way to get a hang of it is get a timer. Set it for 20 minutes. Take your first 3 questions and scan/superread/skitter and dip the area of the book that will probably answer your question.
When you find the answers make a note on your mind map. And answer another question or two until the time is up. Stick with it the full 20 minutes. Know that the first ten minutes you are just getting into the flow of it getting the feel of the book. You usually strike gold after the first 10 minutes the first few times you work at activation. Then when the first 20 minutes are up spend about 5 to 10 minutes on your mind map. Noting thoughts and ideas that came up.
Take a five minute break and then do the above again. This time it will seem a bit easier, at the end of this session you have a 15 minute break. Walk around, stretch play, catch with the dog, do something physical just get well away from your study area for 15 minutes.
Then set the timer again for 20 minutes. repeating the sequence above. If you only spend 5 minutes doing a mind map after your activation you'll be doing 4 activation sessions in just over 2 hour period including the breaks. Because of the way a book is activated, it sometimes isn't until the 3rd activation session that you feel it is coming together that it's starting to make sense.
An alternate technique is activate the book chapter by chapter. Do this by turning each chapter heading into a question as you go along. Then do it for each subheading rephrase is so that it becomes a question. This is a good method because you know the answer is in the following paragraph. Particularly if you find the subject difficult to understand normally.
Try that for manual activation and see how you go. 
Alex
