Forums IMPORTANT: PLEASE READ PhotoReading, Memory Optimizer Photoreading- a concern

I am a student and as I was learning about Photoreading I came across a concern which makes me reluctant to commit to the system. I was wondering if anyone could dispel this, as I cannot understate how interesting Photoreading appears to be. I found an article on Photoreading that claimed to be a study of the system. It claims that Photoreading is not a valid method of learning as no knowledge is gained from the texts studied. It further claims it is detrimental to learning as it gives the subject an overblown sense of confidence on the topic they have studied. I am hoping that this can be easily disproven, as Photoreading would be invaluable to me. Thanks in advance

Would you provide a link to that article?

Unfortunately it was a printed article provided by a friend, as such I can't provide a link. It was titled 'A Preliminary Analysis of PhotoReading: No Sign of Magic' It conducted a series of tests comparing Photoreading to traditional reading. "for the expert PhotoReader, there was a substantial loss in efficiency for all three texts, more time was spent reading per correctly answered question when using the PhotoReading method as compared to reading the texts normally"..."As the trainee, I experienced this false feeling of confidence myself, particularly for the topic texts. After reading each of the texts, I estimated that my comprehension was as good as that for the texts read normally. For each text, after having PhotoRead the text, I read the text quickly using the rapid reading technique that I learned in the PhotoReading course. I then rapid read the text again at that point believing that I was ready to take the comprehension test. This over-confidence clearly led me astray given the evidence from my low comprehension scores for these texts" both of these are typical quotes from the article I am sorry I could not provide a more complete view of the study presented.

That report would be invalidated by the scientific community as inconclusive.

Fault lies with the fact that the Trainee was also the researcher. One cannot consider that unbiased.

Another fault is that only 2 people were subjects... Again a biased sample.

One of the subjects was a PhotoReading Instructor... again biased. A Experienced PhotoReader no longer "regular reads" So you have no comparison of their before and after results.

Education level and interest of these two individuals are not factored in, along with ages... again a biased representation of the world as a whole.

You have to factor in the human intention. If the human intends to ride a motor cycle through the air over 10 cars chances are he will do it. the 100,000 spectators sitting in the stand cannot and wouldn't try.

Alex

I wouldn't put any faith in an article. Anyone can write one and make it appear legitimate. Why would that article have any more credibility than posts written on this forum by people who can Photoread?

Not specifically related to Photoreading but to these skills in general, I've seen some really bad "studies" done by people with no training in NLP or hypnosis, and who were trying to prove the skills to be wrong ( and therefore showing it in their unconscious communication) fail in using the skills. There were people who did not establish rapport, use the proper tonality, calibrate, modify their approach to what they were calibrating, and simply used a pattern word for word and were able to get the technique to fail. Of course anyone can make any of these techniques fail. Some even appeared as articles in magazines.

The important question is can YOU Photoread. The book should be enough to learn from and it is not that expensive. The Photoreading step itself does not take very long.

Thanks for your replies, you have all been very helpful. Another concern of mine is that when activating the material I would not retain a good enough level of comprehension for it to be worthwhile. For that reason I was wondering what are the best methods of activation? Also I have a big exam soon and I was wondering the best method of studying a variety of kinds of texts, from languages to science and maths heavy materials. Thanks in advance

When it comes to the exam -if it is soon I would concentrate on more traditional study techniques. Photoread the text, then use traditional study techniques as activation.

I believe that it would be more useful to learn school/university subjects and photoreading separately.

First learn photoreading on lighter material, then apply it to the heavier texts.

All of the activation methods are valid, and it is very much a matter of personal taste as to which you would prefer to use in any situation.

Maths and science activation would often involve quite a lot of working problems (at least in my case! Other people may have a different experience).

I like to use MindMaps in most activation, in addition to superreading and dipping.

The asking of questions is primeordeal to any activation, as those become the fly-paper that the information will stick to, and where you will find access to it later.

In any case: Play with it, enjoy the process - there really is nothing to lose, because if you find that you much prefer "regular reading", you can always go back to it!

All the best,
K.