I was skeptical too but I bought the book. Wow was my response. Later I received the course as a present and the course is the book on steroids. If you go to one of the large bookstores you will find a 300 page paperback called Skeletons Of The Sahara, which tells the harrowing story of a ship captain Riley's wreakage off the coast of Morroco in 1817 and his trek as a slave across the Sahara. I read that book in two hours previewing, photoreading, speed reading and dipping. My focus was to learn how the desert people survived in the harshest environment imaginable. The people were the Sharawi. By using PR I knew almost instantly what parts of the book had this information and I am a beginner. I did go over the rest of the book because it was a good read. By the way did you know that 200 locusts make 12oz of paste which makes a very good meal full of vitamin D and vitamin C and that you have to crush them into a paste an let them dry for 3 days?
I read one book on my 40 minute commute by train to work. One of the exercises in the course is to pick up any book of your choice and work with it for 20 minutes. You will know what the book is about in quite bit of detail.
There is also a dictionary test that is pretty amazing and you can only do it by photoreading. While the course is called photoreading that is one step in the course but a very important one. Doing the system without PR is like driving with you emergency brake on. If you can get the course it's much better than the book.
One point it is a skill, when I first started with the book, it wasn't as easy as working through the course, but like most people I wasn't really following all the steps. You think you are but you would be surprised what you miss. I am getting faster by just doing 3 books a day just doing the PR step.
One point many skeptics like myself missed is that spontanious activation is not necessary to use the system. You will activate using skittering or superreading and dipping and mind mapping. The course gives some other techniques to do this.
Second point, start with easier well organized books. Even the speed reading courses will tell you pick easier books at first. If you start out with an economic textbook you will get frustrated. You can get there but remember your 3rd grade reading teacher didn't toss the Brothers Karamazov at you for a book report.
Last point, this is not speed reading and it's not just skimming a text over and over again. I did speed reading courses and I found all of them stressful. PR is not.
