Scott Free Thinking

Well, there’s only a few more days before going on my first break, or hiatus, in December, and then there will be yet another one again in late April/May of next year, but before I go for much of this next month I’d like to talk a bit about one of my personally favorite topics - PhotoReading.

Now, I’ve mentioned PhotoReading before, and it’s a pretty interesting topic, I have to say, even after talking about it with numerous different people over the last 4 years since I learned it. To start with, I’ll explain a little bit about what PhotoReading is. The PhotoReading Whole Mind System, developed by Learning Strategies Corporation author Paul R. Scheele, is a unique method of processing printed information whereby you obtain a divergent gaze with your eyes and ‘PhotoRead’ at approximately a page per second, allowing your subconscious mind to take in information off the printed page for an entire book in 5 minutes or less. Sounds like a pretty substantial claim, and some have even tried to toss PR(PhotoReading) out the window, dismissing it as a hoax, scam, and not worthy of your time.

Let me just stress that the truth of the matter is that PhotoReading is not a scam, it is very true, and very powerful. I have been using it myself, at the time of this writing, for 4 years, since I was 14 years old. With PhotoReading, you subconsciously take in the printed information out of a book, and then consciously ‘activate’ that information upon going back through the material in a number of short passes. How does this work? Well, it works in five very simple steps, though I’m afraid I can’t give everything away here, because for one thing there is just too much to say.

Step 1: Prepare - In the first step of this system, author and creator Paul Scheele walks you through entering a brainwave frequency state deemed the ‘accelerative learning state,’ or more commonly known as the alpha state. The accelerative learning state is a condition of relaxed alertness where you are loose, free to act, and yet paying attention well and highly proactive in your actions. With this first step, you develop a mindset and attitude of plowing through material without worry, and also developing a purpose for what information you want out of whatever it is you’re reading.

Step 2: Preview - In the preview step, you slide through the information, gathering subtitles, keywords, and trigger words which determine the core content of the book. An interesting fact about many books is that only about 9%-14% of the book is the actual important material for most given purposes in going through them; the rest is much of the time only ‘filler’ material. I can think of a number of books that do this, for instance, just off the top of my head(and they’re great books!) like Sedona Method, or The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, and many, many others. Fictional novels are another story, but no matter what the material is that you’re going through: only a limited portion of the text is necessary for understanding, and this is important to have. Essentially in these first two steps, you’re determining what the book has to offer you, your purpose for going through the book, and also the gist of what the book is all about.

Step 3: PhotoRead - The actual ‘PhotoRead’ step is a lot of fun, for some, and for others this entire thing can be a bit tricky. Through an even focus in the eyes, or a ‘divergent gaze’ you flip through every single page of the book. In putting all the text into an even focus, you’re bypassing any conscious interference that your mind may have in processing the material. Given the concept that the subconscious is virtually infinite in its ability to process information over the conscious mind, this is an important component to the system as a whole. This gaze is essentially the same gaze you give to that of the ‘Magic Eye’ books, or stereogram images.

Step 4: Activate - In ‘Activation,’ you finally go into something that more clearly resembles what the majority of us know to be normal reading. You open the book back up, and through a number of techniques such as SuperReading, dipping, and other terms you’re going through the center columns of the pages, and picking out portions of the material that are important to your purpose and important to what you need to know out of the book. Activation is essentially getting involved, and interacting with the material; this is the most active kind of interaction you can take part in out of anything else you’ll see in speed reading courses, learning methods, or whatever it is you’re talking about. Activation is all about bringing the book to life, until the book as a whole ‘gels.’

Step 5: Rapid Read - I think this step is kind of funny in that, if it existed by itself, the PhotoReading Whole Mind System wouldn’t be a ’system’ at all, but would instead just be normal reading. The thing that differentiates rapid reading from normal reading, however, is the fact that this step takes place after the first four steps, and is completely optional. Rapid Reading is going through the book, reading it, from start to finish when you’ve decided that there’s more you may want from the material than what you’ve already gotten, but you’re just not quite sure what it is you’re looking for.

One of the coolest things about PhotoReading is that yes, it is faster than regular reading, and yes, you can flip through books at a page per second, and yes - you will get through information at least three times faster than you did before after successively learning it, but the really great thing is its practicality, and how different it is, as a way to read books. You won’t just be reading faster, you have the opportunity, with PhotoReading, to completely make over and revolutionize the way you handle information. For some people that have hated reading in the past, PhotoReading has been their ticket to being passionate intellectuals and pursuing their own research, establishing new career paths, and so on.

PhotoReading can also be used to interact with lucid dreams, which is perhaps one of the most exciting aspects of it. While activating books via lucid dreams is not always a very practical solution, it can totally change your experience with the information you’ve processed in that book. You can PhotoRead a book, skip the activation steps, go to sleep, become lucid(aware that you’re dreaming), and then recall and recognize the material of that book as its projected right in front of you, with full 3D and sensational detail by your inner mind! If you read Einstein’s biography, you can sit there and have a conversation with him about his life!

Most people writing research papers, books, or whatever you’re talking about in the academic field wouldn’t consider lucid dreams or integrating PhotoReading with other visualization and thought process/mental enhancement methods like Image Streaming, but PhotoReading is the kind of thing that makes all of these abstract, out-there methods very practical, fun to do, and clearly puts these things on a pedestal in how they can offer such a great benefit to so many people in the long run should they pursue mastering these techniques and tools.

You can check out PhotoReading and other courses by LSC at their website, www.LearningStrategies.com