Photoreading
So I go on so much about photoreading I thought I’d add a page to explain it here.
Photoreading is a system devised by Paul R. Scheele of Learning Strategies Corporation. 
Speedreading techniques focus around widening your visual field so that you can read and process more words per eye fixation, reducing the need to “sub-vocalise” text to process it. Sub-vocalisation is the limiting factor on reading speed, however anything more than 1,000 words per minute isn’t speed reading, it’s skimming, which means that comprehension takes a nose dive.
Photoreading on the other hand can produce effective reading speeds of 25,000 words a minute, using a five step process to put the reader in to an accelerated learning state that allows you to identify the important information from within the text before blasting through it using the photofocus state.
There’s tremendous variation in the information value of different books. Many books I read only had one or two useful ideas. Some books weren’t worth reading at all. A few books had me hanging on every word. But regardless of each book’s value to me, I still spent roughly the same amount of time reading each word. The Catch-22 was that I had to read each book to determine whether it was worth reading in the first place.
PhotoReading solves this dilemma with its nonlinear, multipass method of reading. You don’t just blindly dive in and read a book word by word. Instead you progressively read the book at increasing levels of depth until you reach the point of diminishing returns.
With PhotoReading your first pass through a book takes about 5 minutes. In some cases you’ll stop there because you’ve extracted all the key ideas you wanted, and it wouldn’t be worthwhile to invest any more time in the book. In other situations you’ll continue making additional passes until you’ve squeezed as much juice out of the book as you’re going to get — that might take you as long as 2 hours total. With PhotoReading the amount of time you spend on each book is proportional to its value to you. The system will give you the tools to do this, and it’s quite amazing how synergistically they work together.
Here are some of the key benefits of PhotoReading — I’ve personally experienced all of these:
- Read books at least 3 times faster. I’d say that’s the low end. Some books you’ll be able to read 10 times faster — or more.
- Read more books. The faster you read, the more you can read.
- Read faster online. PhotoReading adapts nicely to online articles and blog posts. You’ll be amazed at how quickly you can blast through this site’s 500+ free articles.
- Extract ideas more efficiently. PhotoReading’s nonlinear, multipass reading strategies allow you to extract the key ideas from a book without getting sidetracked by the fluff.
- Avoid reading lousy books. In just a few minutes, you’ll determine whether a book is worth reading… or discarding. You’ll love using this technique the next time you visit a bookstore.
- Improve your memory. Because you’re focused on idea extraction instead of scanning every word, you’ll retain more of what you read.
- Enjoy reading more. PhotoReading keeps your mind fully engaged, so reading becomes much more stimulating.
So here are a few FAQs to help you:
Is PhotoReading different from speed reading?
Yes, because your eyes do not move down the page - you mentally photograph two pages at once without moving your eyes.
I’ve tried speed reading - and I don’t enjoy racing through text. PhotoReading for me is relaxing and rewarding, without any of the stress of speed reading.
With PhotoReading I can understand the gist of any book in 3-5 minutes and can master key concepts in 10-15 minutes.
Will I still be able to read books for enjoyment at my current reading speed?
Yes, definitely. I tend to read novels at normal speed and non-fiction using my PhotoReading skills. I’ve even PhotoRead one or two novels first before reading them at normal speed. I’ve not noticed any difference myself yet but some PhotoReaders find that they get more out of the novels this way.
Is it easy to learn PhotoReading?
Yes - anyone willing to learn can do it. the innovative techniques are straight forward and easy to put into practice. I got results within the first few hours of starting PhotoReading, which gave me extra encouragement to learn more and get the most from the course.
What is the upper speed limit for PhotoReading?
Paul Scheele, principal developer of PhotoReading, has PhotoRead books at 68,000 words a minute with 74% comprehension - and is currently testing at higher speeds. You may have seen Paul McKenna’s late night documentary on hypnosis in April 1995. the programme showed McKenna PhotoReading a novel that scrolled across a Cray’s computer screen at over 200,000 words a minute - and he scored over 70% in a subsequent comprehension test.
How do I learn photoreading?
The two principal methods are:
1. Buy the Photoreading whole mind system book from Amazon or similar. This covers all of the steps and is more than enough to learn the process and develop the skill.
2. Cough up the dough for the learning course. With 8 cds, a workbook, the above book and more this is a longer, more detailed and organic way to learn not only the steps, but the importance of the steps and nuances to improve your photoreading. This is the approach that I have taken and it is certainly paying off.
Alternatively, request a free info CD ROM from Learning Strategies to see what all the fuss is about first hand.
