Customer Reviews

The Photoreading Whole Mind System

5 star:		(57)
4 star:		(22)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(51)

 

 

I've been working at this "PhotoReading" think diligently now for several days. After I first looked at the book, I thought it was the most cockamamie thing I'd ever heard of, but then, perhaps more from hope than common sense, I began to change my mind. It seemed like there might be something to it...that, in theory, it *should* work. So I got the faith, so to speak, and plunged in.

The basics of PhotoReading are simple enough: you preview the text, page through the book rapidly, while maintaining an unfocused gaze at the pages (thus "nonconsciously," as the author puts it, photographing them), let it incubate for a while, then skim the book, and, if necessary, go back and speed read it. Very broadly, that's it.

Right there, it should be apparent that what is giving you a grasp of a text's contents--if anything is--are the repeated trips back into the text, not the hoodoo-ism of PhotoReading itself.

I've tried it. I have not received any benefit whatsoever from the PhotoReading itself, although, of course, repeated trips back to the text have been helpful.

One way the author is able to assert that you can read 25,000 words a minute is by, in fact, urging you NOT to read them. He maintains that only 4-11% of a text contains useful information. REALLY! I don't know what kinds of books he reads, but the books *I* read are hardly so much fluff!

The author seems to give himself a back door, too, in case you can't get PhotoReading to work for you. If PhotoReading doesn't work for you, it's because you care about the outcome. No kidding. In other words, for instance, graduate students who have a pile of books to cleave through should not worry about this...otherwise it won't work. That's like saying, "Don't think about a green banana"--the first thing you think about is a green banana. Of course people are going to be concerned about their mastery of a text...if they weren't, there would be no need for it, and the very people who MOST need to be able to PhotoRead will be least able to make it work.

This is a slim paperback, and an overpriced one at that. There is a measure of slick, salesman-like smarminess to it, too. For instance, the back cover loudly proclaims, "Includes a free coupon for two powerful audio tapes, _Memory Supercharger_ and _Personal Genius_." Okay, cut to the coupon: Immediately, you see that, literally, the COUPON is free (as most in this world are), and that the tapes are FAR from free! Furthermore, throughout the book, and for 7 full pages at the end, Paul Scheele is peddling his other services.

All this notwithstanding, there is *some* useful information here. As an introduction to memory/learning techniques like Mind Mapping, it serves as an adequate introduction. PhotoReading is not any substitute, however, for true speed reading. I will continue to work at this, though, just in case...and if I change my mind about this technique, I will retract what I have said here with the same stridency with which I am offering it now.

I read every review here and couldn't stop laughing.

Photoreading does do something and is definately worth the $(dollar amount). My grades were C's and now I'm easily getting B's and A's with less effort so I'm very happy but it's not anything like they tell you it is. Paul is a cool guy and I think he means well and wants to help people but he took Tony Robbins' idea of modeling just a little too far with this PR course. Every "step" of PR is taken directly from another book and re-named something else. The relaxation process is standard pre-hypnosis stuff, affirmations (more hypnosis), purposes and questions (NLP), photoreading (Mental Photography, Subliminal Dynamics and Brain Management course), Superreading/Dipping/Skittering/RapidReading (standard runofthemill speedreading techniques), Mind Mapping (Tony Buzan's book). There just ain't anything here that's NEW. The Photoreading step really does something but it's not what they say it is. Yes you do get hunches, feelings and intuitive thoughts comming to you after you PR but big deal. You still have to read it all in order to understand those feelings. I think that PR is an excellent study method for students but a poor way to read a book you are interested in. It's great for going thru mountains of information when you know what you're looking for but terrible for reading a book for the purpose of learning new ideas. If you do nothing but Photoread then rapid read books from now on, the $(dollar amount) you spent will be worth it. Running thru the steps has helped my grades and I think SuperReading and dipping is 10 times faster than speedreading. Having all these individual steps together in one book is quite an accomplishment because they all work together (for NLP's auditory, kinesthetic, visual learners) but when all is said and done, if you've just Pr'd/Superread/dipped a book you've not really read all the words and are more than likely missing out of things. I think it's an outstanding study method for something you've READ before and now you're memorizing certain key facts for tests (because that's what I do now) but it's not anything like they say it's like. Syntopic reading is a killer way to do a report though. That chapter alone was worth $100+ to me last semester.

I'd like to remain anonymous because I've said online before (not here though) that Photoreading did not work for me and I probably turned people away from it with my negative comments. I did the tape course about a year ago and came to the conclusion that it didn't work as well as they claimed. Anyway, I just gave my final speech in speech class and I used what I learned in Photoreading to prepare for them all. Before this semester I really had no way (other than pleasure reading) of testing it. I spent approximately 5 hours this semester preparing all my speeches. Everyone else spent between 30 and 50 hours on the 4 speeches we had to do. I've come to the conclusion that Photoreading is for research reading, not pleasure reading. I feel terrible for badmouthing it before and hope someone will listen to me now when I say IT REALLY DOES WORK if you are reading to solve a specific problem or have specific questions you need answered. The book has alot more information than the course. Most of the course is wasted on relaxation exercises and the guy repeating stuff that's just in the book. Reading 1 book at a time is a total waste of time using this system, in my opinion. It's really good for taking on huge projects requiring reading multiple books and searching within mountains of information. Used on 1 book it can be beaten by normal speedreading. When it comes to pleasure reading, forget it. I just wanted to set the record straight. It's a tool for blasting thru non-pleasure reading and I highly recommend it if you're a student or have a job requiring alot of reading.

I'm glad I didn't buy this book/system, here's why:

While looking for information on how I can improve my reading skills I stumbled across LSC's PhotoReading website and was truly amazed with their promises. Being able to read at least three times faster and that's just the beginning? Eventually being able to read 25,000 words per minute? WOW! In my naive mindet I got all excited and started thinking about all the books I wanted to read. The website included testimonials and claimed that "PhotoReading has appeared nationally on hundreds of radio shows, including network broadcasts, and many television shows."

The whole course costs approximately $250, now that's a lot of money! I decided to do some research first and see what other people had to say, interestingly the only credible study I could find was conducted by NASA, here's what their report said:

The results for all measures yielded no benefits of using the PhotoReading technique. The extremely rapid reading rates claimed by PhotoReaders were not observed; indeed, the reading rates were generally comparable to those for normal reading. Moreover, the PhotoReading expert generally showed an increase in reading time when using the PhotoReading technique in comparison to when using normal reading strategies to process text. This increase in reading time when PhotoReading was accompanied by a decrease in text comprehension.

If you already bought into the hype and don't believe me see for yourself, http://www.sti.nasa.gov/Pubs/star/star0003.pdf - it's on page 146. Apparently this program doesn't work after all. Not only that, like another reviewer on Amazon mentioned it seems like this book only gets extremely positive or negative reviews; I took the liberity to look at the profiles of people who wrote a positive review and it turns out that most of them reviewed many books similar to this (kudos to LSC's marketing department for reviewing their own books) and they all received 5 stars.

Don't buy into this new hype, it's nonsense. Anyone who looks at a book for a couple of minutes and reads the chapter headings will be able to tell you what the book is about, it doesn't take PhotoReading to do that! If you really feel a need to waste money I suggest you send it to me and I'll be more than glad to teach you something you already know and even come up with some fancy words like PhotoReading, you'll get your money's worth, I promise.

Hi there;) Being interested in the system I spent several months on the system and on reading message boards in @ photoreading.com's discussion forum. Without giving away any "secrets" the five overall steps to photoreading a book is basically this 1. Prepare - get relaxed and focused, 2.Preview - look at the covers, table of contents, etc, get a feel for it. 3. Photoread - cross your eyes and flip through the book more or less. 4. Superread - flip through the book again and only slow down for what seem to catch your eye. 5. Rapid Read - PICK UP THE BOOK YET AGAIN AND SPEED READ IT(as fast as you consciously can), I KID YOU NOT THIS IS THEIR LAST STEP.

Except for the novelty of the PHOTOREADING step, this is what is usually called by more straightforward folk BROWSING (steps 1,2,4) and SKIMMING (step 5) a book.

They have no comprehension tests to back up their claims other than True/False and Multiple Choice (with obvious answers) where they point to any test with above 50 score as your "other than conscious" mind at work (as opposed to the laws of probability).

If you like still like the promise of the system (letting your "other than conscious mind" doing all the hard work for you) by all means buy it, it will probaly work as well as all those other wonderful systems touted through infomercials 3am in the morning.

If your looking to improve you memory please look up on this fine web site "The Memory Book" by Harry Lorayne which is more intellectually honest and comes with everything but a brain willing to work hard supplied hopefully by the reader:)

The 'Whole Mind System' described in this short, easy book is very effective. It is not a list of obvious improvements to the mechanical aspects of reading, but rather a how-to guide on visualization and related methods of honing concentration and utilizing more of your brain in the task of reading. Photoreading reams of blueprints, reports, computer manuals, professional exam study materials, etc. saved me from literally months of frustration. This knowledge was much easier to assimilate and retain than before I used the techniques described in this book.

However, the only thing about Scheele and company I like is his photoreading book - not even the 'Natural Brilliance' book. Stay off their mailing list, or they will relentlessly hawk various paraliminal products and seminars that, in my opinion, border on the occult.

I heard a radio program about PhotoReading. They promised being able to get through information three times faster--and that got my attention. After reading the PhotoReading website, I got the book.

The book exceeded my expectations. While it teaches the basic reading improvement techniques, all of which I had been following, I saw a huge leap in my reading speed when I tried something called the tangerine technique--very cool. It involves putting an imaginary tangerine on the back of the head which has some effect on how the brain reads. My speed increased immediately. (I got to say that it was a little weird doing it, but it worked.)

The book also has an unusual technique called PhotoReading, which, they say, is mentally photographing the printed page. It is a way for your brain to absorb large quantities of information. You can PhotoRead a book in 2-5 minutes. If you want to fully understand the information, you have to "activate" the information. While this takes time, I found I can activate an entire book in about 1/4 the time it would have taken to read it. That's better than the promise of three times faster.

I'd get the book if for no other reason than to try the tangerine technique. If you are so moved, learn the full PhotoReading system. It's nothing like speed reading. I took a speed reading course twenty years ago--I even repeated the course--and it doesn't compare to PhotoReading.

I read some of the other reviews here, and I wonder whether we read the same book. It's been well over a year since I read the book, and I still unconditionally recommend PhotoReading.

I attended the four-day PhotoReading workshop in early 1992 under the instruction of the co-developer of the technology, Patricia Danielson.

In fact, I was the organiser of that first PhotoReading workshop in Singapore & simultaneously, I was also one of the thirty like-minded participants.

[It is pertinent to mention that I also started a small bookstore at about the same time. I love to read & so I thought a book store would certainly help to fuel & bankroll my reading hobbies.]

Frankly speaking, I had very ambivalent feelings after the workshop. This was partly due to my training as an engineer, since my logical mind kept censoring my thoughts & actions.

I even had problems viewing the random dot stereograms as part of the training in developing 'soft focus'.

It was only about one year later that I started to embrace the PhotoReading techniques. What I had done was just learning to let go...to get on with the PhotoReading tasks as instructed in the program...to go with flow, so to say...& stop myself from 'intellectualising' every move I made along the way.

I managed to see the random dot stereograms without even 'trying'. I finally succeeded in PhotoReading. Since then, my reading pursuits went into warp speeds.

Therefore, I can relate quickly to many reviewers who threw pot shots at the PhotoReading book.

Here, I want to share with readers how to go about it, based on my personal experience. Actually, Donald Mitchell, founder of The Billionaire Entrepreneurs Master Mind, had already outlined how he had done it in his very positive review of PhotoReading. Please read his review first.

There are seven important process stages or steps in achieving PhotoReading:

1. Enter a resourceful state of mind, by practising a simple relaxation sequence & then using the Tangerine technique;

[It is important to note than a relaxed mind is an alert mind.]

2. Define your purpose for reading, by asking

a) what is the significance of this reading material,

b) how much time am I prepared to invest in reading it?

c) do I need a global overview or detailed information?

d)what do I already know about this reading material?;

[It is important to note that your purpose actually activates the reticular activating system in your brain, which therefore acts like a servo-mechanism, exactly like the one in a Tomahawk missile!]

3. Design a road map by doing a quick preview/inview/overview of the book:

- look at the table of contents, if any;
- preface, introduction, chapter outlines, paragraph headings/sub-headings;
- graphical illustrations or pictures;
- key words in caps or italics, bulleted points;
- book or chapter summaries &/or review/discussion questions, if any;
- marginal notations, boxed selections;
- even the index;
- also the first & last sentences of key passages;

All these little 'signposts' will trigger &/or create some sort of prior knowledge, allowing you to know what you don't know, what you need to know, what you want to know...you can view this step as a reconnaisance of the (book) terrain;

4. PhotoRead by adopting a 'soft-focus' view of the page (to be precise, it's just a wide angle view, with your peripheral vision playing a major role, in contrast to your focused vision) in the reading material & turn over the pages in a gentle rhythmic manner, then follow up with a Rapid Read;

[It is pertinent to note that this process step is relatively similar to those reading methods of recognised experts like Evelyn Wood, Stephen Berg & Peter Kump, although they don't use fancy terms to denote.]

5. Pause to read & then annotate important passages; a good strategy is to use a pencil as a pacer, which is my favourite personal approach;

6. Personalise your information by creating mindmaps or using visual tools, by making use of the annotated information as key ideas;

7. Review/Reflect on your mind-maps & synthesise the key ideas or points, with a short summary, if possible;

The 'heartbeat' of the PhotoReading program lies at & between stage 1 & stage 5.

As you complete your PhotoRead manoeuvre with 'soft focus', you generate an unconscious holographic blueprint of the book terrain, with all the little sign-posts in their places. It may be fuzzy but it's still there in your mind.

When you Rapid Read, your prior knowledge from the blueprint, will guide you, in a conscious mode, as you navigate the book terrain again. You will instinctively slow down when you come across or recognise passages that have relevance to your purpose.

In other words, your servo mechanism kicks into homing mode the moment you start to Rapid Read.

Research has shown that 4 to 11% of any given text contains the key words or phrases.

Put it in another way, the 80/20 rule or Pareto's Law applies also to reading.

One of the hallmarks of high performance reading is always going after the key ideas, which are often embodied in the key words or phrases.

Applying the 80/20 Rule, these key words or phrases generally account for 20% of all the words within the given text & yet they hold 80% of the total meaning within the given text.

All these PhotoReading stuff may seem far fetched.

All of us have been to the supermarket or hypermarket as we tag along with our spouses. As we move from aisle to aisle leisurely, our eyes (focused as well as peripheral vision) are always scanning the entire environment, with all the sensory impressions, consciously & unconsciously.

Invariably, our spouses may turn around & say "Hey, we need to replenish this or that item." Instinctively, we often can direct them to the proper aisle & the correct shelf to retrieve the needed items. How is this possible?

Research has shown that whatever falls within our entire field of vision, especially when we are taking our own sweet time, is always captured in our mind. The question is how & where to retrieve them.

A relaxed & resourceful state of mind holds the vital key.

This applies also to idea generation.

A lot of people thinks that the 'soft focus' in PhotoReading is simply hocus pocus.

In reality, it is an ancient technique already practised by North American natives as they stalk wild animals. To them, it is 'the eye of the tracker.'

Today, US Secret Service & FBI agents use the same technique to weed out potential assassins hiding among the crowds. They call it 'splatter vision.'

Army snipers are trained to use it to spot enemy targets in both jungle & urban warfare environments. Have you watched Tom Berenger playing the hardened veteran army sniper in the 'Sniper' movie & its two sequels?

In the martial world, it's called 'soft eyes'. Legendary Japanese combat strategist during the sixteenth century, Miyamoto Mushashi, had documented this technique in his famous 'Book of Five Rings.'

Have you ever watched the late Bruce Lee & his stealthy anticipatory 'Jeet-kune-do' moves on TV & in the movies? In his book, 'The Tao of Jeet Kune Do', Bruce Lee apparently described his combat technique as 'diffused attention.'

The same technique, called 'soft gaze', facilitates the viewing of random dot stereograms. Just think about it: How is it that the human mind can discern a 3-D picture apparently hidden among all the dots?

A lot of people, including myself at first, get turned off by the Tangerine technique. Actually all of us already practised the Tangerine technique in our daily lives, unconsciously of course.

Let me use an analogy to explain.

When we drive a car or ride a bicycle on the road, our mind through our visual attention is always focused on the road, at a moving & floating point which is about 30-40 metres ahead of our vehicle.

Yet, our eyes are always 'roving' about...looking at the instrument panel (in a car); at the rear view mirror (in a car; on a bicycle, we turn our head to look back momentarily); at the wing mirror on either side (of the car); sometimes, looking at the front seat passenger (in a car); sometimes, something fancy in front of our vehicle or alongside our vehicle strikes our eyes...but our eyes always instinctively fall back to focusing on the road ahead from time to time, at the moving & floating point & yet our vehicle does not even move in a zig-zag manner...sometimes, we pass or turn through 2 or 3 road intersections (with traffic lights) without even realising it.

Bear in mind that our powerful unconscious mind is constantly processing all these vital as well as trivial information.

If I draw an imaginary straight line from the moving & floating point on the road all the way back through our eyes, it will come out of our head, just above & just behind it, where the tangerine is supposed to be positioned.

It is this imaginary tangerine that helps us to maintain the 'soft focus', while driving (or riding a bicycle) & also while doing all those little tasks I have just described. It keeps us on track on what we are doing, unconsciously.

This is also how it works when we read a book. The imaginary tangerine helps the reader to maintain the 'soft focus'. Get it, now?

I trust I have enlightened readers on this working mechanism of PhotoReading. I want to say this: There is no vodoo in PhotoReading & Paul Scheele is definitely not a con artist!

PhotoReading actually works. I can do it. Donald Mitchell can do it. (Please read his very positive review.) So can you!

The book by Paul Scheele, the principal developer of the technology, captures the essence of PhotoReading very well.

It's also very easy to read. It also introduces another useful technique called 'Syntopic Reading', which actually has its origins in Mortimer Adler's 'How to Read a Book', written in the 40's.

I wish to add that with PhotoReading techniques, your 'Syntopic Reading' can move exponentially.

Let me share with readers some vital research findings pertaining to high performance reading, some of which have already been mentioned in the book:

- The mind moves by bounds;
- The mind uses peripheral vision to anticipate what is coming next;
- The mind is faster than the eye;
- The mind can grasp up to fifteen words at a glance;
- It's OK to sift & select as well as read at different speeds;
- Reading faster means better understanding;
- Understanding takes less time than reading;
- The mind moves spontaneously from synthesis to analysis;
- Reading is personal - our past history determines our reading habits;
- Context gives meaning to words;
- The meaning might lie ahead;
- The mind needs a purpose - & precise commands;
- The printed word is not sacred - it's there to be challenged!
- AVOID subvocalistion;
- AVOID regression;

Have great fun with PhotoReading!

My final advice to interested readers: Don't get too engrossed or obsessed with fancy terms in the book, like "25,000 words per minute", "one page per second", "mentally photographing"...just enjoy & stay with the reading process as described in the book &/or in this review.

Learn to accept the fact that the mind has the innate ability to absorb & process information at very high speeds!

For a moment, just imagine how Gary Kasparov could out-smart & out-manoeuvre IBM Deep Blue in their first man-machine contest over a chess game in 1989.

He lost in subsequent contests because machines got more powerful processors - with evaluation capabilities, could not get intimidated by him, & could not get tired at all!).

I've been a fast reader since my high school installed a reading lab to teach us how to reader rapidly with good comprehension. For most material, I can breeze along at 2,000 to 3,000 words a minute without skipping anything. The key thing to remember is to just "see" the words and not "sound out" the words in my head.

But when I was in college, I often went to the library and just glanced at the pages of reading that I didn't consider very important. I could review those pages in less than an hour before an exam, and the key points and perspectives would somehow stick with me. But I never mentioned that I did that. I assumed that I was doing something wrong. But having looked at PhotoReading, I now realize that I was doing one of the processes described in this book.

After law school, I found my reading speed had slowed to a snail's pace. It was hard to speed up again. But I found that if I just let my eyes go back and forth across the page looking at several lines at once I could grasp 4-8 lines at a time. It was much easier than drilling along one word at a time . . . and I enjoyed the reading more. But I was reluctant to tell anything about this either. Again, I found this technique described positively in PhotoReading as "skittering".

As you can imagine, I found a lot validation in this book.

But I also had some nice surprises. I was stuck at the car dealer's today while my car was being repaired. This was the only book with me, so I gave it a whirl. In the PhotoRead segment, was I was astonished to see that it was easiest for me to do this when the pages were upside down and I was reviewing the text backward (one of the recommended methods to try). Each page was much clearer that way. I suddenly remembered that for years, I had previewed books that way. So here was another unconscious act validated!

I don't know how well you can learn this method on your own if you are a slow reader, but if you are an advanced reader I suspect it will make a lot of sense.

Here are the steps:

1. Decide on your purpose for reading this particular item and prepare your mind to be receptive to the process.

2. Preview the book over 8-15 minutes by looking at the table of contents, index and general layout of the book and whatever is highlighted.

3. PhotoRead by scanning pages at about one page per second using a technique that gives you a soft focus to your eyes as you proceed.

4. Wait awhile (ideally overnight) and activate what you've learned by focusing on the parts that interest you with fast reading skills (called super reading) or skittering and that help you answer questions you have to answer in order to achieve your purpose in reading the book. Create a mind map that outlines the key ideas in the book into a connected visual display.

5. Rapidly read the text again . . . but going fast except where the material is very relevant.

6. Develop perspective on what you've read using the Syntopic reading methods outlined by Adler and Van Doren in How to Read a Book (the 1972 version).

This outline is summarized in more detail on pages 146-149 in the book.

If you are a regular meditator, I suspect you'll find it easier to use this method . . . which relies on shifting your mental focus to work at top efficiency.

Once you've been doing this for awhile, I suspect you can simplify the process. I don't think I need to do all these steps to get the same results. But then, I've been doing rapid reading for over 40 years.

Have a great read!

Halfway through the book. When I originally bought this book all the reviews were split on if photoreading really works. It does but it's not that easy...at first. It relies heavily on your ability to go into a meditative trance to read at absurdly high rates. Many people will sit down and try and think it's full of ... and that it doesnt' work. It works but the key is to not to try too hard. You have to let it happen. Much like how meditating works. You have to let go and trust it to work.
The only bad thing about this book is it is alot of info shoved into a book. And the info density is fairly high. It's moderate in reading difficulty but it can be gotten through. How thigns are explained repetitively is because the concepts are extremely simple yet not easily understood.
The whole mind system or whatever it's called, basically takes everything you know about reading and throws it out the window, they want you to start from scratch. This is hard because it's become second nature, just like how speech and driving becomes second nature. dont look at a page and see words see patterns of text.
The way it actually works in the end via activation is simply by 'reminding' yourself of the info. It's there, you just dont conciously know it beucase you didn't conciously read it. It's like if someone drove you somewhere and then you were asked to drive to teh same location, but with you driving, not them. You sit tehre and go'oh yeah I saw this landmarka dn that one' teh 'oh yeah' part is you reembering, even though you didn't conciously really notice the land marks. Hope this review helps.
Your memory will incrase. I see it as your brain adapting, to the new ability to have vastly incrased amounts of info dumped into it. Got more traffic? Build a highway. The only puzzle to this one is; are dormant neural connectiosn activated, or does the brain construct new ones to accomdoate the extra memory bandwidth needed?