Customer Reviews

Super-Learning

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

Before reading this review I will give you some idea of my background so you can judge my review on the basis of my experience. I am a multilingual language teacher and writer with a keen interest in accelerated learning techniques, and have been such for several years. I first became interested in Superlearning several years ago as a possible method for increaing both my own language learning rate, which is considerable, and that of my students. Superleaning looked like something really new and innovative, and, having read the original Superlearning book, I decided to buy several Superlearning products from their website, including the audio course, special learning cassettes and a language course produced by the authors and based on the exact procedures laid out in their books. I wanted to be sure I was doing it properly. I also wish to point out that the products are not cheap by any means, well, not in price anyway. In terms of quality of the materials, recording and presentatiom, I have never encountered anything so cheap and shoddy!

Five years later, and after even more extensive research and experimentation with the system, both personally and in my classes, I can only say that almost all of this system is a sham. It doesn't work. I used a language course produce by them, and found no benefit whatsoever in it. The only benefit I got was to use the course, which I would also like to point out is nothing more than 3 tapes and a very thin and cheaply produced pamphlet of words and phrases and, on occasion the recording did not match the transcript, was to use the tapes without the highly distracting breathing exercises and do it the old-fashioned way. I made my own tapes too, as per the instructiosn in the course, which was a vastly time-consuming process, and had the same lack of result as the "professionally" produced languages tapes by the authors themselves!

There is no doubt that proper relaxation, relaxed breathing, positive suggestions and classical music can have varying degrees of benefit on the students, but the method you will find in ALL the books and programmes produced by Superlearning leaves a great deal to be desired!

I was interested by another reviewer's reference to a researcher from Monash univerity and her work into Lozanov and Superlearning. As I don't think a text link is allowed ina review, you might like to do a web search for "The personal website of Uschi Felix" at Monash University for a lot more information about Superleaning and the validity of some of the claims made before you are tempted to part with your hard earned and get a disappointment.

Having tried to contact Superlearning with questions and complaints, I can only attribute the lack of service and, indeed, acknowledgement I encountered to the fact that they must get a lot of commenst from some very dissatisfied people! I urge you not to buy into this scam. You are being taken for a ride.

To those reviewers who are getting so excited by the promises in the Superlearning products, all I can say is try it and see. Remember - I was just like you a few years ago!

After reading the review from Caveat Emptor I decided to see for myself if this is true. I started to read this book hoping to take a few skills with me as I plan my return to college. I remembered this book back when I was in high school being recommend by my teachers. The authors labeled everything with an -ology and -pedia like hypnosopedia -hypnosis an sleep. There were so many words you had to take notes. Story after story after story of how great this system is and only one chapter (7) that "showed" anything related to learning. I needed a score card to keep track of all the people. The key is to relax and use rhytum with yoga techniques to better absorb the facts. I walk away with unverifyible stories and wild claims. Its Great! Its Amazing! WHAT IS!?!? What do I need to do exactly to learn a language in 2 weeks FLUENTLY?? OK, they wrote this in 1979 so I went to their website ...and got more of the same. If you must read this book read chapter 7 and toss the rest. The rest of the book went into ESP, dreams telpathy etc. I recommend "Mastering the Information Age : A Course in Working Smarter, Thinking Better, and Learning Faster" by Michael J. McCarthy. It teaches you everything grokking, speed reading, meditation, communication without fluff, nutrition etc. It's out of print but a library should have it. A PBS "Nova" episode featured James Randi (randi.org) who went to Russia to investigate claims of "Charged water" and paranormal stuff funded by the government there. Each one he proved a fraud or a scam. I think this is tre in this case. I did try some of the shorter exercise in ch 7 with so-so success (really a little worst since I study with no distractions TV etc. What convinced me that this maybe snake oil was on page 23 when Dr. Georgi Lozanov did a sleep learning experiment and pull the speaker plugs on some of the students' material as they slept. The results: high scores. They anticipated the benefits they would receive and did very well. That's how good the system is. But they must have had the knowledge already to pass. Also Dr. Lozanov was too busy to use his own course!!!(Pg 37) They plug this as a positive because the system was so popular he had to give appearances. They would have fitted in well as Art Bell's guest!! I believe there is no limits to human potential. That's why I read the book. I just don't believe they have the right method and KNOW IT. SAVE YOUR MONEY!!!!

I first read superlearning in 1984 and have had a look at this recent publication. As a teenager, it did inspire me to wonder about my own mind's potential. It also gave me some good excuses not to study so much, and some great excuses for why I didn't do so well in exams etc.

The one thing I kind of like about it, is that it talks about many different tricks. It is an exploration of methods, and really doesn't give enough away about any particular method. I have read other similar books that give detailed steps that seem tailored to leading you off an examination cliff.

The way it is written is unbelievable, and since maturing and learning about real learning strategies, I realize this book is mostly harmless.

If you want something more workable, go for Kenneth Higbee instead.

Browse through it at a library somewhere.

This book provides a wealth of important information from areas as diverse as health, visualizations, reincarnation, and memory. I am writing this review to set the record straight because of the previous negative reviews. I have used the specific Superlearning course and I can verify it DOES WORK (and does take practice and patience). However, this is only the small tip of a very large iceberg, of the available information contained in this book. This book can lead you into many different pathways of learning such as, Artificial Reincarnation ... ., hypnosis, autogenics, yoga, and health. I recommend readers do some research and check the reference section in this book. They would venture in areas that are scientific, mind expanding, and do lead in many different directions of, which might be suitable to the specific person in general. If you do not believe me just read the book.

Frankly, there is some good stuff in this. It is a pity that all Ostrander and schroeders stuff is just ripped off from other authors! At the heart of Superlearning is a technique that claims that people can learn 1000 foreign language words in a day with almost 100% recall. Yeah right! In fact, a researcher at Monash university shows how Ostrander and Schroeder's claims are just wild distautions of Georgi Lozanov's book! In 1979 when the original book came out you could sort of forgive the authors for being duped by a so called supertechnique for learning from Communist Europe. But come on girls! You're still plugging the same old stuff. They are releasing more and more tapes and books built around this fraud! How do I know it's a fraud? Try it and see! can S and O "superlearn" 1000 words and remember them? If they can, I'll take this back, but I want to see it firsthand! Also, have you, the readre, ever heard of something called a computer? Of course you have! They have them in almost every school in the States! That is because they work! How many of you have heard of Superlearning? Do you really think that if this really worked then the State Department wouldn't have set it up in every school in the land? Hey! It gets better! In the 1979 original, S and O claim that people could even learn 3000 words in a day! The game's up girls! This is just a money-spinner!

someone that reviewed it said that it doesnt work, thats why its not used. that is not true, not everything that works is used. as an example, i will talk about something that is not in this book:

there are time tested methods of memorizing, which have been used for millenia. one such method is the method that was used by roman orators to remember speaches. this has been time tested, and nobody disputes their effectiveness; basically, it is a sort of advanced mnemonic, that is easy to use. read "the memory book" by harry lorayne. the system used in that book is the complete opposite of superlearning, and it works, but why isnt it used? i have no idea. that system surely works; you can name ten items, and i can resite them back to you forward and backward. surely, that is a handy skill? why doesnt the american school system use it?

they are afraid of change.

it is well know that grading does not help the educational process, and impedes it, yet most schools use them.

the system described in superlearning is brilliant, and works better than the system described by harry lorayne (which is nothing at all similar to that of superlearning, they are almost opposite, but i still would recommend harry lorayne). i have used a modified form of superlearning (that i devised myself), which is based on the same principles, minus the music, and the specially prepared tapes. i basically adhere to the breathing/relaxation system, and the 8 beat learning method, and i have had unbelievable results; i remember the word the first time, every time.

i think the reason that the method didnt work for most of the people was because they werent doing it right; its all about relaxing, and breathing, and they were all talking about taking notes and keeping track of the stories. the stories were just to convince you, not to be studied! they missed the point, and are they were being superficial.

I give the book 2 stars because it was a very interesting read with excellent references. However, with that being said I purchased this book in 1991 and followed it to the letter which led me down the path of "Brain Mind Research." Moreover, I brought Super Learning and Super Learning 2000, all the tapes and other product's. In addition, I can say after 20 years of researching and trying over and over the techniques given from these books. Nothing has worked to enhance my learning capacity except exercise, 8 hrs sleep, and a proper diet. So, my advise was just given to you, do the following save your money and move on........ One last thing, if you tried to follow the exercises in the book their is no way possible on this earth that you could get through a semester of college doing it the way the book suggests it is way to time consuming. It is unrealistic to believe that you can relate your present school courses to the Super Learning techniques and be ready for an exam. However, with that being said, remember the fact I spent twenty years finding ways to relate this stuff to reality!!

I have utilized this books methods since 1980. I am currently a retired USA Counterintelligence Special Agent, USA Infantry Platoon Sergeant and Vietnam Combat Veteran of four tours.

I utilized this method in training my soldiers in our common military and infantry tasks in the 1980's. The Army average score on the tests was 60. I and my soldiers never scored below 88. I had six of the soldiers, including myself, max the entire test.

I utilized the method at the USA Intelligence School, FT Huachuca, AZ. My class had the highest class average in the history of the school at 93.85% My average for the course was 98.43%.

When utilized properly this method is the finest education and training method in existance today.

It REQUIRES stress free learning conditions. You cannot do this in a "Drill Sergeant" type instruction environment. The student retains over 90% of the material presented/studied using the method.

When the soldiers had to utilize tasks in a high intensity and combat situation they performed flawlessly.

This review is for all the naysayers. I needed to learn a years worth of physics in about three weels in order to pass the NYS regents exam back in 1984. I spent the year reading the New York Times during physics class and did no homework but hey I was a slacker back then, sorry. Anyway, desperate to find something to help a brother out I came across this book at the local bookstore in the Albee Square mall. Yes there was more than dookie gold chains in the Albee Square mall in the 80's. I tried it with my cheap tape player and my shaky voiceover and darned if I didn't kick a hole in the regents. It worked for me and I don't need any "scientists" or "scholars" to validate the work.

My name is Martin Tolsma and I come from Holland. Superlearning has been translated in dutch and as available for years already in Holland. The first time I read this book is propably 12 years ago. At age 15 I looked for "hot" books in the library and found this stunning book. The basic techniques of relaxing in a pleasant way are easy to learn for EVERYBODY! The very first time I did a session I learned AND could remember more than a thousand words I had never seen before. Even a year after this session I remembered more than 50% of the words. This way of learning and making use of YOUR 90% untouched mental capacity should be number ONE in the schoolsystem, each schoolsystem. Using the principles mentioned in this book WILL give you a photographical memory and better control of your health and personal succes. I praise the work of Dr. Lozanov and the authors of this worldchanging book.

M. Tolsma