PhotoReading Sample Book Extract

PhotoReading and Accelerated Learning
47
Lesson 8

Accelerated learning

A brief history
Accelerated learning (A.L) has its roots in the birth of every human
being. Its a natural learning which is performed by every child ever
born. So, it has its roots far back into the distant past.
But in the later half of the 20
th
. Century, this age old process of
learning got revolutionized and structured under influences of the
Western culture.

The Lozanov Approach
The year was 1970. A book called Superlearning as published by
Lynn Schroeder and Sheila Ostrander. It was this book which
informed on the work of Georgi Lozanov, the Bulgarian psychiatrist.

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The book caught the attention of educators and teachers around the
world who were looking for more effective methods of learning.

According to Lozanov, a psychiatrist patient can make a substantial
improvement if he or she is given relaxation with Baroque music. It
was also found by him that even positive suggestions about their
healing, can work wonders. With these findings, Lozanov believed
that he has hit into something deeper than rational consciousness in
the human psyche, which he termed as the hidden reserves of the
mind."

Lozanov felt that this method would work well in education as well
and began his research that was patronized by the Bulgarian
Government. His topic was He felt that these methods could be
applied to education as effects of music and suggestion on learning.
He used foreign language as the subject matter. He found that a
combination of music, suggestions and childlike play was
miraculous on the learners as far as effective and fast learning is
concerned. This finding set fire to the imaginations of language
teachers everywhere around the world.
The successful application of this method in high school and
university teaching began in 1970s. This was primarily due to the
initiatives taken by the educators Ray Bordon and Charles Gritton
and of course, Don Schuster, of Iowa State University. It was in 1975
that the Society for Accelerative Learning and Teaching (SALT) was
set up by Ray, Charles, Don and some others. This society began to
fund worldwide conferences that caught the attention of professors,
public school educators, and business trainers from all corners.
SALT has now been renamed as IAL i.e. International Alliance for
Learning. It still sponsors conferences in the United States once in a
year for international viewers. There are similar bodies in England
and Germany as well, namely, the Society for Effective Affective
Learning (SEAL) and the German Society for Suggestopedic
Teaching and Learning (DSGL).

Accelerated Learning has other influences too

Besides these societies, the continued growth of AL in its
applications and techniques took place due to other factors as well.

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You can go through a few of them listed as under:

1. Research on human brain has turned upside down many of our
age old assumptions about learning. Gone are the days when
learning was thought to be cognitive, i.e. knowledge based on
thoughts and perceptions. Modern research on brain says something
else. It shows that the beast of learning engrosses all your senses and
whole bodythe complete depth of your personality (Remember
Lozanovs "the hidden reserves of the mind"?)

2. As per latest studies, there is no straight jacket formula of learning.
It differs from people to people. This finding is again a serious
challenge to the conventional ideas of education and training.

3. The fall out of the idea that the nature works like a machinein a
linear, step-by-process has also contributed to the evolution of AL.
The latest of thoughts say that the process is non-linear, creative and
not mechanical.

4. Another factor is the steady evolution of a culture of gender
equality from the one that was dominated by males. This
development also pampered a different approach to learningone
which is much more moderate, shared and encouraging.
5. Behaviorism is no more the prevailing psychology in learning.
This has given rise to values and practices which are more human
and holistic.

6. Let me tell you that even some parallel movements of the 20
th
.
century had a crucial role in changing the pattern of learning. Some
of them are the progressive school movement in the 1920s, the
confluent education movement in the 40s, humanistic education
movement in the 50s and the free school movement of the 60s. Major
contribution also came from the Montessori Schools of Maria
Montessori, the Waldorf Schools of Rudolph Steiner, and the
Summerhill School movement in England that was led by Alexander
Sutherland Neill.

7. Also, the continually changing nature of workplace and culture
opened the doors of alternative approaches of learning.

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The guiding principles

If you really intent to squeeze the maximum out of this system, make
sure to get a hold of its underlying principles. Remember that AL
wont work if you try to conceptualize its techniques from its
ideological strengths. If you do that, AL will be nothing more than a
smart stunt.

Any AL program works on the following basic principles:

1. Whole mind and body
Its not just the head that matters in learning. Instead, it involves the
whole of body with all its sensations and receptors.

2. Creation and not consumption
Learning takes place when you create new meanings, neutral
networks and outlines of electro/chemical interactions within your
total brain/ body system. So, you gather knowledge when you are
able to create and put together new skills to your existing self.

3. Cooperation
Remember, you learn more when you collaborate and interact with
your co-learners. Instead, if you choose to compete, it slows down
your learning process.

4. Multi-level involvement
Its about taking in many things at a time and not a procedure which
is linear. When I say multi-level involvement, I mean something
where your conscious, paraconscious and physical part participate in
the process simultaneously and utilizes all your receptors, senses
and paths to your total system. Keep in your mind that your brain is
a parallel process and can do wonders when you challenge it to do
many things at a time.

5. Learning from reality
Learn it by doing it. Like swimming, managing, cooking, selling or
singing. You learn best when you do that in context. Anything learnt

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in isolation gets erased out fast. So, anything that is actual and
existing is a far better teacher, always.

6. Positive Emotions
This is a very important principle. When your feelings are positive,
it accelerates your learning process. It happens are negative, just the
reverse takes place. Thus, your emotions have a lot to do about the
quality as well as quantity of our learning. So, make sure that its
pleasant, soothing and engaging, when you are learning something.

7. Images
Do you know that your nervous system is more an image processor
than a word processor? Yes, it is. Its much easier for your brain to
grasp and hold back concrete images than verbal Concrete images
are much easier to grasp and retain than are verbal concepts. So, you
learn fast once you decode verbal ideas into actual images.

Tips for faster learning-

Now, let me take you through the most vital part of this lesson. Here
you can discover ways to learn and memorize faster.
Basically, there are five core steps which when put together conveys
a powerful method where you achieve a lot when you learn a new
topic or skill.
Now, what are those steps?
They are Locate, Explore, Arrange, Reinforce, and eNquire.
If you represent the ladder of learning through a diagram, it comes
like this:

Melmetic process

Locate Explore Arrange Reinforce eNquire

So, see herethe first letters of these steps create the mnemonic
LEARN. For you, here is a summary of each of these five steps:

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Locate
Find out the content. It can be anything books, manuals, lectures,
tutoring sessions or internet.

What should you look for when you locate content?

On many occasions you will find that there are many books and
courses around you which contain everything but the practical
content. This happens especially with that stuff related to business
and self-help. There are also plenty of books which include the
content you look for but not the steps to learn that.
Let me give you an example. Suppose, you are trying to gather
information for training purpose. Your presentation skills, especially
making eye contact with your audience are an important part of
your program. You know that and pick three books on it.

Book A: It tells you about the benefits of making eye-contacts with
your viewers. You get some very interesting information. Butit
doesnt tell you what a good eye-contact means.

Book B: This book tells you about ways and means of making an
effective eye-contact.
So, can you spot the difference? Book A explains you about the
benefits of eye-contact and Book b, tutors you of the ways you do it.
Now, lets see what Book C says.

Book C: Yes, this is your book which really tells you how you learn
it.

When you locate your content for learning, its important that you
remember this example. Understand what you are getting in content.
Are you getting the contents on whys, How to do it, or How to
learn it?

Not just books, even there are training programs that merely focus
on the importance of a skill rather than showing you the ways to
acquire it. Say for example, you can memorize 20 points about the

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benefits of a good communication, but that doesnt make you a
wonderful communicator.

Explore

This is your next step. Once you have gathered your content, work
through, comprehend and explore it. Try an exploration technique
that suits your learning style.
Remember that you need to understand the subject you intend to
learn. Dont just rote learn it. Its a proven fact that, you remember a
topic longer when you understand in-depth about what you are
learning. At times, you might feel that learning by rote is something
much easier and faster. But believe me; it slows down your overall
learning. This mainly happens because of two reasons:
Firstly, it becomes really difficult to recall anything once you forget
part of the topic. This doesnt happen when you make an in-depth
exploration about the subject where you can always re-create that in
your mind. You can take the example of a chemical equation here.

Secondly, when you memorize something blindly without
understanding it, you cannot apply that in a different way. Again
this is not the case, when you really understand what you have
learnt. For example, if you understand the particulars about aircraft
navigation, you can apply this knowledge to maritime navigation as
well.

Do a multi-level exploration
When you begin with your training, walk around the entire course
content. Learn each of the lower-level modules add on to objective as
a whole. With your each step forward, get into the details of each
part. Remember that for a complete understanding of your topic,
you need to know details of each level.

Here are some of the tools and techniques, you can use for any
exploration activity:

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General exploration

High altitude view
Deeper level
Branch wider
Abstractions
Bottom up
Visual exploration
Diagrams, graphs, and sketches
Mind maps
Systems diagrams
Visualization
Aural exploration
Sound focus
Record sounds
Verbal exploration
Lectures and discussions
Dramatic reading
Express and summarize aloud
Write and rewrite
Write articles
Write summaries
Record
Physical exploration

Walk about
Get hands-on
Role-playing
Index cards & Post-It notes
Tick it off
Logic analysisOSAID
Logic trees
Play with numbers
Social exploration
Group learning
Study buddy
Opposite view
Role-play
Involve others
Solitary exploration
Reaction notes
Learning journal or log
People exploration
Make up your own mind

Remember that it completely depends on your objectives how far
you need to go in exploring your subject.

Arrange

After exploration, its time you arrange your content to memorize
where needed.
Here you choose a method to add force to the content you have
walked through and then arrange the content in a way that would let
you to apply with those techniques.

Arrange your content to help you change your brain-
Once your exploration part is over, you need to find out how you
can remember what youve learnt. Arrange your content

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accordingly, in a way that changes your brain. This is for your long-
term learning.

The three basic steps you follow to arrange-
Analyze and understand your content to have a grip on the type of
knowledge.
Select the method you will use to reinforce and learn that
knowledge.
Arrange your content in a way that goes well with the techniques
youve selected.

Find out the time you need to use up on arranging-
Needless to say, if your topic is a simple one, you dont need much
to arrange. But for complex subjects, you must understand this step
in more detail.

Learning changes the structure of your brain

Let me tell you about an interesting fact of your brain. You know
your brain has neurons.
Even when, you are an adult, those neurons dont move that much.
But once you learn, there are changes and expansions between the
neurons of your brain.
Do you know how this happens?
Its a process called Synaptic Change. Now what are these
Synapses? They are something like muscles. In Synapses a
repetition is required to make the change that insert learning.

Remember that you need continuing exercise to maintain the
learning. Whether its a short or long-term memory, is the deciding
factor about the ways the networks change in your brain.
A short-term memory can vary from a few seconds to a few hours. In
such a case, the strength of the signals between neurons undergoes a
change. Here either the sending neuron alters the signal strength or
the receiving neuron changes its sensitivity, or even both can
happen.
Now lets see what happens in case of a long- term memory. In this
case, the number of connections between neurons changes. Or it can
also change the neurons a particular neuron connects to, or both.

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Your short duration memories can shift to long term memories
The basic steps of this process are:
Working memory is the place where your brain places the
memory at the very initial stage. This memory alters only the
strengths of signaling between your neurons. The memory only
changes the signaling strength between neurons. The
Hippocampus, which is a small region in the lower middle of the
brain, plays a key role for many of your memories. Do you know
how? It is this region which arranges and distributes portion of those
memories to the appropriate places in your brain. When this
happens, the neurons present in those locations begin to develop,
move and change connections.

When you are frequently exposed to any particular type of
experience it brings about development and change in your neuron
connections. The more you recall the experience, the more the
memories you wish to memorize gets strengthened.

Comprehend the knowledge types Remember, this is your key for
analyzing a content. Knowledge types can be of two types:

Knowledge as stored. There can be various ways your brain can
store and work with innumerable facts, doctrines, skills, aptitudes
and knowledge. These ways, to a large extent, influences how you
learn each of these knowledge types.

Knowledge as used. When you put across an information you have
collected, it also denotes knowledge. Your ability to express can vary
from an unconscious use, like any skill gathered automatically, to
locating and using some information in a book or reference manual.

Remember that when you break down your content material into
chunks, it becomes easier for you to categorize them according to
these two definitions. And your task of selecting a modus-operandi
becomes simpler, once you do this.

Reinforce
Here, you bring into play the techniques you need to reinforce
information, skills and behaviors.

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In the previous step, you have prepared and arrange for the
techniques. This step is for its application.
The arrange step has arranged material for your brain. Now, its time
you change your brain to memorize the content for a long-term
duration.

This step involves the following three activities:-
Application of the techniques.
Using of replication repetition.
Carrying on with refresh analysis.

Think like this. If your repetition is like creating your brain
networks, then refresh reviews are saving them for the long term.

Use recurrence to strengthen your knowledge
One of the primary aims of many of the methods in Memletics is to
reduce your dependence on rote learning as an important learning
technique. Nevertheless, repetition remains a basic part of learning
any new material.
The key here is the spaced repetition.

If you set up approaches as a session a week or one session a
fortnight, you might have something that would work against you.
Remember that, in case you choose to go beyond a certain number of
repetitions in a single learning session, then the extra repetitions you
do hardly creates any impact on your overall recall.
So, please keep it in your mind that doing a program once in a day is
twice as effective as doing one program a week.
And doing a session a day is more than three times as effectual as
one session per fifteen days.
You need to note here that the number of effective repetitions you
can do in a day depends on man factors, like, the intricacy of your
activities, the time you take for each repetition, the type of
knowledge you are trying to learn and others.

Make sure you do refresh reviews so that your knowledge remains
indefinitely.
Do you know how much you forget after a single lesson?

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A study reveals that, 80% of any new information is generally
forgotten within the first twenty-four hours of the first lesson.

But this can be improved for sure. And this is through repetition and
review. Through this process, you can recall information to a very
significant degree. With the advancement of time, your power to
recall will show a dramatic improvement, once you review your
material on a regular basis.
You might come across some of the A.L training methods, where this
particular aspect of refresh reviews is not recognized. Its a big flaw,
and with such training sessions one can just clear an examination,
nothing more.
So, you must rate a training course on the utilization and
preservation of the training material after six, twelve and twenty-
four months.
Keep in your mind that, the refresh review holds the key to help you
achieve long-term retention.

eNquire
This is your ultimate step. Here, you need to review, assess, evaluate
and eNquire on progress on the whole. When I say review, I mean
an appraisal of the matter youve learnt, along with the impact of the
techniques and methods youve used along the way.

How do you do that?
Create your review logsdetailed review log and the summary
review log. In the detailed review log, record the details of ever
lesson, conference, presentation, game or other activity.
In the summary review log, accumulate all key learning points, and
contentions from your detailed reviews.

Let me tell you that reviews can be of four main types:
Immediate review- Its about immediate feedback and correction.
This you receive while learning.
Lesson review-Here you evaluate the efficacy of the previous steps
while learning new material.

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Formal review- In this type, you make use of tests to determine your
recall of information.

System review-Here you assess your overall use of Memletics.

Remember that this is an immensely helpful step of the Memletics
Process, which helps you to develop your training and learning skill
to a great extent.
Never think, its merely a record of your mistakes. Instead, this is
something, which would help you to know and understand where
you actually stand in the process. You know you got to be attentive
and hard-working in order to get success in A.L. And, let me tell you
that, using reviews forms a very crucial part, which accelerates your
overall learning.

To sum up, its possible that you are already using a similar
approach for your learning program. Its fine. But the Memletic
process makes the stepseach and every onevery clear so that
you recognize how other parts of Memletics fit into your overall
learning strategy. Not only this, you can also do a comparison with
your current practices and find out whether youre missing out any
of the crucial steps or activities.
Further, none of the steps are rigid. You always have the option to
move to and fro between the steps and you need not have to do all
the steps for every learning objective. For instance, while exploring a
particular material, you might need more information on a particular
topic. In this case, you go back to the Locate step to find it.
On the other hand, while you start to reinforce what you have learnt,
you may think to Explore the subject further for a complete
understanding of the subject. Also, if your learning objective is a
simple one, you might skip the explore step completely.

Whats common between Accelerative learning and
PhotoReading?
The skills of accelerative learning are with us since your childhood.
You have used them at all spheres to learn the skills of talking to
walking. But the skills got incomprehensible, because of its abuse

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and misuse happening since long. What you need is to simply brush
it up in a new way and apply that again for an effective reading.

The idea of PhotoReading the whole mind system has by and large
evolved from the age old concept of accelerative learning. This new
technology is however much easier and a real joy in itself.

It was Dr. Georgi Lozanov, who is known as one of the pioneers of
accelerative learning, wrote in his many research papers that human
beings hardly use 10 percent of his or her brain capacity. He tried to
establish through his in-depth research work that through a well
developed and integrated system, we can tap into the generally
unutilized portion of our mind, i.e. the rest 90 percent. He tried to
build up his findings into an applied technique to learn.

The methods of Dr. Lozanov, stressed on the utilization of both
hemispheres of the brain, i.e. the right and the left one. He felt about
a system where we can make them to work together in coordination
to make our learning process more effective.

According to Dr. Lozanov, in order to survive in this age of
information deluge, you can expose your mind to a huge stock of
information, soak that in with ease and utilize that whenever you
need to.

The method propagated by Dr. Lozanov had spoken about three
steps, which are, decode, concert and activate which are almost
parallel to the system of PhotoReading the whole mind system.

Decode is nothing but a quick overview of the entire reading
material.

Concert indicates a session where you get into a state of relaxed
alertness to take in a more absolute description of the reading
material. Dr. Lozanov suggested the use of a story, play or music to
present the material.

To activate is the final step, as recommended by Dr. Lozanov. In this
step, you take the material into your conscious mind in order to
apply it. No rote memorization or drilling, but group discussion,

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skits, games or other non-conventional techniquesthis is what Dr.
Lozanov prescribes for activation.

So, there is a close connection between the system of PhotoReading
and the accelerative learning techniques. You will know this more in
the following chapter where you learn the steps to Photoread.

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Lesson 9

The secret of PhotoReading

You might have to do a lot of reading, maybe for your professional
commitments. You know you had to speed upand you do that.
What happens then? Our level of understanding the subject gets
diminished. Then, you dont stand in with any other option but to
slow down. So, whats the result? You sacrifice either the speed or
comprehension and end up with an awfully loaded conscious
mind. This increases your internal conflict which again re-creates the
problem; you tried to fix up, by speeding up your reading.
So, what do you do now?

PhotoReading has the answer

25,000 words per minute! Thats nuts! No way you can read that
fast. This is the reaction you hear from many before they learn
PhotoReading. In a way, they are right. Right in the sense, you
cannot read at that speed, if you try to do that with your conscious
mind.

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To make it simple, PhotoReading is not the work of your conscious
mind. You can process information at this mind-blowing speed only
when you bypass your logical, critical, and analytical mind, what we
call the conscious mind. Instead, when you PhotoRead, you make
use of the vast layer of the mind, which remains unutilized during a
traditional reading. So, PhotoReading is about using your mind in a
new way.

Its an altogether different approach to meet your reading
challenges. In this method, you use both hemispheres of your brain
instead of only the left one. Your left hemisphere do the logical and
analytical work, whereas your right creates internal images and
develops your intuition.

So, when you learn to flip through the pages at a rate one page a
second, it means you are taking a mental photograph of the page
contents. This you cannot do with the traditional method of reading.
The age-old left to right, word-by-word approach wont give you
such stunning result. Here, you counter the printed contents with the
wonderful facilities that are embedded in the right-hemisphere of
your brain.

After you finish PhotoReading, your next step will be to activate
your brain. Here you extract the information you need from your
brain to achieve your purpose.

Now, as you see here, it all begins when you begin to process
information contained in a reading material through your other-
than-conscious i.e. the right brain instead of your conscious brain.
Shift your reading pattern from left to right, and then experience the
reading which is effective and powerful. To help this shift, what you
need is to take an unexpected, unusual path.

Before I take you through a tour of the ladder to master
PhotoReading, let me tell you about certain things you need to give
up, if you have them:-
1. Low self-esteem
2. Any doubts about yourself, your abilities
3. Procrastination
4. Any misgivings about your other-than-conscious mind

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5. All or none approach, which stresses more on failures.
6. Any apprehension relating to your performance
7. Any sense of urgency that keeps you under stress and,
8. Negative attitudes

So, learn PhotoReading and discover the joy of it!

The system

As you know it, this is an era of information. Hence, burden placed
on your shoulder as a reader is tremendous.
PhotoReading the whole mind system is the only technology that
would help you to meet up with any challenge. It has the potential to
work with any subject matter and get accustomed to various
purposes, print formats and of course, level of understanding.
The system involves five steps that would utilize the potential of
your whole mind with optimum efficacy, power and purpose.

Lets now take an overview of those five steps in a way that you
master the technique to apply each step effectively and gain a richer
and fuller experience as a reader.

Step 1: Prepare

You are required to deliver a speech to a group of delegates who will
visit your organization for a possible marketing and strategic
alliance. Im sure you would spend at least half an hour to get
your tongue ready for the deliberation.

For a change from your routine schedule, you wish to participate in
a soccer match on a Sunday afternoon. You would do some
stretching to loosen-up your nerves and muscles.

Now if I ask you what do you do when you want to read a book?
Just pick it up and start reading it. Like many around you, this is
what your answer is most likely to be.

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Let me tell you, thats not the right way. Like you do before a speech
or a soccer match, its equally important for you to get yourself
prepared before you start reading. Remember, reading is very much
a goal oriented activity.

The preparation you take before you read is simple, but thats from
where your effective reading begins. You can say, its like laying the
foundation stone. And all steps involved in PhotoReading actually
spin around your preparation. It wont be an exaggeration at all if I
say that getting yourself prepared for a reading is much more than
getting the book out to read.

As I have already told you, the preparation you take before you
begin to read is quite simple. You just need to do two things for that.
Firstly, state or affirm your purpose of reading, i.e. say yourself
What exactly I am looking for in the book. And secondly, build
your focus to enter the ideal state of mind.
State your purpose

The idea is nothing new and you know that. But perhaps you didnt
realize its significance in your reading.

You know why you are reading and what purpose you are looking
to get catered. State that unambiguously. The more you become
explicit in sating your purpose, the more you conquer the chance of
reaching it. Your strong sense of purpose can take you anywhere. Let
me repeat, this is the engine that drives this wonderful technology of
PhotoReading the whole mind system which brings into play the
complete power of your mind.

Once you ascertain and set up strongly the purpose of your reading,
you are going to feel that in your mind and body through the
impulses you receive from your brain. This will create an altogether
new feeling about reading. Yes, you will sense that. You will sit to
read as if you mean business with a strong body and a vigilant mind.

Now, let me tell you how you are going to set that purpose.
Ask yourself these questions:

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! Whats the primary goal of my reading this book?
! After reading the book what changes do I expect in my
thoughts and actions?...maybe you want to read to kill some
time in a wholesome way.
! How the contents of the book will help me in the long-run,
i.e. how worthwhile it is to read the book?
! If the reading is supposed to create a value for me, then what
is it?
! How much of the details about the topic do I look for in the
book?
! Do I only look for the gist and the salient features of the
book?
! Do I want to remember some precise chapters whenever I
need?
! To serve my purpose of reading is it necessary that I read the
entire book?
! Can I get what I look for by going through one or just some
of the chapters?
! To meet my purpose of reading how much time am I willing
to commit? Remember, when you set a time for reading, it
helps in increasing your attention.

To sum up, do some introspection and find out whether you want to
read to get a fair idea about the subject or to enrich yourself with the
finer details or simply to pass some time to take pleasure in and
unwind yourself.

So, you can find here that unless you cut out the purpose of your
reading, it might end up as a wasteful and inert exercise. Its like you
are out on a trip without knowing where to go.

There is another factor, which you cannot take apart from purpose.
Its time-management. Recollect what Francis Bacon saidSome
books are to be tastedothers to be gulped downsome few to be chewed
and digested This is an era of information. You cannot be expected
to read and grasp every material that you come across at the same
speed. This is neither possible nor desirable. Thus, its very necessary
that you learn to sort out what to read and what not to and then
categorize as Bacon suggested.

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Also, remember that the purpose of reading could be quite inventive.
Like, you might gaze through a magazine to get some diversion,
maybe while you wait for the dentist at his/ her chamber to get your
teeth plucked. Such purposes are valid enough and provide you
with an exceptional experience of reading.

Stating your purpose of reading vividly not only enhances your
focus but also slackens off the grip of guilt. This word floats
around if you hear people talking about their reading habits. Many a
times, you or anyone might have to complete a book unwillingly.
This creates a feeling of guilt. But you can easily get rid of it, once
you have clearly defined yourself the purpose and justification of
your reading.

If you believe me, this whole process of building up a purpose
doesnt take more than two seconds. But the payoffs are huge and
simply beyond your expectation. This technique has such
remarkable and far-reaching impact that it revolutionizes the
usefulness of your reading in a flash and for life-long.

Enter the ideal state of reading

You will see that the best of your reading comes, when you are
physically alert and mentally relaxed. This is what you call relaxed
alertness. One you can sustain this particular state you can make a
wonderful reading which allows you to comprehend, retain and
recall the subject whenever you need.

But how can you reach to such ideal state? Let me tell you here about
a technique you can use. Its called the tangerine technique. This
technique is quite easy to learn and is extremely helpful in building
up your focus to develop your performance as a reader.

Before, you go through the steps to learn this system, let me make
you aware of certain very relevant facts.

! According to a research, your mind can consciously focus on

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seven (plus or minus two) pieces of information at a time.
This means, at a given moment, you have approximately
seven bits of information to pay your attention on.
! Research further reveals that while reading, if you focus
your one unit of attention on a single point that would help
you to focus effectively on other units of attention. Like,
when you drive, your attention must be down the road
instead of the hood ornament.
! For an efficient reading, its just behind and above the head,
where you should ideally focus on.

The tangerine technique teach you that. It not only helps in
tracking down and maintaining the perfect point of attention but
also create the relaxed alertness you look for while reading.

Here are your steps:

! Imagine a tangerine in your hand.
! Feel its weight, color, texture and smell.
! Fling the tangerine into your other hand and catch it.
! Start pitching it back and forth between your hands.
! Now, use your main hand, hold the tangerine and take it to
the top back part of your head.
! Gently touch that area with your hand and feel as if the
tangerine is resting there.
! Now, let your arm come down.
! Let your shoulders loosen up.
! Imagine, the tangerine has a magical power and it would be
in the right place, irrespective of where you keep it.
! Now, close your eyes very softly and envisage as if the
tangerine is balancing at the back of your head.
! With your eyes closed, think deeply that your field of vision
is beginning to open up.
Just see what happens when you apply this technique. Yes, what you
acquire is that ideal state of relaxed alertness. Hold to this state,
when you open your eyes and begin to read.

If you are skeptical about the outcome of such an experiment, do it
right now. Read around three pages of this book, which you havent
read yet, without using this technique. Then do it again applying the

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tangerine method, make a comparison of the results of both and see
the outcome by yourself.

Remember, you might just get over-conscious while doing this
experiment. If you are so, it might become difficult for you to feel the
effect. For, best of the results, just play with it and see yourself
stream through the reading substance with remarkable rapidity and
ease.

This technique boosts up your concentration and makes your
reading experience a relaxing one. When you start applying this
method, you might have to consciously place the tangerine, but with
time, it would become automatic and you can get your attention
fixed almost instantaneously.

You also need to know that this ideal state of mind will be of
immense help, and can carry you to the peak of your performance
even when you are into other activities. Its an optimum state of
relaxation which doesnt make you drowsy and sleepy. Instead, you
can focus on your mind with all composure and create an access to
your internal resources.

Get prepared in thirty seconds

! Place the material you want to read right in your front, but
dont read them
! Close your eyes gently to begin your relaxation.
! Keep yourself in a comfortable position with your spine
erect.
! Maintain a normal and relaxed rhythm in your breathe.
! Tell yourself the purpose of your reading.
! Now place that imaginary tangerine at the desired place i.e.
the top back part of your head.
! Get aware of yourself as vigilant and stress-free.
! Loosen up your face muscles by getting a hint of smile at the
corner of your eyes and mouth.
! Now, with your eyes closed, create a direct eye to mind
connection by imagining that your visual field is opening up.

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! Last gently open your eyes at a rate which you find as most
comfortable and begin to read.

Dont worry, if you find that this tangerine technique doesnt work
for you. There are other ways to take your mind to the ideal state of
reading. As for instance, you can imagine yourself wearing a
sombrero and a bird sitting at its top. Now think that the sombrero is
resting on your head and concentrate your attention on the bird.
There is another method. Here, imagine as if you are standing out of
your body and looking over your head. Envision this while you
read. Surely, you would notice a swing in your mental state.

Use any of these methods to enter into the ideal state of mind. Do it
and you will find that the reading stuff is now very much handy and
your mind is now more than capable to soak in more visual
information that what it could before.

So, here your objective is to adjust your state of mind rather than
feeling the tangerine during your entire reading. Its about achieving
a fixed point of attention. Likewise, when you reach a fixed point of
attention, it would gather other units of attention to the task of
reading. You can say that this ideal state of mind we had been
discussing so far is the doorway to start PhotoReading. Once you
reach to that state, just forget it. It means, you have passed through
the doorway, and there is no need to carry the door with you.

Now, you need to go ahead and read. Let your mind take care of the
rest.

Stop here and think for a while.
Try to recall what you have learnt in this very first step of
PhotoReading and the ways you can use them.

Here it is in a nutshell:

! Preparation is the bottom-line of your whole mind system
! There are two components involved in the preparation stage.
One is stating explicitly the purpose of your reading and the
other is in stepping into or entering the ideal state of mind

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with a point of attention at the top and rear part of your
head.
! The purpose of your reading acts as the engine. When you
read with a purpose, it indicates that you are reading with
power.
! The tangerine technique is a very effective way to get your
attention fixed so as to enter the ideal state of mind you look
for an effective and improved reading performance.

Now do one thing. Give a few seconds to yourself and apply this
method to the remaining portion of the book.

Dont worry; Im going to help you in that.
Simply follow these points:
! Imagine yourself reading the remaining part of this book
with a strong purpose.
! Done? Ok now think of your attention moving to a point
behind you and back of your head.

When you do this, observe the change in your state of mind and
body as well. As you continue with your reading, you will find
yourself more relaxed, alert, conscientious, absorbed and centered.

Now, you are in and with the flowfully ready to learn ahead.

So, here is your next step

Step 2: Preview

At the very outset, let me tell you make you aware about an
interesting fact about your brain.
Do you know that your brain can only read what it knows and can
understand only those patterns and models that it can recognize?
This means that the more you know about the text you are going to
read the easier it will be for you.

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Previewing is the fastest way you can find out patterns in a text you
are supposed to read. This step even speeds up your level of
comprehension. Generally it takes a few minutes, and in some cases,
a few seconds.

There are three stages in previewing:
! A review of the reading stuff.
! Spotting of the trigger words and pulling them out
of the text.
! Assessment and selection of our goals to move
further.

Survey of the reading stuff

As you do before you buy a car, carry out a survey even while
intending to read a book or just any reading stuff. When you do a
survey, you not only get the structure of whats printed there but
also understand the ways to continue and proceed.

Just scroll down the reading material and take a note of the
following:

! The index
! The table of contents
! The titles and sub-titles
! The date and duration of copyright
! The text printed at the face and back cover
! If its a book, then the first and last pages
! In case, its a document, the first and last paragraphs of any
chapter
! The headings and sub-headings printed in bold face or italics
! Charts, graphs or figures and matters printed in boxes
! The abstracts and reviews

If you do a survey keeping these points in mind, its going to have an
amazing effect on your reading. Even before you read, you will
know everything you want about the contents. A good survey allows
you to foresee and anticipate on what the text is all about and guides

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you at those locations where you will find the information you are
looking for.

Make sure that you dont spend much of your time on survey.
A short article30 seconds
A report/ longer article3 minutes
A book5 to 8 minutes
This should ideally be the ratio. Keep this in your mind that in case
you find spending more time than this on surveying, then the chance
is that you are not surveying at all. Instead, what you are doing is
nothing but a traditional mundane reading.

Let me also tell you that survey had an additional benefit. As you
get, survey aids you in understanding and categorizing the contents.
This means that it boosts up your long-term memory as well.

When you do a survey, you create a particular mental set up and
structure of the stuff you gaze through. And its a proven fact that
when you actively systematize a matter, it stays in your memory for
a longer period.

Pulling out the trigger words

While reading a book or any material, you must have noticed certain
words which pleads for your attention and scream Hey, look at
me!. Those are the words where the authors messages are
inherited. You will also notice that such words have a sense of
exigency in it. We call tem as trigger words.

The main features of the trigger words are their high visibility and
frequent use of terms which provide you with the central theme of
the chapter and give you the required support to grasp the meaning
of the text.

Important points you need to remember about trigger words:

1. Trigger words entice your conscious brain to frame out
questions and places them to your inner mind for the answer.

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2. When you PhotoRead, these trigger words become the target
of your brain. These are emphasized by your brain when you
do the search which helps you immensely in comprehension
and reaching to the goal of your reading.
3. Trigger words can easily be spotted. When you do it, you
create inquisitiveness, which is again an essential part of an
effective and powerful reading. However, it might be easier
for you to locate trigger words when you read a non-fiction.
But even fictions such as novels, poetry or short stories
provide you with trigger words in names of places, persons or
things.
4. Locating trigger words is something like tasting the water
prior to swimming. Its a fun way. You can flip through say
every 15 pages and observe the words that catch your
concentration.
5. Glance through the cover, index, headings/ sub headings and
table of contents of a book. This will help you in spotting the
trigger words. For instance, in the index, look for the words
which are followed by the maximum page numbers. Yes,
those are bound to be the trigger words of that book.
6. A suggestion: If you are reading an article, ideally you must
note 5 to 10 trigger words. In case its a book, the number of
trigger words should be 20 to 25.
7. Make sure you make a mental note of trigger words of an
article or book, in less than two minutes.

Be absolutely relaxed and good-humored when you do the search.
The more relaxed you are, the easier it will be for you to do the
search.

Review and assessment

This is the last part of this step. It helps you in doing a review of the
facts that you have gathered from the survey and the list of trigger
words.

! Take a minimum stock. Ask yourself whether you wish to go
farther to squeeze out more. Think whether whatever you
have gathered so far is enough to meet your purpose of

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reading you have set initially or you need to define that
purpose again.
! It can happen that after a preview, you might say
yourselfNope! I dont need to read any further. Great, if
that is so. This is an age of information overload and you can
save yourself from digesting irrelevant and insipid facts.
This provides you with surplus time which you can utilize
elsewhere.
! Remember the 80/ 20 rule which says that if items are
arranged according to their value then, you can get 80% of
the value from 20% of the items and vice-versa.
! After you finish off with the preview you may feel that it will
be more than enough if you walk down the text in a general
way. In later stages, if you wish to extract anything specific,
you will know where to get that.
! Previewing helps you to categorize and distinguish patterns.
This is where and when your brain works the best. If you
dont categorize your text, you will be like Alice stepping
into the wonderland.
! Through consequential categories and patterns you
accomplish a better comprehension of the text. Remember
that around 4 to 11% of the texts include the focal content of
the total stuff and serves your reading purpose.
! A tip: dont dig into the depth of a text the soon you start
reading it. This might lure you to stop the preview part and
go into the details. So, if you notice and urge, just let that go
and let your mind come back to the preview. Unless you do
this, your reading would slow down, which is of course not
a smart investment of the time you are putting in. At most,
you can hold yourself back at the details just for a while to
build up your motivation.
! Previewing helps you to maintain an appetite within for
information and ideas which acts as a catalyst for your whole
mind to accomplish your need.
! To preview is a continuous process. Do it every time you
read. Otherwise, it will be like going to a store and scanning
through its each and every shelf, till you locate the stuff you
are looking for. Previewing guides you to the sections and
passages of a book that caters your purpose of reading.

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The traps of previewing

Phew! Its nonsense. I tried PhotoReading, it didnt work.
Comments like this are not rare. Do you know why? Just ask
them how they tried it. You will see that these people fell into a
trap while doing their previews.
Lets see what it is, how that happens, the consequences and the
ways you can avoid them:
! This happens mostly when you start doing your
preview for the first time. Previewing looks like almost a
regular reading to you.
! Since you are too eager to know what the article or the
book contains, you might be lured to go through the
sections you find interesting for around 20-30 minutes.
Yes, this is the trap I was talking about and beware of it.
! Now what happens when you are entrapped likewise?
The conscious part of your brain soaks in a huge
amount of information and this result in switching off
its access to the vast space of the other-than-conscious
part. This means, after you finish PhotoReading, your
brain refers only to the information you have gathered
while previewing.
! Be sure that those, who didnt get anything out of
PhotoReading had spent at least 15 minutes to preview
the matter.
! Never spend more than a minute to preview to preview
a book or any long article.
! Stop previewing the moment you find that its closing
your access to the extended database of your brain.
When this happens your ideal approach should be to
PhotoRead first and then post-view the contents.
! The process to post view is almost like previewing. It
follows the same routesurvey, trigger words, review.
The only difference is that you post view after you
Photoread.
! So, you have two options. Either you preview before
PhotoReading or post view immediately after you finish
PhotoReading.

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Post view or preview
Though the Educational psychologist Dr. Win Wenger
suggests otherwise, but the preview step is advised than
post view for the following reasons:

! Previewing plays the role of an advance organizer
and assists your brain to make out categories for
incoming information. Its just like you prepare a file
cabinet to sort out data.
! When you follow the preview-PhotoRead combination,
you can reap in the benefits almost in no time.
! While you preview prior to PhotoReading, it ensures
that the material taken in through PhotoReading will be
at your best of interests.
! Post viewing is prescribed when you read to pamper
your creativity and insight into a new topic. The reason
is that in such situation, post viewing keeps the filters of
your conscious mind out of the way.
! It has also been observed that post viewing speeds up
your process of activation.

You can summarize this step as:

! In order to preview, you should start with a survey, then
pull out the trigger words and finally make a review.
! When you preview, it facilitates your mind to frame
patterns. This accelerates your reading speed and level of
comprehension.
! Survey is like strolling down the text around the edges of its
contents so as to understand the matter and chalk out the
ways to proceed further.
! To pull out the trigger words means to get hold of the key
terms present in the material that would help you to prepare
questions for your inner mind. Your inner mind will work
on those questions to answer them later.
! You can compare the reviewing part with a mini-inventory
that assists you to make sure that whatever you are reading
is important for you.

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! If you confuse previewing with plain reading, it will be a
complete misuse of the step. And if that happens, your
brains access to its larger database will be switched off.
! Post viewing works best when you want to get a very deep
insight into the subject. Its also recommended for a novice
PhotoReader, who finds himself stuck while doing the
preview.

If you wish to apply the technique of previewing, try to think
and visualize the various types of reading articles that you
might encounter in the coming week. Imagine that you are
doing a preview of all those articles.
You will find that a few moments spent by you this week on
previewing will save hours of time. The reason is that you can
tune yourself fast at what to read and what not to. In a flash,
you will be able to eliminate all pointless reading.
Nowthe next step, the most stimulating and exciting of all
steps

Step 3: PhotoReading

This is the most provocative step of PhotoReading the whole mind
system. In this step, you will be tutored and trained to apply this
master technology of reading that would rocket your success at the
speed of light.

Information is overflowing everywhere. There is no need for you to
drown yourself in that or barely survive on speed reading. Just
thrive and succeed with PhotoReading.

Remember these basic points:

! In order to master this technology, its very important that
your approach remains open-minded and playful.
! Its your brains natural capacity to process information at
the pre-conscious level, yes; this is where this technology
keeps faith on.

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! If you trust your mind to do the work and just let yourself
go, you get a phenomenal opportunity to ascertain your real
potential for learning.
! This technique allows your brain to get exposed to the
patterns of a text by taking a snap of the printed page in your
mind.
! This method is simple and your conscious brain has got
nothing to do for a better performance.
! Never strain yourself to get it perfect. It could be
counterproductive.
! Use the method as if you are playing a new game, with a
child like curiosity and explore the outcome.

There are six steps to the PhotoReading process:

! Preparation
! Entering the accelerative learning state
! Affirming your impact, concentration and purpose
! Entering the PhotoFocus state
! Maintaining a steady state while you PhotoRead
! Closing

Preparation of PhotoReading

Its all about making a few decisions.
Start by asking yourself,
! Whats that you want to PhotoRead? Then put the material
you intend to read in your front and inquire yourself
whether you can spare some minutes needed to PhotoRead
that item
! Why do you want to spend time to PhotoRead that material?
State yourself the purpose of PhotoReading in very clear
terms. To build up a purpose is absolutely essential and will
be repeated more specifically as you go along with the
process.
! Keep your attention perfect while you do the preparation.
Dont allow any interference to come along.

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! Keep yourself comfortable, cool, relaxed, straight, in an open
attitude and ready to enter to the next stage of accelerative
learning state.

Enter the accelerative learning state

This is similar to the state of relaxed alertness, you enter prior to
previewing. Similar but not identical in the sense that here your
brain state will be more receptive i.e. this state will make you
accessible to the inflated potential of your mind and enhance your
willingness to learn.

When you start, it might take you several minutes to complete this
state. But as you keep doing you will be able to reach this state
within the time you take to have a deep breath.

Here goes the procedure:

! Be comfortable in your posture and position. If this is your
very first attempt, lie down. Later sit back in a chair and
keep yourself at ease.
! Inhale a deep breath, exhale and close your eyes.
! Now, you will undergo a complete body relaxation. Inhale
deeply again and cling to it for some seconds. Now release
your breath slowly, think of the number 3 and silently
repeat the word Relax. Remember, this to be the signal of
your relaxation. Follow this to relax all major muscles of
your body from head to toe until you feel as if all your
muscles have melted and completely free from tension and
stress. When you do this, you will feel as if, a wave of
relaxation is flowing and playing all over your body.
! Now, you need to relax and calm your mind. Take a deep
breath again, hold it and release it at a slow pace. This time
imagine of the number 2 and again repeat Relax
mentally. This is your signal for mental relaxation. While
you say yourself Relax let your thoughts go off from your
past and future. Instead, focus all your mind and awareness
on the present. While you exhale, let all your worries,

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stresses, tensions, anxieties and problems flow away. While
you breathe again, allow tranquility flow in and settle in
every part of your mind.
! Inhale again deeply and hold that for some seconds. Now,
release that very slowly again, and imagine you are hearing
the sound of the number 1. While doing so, visualize a
beautiful flower through the eyes of your mind. If you can
do this, it means that you had been able to focus your
awareness and get into the resource level of your mind.
This is your state of expanded imagination and creativity
and enhanced aptitude to learn.
! Think yourself to be in a place which is beautiful and calm.
Feel the gentle and soothing sights and sounds. Allow
yourself to have a break there for some moment.
! Remember that you need to hold this state of complete
physical and mental relaxation while you PhotoRead. So,
before you proceed to the next step make sure that your
mind and body is completely free from any tension and
distraction.
This process that takes you to the accelerative learning state
helps you in establishing contact with the vast resources of your
other-than-conscious mind. This indicates that you have
turned on the right hemisphere of your brain which is now
inviting your inputs. Now, you can be more receptive to your
own creative ideas.

Further, when you attain this state, you make the deep of
your long-term memory available to yourself.

As I have told you before, this step of reaching the accelerative
learning state is not a tough one and you can always learn it
with a little bit of practice. In case it happens that you cant do
that by yourself, you can go through any good book or tape on
relaxation techniques or even chose to attend classes.

Affirm your concentration, impact and purpose

Your thoughts have very important role to play in your process of
learning. It either makes it or breaks it completely. So, if your

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thoughts are positive and affirmative, its going to help you by
putting the whole of learning process in proper track. And if, its
negative, our effort would get negated in a stroke. Its as simple as
that.

Lets call your positive thoughts as affirmations that assist you in
mastering skills and accomplishing your cherished goals. They do it
by carrying the material you PhotoRead to your inner mind.

Here are some very helpful affirmations to PhotoRead:
! I have a 100% concentration while I do my PhotoReading
! Everything I PhotoRead leaves a long-term impression on
my inner-mind and I can use them whenever I need to
! I have a strong aspiration for the information available in
this book to reach my goal

By setting up goals, your affirmation sends instructions to your
brain. Further, when you affirm and assert, it sets aside the imposed
limitations of your conscious mind and sends a redirection to any
internal dialogue which is negative. And this opens up the success
possibility.
Also, its very important for to remember that you must never set a
goal for yourself which is absurd, irrational or anything you cannot
achieve. Dont set up a goal which isnt well-formed and can lead
you to sheer disappointment. I want to recall each and everything I
have PhotoRead is an example of an ill-set goal which can really
frustrate you. Rather try to have goal like I want to absorb the
matter available in the book so as to apply it in my life to achieve
success. Remember that such a target is always within your reach
and can take you to the peak of productivity and achievement.

Enter the PhotoFocus state

This is the state where you will be trained to a different usage of
your visual system while you do your reading.

Here are the highlights of this particular step:

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! Instead of focusing on each and every word, as you do in
your conventional reading, you learn to notice the entire
page through a soft gaze.
! The bottom-line of this state is to shift the importance of
reading from the page which is in front of your eyes to what
the meaning of it. This strengthens your eye-to-mind
connection.
! When you look at the two pages of a book, instead of having
a hard look at each and every word, just soak in all the white
space through your eyes with one open gaze. When you take
this strategy, it utilizes the right i.e. the creative size of your
brain. Try it and you will find that the pages would look
three-dimensional with a much better clarity and depth. In
addition, you will observe a third pagea rounded narrow
one, which would appear in between the two pages. You can
experience this effect even while staring at a tiled floor,
which would appear like a three-dimensional grid and you,
can maintain this effect as long as you keep your gaze
relaxed and divergent.
! Remember that when you can visualize such unique three-
dimensional pattern while you gaze, it triggers off your
PhotoFocus state which is primarily the art of seeing with
your whole brain instead of only the limited conscious mind.
! The core part is in developing a new way of seeing with your
soft eyes rather than to keep your focus hard which we
normally do while reading to get a clear image of every
word and phrase.
! When you gaze softly, your peripheral vision gets opened
up. This makes your mind ready to take a snap of the pages
opened in your front. In doing so, the visual information
which you take gets processed at your preconscious level
and you provide that processed information to your brains
non-conscious memory system.
! The concept of soft gazing is however nothing new. You
can find references of all seeing gaze in the Taoist
literature of China and in Practices of Din Juan authored
By Carlos Casteneda.
! The physiology behind this PhotoFocus state is quite an
interesting one. One is the fovea and the other is the
periphery. Fovea, which composed of some densely packed

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cells called cones, gets images into hard focus which is
processed by your conscious mind. Whereas, the periphery
or the circumpherence of your retina that contain cells called
rods, are so enormously sensitive that it can detect a candle
light from a distance of ten miles. This is the area you draw
upon, while in the state of PhotoFocus. When you are gazing
with this rod vision, your field of vision gets processed non-
consciously.
! When you PhotoFocus, you lessen the chances of
interference from your conscious mind. Let me tell you that
the interferences you normally receive from your conscious
mind filter the inward information which hinders your
brains capacity of expansive processing.
! As a preparation for attaining the PhotoFocus state, do an
exercise by yourself and do that playfully. Here it is: On the
wall locate a spot where you can look at. Now hold your
hand at around eighteen inches from your eyes, while
continuing to gaze at the spot. Then bring together the tips of
your index fingers. Now look at the spot through just above
your index fingers and observe what is happening to your
index fingers in your visual field. Dont forget to keep your
eyes absolutely relaxed while you play with this exercise and
not to carry anything into your sharp focus.
Its something like this:

! When you see that ghost image, it indicates that you have
formed an expanded vision instead of a converging one to
affixed point of hard focus. And mind that, you get that
effect when you dont have a direct gaze at your fingers.
! This softens your field of vision and enlarges your peripheral
awareness. You can try with this playful experiment even
while reading. Here you need to fix your eyes at a spot on
the wall which is clear of the top of the book.

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! Now, while gazing over the top of the book at your chosen
spot on the wall, watch the four edges of the book and the
white space in between. What you will watch now, is a
doubling-up of the crease between the right hand and left
pages. This happens because; there is no divergence in your
eyes. Finally, observe the little rounded strip thats formed
between the wrinkled lines.

This is how it would look to you:

! Imagine your vision is an x-ray one and try to stare
down from top of the book and look through the
center.
! Initially, it might happen that you will feel that your
eyes are stuck on the book itself. When this happens,
you will see a convergence in the creased lines. Dont
get frustrated and fight with it. Rather, keep up your
playing attitude and come back it later.
! While you are doing your PhotoFocus, you might see
the blurred image of the print. For a better clarity,
keep your eyes relaxed and let the focal plane move
in.
! When you are in Photofocus, you can experience the
depth and clarity in the words lying in your front. As
you relax more, you can very well observe the
transparency in the print. Here, the words wont be in
focus, as you are not staring at them directly.
! Keep playing till you get the proper line of sight by
moving yourself towards the book and vice-versa. It
might look tough initially, but with time that would
become a cake-walk for you.

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! Always remember to keep yourself relaxed and cool
while you try yourself with various techniques of
PhotoFocus. Hard work is not going to help you at all.
Just play with the procedure as a child does. Relax
and watch your experience closely. Close our eyes
and rest for a while every time after you play with
this system. Then repeat it again.
! This method will stabilize and toughen up your visual
system as well. Never forget to rest your eyes, as any
natural eye improvement technique is based on
relaxation.
! The basic objective of this state is to train you in
expanding your visual system and help you in
developing soft gaze. Dont worry, even when this
takes some time for you to develop.
! While you intend to PhotoFocus, sit straight and keep
your reading material at 90 degree angle to your eyes
and 45 degree to the table. This should ideally be your
posture. There will be an increased flow of energy to
your brain if you stick your chin in slightly. Try to
keep your gaze through the center of the book.

Maintain a steady state while you flip pages

As I have told you before, you might find your state of accelerative
learning and PhotoFocus a little susceptible and weak. The states
might be vulnerable to various distractions and self-critical thoughts
that might break your concentration. Its also quite likely that your
mind will be lured over and again to focus hard on the printed
words. To counter such diversion, tell yourself about your goal,
which is to develop an ideal state of learning. Also, you may repeat
with the tangerine technique.
To maintain your ideal state of learning, you can also make use of
two more techniques. First, keep your breathing deep and smooth.
And second, do a hymn as per the rhythm of the pages you flip
through.
Now, let us see what exactly this second technique is:

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! While you do the chant to the beat of the pages you turn, you
keep your conscious mind engaged and prevent it from
distracting you. And simultaneously, you can continue
PhotoReading with your non-conscious mind.
! The chant or hymn you do to the turn of every page is
crucial to prevent pessimistic thoughts and to help you in
maintaining the required focus.
! When you maintain this particular state, it helps you in
wafting past your reading material rapidly and efficiently.
! This technique is also known to have a great effect in
keeping your brain relaxed and open, while you take snaps
of the pages in your mind.
! Do your chant in rhythm of the pages you turn. Re-laxRe-
laxFour-three-two-oneRe-laxRe-lax. This should be
your rhythm. Make sure that you maintain this state and see
the page with your every flip.
! If you miss pages while doing so, do not break your head.
Just let them go because, on a second pass, you can always
come back.
! Carry on the hymn as you continue to flip pages and allow
your conscious mind to follow the chant.
! Block all distractions by instructing your conscious mind
! into activities of our hands.

Close the process

! Its quite likely on the part of your conscious mind if it asks
you What did you gain out of it? This is, what you might
say the natural tendency of your conscious mind.
! Remember that, if your conscious min asks you this, it means
that neither your conscious mind and nor the preconscious
part of your brain could absorb anything.
! A negative statement such as This technique probably
wont work directs your brain to vacate and forget
everything it has PhotoRead.
! In PhotoReading, the information you go through are
downloaded directly into the neural set-ups of your brain.
Once the information gets downloaded your brain starts to
process it immediately and on its own. This spontaneous

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processing takes place at a level which is just at the
borderline of your conscious awareness.
! You objective is to thee that your brain has adequate access
to those downloaded and processed information. In order to
ensure this, just close your PhotoReading and take charge of
your thoughts. When you do this, you actually set the stage
for your brain to activate what it had PhotoRead.
! So, this is the time for you to make a request to your mind to
put together all the processed information and ensure its
availability in future, whenever you need them
! Communicate yourself with assertions such as I do
recognize the information I have received from this
bookand I do let it go to my mind and body to process
themI am also more than eager to know the ways these
information will be made available to me whenever I require
them.
! The reactions of whatever you PhotoRead happens within
yourself. When you tell yourself with affirmations, you
actually invite your other-than-conscious mind to help
you.
! Take it as a fun game to find out the various ways which
make the processed information available to you.
! You can try this also. Just imagine, the information you
gather runs through a bridge which exists between your
conscious and non-conscious mind. While you keep yourself
in a more relaxed state, you can watch very clearly whatever
streams into your conscious awareness.
! PhotoRead before you sleep: When you PhotoRead, you gulp
in information at a very rapid pace. Its like drinking water
through water-cannon. Just relax and let it go and get
absorbed at your non-conscious mind. Now, when you are at
sleep, your mind does an assessment of the information
which you have soaked in just below your conscious level of
awareness. Studies made more than 100 years back reveals
that those stored information can have an effect in our
dreams as well. Yes, this is going to happen. So, make sure
that before going to sleep, you do a PhotoReading of the
books which are soothing for your emotional state.

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Therefore, in this step, you have learnt the six steps to
PhotoRead a book. If you place them in order, here is how it
goes:
! Prepare
! Going into the accelerative learning state.
! Affirming your attentiveness, impact and process
! Entering the state of PhotoFocus
! Maintaining a steady state while you PhotoRead
! Close

You may try to PhotoRead this book before you sleep tonight or
any other book, that keeps your emotions at a comfort zone.

Now, you have finished your preparation, preview
and PhotoRead step. This means that you are now all set to get
all your processed information to your conscious state of mind.
This is what is called activation, which you will learn in the
next step.

Step 4: Activate

Here is the step where you actually do the work of re-stimulating
your brain.
This is how you do it:
! You probe your mind with queries and walk around those
parts of the text, which pulled you towards it and was the
focus of your attention.
! The next is to super-read. This you do by scanning down
through the center of each page and column. Here you read
the most important parts of your reading material.
! The last step is dipping. This you do when you find thats
most appropriate. What you do here is take a plunge or dip
into the text for a more absorbed and effective reading and to
understand the contents deeply. Here when I say
understanding or comprehending contents, you can
break that into four levels as; awareness, familiarity,
knowledge and expertise.
! While you dip, let your intentions tell you about the purpose
of your reading very specifically.

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! There are other techniques as well which you might utilize.
These are mind mapping and skittering. Even these
methods can be of quite a help as ways to avail the
impressions and information that you have gathered
through PhotoReading.
! Mind-mapping is quite a swift and efficient technique. This
technique not only helps you to retain what you have
PhotoRead for a longer duration but also a smart way
through which you can activate and customize the
information after completing your super-reading and
dipping part.
! The tips to master this technique are:
1. At the center of the page, place the core concept of the book.

2. Now, from the center, write down all those supporting and
related concepts as connecting lines that are spreading out.

3. Form key terms and use them to explain each concept.
Limit such terms to three while expressing so. Remember
that you can use your trigger words which you have
identified during doing your preview to form these key-
terms.

4. Where you find suitable, dont forget to take in the visual
elements like symbols and cartoons.

! Skittering: Here your eyes provide an opportunity to your
brain to glance through all words contained in a paragraph
that forms the main synopsis of it. So, this method goes with
the idea that its only between 4 to 11% of the text which
carries the concept of the whole body. So, you simply skitter
over the words and allow your brain to soak in the crucial
ones.
! Tips to learn this method:
1. Enter into the ideal state of relaxed alertness.
2. Do a review of the purpose
3. Go through the title, sub-title and preface (If any).
4. Go through the few paragraphs at the beginning of the
book.

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5. Read the first or the topic sentence of the paragraph
from where your skittering will commence.
6. Now, leaving the first and last sentence, move your
eyes at a rapid pace over all the other words in the
paragraph. Notice those words that carry reasonable
support to the concept as in the first sentence in the
paragraph.
7. Remember that your eyes can take any path while
moving through the wordszigzag,
circularclockwiseanti-clock-wise. There isnt any
set pattern.
8. Read the last sentence, if you find that the meaning still
remains obscure. And continue this with every
following paragraph.
9. Read thoroughly the last few paragraphs of the
material.
10. Go through the summary.
11. Review and reflect what you are reading.
12. Finally, describe the matter by forming a concise mind-
map of your own words.
In this step, you basically do three things; involve the
whole of your brain, establish a link between the text and
your conscious mind and accomplish your goals as a
reader.

Here it is in a nutshell:
! Activation can be of two kinds; manual and spontaneous.
Here you have learnt the manual part.
! For activation, a clear purpose of your reading has a very
crucial role to play
! The very first step to activate yourself is mind probing. This
is nothing but asking yourself the questions that you want to
answer. In order to frame questions, explore the text after
you finish PhotoReading. Take five to ten minutes in doing
so.
! Ideally, you must wait for 24 hours to activate what you
have PhotoRead.. If you cant wait for that long, wait for at
least 20 minutes.

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! While you super read or dip, you move over the sections and
stanzas that attract you the most at a very rapid pace. Then
read those paragraphs that answer your questions.
! You need to comprehend the scheme of the author of the
book you are PhotoReading which will be of immense help
to take you through super-reading and dipping.
! An extremely visual and spatial way to take notes is what
you call mind-mapping. This technique utilizes your entire
brain and helps you in a great way to activate.
! This step provides stimulation to your brain and gives the
necessary signals to the associations constructed by it. So,
what happens is that you connect consciously and achieve
your purpose of reading.

Now, here comes the final step of PhotoReading the whole mind
system

Step 5: Rapid Reading

This your final step to learn PhotoReading the whole mind
system. You can say that, this final step has a close resemblance
with traditional reading and speed reading.

! You have to understand that reading is basically a
method where you learn from written pages.
! You cant look ahead to doing it in a perfect way while
learning for the first time.
! Your learning will take place gradually as you move
over a text repeatedly. This can be called the multiple
read approach to PhotoRead the whole mind system.
And, let me tell you that there cannot be a second
method than this, when you wish to learn something
new and unique.
! In this step you move your eyes rapidly from the
beginning to the end of the text.
! Dont be in hurry and take the time you need to adjust
your speed.

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! Here the extent of adjustment you make depends on
factors like the subject, any previous knowledge you
possess on the topic and of course the significance of the
material. Remember that, its flexibility that holds the
key here.
! Rapid reading is of great importance in the sense that, it
drives your fear out your fear as a novice PhotoReader.
Some common panics that rapid reading dispels are you
will fail to remember everything you have PhotoRead or
no text got really absorbed in your brain.
! This footstep of the system does engage your conscious
mind in the process and caters your requirement to
understand the content better.
! Remember that this is the ultimate state of
PhotoReading the whole mind system. The previous
steps make you acquainted with the text.
! An important of rapid reading is to keep moving. Do
not stop at any point or passage, which you might find a
bit puzzling or difficult. But make sure that you never
pause there. Instead, just keep moving.
! Remember that in case, you stop or slow down to get a
proper understanding of a line or stanza, its quite likely
that you will get side-tracked and youll never conclude.
If you keep moving on, you are sure to find out hints in
the remaining part of the text which would answer your
doubts and clear the areas where you got stuck.
! Stay cool, relaxed and attentive. Being in such state will
help you a lot to filter out the information which you
require to satisfy the purpose of your reading the whole
material.
! It can also happen that you might not need to do a rapid
reading at all because the previous steps had satisfied
your purpose of reading. Many a times, it has been seen
that previewing, PhotoReading and activating are more
than sufficient for a reader to have a complete grasp on
the text he or she has PhotoRead. This happens
especially with the entrepreneurs, who never require to
go through the step of rapid reading. While
PhotoReading business reports or manuals, they
accomplish what they want through the previous steps.

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! Rapid reading is most often seen amongst students
trying to learn a text book or people who intend to read
for fun and relaxation.
! If you fall into the category of PhotoReaders who take
pleasure in reading novels, its most likely that you will
step in directly into rapid reading, sidestepping the
activation part.

Reveal how this system works

! Start with PhotoReading and activating everything you
want to understand and comprehend. Do this for a
week. Then, in the next week, turn back to conventional
reading. Compare the results and see which one was
better and effective.
! Pick up a book at your friends house and ask him/ her
whether it merits a reading and how long did he/ she
took to read it. Then, borrow that book and PhotoRead
its contents using all the five steps already explained to
you. In all probability, you will do that in at least one-
third of the time your friend has taken. Then meet your
friend and discuss about the contents of the book. Later,
allow your friend to decide whether youve
comprehended its contents.
! Preview and PhotoRead five books on a subject which
you wish to talk about in a business meeting. Later,
make an analysis your performance would have effected
if you had read those books in the conventional style.

Take the five day test

! This is a very effective test where you dont need to spend
more than thirty minutes a day.
! Its five day plan where you need to commit to convince
yourself that you can do a PhotoReading successfully:
! Day 1: Prepare and PhotoRead the book you have selected

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! Day 2: Dont prepare and preview for more than two
minutes. Then PhotoRead the book. After you finish the
PhotoReading part, spend 15 to 20 minutes in post viewing,
jotting down the trigger words and the questions you really
wish to answer.
! Day 3: Prepare, PhotoRead, super read and do the dipping
steps in a way that you finish the entire book in thirty
minutes. You need not have to bother about the
comprehension part. Conclude by reviewing your trigger
words to feel the amount of recognition coming together for
you.
! Day 4: Prepare and PhotoRead again. Then spare the next
thirty minutes in super reading, dipping or skittering. Do
that at a speed which lets you to complete the book within
the session. Go through your trigger words again and
determine whether you can frame out additional questions
through the mind-probing method.
! Day 5: Again start with prepare and PhotoRead part. Have a
close look at the table of contents. Visit the sections you feel
to understand more. Here in order to answer any specific
question, do the super-reading or skittering. Set aside ten
minutes so that you can do the mind mapping. While doing
the mind-mapping part, make sure that you keep it simple.
Remember that your intention is not to map the entire book
in your mind. So, keep it limited to the contents which are
closely connected to the reason of your choosing the book in
its first place.
! While you reach this stage, you will see that you have spared
a bit more than two hours.
! On completion of the plan notice your experience very
carefully. It can be that the whole book will be coming to you
all together. Or you might also feel that you have collected
sufficient information from the book. But remember, your
objective of PhotoReading the book was not to know it 100%.
You cant think of doing this even with a regular, traditional
reading.
! You might feel to spend two Day 4s, but most likely what
you will say is that you got the book entirely.
! After some days, you may playfully want to have an
assessment of your mind map to know how much you have

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really been able to understand of the material you have
PhotoRead.
! Generally speaking, you should able to finish the book in
around one-third of the time you would take if you read that
in the traditional manner.

So, just start playing with the various alternatives and options
this astonishing technology of PhotoReading the whole mind
system provides and discover your best pathway of a powerful
and efficient reading.

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PhotoReading and Accelerated Learning

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