Apr 23
When people first learn about PhotoReading they fear that satisfactory conscious understanding is elusive.That’s an interesting fear because information that eludes you is everything that your non-conscious mind is processing bar 2000 bits per second which your conscious mind has access to.
What the mind is capable of
It is known that the 300 million nerve impulses [...] [...more]
Posted: under Photoreading, learning.
When people first learn about PhotoReading they fear that satisfactory conscious understanding is elusive.That’s an interesting fear because information that eludes you is everything that your non-conscious mind is processing bar 2000 bits per second which your conscious mind has access to.
What the mind is capable of
It is known that the 300 million nerve impulses of the corpus collosum are capable of receiving 400 billion bits of information a second. The eye is capable of seeing 1 trillion bits. The mind lives in a sea of 400 billion bits of information a second and your mind only responds to 2000. If you had to deal with all that information consciously we wouldn’t be able to function.
Nothing really eludes you. You are just selective of what you are consciously aware of. Your conscious awareness is affected by a number of things. When it comes to learning, your self-image, self-talk and beliefs. These become perceptual defences. They act as barriers to what the mind decides to process. Even on the processed information before then can become conscious we have to have an expectation and need to know.
PhotoReading
PhotoReading allows you to have the same or better comprehension of what you read in 1/3rd 1/5th or even 1/10th the time of traditional reading. So for starters nothing more would elude you than already eluded you with traditional reading.
Your ability to understand what you are reading with traditional reading techniques is inhibited by the same defences.
What I learned
I’ve noticed in my own experience that with traditional reading my perceptual defences hindered me more because I didn’t know what I needed to know and it eluded me while reading the book the traditional way. My censor was at work as I read. Setting barriers to understanding the next part I read.
Before PhotoReading I was an avid reader but I never got anything useful from my books. I’m not referring to rote learning for passing exams. I’m referring to books that I read just to learn what could be useful to me based on the interest the book aroused in me when I picked it up. Often I would finish the book and feel like I missed something.
It wasn’t until I learned PhotoReading that I discovered just how much information was eluding me through traditional reading. Because I had a okay image of myself as a reader the information I PhotoRead gets processed and then based on my needs and expectation I have discovered many more useful and life changing suggestion from these authors. I get more out of my reading with PhotoReading.
Moreover I have discovered that a lot of information was eluded me through traditional reading. When searching my mind for information, even when I just obtain the gist of subject, I find it easier to locate the book and the page of the book, I had PhotoRead, to quickly clarify the details. Something I didn’t do well with traditional reading. With traditional reading it was rare for me to be able to explain the content of a book a week after I had finished reading it. Talk about information being elusive.
Often knowing where you learned something seems to be more important than what you know.
It’s interesting how someone can demonstrate what they know by talking about it and yet many are asked to prove it. Where did your information come from? The ability to quickly point to the book, books or research on the subject is highly regarded.
It’s paradox that this is true for people investigating PhotoReading. I can tell them about PhotoReading and they say prove it. I’ve taught many people how to PhotoRead yet it is only when they have written proof that can prove this information that some people are willing to allow me to teach them.
With that information I advise anyone reading or PhotoReading to know where they can find the information. It’s only elusive if you cannot find it.
© Alex K Viefhaus
Apr 21
Science has repeatedly shown that sleep aids learning and memory. And sleep or rather the lack of it is stressful in our day to day pace of life.
I often get asked if I know a cure for insomnia. The inability to fall asleep or after waking way too early to get back to sleep. Well [...] [...more]
Posted: under Uncategorized.
Science has repeatedly shown that sleep aids learning and memory. And sleep or rather the lack of it is stressful in our day to day pace of life.
I often get asked if I know a cure for insomnia. The inability to fall asleep or after waking way too early to get back to sleep. Well the solution might be easier than you think.
Warm your feet.
Science has also shown it’s impossible to fall asleep if your feet are cold. This keeps some people tossing and turning until sleep comes. Usually when the feet are warm from this exercise. A quick trick to warm your feet is to wash them in cold water about 10 minutes before going to bed. Rub dry briskly with a towel and put on warm socks. The feet will quickly warm and when you hop under the covers with your warm feet sleep will arrive quickly.
What about waking up? Why can’t I fall back asleep?
Check if your feet are warm. If you did nocturnal wandering without putting on slippers to walk across the cold bathroom tiles you’ve chilled your feet and you cannot sleep because they are now cold. Also if you habitually throw the covers off your feet and they are in a draft they may be colder than you think. The simple solution could be to wear bed socks.
Warm your feet if you want a good nights sleep. And yes sleep does help if you’re struggling to learn something. So sleep on it the answer can come tomorrow.
© Alex K Viefhaus
Apr 16
Did you know that to succeed at anything you need to have a purpose?
One thing when people come to PhotoReading they often have the goal of reading even more. Great as that is it doesn’t provide a purpose for learning PhotoReading.
When one sets out to learn PhotoReading they often have the magical image of themselves [...] [...more]
Posted: under Goals, Purpose.
Did you know that to succeed at anything you need to have a purpose?
One thing when people come to PhotoReading they often have the goal of reading even more. Great as that is it doesn’t provide a purpose for learning PhotoReading.
When one sets out to learn PhotoReading they often have the magical image of themselves zooming through book, being great scholars, getting straight A , top of the class, on the ball, best employee and similar images. The problem is those images don’t sustain the motivation. They do create impatience, frustration, self criticism and self doubt. Because the minds first reaction is, ’if you could do that, why haven’t you done it already?’
The image is a goal not a purpose.
But why is a purpose important?
The way the mind works. You now have expectations that instantly you’re going to “know exactly what to do” and you’ll be a PhotoReading “master” by the end of the day. And when it doesn’t work ’exactly’ as you pictured it the master of negative self talk (the conscious mind) steps in and negates everything and throws the baby out with the bathwater (cliché I know). You stay on the merry-go-round until someone or something helps you clarify what you want, what your purpose is and that helps you step off on the right platform.
What is purpose really?
In brief, it’s an explanation of why you are doing something. I’m doing this so that I can XZY. It explains your motivation. If you lack motivation you need to find a purpose for action.
Lets look at purpose another way
Lets use a map. You are here. ( a big dot next to an arrow) Your destination (goal) is the X that marks the spot. Before you can reach that X you must collect certain items along the way. You look at a map and considering the many options and variable decide on a path that suits your need and allows you to obtain what you need at your destination. The path you chose serves a purpose. And if you had to explain it to anyone you would say, “I am taking this path so that I can collect that.” There may be more items to collect along the way to your destination (goal). So your journey may have many paths but each path has a purpose.
Purpose for PhotoReading.
I’m reading this book so that I can ….. which is part of my journey to my ultimate goal.
Purpose helps you to define what you want and the next step is to let go and just do it and see what happens.
Just try it and see and if it doesn’t work check what was your purpose. Do you need to refine that? Was it a purpose or just a fancy statement?
Purpose is the essence of motivation. If you don’t know where you’re going how will you know when you get there? And if you don’t know where you are going why even bother starting?
© Alex K Viefhaus
Apr 15
One of the things I challenge people in my classes to do is to think about their reading. We live in a world with a lot of information and with the www information overload is an understatement. So, how can we handle this best?
When I went to school there was a bright spark in the [...] [...more]
Posted: under Uncategorized.
One of the things I challenge people in my classes to do is to think about their reading. We live in a world with a lot of information and with the www information overload is an understatement. So, how can we handle this best?
When I went to school there was a bright spark in the class who often asked, “Will this be on the test?” What he was asking is what’s the point? What’s in it for me? Do I really need to know this?
What he was looking for was a purpose. If there’s no point, why bother with it. This attitude to learning is now more relevant than ever especially when it comes to deciding what you want to read.
I’m a PhotoReader and my rule is if I can avoid it, I don’t read it. Just because I can PhotoRead doesn’t mean I have to read everything. It must serve a purpose. My purpose. And if it doesn’t, I’m not spending a minute more than it takes to learn it doesn’t serve my purpose.
We have 1444 minutes in a day. We read an average 190 words per minute or less than 100 words a minute on the computer screen. In other words a book of about 75,000 or approximately 200 pages take 7 hours for the average reader to read. What’s the point, why do you want to do that? Do you realise without a reason for reading you just drift? In the same 7 hours I can get the information I need from as many as 10 to 15 books. Even then they have to serve my purpose.
If you don’t know where you’re going , you won’t know when you got there.
A lack of purpose also leads to boredom. We cannot comprehend or understand what we are reading effectively. So why bother? Did you know that more than 60% of books bought are not read beyond the third chapter?
No matter how you look at it, it takes time to read and if you are a traditional reader with an average speed of 190 words a minute I ask you do you really have the time to read?
What’s Your purpose for reading?
Is the material before you important And has to be done now? A list reading.
Is it something you might like to read at some point when you have time? Important but not that important? B list reading
Is it reading that you would like to do but isn’t really important and you just hope to get around to it some day? C list
Here’s a closing tip for today. I’ll write more about how you can discover your purpose for reading next time.
The tip.
Everything in your “C” pile or list. Dump it. It’s not important and is only going to create stress. Enjoy life if there’s anything in your “C” pile that you might need some day it will show up again. You may even be more up to date with the later version.
© Alex K Viefhaus
