May 13
People have often asked me how do I know I’m in photofocus? `In the seminar I teach how to see the blip page. That is one of the ways to know you are in photofocus. However most people find it challenging and try too hard to get the blip page. They won’t trust the rest [...] [...more]
Posted: under Blip page, Mind Stuff, PhotoRead, Photoreading, confusion, photofocus, success.
Tags: Blip page, Photoreading
People have often asked me how do I know I’m in photofocus? `In the seminar I teach how to see the blip page. That is one of the ways to know you are in photofocus. However most people find it challenging and try too hard to get the blip page. They won’t trust the rest of the system until they get this right.
Hey you don’t need to see blip page. The imaginary X-technique works just as well and if you have vision in only one eye you won’t ever see the blip page. That doesn’t stop you from being a successful PhotoReader.
So how do I know when I’m in photofocus? As I’ve taught in my classes and explained on the forum to me it feels exactly like I’m day dreaming. I’m looking without looking through whatever is in front of me into space. Looking beyond. PhotoReading to me has always felt the same as daydreaming.
Of course daydreaming has always been associated with switching off. So I think many of my students were reluctant to try this. How can the mind take anything in while one is daydreaming. How do I know it’s being processed? How when daydreaming is switching off, lazy, non-functioning aspect of brain activity?
Well exciting news! What we’ve been taught as a truth has been proven wrong with fMRI. Daydreaming is active activity. It switches on the brains problem solving functions.
“Prof. Kalina Christoff, UBC Dept. of Psychology. "But this study shows our brains are very active when we daydream – much more active than when we focus on routine tasks."
…The study finds that the brain’s "executive network" – associated with high-level, complex problem-solving and including the lateral PFC and the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex – also becomes activated when we daydream.
This is a surprising finding, that these two brain networks are activated in parallel," says Christoff. "Until now, scientists have thought they operated on an either-or basis – when one was activated, the other was thought to be dormant." The less subjects were aware that their mind was wandering, the more both networks were activated.
This for me is the most exciting evidence that we do gain something from the PhotoReading step. A step that to me always felt like I was switching on daydreaming. Now I know I’m switching on the brains problem solving network.
So if you want to get into photofocus, daydream. Because big stuff is happening while you daydream.
Source: University of British Columbia (2009, May 12). Brain’s Problem-solving Function At Work When We Daydream. ScienceDaily. Retrieved May 13, 2009, from http://www.sciencedaily.com /releases/2009/05/090511180702.htm
© AlexK Viefhaus
Jan 17
When we learn something new. We start out not knowing something and not having any ability in that skill. Then we set about learning it. Our experience as we learn it is still slightly short of our expectation. Then we take away that skill at the end of the course and we have expectation that [...] [...more]
Posted: under Activation, Blip page, PhotoRead, Photoreading, comprehension, learning, learning curve.
When we learn something new. We start out not knowing something and not having any ability in that skill. Then we set about learning it. Our experience as we learn it is still slightly short of our expectation. Then we take away that skill at the end of the course and we have expectation that is higher still than out current skills. At the same time, while we know what to do, it is not what we know we are capable of. It’s not what we did in the during learning or we felt we did far worse than we give ourselves credit for. We expected that our skill would be even higher than it is at that point in time. The distance between our ability and our expectations is at it’s greatest.
This can create confusion or frustration. Frustration asks, ‘What am I doing wrong? Why isn’t it working? I can’t do it there is no point. I am hopeless. I give up.’ It’s like facing a wall not realising you can change direction only if you change your thinking.
Confusion looks at, ‘What can I do? What is working? What if I keep trying? There is a way because this is the natural learning curve and I did it at least partly and it can get better than this. What can I do to stay motivated?’
Look for ways to stay motivated. Simplify the actions and give yourself more time. One of the things that will happen when you are out on your own is the first couple of 20 minute activations are more confusing and seem unsuccessful compared to a live seminar activation. Look at it logically. There you spent 2 days honing your skill learning it testing it step by step and had someone to bounce your purpose off. The successes you had were because of the work you did before. When you get home you don’t have that, you don’t have someone to press you to check your purpose works. You don’t have the time keeper, you’re riding on your own. And if you did it with just the self-study course you also need to be the timekeeper right from the start.
So, understand the first two or three activations can seem sluggish and slow for a beginner and yet that’s only 40 minutes if you used a timer set for 20-minutes each. Remembering that your old reading style takes can take up to 10 hours for a book and most readers would be happy just to double their reading speed and get their reading done in 5 hours you haven’t even spent that much time with the book. Give it an extra activation or four. Even with six 20 minute activations you will have only spent 2 hours with the book. You haven’t finished activating until you’ve finished and get that sense of being finished. Knowing what you need and want to know. So in the beginning a book can take 2 to 3 hours where it used to take 10. That’s 1/3rd or 1/5th the time it used to take. Just don’t short change yourself on the activation steps because nothing seems to be happening at first. Drop the little bits you find onto a mind map and continue to build it and in less time than traditional reading you’re done.
One other thing that often holds people back is the lack of a purpose. Discover your purpose you discover your motivation. That’s a topic for another time.
If you’ve put PhotoReading aside for a while and want to get back into it. Just PhotoRead 2 to 3 books a day for a couple of weeks. One or two of those books will probably get you curious to know more. Activate those books playfully. Using the 5 day test. Yes give yourself the space to fail the first few times.
© Alex Viefhaus January 2007
So how do I know when I’m in photofocus? As I’ve taught in my classes and explained on the forum to me it feels exactly like I’m day dreaming. I’m looking without looking through whatever is in front of me into space. Looking beyond. PhotoReading to me has always felt the same as daydreaming.