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Speed reading - is it poosible and how to attain it?

by Coloquium
13 replies
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// I had a typo in the headline. Could someone please correct it? Thanks!

Hello,

as my first post I wanted to ask if anyone has experience with this topic. I'm a really bad reader, either slow or retention is almost zero. And I have to read a lot...

I read this quote by Moshee Feldenkrais:

"The best and most useful attention is similar to what we do when reading. When we see the whole page, we cannot perceive any of the content, although we can say whether the page is in English or some language we cannot read. To read, we must focus on a minute portion of the page, not even a full line-perhaps, merely a single word, if it is a familiar one and rather short. If we are a skillful reader, we keep on picking our word after word, or groupings ofwords, to be attended to by our macular vision, which is only a minute portion of the retina, with sufficient good resolution to see small print clearly.
The good way of using our attention is, for the most part, similar to reading. One should perceive the background (the whole page) dimly and learn to focus sharply on the point-attended (concentration) rapidly before the next so that reading fluently means reading 200 to 1000 words a minute, as some people can."

If only it was that simple.

I came across Spead Reader X . The Author claims, that some things otherwise taught in this context are nonsense like eyetraining.

I also hear a lot about switching of subvocalisation.

Another site I saw was ZOX Pro. They talk about "photographing the whole page with full retention.

And then there are more wholistic programs like The Silva Life System which includes speed learning (and maybe even levitation ).

And of course there are hundreds of books on amazon.

So, can anyone share his experience? What terms do I have to look for, what concepts and methods work? Like when to subvocalise and when not.

Thank you very much!
  • Profile picture of the author garyv
    Give me a few minutes to read your post, and I'll get back to you w/ an answer....
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    • Profile picture of the author pickthat apple
      It hepls if the text is not too wide, like a newspaper column, for example.
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    • Profile picture of the author whateverpedia
      Originally Posted by Coloquium View Post

      // I had a typo in the headline. Could someone please correct it? Thanks!

      Hello,

      as my first post I wanted to ask if anyone has experience with this topic. I'm a really bad reader, either slow or retention is almost zero. And I have to read a lot...

      I read this quote by Moshee Feldenkrais:

      "The best and most useful attention is similar to what we do when reading. When we see the whole page, we cannot perceive any of the content, although we can say whether the page is in English or some language we cannot read. To read, we must focus on a minute portion of the page, not even a full line-perhaps, merely a single word, if it is a familiar one and rather short. If we are a skillful reader, we keep on picking our word after word, or groupings ofwords, to be attended to by our macular vision, which is only a minute portion of the retina, with sufficient good resolution to see small print clearly.
      The good way of using our attention is, for the most part, similar to reading. One should perceive the background (the whole page) dimly and learn to focus sharply on the point-attended (concentration) rapidly before the next so that reading fluently means reading 200 to 1000 words a minute, as some people can."

      If only it was that simple.

      I came across Spead Reader X . The Author claims, that some things otherwise taught in this context are nonsense like eyetraining.

      I also hear a lot about switching of subvocalisation.

      Another site I saw was ZOX Pro. They talk about "photographing the whole page with full retention.

      And then there are more wholistic programs like The Silva Life System which includes speed learning (and maybe even levitation ).

      And of course there are hundreds of books on amazon.

      So, can anyone share his experience? What terms do I have to look for, what concepts and methods work? Like when to subvocalise and when not.

      Thank you very much!
      Your post took too long to read.

      Originally Posted by garyv View Post

      Give me a few minutes to read your post, and I'll get back to you w/ an answer....
      So did yours.
      Signature
      Why do garden gnomes smell so bad?
      So that blind people can hate them as well.
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  • Profile picture of the author Gary Pettit
    "Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man." -- Francis Bacon
    Signature

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    • Profile picture of the author Coloquium
      OK, so is there going to be any statement about the programs I listed or any recommendation for another book / program?
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      • Profile picture of the author garyv
        Originally Posted by Coloquium View Post

        OK, so is there going to be any statement about the programs I listed or any recommendation for another book / program?

        Well not to be a cynic, but since that was your first post, and it read just like an email follow up, I'm going to guess that this is a fishing expedition. And since you can't put out any links for link-bait, you've put out some specifically named "programs" for us to discuss (look up on google). This is the "off topic" forum, but come on man! We're still most of us Internet Marketers in here too. You're selling Kraft Singles at a cheese tasting convention. Get w/ the program -
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        • Profile picture of the author Coloquium
          Hello,

          sorry but I don't understand what you mean by your post.

          So I will state it more clearly:

          Is anyone frequenting this forum, who has taught himself or was taught speed reading, and would be willing to share his/her experience?

          In particular I would be interested in opinions about the two products mentioned above or alternatives that brought better results with them.

          If it is not allowed or wanted to discuss books or online programs in this forum, then just let me know and I'm gone.

          I wrote here because I read a post about brainwave entrainment in this forum in which many of the members shared their insights on varying products.

          Thank You!
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          • Profile picture of the author Steven Wagenheim
            Even though, to me anyway, this is a poor attempt at spam, as Gary said,
            I'm going to answer your question...I think.

            I took a part of Evelyn Woods course when I was very young. Yeah, there
            are tricks you can use to speed read.

            I don't like them because retention suffers AND you actually have to read
            the material more than once.

            For me, it's not an enjoyable process and even though I could still do it, I
            don't. Yeah, if I'm in a hurry and somebody wants me to read something
            that I really don't want to read, I'll zip through it and get enough out of it
            that I can "convince" them I read it.

            But it's not for me.

            Maybe I just never bothered to develop the skill enough to make it
            enjoyable.
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          • Profile picture of the author garyv
            Originally Posted by Coloquium View Post

            Hello,

            sorry but I don't understand what you mean by your post.

            So I will state it more clearly:

            Is anyone frequenting this forum, who has taught himself or was taught speed reading, and would be willing to share his/her experience?

            In particular I would be interested in opinions about the two products mentioned above or alternatives that brought better results with them.

            If it is not allowed or wanted to discuss books or online programs in this forum, then just let me know and I'm gone.

            I wrote here because I read a post about brainwave entrainment in this forum in which many of the members shared their insights on varying products.

            Thank You!
            If you honestly don't know what I'm referring to, then please accept my apologies.
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            • Profile picture of the author Coloquium
              Hy Gary,

              I think I get it, what you meant... did you think I was advertising the products?

              I'm in no way affiliated with any of them, and I'm not selling anything. I'm just a student struggling with masses of curricular an extra-curricular reading material.

              I just posted what I knew about the two programs so people would get an idea and see, that I did some research myself. As I said, I thought from my previous eperience, that htis was a good place to ask about self improvement products.

              And I thought, that the Feldenkrais citation would be interesting for some of you...

              If you accept that intention, then I accept your apology with pleasure.

              @Steven: Thank you, that was what I thought about too. Although all of the authors claim that retention goes up. I read on Wikipedia, that this isn't so and that comprehension speed links directly to IQ.

              In my own experience, when I had episodes when I was able to scan blocks of text at once, I had the feeling of better retention, because I could grasp the meaning better, what made me faster, becasue I hadn't to go back again.

              So maybe it is not exactly about speed reading, but about optimizing my own potential for more effective reading.

              Thank you for any other insights.
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  • Profile picture of the author jacktackett
    Increasing your reading speed is possible but is something you have to train yourself to do. One thing that slows us down is how we're taught to read - usually pointing to a word with our fingers etc and reading each word while saying the word either aloud or "in our head". A lot of times people also lose their place while reading and re-read a section - thus decreasing speed.

    Basically the tips I've seen is to not re-read, and to take in sections of text at once - not individual words. It takes practice AND concentration so its something I find tiring and I don't do it very often. And it depends on material too - try to speed read a technical manual - I double dog dare you.

    Now speed reading is not the same as skimming - either to get familiar or find a specific piece of information. But techniques you learn in order to speed read can help increase your skimming speed as well.

    I've not taken the Woods course, but I used a great book as a teenager to learn a few techniques, called Speed Reading. The editions I have are from 1980 and 1991 but I think the author has updates as well - his name is Dr. Robert Zorn.

    they're small books but have a lot of great information on the subject.

    --Jack
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  • Profile picture of the author Alex Barboza
    I am trying the ZoxPro program in this moment. I find it posible to attain Einstein's focus (one of the purposes of the training) but I don't think you can read 10000 words a minute with 80%+ retention. However if I can get to 2000 word a minute and a better retention than I have now I will feel very satisfied. I'll let you know how this goes for me
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  • Profile picture of the author seasoned
    Originally Posted by Coloquium View Post

    // I had a typo in the headline. Could someone please correct it? Thanks!

    Hello,

    as my first post I wanted to ask if anyone has experience with this topic. I'm a really bad reader, either slow or retention is almost zero. And I have to read a lot...

    I read this quote by Moshee Feldenkrais:

    "The best and most useful attention is similar to what we do when reading. When we see the whole page, we cannot perceive any of the content, although we can say whether the page is in English or some language we cannot read. To read, we must focus on a minute portion of the page, not even a full line-perhaps, merely a single word, if it is a familiar one and rather short. If we are a skillful reader, we keep on picking our word after word, or groupings ofwords, to be attended to by our macular vision, which is only a minute portion of the retina, with sufficient good resolution to see small print clearly.
    The good way of using our attention is, for the most part, similar to reading. One should perceive the background (the whole page) dimly and learn to focus sharply on the point-attended (concentration) rapidly before the next so that reading fluently means reading 200 to 1000 words a minute, as some people can."

    If only it was that simple.

    I came across Spead Reader X . The Author claims, that some things otherwise taught in this context are nonsense like eyetraining.

    I also hear a lot about switching of subvocalisation.

    Another site I saw was ZOX Pro. They talk about "photographing the whole page with full retention.

    And then there are more wholistic programs like The Silva Life System which includes speed learning (and maybe even levitation ).

    And of course there are hundreds of books on amazon.

    So, can anyone share his experience? What terms do I have to look for, what concepts and methods work? Like when to subvocalise and when not.

    Thank you very much!
    I used to be able to do SO much here. My reading was MUCH faster, primarily because I didn't subvocalize. I guess I started doing THAT like maybe the 1st or 2nd grade. I used to also SCAN far better. When I looked for a VB book about 13 years or so ago I scanned nearly EVERY book on the subject in the store(probably about a dozen books at the time), and decided on 3, since none were complete, and those 3 covered some subjects well enough to be of use. Had I read those books it could have taken even WEEKS to decide, rather than the one short trip it took me. Of course, though I learned a little from that, I didn't absorb anywhere near the full content of the books.

    My main problem with reading fast now seems to be that I take time to digest what was already read.

    Programs seem to fall into two categories. One tries to work up your speed by gradually reducing subvocalization. One tries to create a subconcious environment to try to achieve the ability to scan and absorb LARGE chunks of detail about the desired goal.

    Steve
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