Photo reading is all the rage these days, with brilliant experts giving demonstrations in which they flick through a thick book in minutes (at 25,000 words per minute to be exact). Naturally, everyone who sees or hears about one of these demonstrations wonders about the possibilities of actually doing the same himself or herself.
So the million dollar question is – is it really possible for the average person, the person on-the-street, namely YOU, to do what those experts do, to read at that speed, and to retain the information you've read, perfectly? You know, the experts can answer complex questions on a work immediately after they finish reading it.
Is all that possible? Well, the answer is yes and no.
The 'yes' part of the answer is that almost anyone can master photo reading and massively increase their reading speed. The 'no' part of the answer is that while almost everyone shows some improvement, very few people can actually match the experts.
So why is this so? After all, if speed reading is a skill, shouldn't everyone be able to learn it as well? The difference is the same as that between someone who knows basic maths and a brilliant mathematician. It's all a question of degree.
The reason for this is the little-understood way speed reading works. The mind is placed in a hypnotic state where it perceives information in ways not fully understood. Then, using special techniques, the pages are flashed before the eyes, and the mind, from all that flashing information, picks out the very essence of the work.
So photo reading is a little understood art, and some people are just naturally better at it than others. There really is an element of natural talent here, which means that it's possible that you can become very good at photo reading, but it's far more likely that you won't become amazingly good at it, yet will achieve moderate proficiency, quite enough to use at work, for example. And that's all that you need.
But what if you're not certain about the basis of photo reading? Well, there are experts who do contest the very basis of photo reading, claiming that it is metaphysical nonsense. The position you hold really depends on your personal beliefs and point of view, but if photo reading doesn't appeal to you, speed reading has a far more logical and well-understood basis, and is likely to appeal to you much more.
Besides, while there is little or no standard, easy-to-use software to teach photo reading, there are lots of interesting and highly effective speed reading software programs (for example, 7-Speed Reading) that can easily teach you to speed read.
All you have to do is get one of them, install it on your machine, and practice a little every day, and you'll have vastly increased your reading speed over a month. Of course, a speed reader can never reach the incredible speeds that a photo reader reaches. The difference is that while almost any speed reader manages to attain considerable proficiency, only the very best of the best of photo readers do the same.