speed reading > articles
How people read?
Our conscious brain takes in 16 bits of information per second, compared to our
non-conscious brain that absorbs 11 million bits per second. We hate to do stuff
consciously because it does take effort and discipline. Our non-conscious brain structures
the tons of information coming from our sense-organs, including breathing, heartbeat, and
circulation. Add to that, instincts and emotions – all without our awareness. It’s a
Mini-eye-movements of left-middle and right, are a strategy and must be learned through
practice while you read. It requires Intention- Attention and Volition to acquire. It is
not automatic, but liberates your brain to read and remember like a master instead of a
slave. Use free imagination.
The eyes only take in information when they are stopped. You can easily verify this by
holding a book up in front of someone and watch their eyes as they read. Don't tell them
what you are observing. What feels like continuous motion is actually move -> stop
-> read, move -> stop -> read, etc. Speed readers minimize the number of
stops by maximizing the number of words taken in at each stop.
Here's an exercise that will help you do this. Try looking at the following sentence in
First, focus your attention / eyes on the first "S" in success.
Second, adjust your focus / attention so you can see the entire word,
Third, adjust your focus so you are seeing all three words at the same time.
Because you can't say three words at the same time, you can't
sub vocalize if you are
reading three words at a time.
It is possible to eliminate
vocalization from thought. Although many
think that verbalization is essential to linking concepts, common experience shows that
this is not so. For example, if you are a mechanic or computer engineer, and someone ask
you to think about how a car or computer works, the subject of your thought is too complex
and multi-dimensional to be expressed in linear forms. You are able to visualize and
manipulate concepts -- and find answers -- to engineering problems without ever putting
those thoughts into words.
The same is possible with abstract ideas (which are also often highly complex and
multi-dimensional), though it takes practice because there are no familiar
"images" to fall back on. Like meditation, one tends to navigate these byways of
thought using intuition and feelings of depth, which are no less pragmatic than
verbalizing the same idea. In some cases, especially when the thought involved is
particularly complex, removing the verbal component not only vastly accelerates the
thinking process, but can even lead to intuitive leaps that verbal thinking might have
restrained or prevented.
Think about the way in which you are reading this text. Most people
think that they read the way young children read - either
letter-by-letter, or at best word-by-word.
If you notice the way in which your eye muscles actually move when reading a printed
text, you will probably find that you are fixing your eyes on one block of words, then
moving your eyes to the next block of words, and so on: effectively you are reading not
words, but blocks of words at a time. The period of time during which the eye rests on one
word is called a fixation.
You may also notice that you don't always proceed from one block of words to the next:
sometimes you may move back to a preceding block of words if you are unsure about
something. These disruptions to the forward flow of reading are called skip-backs.
Only speed read reader have been trained to create mini-eye-movements,
while the rest of us make-do reading with micro- eye-movements, which are automatic, and
keep adjusting our eyes to place the words we read on our foveal centralis, the sharpest
focusing area of our retina.
The micro-movements of our eyes are like our heartbeat, circulation, blood-pressure and
respiration, on auto-pilot. We are unaware of them 99% of the time. These micro-quakes,
micro-tremors, and micro- saccades of our eyes permit us to see clearly and read with
Mini-movements (sweeps), across our retina produce speed reading because they engage our
peripheral-vision to chunk words simultaneously, not just one-word at a time. School
taught you sailing, we teach speed reading.
when you read and read as if it really matters. Most people read in the same way that
they watch television, i.e. in an inattentive, passive way. Reading takes effort and you
must make the effort. A wise teacher once told me that you can learn anything if you do
PAY ATTENTION and
Reducing Fixation Time for speed reading
It is thought that the minimum length of time needed for a fixation is only quarter of
a second. By pushing yourself to minimize the time you take, you will get better at
picking up information from a very brief fixation. This is a matter of practice and
Articles about theeyes and speed reading
Understanding the role of speed in the reading process is essential. Research has shown
a close relation between speed and understanding.