Neil Sattin.com

This morning I finished the final disc in the PhotoReading Whole Mind System Course.  Since this is the final review that I will write (this time around, anyway - plan on a “PhotoReading revisited” sometime later), I decided to give my thoughts a few hours to gel.  Disc Eight of the PhotoReading Course is primarily focused on applying PhotoReading to your life, with discussions about studying, business reading, career changes, memory improvement, and achieving your personal goals.  All totally worthwhile stuff, right?  It wraps up the entire PhotoReading course with a relaxation/NLP/hypnosis-ish session meant to help you follow through on the goals that you set for your own PhotoReading progress.

At this point, I feel confident that I know how I can apply PhotoReading to help in various areas of my life - areas where “reading stuff about that particular thing” might be helpful, anyway.  There aren’t many areas where you couldn’t read material that would at least support your overall goal - for instance, PhotoReading 5 books on fitness before starting a fitness program.  Clearly reading the books isn’t going to get you fit, but you would be reinforcing what you’re doing on the outside with information on the inside.  I’ll let you know how that goes.

The goal-setting exercise was helpful - because as the program ends it is natural to ponder the “where do I go from here” question.  Not only does Paul Scheele help you structure your next goals for your PhotoReading, but he also guides you through a hypnosis-like (I know I keep qualifying the “hypnosis” - but I think it actually IS hypnosis in the “state of focused attention using creative visualization” sense) exercise to get your subconscious mind in alignment with your conscious goals.  At this point it’s too early to tell how good my follow-through is going to be, but I do have personal PhotoReading goals that I intend to stick to.

If you are contemplating buying PhotoReading, you are also probably wondering whether or not you should get the Deluxe edition versus the Classic edition.  I purchased the Deluxe edition - at the time figuring that I would more than make up the $100.00 difference (if you buy using the discount offered by Steve Pavlina) with increased productivity.  The Deluxe version offers you 3 DVDs (the “PhotoReading Results Supercharger”) with excerpts from an advanced PhotoReading seminar along with interviews of PhotoReading students.  The PhotoReading DVDs go over the concepts that you learn in the course - plus some additional concepts that are only covered in the live seminar.  I have to say that the DVDs are useful, primarily from the perspective of reinforcing what you are learning in the course.  It’s also valuable to hear about/watch the experience of seminar participants, both in terms of gaining motivation and comparing my experience with theirs. 

The other PhotoReading Deluxe item that was very important to me when I was ordering was the PhotoReading Activation paraliminal CD.  I haven’t even listened to it once yet - so I can’t tell you if it’s helpful or not.  The instructions on the PhotoReading Activation paraliminal (which is offered to participants of the live seminar) say to listen to it once a day for a week after completing the PhotoReading course - so I suppose that’ll be something that I do next.  And you thought I was done!?!?

SUMMARY OF MY THOUGHTS ON PHOTOREADING DELUXE VERSUS PHOTOREADING CLASSIC:  Essentially, if it’s important to you to learn the skills of PhotoReading (and that’s it), then all you need is the PhotoReading Classic course.  You get all of the CDs that I’ve reviewed, the Memory Supercharger paraliminal (which I haven’t used yet), the books that I mentioned - everything that you need to learn how to PhotoRead and prepare yourself to take PhotoReading to the next level.  The “bonus” materials that come with the PhotoReading Deluxe course are cool, and do offer something of value (to the extent that I’ve used them).  So if $100 or so isn’t a big deal to you, and you can manage to get the Deluxe course at a discount, then I’d say go for it.  Mostly from a “why the hell not?” perspective, along with the benefit that you will get from additional reinforcement of what you learn through watching the DVDs and listening to the Paraliminal.  I repeat, though - if the difference between the Classic and the Deluxe is a stretch for you financially, then I wouldn’t worry about the PhotoReading Deluxe Course - just buy the Classic and invest your time in focusing your attention on the course, going through all the exercises, and continuing to PhotoRead when the course is over.

So, where am I at with PhotoReading now that I’ve finished the course?  I’ve learned all of the basic PhotoReading skills.  I’ve seen how effective PhotoReading can be in absorbing material much more quickly than if I had used my “elementary” reading skills.  I have acquired a new way of reading that promises to revolutionize the way that I get through the books/reading material that I want to get through.  I am feeling encouraged enough that I will definitely keep using PhotoReading, keep developing my skills as a PhotoReader, and try to take things to the next level with Direct Learning and Syntopic Reading.  Am I glad that I purchased the PhotoReading Deluxe Course and devoted time to actually taking it?  Absolutely!  I’m excited to see where my PhotoReading journey takes me, and I promise to keep you all updated every so often.

If you’ve read through this entire series, I hope that the information contained within has helped you in your quest to learn more about PhotoReading, and that reading about my experience has encouraged you (as well as entertained you).  If there are any specific questions you have that I haven’t addressed, please feel free to ask in the comments - or to e-mail me: neil at neilsattin dot com.  Thanks so much for sticking with me through this process.  And now….back to our regularly scheduled programming - thoughts on living a balanced life.

• PhotoReading Introduction and some words about Steve Pavlina.
• Review of Disc One of the PhotoReading Course.
• Review of Disc Two of the PhotoReading Course.
• Review of Disc Three of the PhotoReading Course.
• Review of Disc Four of the PhotoReading Course and the Talking to Win Paraliminal
• Review of Disc Five of the PhotoReading Course and Natural Brillance by Paul Scheele.
• Review of Disc Six of the PhotoReading Course and Lucid Dreaming.
• Review of Disc Seven of the PhotoReading Course.

Welcome back!  Disc Seven of the PhotoReading Course goes step-by-step through the entire PhotoReading Whole Mind System with a book of your choice.  I chose “The Book - On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are” by Alan Watts.  It’s a book that I’ve been carrying around with me for years now, so I figured that it met the criteria that Paul Scheele (the PhotoReading Course instructor) had specified:  it is a book about which I am very curious, it is non-fiction (which tends to have a more easily-defined structure), and it is short (150 pages).  The only criteria it didn’t quite satisfy was that it should be a light read - let’s face it, a book about the oneness of all things and how to bust through the dualistic constructs of society isn’t exactly “10 steps to becoming a Millionaire” - a bit heavier on the philosphy, anyway.  So, having chosen my book I embarked onto PhotoReading Course Disc Seven, and here is what happened.

All told, I spent about 45 minutes on the book.  At my pre-PhotoReading reading speed, ”The Book” would have generally taken me about 3 hours to read.  And, honestly, I had started the book several times (ok, generally late at night when I was primed for sleeping) - and never made it past the first chapter.  But I KNEW that there was something inside that I needed to get, which was why I had carried “The Book” around with me for aeons.  I still feel like I’m taking a bit too much time with each of the steps, which probably means that I’m doing a little too much reading and not enough relaxing (just my own personal diagnosis).  I’m aware of it, anyway, and that awareness will inform my next PhotoReading sessions.  45 minutes versus 3 hours, though - that’s quite a change!

So I did the first three steps - Prepare, Preview, and Photoreading - all yesterday, and then I did the Activation and Rapid-Reading/Mind-Mapping steps today.  Do I feel like I have a word-for-word conscious comprehension of the book?  No.  Do I feel like I have a grasp on the message of the book, some important points that substantiate the main theme, and direct answers to the purpose-driven questions about that book that I had created?  Absolutely!  PhotoReading really is purpose-driven reading, and more and more I see the importance of continually refining your purpose as you make multiple passes through the material.  The more directed your purpose is, the more information you will absorb - as you’re creating bigger “hooks” on which to hang the concepts contained within the book.

On a more meta-level, Paul Scheele does a good job in Disc Seven of the PhotoReading Course of talking about where you “should” be in the process.  He talks about how the skills involved in PhotoReading require practice so that the connections between your conscious mind and your other-than-conscious mind become stronger - and given my experience with the course so far, I can see how that would be the case.  The more I use the system, the more confident I am of success, and the more confident I am of success, the more successful I am - which is pretty much true for everything in life, isn’t it?  And as I pay more attention to my intuition, the more messages my intuition seems to be sending me - a valuable side effect of the course, I think.

I’ll probably spend a few more minutes with Alan Watts (The Book) before I consider myself to be “done” with it.  For now, though, I feel good about where I’m at with the book, and I also want to give my other-than-conscious mind a little more processing time.  I can feel the gears a-turning in my brain, so I’m going to invest a little energy in “faith in the process” and just let whatever’s happening in the background of my mind happen without interference by trying to make things happen.  I’m also excited to PhotoRead more of the books in my collection.

I’ve been going through my books over the past few days.  There are LOTS of them, and, as I mentioned in an earlier posting, I haven’t even touched many of them since the day I acquired them.  As I look at the titles, I’ve been inspired by the PhotoReading Course to really ask myself “why” I want to read these books.  Encouragingly, most of them pass the “why” test (I’m not just an idle acquirer of books!) - but I also notice that I’m feel less intimidated by the sheer quantity of unread material in my possession.  Having finished Disc Seven of the PhotoReading course, I do feel confident that I’ll be able to get exactly what I need out of each of these books. 

Then my wife and I will have to have a conversation about just how many of these books we’re going to keep.  Because we don’t currently have enough bookshelves for all of them.  Sorry about that, Toni!

One more disc to go…stay tuned!  And thanks for staying tuned.

• PhotoReading Introduction and some words about Steve Pavlina.
• Review of Disc One of the PhotoReading Course.
• Review of Disc Two of the PhotoReading Course.
• Review of Disc Three of the PhotoReading Course.
• Review of Disc Four of the PhotoReading Course and the Talking to Win Paraliminal
• Review of Disc Five of the PhotoReading Course and Natural Brillance by Paul Scheele.
• Review of Disc Six of the PhotoReading Course and Lucid Dreaming.
• You’re reading my review of Disc Seven of the PhotoReading Course.
• Review of Disc Eight of the PhotoReading Course and Deluxe versus Classic.