Imagine a huge canvas of text. For an example, I’ll give Jack Kerouac's sensational novel ‘On the Road’. He wrote the text of his first creation on the wallpaper without paragraphing. One sentence could be about a meter long without any punctuation marks.
How comfortable would it be for you to read such a voluminous material, not divided into certain blocks?
Essentially speed reading is the process of “running through a glance” throughout the text with the assimilation of the required piece of information. For a slow-reading person ‘sheet”, created by an American author, is an unreadable, extremely complex work, but for the reader, who is familiar with the quick reading technique it’s an exciting journey into the world of beatniks of the post-war period.
High-speed reading consists in non-stop reading from the beginning of the text to its end. The key role here is played by the smooth transition of sight without braking on each line. The area of this technology rests in the framework of the field of view, on the methods of expansion, which focuses this chapter.
As you remember, the difficulty is that a glance at a slow reading is fixed on one line one or even more times. This is due to the fact, that during the process peripheral vision isn’t involved, allowing you to see the entire text.
We are accustomed to receive the main share of information through direct vision, but lateral vision is equally important for the development of the environment.
How well is your peripheral vision developed? I propose to conduct an experiment.
Look straight. Pull the closed palm forward and slowly take away it from sight. Once the palm is out of sight, slowly move it so, that it’s barely visible. Open your palm. How clearly do you see each of five fingers?
Your brain isn’t able to perceive information from the side visual field, which is why you miss a considerable part of the information environment. For mastering of speed reading the development of lateral vision plays very significant role. Direct look doesn’t allow to cover the text entirely, because of which there are slowing down the pace of reading fixation.
In this chapter I propose you several techniques aimed at expanding the field of view by training lateral vision, defocused gaze, photo reading.
I will begin with the simplest techniques, the performance of which can be done even by those, who have never come across such techniques.
The development of peripheral vision. It is carried out with the help of the following exercises, for which you must sit in a comfortable chair or on a comfortable chair opposite an empty wall. The look needs to be focused on one point on the center.
First exercise. Without moving your sight from a fixed point, try to stretch your peripheral vision and see the objects around you. Focus on side objects. Most likely, in the first minutes you will not see anything, but gradually objects will begin to acquire clearer contours.
Second exercise. On A4 sheets, draw letters, numbers or any other objects, as long, as they are bright and colorful. Stir the sheets and lay them in front of you. After that, focus the straight look on the point and take one sheet from the pile. Move the image on the outstretched hand to the lateral view and try to see the drawing as clearly as possible. Gradually increase the deflection angle to seventy to eighty degrees, which is the limit for the external field of view.
Third exercise. The procedure is identical to the previous one, but the images must be reduced by half, then three times and so on to the smallest images, that you can distinguish. By reducing the figure, peripheral vision will learn to recognize even the most finely printed text.
This exercise is recommended to perform 15-20 minutes a day, so as not to overstrain the optic nerves. If you feel a strong tension, I advise you to blink quickly for a few minutes to avoid a headache.
To expand the field of view, you can use exercises, that develop this skill from the third part of the book.
The technique as a whole is not aimed at the ability to read with peripheral vision, however, this skill is very useful in teaching speed reading, contributes to an increase in the amount of information absorbed and involves more brain areas.
The human brain has one feature – it captures in the field of view the object about which a person is thinking at the moment. I will give a simple example. You are walking along the road and are concentrated only on the point that lies directly in front of you – the head is down; you are looking at the asphalt. However, the world around you offers a huge flow of information – moving vehicles, people passing by, representatives of flora and fauna, urban objects. All this eludes the field of vision, since the gaze is concentrated on only one subject.
Moving the focus helps to cover a much larger range of information. Due to the conscious distribution of focus, you will become more attentive. Being in public places, at work or at events, you will be able to capture the smallest details of the behavioral model of certain people in your environment, their external appearance, surrounding space, color and texture of objects.
The following exercise is recommended for moving the focus.
Position this drawing of circles at a distance of 15-29 cm from the eye level and, without letting the circle out of the field of view, try to see the tip of your nose. You will notice, how each of the images has been bifurcated. Remember the defocus technique and try playing it again. Train until you can do it without any effort.
The next step is to combine the circles into one. With a defocused look try to connect your neighbors from forked circles into one circle. The effect will be amazing – the image will receive the volume. Hold this picture for as long, as you can.
The final stage of the exercise is to keep your look in the defocused state on the side objects. With fixed pupils move the inner sight from the center circle to the left. Return to the original state and go to the right circle. All this time the central object must be in sight. At first glance, the task seems impracticable, but after several days (or weeks) of training, you can freely move the view from object to object.
This training is aimed at acquiring two additional points of view, contributing to a more extensive perception of objects, including text materials. The skill fixed to automatism won’t only help to master speed reading, but also strengthen lateral vision.
A defocused look is an interesting practice, applicable not only in the field of teaching speed reading, but also in the field of psychology and even esoteric. The shamans asserted that, owning this ability, one can see the true world of things, psychologists say, that the technique helps to withstand even the most intense gaze of the opponent. With the help of a defocused look you can easily watch a movie in a foreign language and, focusing on the picture, read the subtitles. At first glance, it may seem, that only a few can master this skill, but this is far from the case.
Defocusing is a kind of attempt to deceive the brain due to the fact, that you remove the sharpness from all objects, that fall into the area of your vision. You can match this process with the camera settings, when the focus moves from the foreground to the back. If all the objects in the lens are double, then the sharpness is distributed. Sometimes this effect happens, when you think for a long time, looking at one point. Harm to the eyesight doesn’t carry out defocusing training, especially, if you take breaks every 10–15 minutes during classes.
Before I talk about how to properly defocus the view, I want to warn you about the most common mistakes.
Excessive effort. It is not necessary to fix intensely time after time the idea, that you need to remove the sharpness of objects – this can lead to the opposite effect. A look will cling to each object. Obsession with the idea instead of meditative relaxation will not allow to deceive the brain, which deliberately makes you strain your eyes.
Pseudo-defocused view, or otherwise "empty." Just looking at one point it’s impossible to defocus the view. Objects become blurry purely automatically. Images become muddy, with subtle outlines, but this is completely different from objects devoid of sharpness. In a state of empty glance you can stay indefinitely, but exactly until the moment, when the objects begin to move. Distinguishing between these states is quite simple – a true, defocused look requires concentration and eye strain.
Before doing directly defocusing exercises, it is recommended to perform a series of preparatory exercises.
Take a relaxed pose. Close your eyes. Make several rotational movements – first in one direction, then in the other, so you will relieve tension from the eye muscles and nerves.
Watch a few commercials or movies with subtitles, trying to focus your attention on the picture and on the text. At first, it will be difficult to concentrate on two objects at once, but little by little the eyes will get used to the rapid frame change.
Set a mirror in front of you and look into your own reflection. The muscles of the face should be relaxed, the look calm, without emotional. Imagine that the look passes through the glass, through its surface. Little by little, the reflection will begin to blur, lose its shape. The face seems blurred and as if distant.
Attention! If you have vision problems – hyperopia or nearsightedness – then you need to train no more than 5 minutes in a row and take 30-second breaks.
To master the defocus technique and increase the field of view, I recommend the following method.
Expose hands with raised index fingers. Using a direct look, spread your arms in different directions until they are no longer visible. In this case, the fingers should always remain within the field of view. After that, bring your hands together and repeat the whole process just as slowly. Then, join your index fingers together so, that one overlaps the other. Now raise one hand up and the other down, fixing the gaze in front of you. Reaching the point, when the fingers are not visible, bring your hands together, placing your fingers cross to the cross and continue to spread your arms now diagonally. Holding a direct look, with your fingers on opened hands, twist clockwise first, and then – against. With peripheral vision, follow the movement of your fingers with a defocused look.
Desire is a thousand possibilities; unwillingness is a thousand reasons.
The exercise, allowing to disperse the view, is as follows.
Surely, each of the readers has a favorite place in the city or outside, from where a wonderful view of the urban or natural landscape opens up. When you come to a favorite shop or a fallen tree, sit in the most comfortable position and focus your straight look on a point just above the horizon. As a rule, we focus on the contemplation of an object, or switch it from one object to another – bird, house, cloud, tree and back. This technique involves complete comfort and dispersed attention. Take a break from specific objects and defocus your gaze. Cover the whole picture, but try to keep the smallest detail in view. The look should be like as if go into the picture of the world around you, but don’t miss a single movement around yourself. Do not hurry. Breathe exactly. When you enter the desired state, you will see, how the landscape has transformed around you. It’s possible, that during the exercise, you will feel some strain. In this case, it’s worth “letting go” of the defocusing, let your eyes rest and start the exercise again. Over time, the eyes get used to it, and the heaviness in the head will disappear.
Another way to expand the field of view is the state of photo focus. This condition is immersion in complete relaxation of the body and brain. The main purpose of this technique is to deconcentrate the view, to soften in such a way, as not to focus on individual words, but to cover the entire text.
The photo focus technique is aimed at enhancing communication between the visual apparatus and the brain. The information gathered from the text doesn’t enter the analytical section of consciousness, but directly into the unconscious region. The sight doesn’t focus on individual words and phrases, but covers the entire page. In the framework of this technique, this view is called “soft intent”.
With a photo focus, visual impulses entering the brain are imprinted at an unconscious level and are revealed to a fuller extent. Each new page of the text leads to a neurological reaction – the brain “recognizes” the patterns, projecting them from later onto the logical level of conscious thinking.
With the help of photo focus, the page can be read in a second, and the whole medium-sized book in just 5 minutes! The unconventional method is that the material passes the stage of conscious reflection, but is impressed on the mental plane, thereby remaining for a long time in the sub-cortex of the subconscious.
The technology is rather difficult to master, since the text during photo reading may seem fuzzy, as if blurred. You seem to be moving away from the text and see its duplicate focused, but moved to the side, look. The uniqueness of the technique allows you to feel the clarity of each word in the aggregate, to plunge into the depth of each page.
To practice photo focus, you can use the following exercise. It is necessary to sit comfortably, slightly moving away from the table. On the edge of which lies an open book (newspaper, magazine, etc.). Place any object on the floor under the book. Focus your look on the lower edge of the book so, that the subject also comes into view. Slowly move the book so, that it covers the subject. Seeing the book in sight, look at the boundaries between the pages. The text that pops up between them is a duplicate of pages that is imprinted on an unconscious level.
Now try to move the book to your eyes, without letting go of your eyes. As soon as the look passes through the center of the book, you will be able to fix the double edge of the text. At first it will be quite difficult to see a duplicate, if you want to achieve a result. Training should be repeated daily.
Expanded view, which is carried out photo reading, makes the participation of conscious processes minimal and increases the percentage of information processing by the subconscious layer. Thus, information is imprinted at a deeper level.
Try another method, if this one seemed too complicated. Open the book and focus your look right in the center – between the pages. Extend the field of view until all four corners are in your vision. Try to spread your eyes so, that all the lines are as clear as possible. Now move your attention to spaces and text fields. Mentally connect four corners of the book diagonally. When performing this exercise, you will clearly see, that the image of the pages is imprinted on the sub-cortex of consciousness.
A relaxed look while doing photo reading helps balance the visual system, engages the visual muscles, strengthening them. Listen carefully to your own feelings and don’t give your eyes an undue strain.
Here I want to pause and note, that photo reading is only one of many speed reading techniques. I present it in a descriptive order only as part of a practice, based on absolute eclecticism and interactivity, when the reader chooses the method, that suits him best. This can be compared with the achievement of catharsis in various religious cultures – prayer, reading sutras, meditation. Trying different methods, listen to internal sensations, study, how your body responds to certain processes and changes.
In the “Field of view” section, I would like to make a digression related to both the defocusing technique and the photo reading.
Even as part of a quick reading, you can change the pace of learning. Speed is adjusted depending on how familiar the text is and recognizable, simple or complex.
The reading process is most rapid in the event, that the text has already been read; if you already assume, what is said in the following paragraphs; if you intuitively mark the usefulness of the information in some passages.
The speed can be somewhat reduced, if the information is difficult or informational for you; if the text needs to be studied and thought over in detail; if the text is rather complex in terms of an oversupply of terms, foreign words, etc.
In either case, speed reading involves a continuous process. Lowering or increasing the pace, in no case you should not stop! Drop the old habits associated with regression and a constant return to the incomprehensible. In the process of mastering information, the brain independently interprets and “digests” an incomprehensible meaning or leaves you with a field for study. Any text is fraught with answers to all the questions we are interested in, just sometimes we don’t have enough patience to get to the finish line.