Ken

Tom: A suggestion: You might find it worthwhile to listen to Harry Binswanger's 3-tape lectures on "The Metaphysics of Consciousness." He speaks of consciousness as causal. For example, when you purposely raise your arm, your consciousness has acted on the relevant parts of your nervous system to make it happen. The "how" of this action of consciousness is yet to be discovered -- perhaps a new force of nature? In any case, the lectures, from the Second Renaissance Conference (1988), are fun and highly recommended (by me!).

My course happened eleven or twelve years ago -- too many experiences since then to allow for any worthwhile description. Due to some emergency, our instructor had to be replaced in mid-course, after she had established a good working relationship with the class members. The replacement never really "caught on." As I recall, the course was divided into four sections, each with sub-sections. It addressed organizing, previewing, getting into a learning state, and various read-throughs of the material. They attempted to teach us to use a focal point beyond the page, in order, I guess, to be able to take in more than when focusing on individual words or phrases. Lots of practice in class, reading assigned passages, scored for speed and comprehension. There was more, but I don't remember much of it. Again, the course was fun, and gave me some useful study techniques, but did not result in any lasting increase in my reading speed. Sorry I can't give you a better blow-by-blow.

In 1968, I decided to enter graduate school, after an absence from school of several years. I worried about being able to keep up with the younger students because I was a slow reader. I decided on a speed reading course. I took the Evelyn Wood course, which was being heavily advertised and demonstrated at the time. They guaranteed the student would triple (I think -- maybe it was double) his reading speed by course end, on a before-and-after reading test. The course was very helpful. They taught me a "slash recall" method that served me well in note-taking as well as reading. They taught me how to approach a reading task and how to organize my reading. At least partly because of what I learned, I was able to go through graduate school with straight A's. The only drawback was, I remained a slow reader. My speed increased a little, but nowhere near the guaranteed increase. Some of the other students noted huge increases, but I wonder how much of that was wishful thinking. I know that in one case, a student claimed a high rate of reading of a book with which I was familiar. His report on his reading bore no relation to the book, as nearly as I could tell. To their credit, the Evelyn Wood company returned my money. Many years later, I took the Photoreading course someone mentioned above. Again, I derived a good deal of benefit from the course, but did not increase my reading speed significantly.

Not too many decades ago it was common wisdom among poker players that a guy with tattoos should be invited into the game forthwith. He would be seen as less than the brightest bulb in the chandelier.