Ways To Read Faster
May 3rd, 2010 | by admin |Our conscious brain takes in 16 bits of information per second, compared to our non-conscious brain that absorbs 11 million bits per second. Can you imagine the difference? That is the reason why we hate to do stuffs consciously because it does take effort and discipline. Our non-conscious brain structures process tons of information coming from our sense organs such as breathing, heartbeat, and blood circulation, not to mention instincts and emotions all without our awareness.
The eyes, our primary tool in reading, only take in information when they are stopped. If you want, you can verify this by holding a book up in front of people and let them read a certain part in it. Watch their eyes as they read though don’t tell them what you are observing. What feels like continuous motion is actually move stop read, move stop read, and so on. Speed readers minimize the number of stops by maximizing the number of words taken in at each stop and read faster.
Short Exercise
Here’s an exercise that will help you develop effective eye movements. Try looking at the following sentences in three ways:
First, focus your attention: look only at the first “S” in success.
Second, adjust your focus / attention: look to be able to see at the entire word, “success”.
Third, adjust your focus so you are seeing three or more words at the same time.
Because you can’t say three words at the same time, you can’t subvocalize if you are reading three words at a time. Thus, elimination of vocalization from thought is necessary. Although many think that verbalization is essential to linking words with concepts, common experience shows that this is not so. For example, if someone asks a mechanic how a car works, he surely knows what to answer but will have a problem in how to respond. The subject of his thought is too complex and multi-dimensional to be expressed in linear forms.