PhotoReading is a technique for reading at up to 25,000 words per minute. The basic idea is that you mentally photograph all of the pages of the book. This puts the material into your unconscious mind. You then use a series of mental techniques to elicit the answers to specific questions, hence bringing the required material into awareness.

PhotoReading is really designed for those times when you have a specific purpose in mind, since it allows you to take an and filter large amounts of information unconsciously, and the bring the relevant bits into your conscious mind. The process is that you define your purpose in reading a book, then determine in your mind an overall structure. Mentally photographing the pages fills the structure with detailed content. To use the content, you ask detailed questions, which will result in your intuition showing you where to look for the information you need.

The capabilities of PhotoReading have been demonstrated on TV by the likes of Derren Brown and Paul McKenna, who have developed the skill to high levels. For example Brown was given a random book from the British Library, photoread it, then was asked by a Librarian for specific words by location and page number and was correct.  Reviews on Amazon suggest success at using the technique is varied.

PhotoReading differes from speed-reading in that speed-reading sends information to the conscious mind for processing, eliminating sub-vocalisation to speed up the process, and therefore has different uses.

Scheele, P.R. (1999) "PhotoReading", Learning Strategies Corporation, USA  Buy