EyeQ: Removing the Brakes

You're sitting, rather impatiently, at an intersection, staring intently at the red light. Your engine is idling; your fingers are tapping a punctuated meter against the steering wheel. Your mind is racing: you are almost late for an important appointment. The heat of the stifling summer afternoon presses against the window; you crank the air up another notch.

Finally, the light changes! You strain forward, ready to sprint the last few blocks to your destination.

Whoa. First, you need to release the brakes. If you don't remove the brakes, you're not going anywhere.

The same thing applies to reading speed: if you don't remove the brakes, it's not going to happen.

Removing the brakes can be the most difficult part of mastering eyeQ. But it's also the most important. And, just like anything else, it gets easier with practice.

Removing the First Brake

There are two brakes. One has to do with the mouth and the other has to do with the eyes. Let's look at the mouth first. What does your mouth have to do with reading?

Plenty, actually. When mothers teach their children to read, they read aloud to their children. In return, they ask their children to read aloud. There's nothing wrong with that: it's the only way to really determine that the learning is taking place, that the child is in fact learning to read.

But then what happens? Long after we leave our mother's knee, long after first grade and middle school, most of us are still reading aloud. You just can't hear us.

Here's what happens: even though you think you are reading silently, your vocal cords are still moving. It's a conditioned reflex that happens without your even thinking about it.

When you read aloud, you have to read each word individually. You have to sound each letter, one by one, from the beginning of the word to its end. There's no other way to do it.

That?s because the human voice is unlike any other instrument with "cords," or strings. If you press seven keys on a piano at the same time, you hear a chord made up of all the individual tones. If you drag the bow of a violin across two or three strings at the same time, you'll produce a chord made up of all three notes.

But, unlike the violin or the cello or the guitar or the piano, the human voice can produce only one sound at a time. So when you use the voice to read, you are physically capable of producing only one sound - in most cases, one syllable - at a time.

Processing pieces of information one by one, in order from the beginning, is called series processing. It's the slowest possible way of processing information and the very slowest way of reading.

On the other hand, processing multiple pieces of information at the same time is called parallel processing.

To understand the difference between the two, imagine a single sheet of paper filled with text printed in nine-point type. Which would be the quickest way to deliver that information to someone else: to read aloud the text on the page, or to send the entire page at once through a fax machine? Obviously, the fax machine - which sends the entire page at once - is faster than your voice, which can deliver only one word at a time.

When you are stuck in a mode of series processing because your vocal cords are still moving as you read, you are able to read only one word at a time. But you are also able to see only one word at a time. Any word or character other than the one you are reading right that minute becomes meaningless. You might be able to actually see half the page of a book at a single time (or, in some cases, the entire page), but if you're stuck in a mode of series processing, all the characters in that wide area are meaningless. They're not words; they are nothing more than meaningless patterns to you as you concentrate on reading that single word.

And, because they are meaningless, you move them out of your field of vision. They mean nothing to you, so you simply get them out of the way.

Though it is absolutely essential in some disciplines, series processing is a real stumbling block in reading. It slows down your speed, bogs down your comprehension, and doesn't allow you to fully use your field of vision.

It's absolutely essential that this first brake - using your vocal cords when you read, which causes series processing - be removed before you can remove the other brake.

Removing the Second Brake

So if you want to increase your speed you will have to expand your field of vision. But some of us get stressed over things and when we do, it has a direct impact on our field of vision.

Stress makes it difficult to read. And if you're going to increase your reading speed, you need to get rid of the stress that's related to reading. When stress enters the picture, a peculiar thing happens: your field of vision narrows. That's because the stress is trying to help you concentrate. Instead of being able to expand your field of vision, you zoom in on a smaller area.

This example should help explain what happens. Imagine you are waiting in a busy lobby of a restaurant for a friend. As you sit there alone, you hear a cacophony of noises. You hear the maitre de calling out the names of others who are waiting in the lobby. You hear pieces of conversation drifting through the air from several tables just through the doorway. You hear waiters as they move among the tables. You hear forks clinking against the plates. You hear relaxing music being piped over the restaurant's system.

That's what happens when you're alone. But what happens when your friend arrives?

As soon as the two of you start talking, you no longer hear all that background noise. You are focused on what your friend is saying and on how you are responding. The music, the conversations of other diners, the waiters, the forks clinking against the plates are all still there. But you no longer hear them, because the job of carrying on your own conversation has captured all your attention.

The same kind of thing happens when you read. When you have to concentrate on specific characters (words and letters) as you read, you tune out everything else around those specific words and letters. When you're in a restaurant visiting with a friend, that's a good thing. When you're reading, it's not.

How do you overcome the stress that makes you narrow your field of vision? By using your right brain. To understand how, look up from reading this and (if you can) look out a window. A few minutes ago, you were able to focus only on a few letters, probably an area no wider than an inch or so. Now, as you gaze around the room or out the window, you can see a far wider panorama. Your field of vision might be several hundred yards, even more.

What makes the difference? When you were reading, when you were fixed on those words on a printed page, you were using your left brain. Now, as you take in a broad stretch of sky, trees, shrubs, flowers, buildings, and concrete - all of it punctuated with people - you're using your right brain.

The key is to learn to read with both sides of your brain: to physically read the written word with your left brain as you create the accompanying scenes with the right brain.

In other words, you need to activate the vision field in your right brain while you engage in logical thinking (the process of reading). Speed reading is an extremely effective way to train yourself how to do just that.

The blender on your kitchen counter won't work until you turn it on. In the same way, you'll never be able to use and enjoy the full power of your brain until you "turn it on" and use it to its fullest. This program will teach you how.

Results of Removing the Brakes

What can you expect if you can successfully remove both brakes?
And it is absolutely essential to remove both of them?

Yes - it's absolutely essential that you remove both brakes.

The first brake is "vocal reading" (silently moving the folds of your vocal cords as you read). If you remove the first brake, you will trade "vocal reading" for visual reading. You will read must faster because you no longer have to confirm each character of each word. You?re using your eyes instead of your muscles.

But, wait a minute: the eyes are also controlled by muscles, too. Exactly. So if you remove the first brake alone, you will probably be able to read between 1,500 and 2,500 words per minute. That's a pretty broad range for a simple reason - there's a significant difference in the strength of eye muscles from one person to the next.

Removing the first brake lets you reach only part of your potential. To go all the way, you need to remove the second brake - the narrowing of your field of vision.

If you can double your range of vision, you'll double the number of words you can read per minute. If you can see five times as much, you'll read five times as fast. And if you can eventually read as easily as you see the scenery, you'll be able to read thousands of words every minute. And you?ll still be able to appreciate their beauty just as you do that of the scene outside your window.