About 1% of our students get stuck with visualization. They either cannot get into the visualization mode and see pitch black, or they cannot get out of visualization mode and experience vivid hallucinations.
In both cases, they need to address this course creatively.
If you have trouble getting into visualization, this may mean that your visual processing is just too fast. What other people experience as images and objects, you may experience as logic and connections. You may get an inexplicable subliminal “feel” of the image without getting the image itself. Guess what, this is exactly what the top speed readers like Lev feel like. They need to process the information so fast that no images are formed. Instead they improve their subliminal perception and use pauses between paragraphs to connect the new subliminal information to other things they know. Try to focus on how various things connect to each other, and you will get the filling of the marker without even seeing it. Practically you will be jumping several steps, so expect a bumpy ride, but eventually a high pay-off.
If you have trouble getting out of visualization, this may mean that your visual processing is too rich. What other people experience as images, you experience as vivid objects, maybe even with touch and smell. Most of the memory champions are like this. To overcome the speed limit, try not to add to the object details beyond the bare minimum, and pace yourself. Limiting your time to do things has amazing influence on people with vivid visualization, enabling very fast and very accurate reading.
I have a feeling that I may be experiencing the visualization problem. It takes a lot of effort to get into visualization mode and it is hazy at best after periods of intense concentration. How will this impact the speed reading training regiment you offer in the course? Thanks!
Hmm…. You do need to use some sort of visual processing with texts… Do you prefer drawing flowcharts/mindmaps?