As we continue our celebration of thirty years of service, let’s move from the 1980s and look at our first full decade, the fabulous 1990s.
1991
EasyLearn Language Programs
We introduced the EasyLearn Languages of Spanish, French, and German, which were originally developed by International Language Services for teachers to use in classrooms. They soon noticed that individuals were using the program outside of the classroom, so they worked with us to create a self-study version.
EasyLearn Languages features 10-minute adventures into some aspect of life in a different culture. EasyLearn French, for example, includes “A Day on the French Riviera,” “A Hot Air Balloon Trip Over Paris,” “Tour of a Castle,” and others.
You begin each adventure with a relaxation process to calm the body and focus the mind on learning. Each adventure is presented partly in English and partly in the target language. In essence you learn the new language in much the same way you learned your native language. You live the language in your imagination. You immerse yourself in the language and culture in a way you cannot by simply conjugating verbs.
Personal Celebration
The BEING, DOING, HAVING, and GETTING sessions of Personal Celebration were introduced. When you listen, you are led on a journey with dozens of friendly, sincere, and supportive people. One by one they whisper words of encouragement, affirmations, and positive messages. They help you gain freedom from struggle, discontentment, and lack of direction as you find hope and purpose.
1993
PhotoReading book is published
Our first book, originally called The PhotoReading Whole Mind System, was published in the fall. Within two years the book was published in Hungarian, German, Portuguese, Spanish, and Danish. Today, it is in its fourth edition with over 800,000 copies in print in 16 languages.
The book was uniquely designed so that you can easily read it in whatever amount of time that you have available. If you have 25 minutes, page through the book reading paragraphs that have an icon of Einstein riding a bicycle. You’ll get the gist of the book. If you have another 30 minutes, page through the book again reading paragraphs marked by an icon of Einstein running. Now you’ll understand the core concepts. If you have an additional 45 to 90 minutes, page through the book marked by icons of Einstein getting an idea. Now you’ll fully understand the PhotoReading whole mind system. With more time you can read the remaining text to deepen your understanding.
1995
PhotoReading Personal Learning Course
As soon as the book came out in 1993 we began working on the PhotoReading personal learning course. We did not know whether we could teach PhotoReading through a self-study with any degree of success, so Paul Scheele and his team redeveloped PhotoReading from the ground up, taking into consideration how people study when they are by themselves.
The course enjoyed a 92% satisfaction level by its users, which compared to a 96% satisfaction level by those who attended the live seminar (today our seminars enjoy a 99% satisfaction level). The personal learning course was continually updated as we learned more about PhotoReading through our seminars. We completely re-recorded the sessions and rewrote the manual in 2009.
The advantage of the live seminar is that you are there under the guidance of a highly trained instructor learning in a roomful of fellow students. You know that by the end of the seminar you will have the basic skills of a PhotoReader. Your next step is to put PhotoReading into action in your life.
With the personal learning course you have the luxury and flexibility of time without having to travel to a seminar. You can go through it in whatever time period you have available. You are also free to revisit any lesson multiple times (we recommend, however, that you do not revisit any lesson until you’ve finished the full course).
If you can, go through both the live seminar and the personal learning course because PhotoReading is generative. With each pass through the course you will take your skills to higher levels of performance.
Weekend Intensive PhotoReading Seminar
Until now, the PhotoReading seminar was either taught in multiple weeknight sessions or over two weekends. Thanks to breakthroughs as a result of the development of the PhotoReading personal learning course, we were able to teach PhotoReading in a weekend intensive seminar.
Natural Brilliance Retreat
What began as advanced PhotoReading morphed into Natural Brilliance, because the strategies Paul uncovered to advance PhotoReading actually worked work in all areas of a person’s life.
In the first of several Natural Brilliance Retreats participants learned to recognize stuck states in themselves by experiencing the oscillations that have kept them stuck for years. Then by living the model physically, emotionally, and intellectually, they discovered the ease and simplicity of taking a next step to gain balance, inner strength, and personal power.
1996
Natural Brilliance Personal Learning Course
From the Natural Brilliance Retreat came the Natural Brilliance personal learning course. It featured six Paraliminals created exclusively to help you thoroughly integrate the 4-steps of Natural Brilliance: release, notice, respond, and witness. Following this model allows you to overcome any challenge, at will.
1997
We launched our first website in the spring of 1997. It would be a couple of years before you could actually place an order on the website.
Natural Brilliance Book
Paul Scheele’s Natural Brilliance book became a best-seller immediately when it was released as a complete guide for experiencing your potential. Today well over 100,000 copies of the book have sold, and it is now included with the PhotoReading personal learning course.
Accelements
“Elements of Accelerated Learning.” That’s the foundation Accelements, a program we began offering in companies and colleges across the country to help teachers convert curriculum and teaching methods to that which is more brain friendly. You can listen to a one-hour conversation with Paul on accelerated learning here.
1998
Ideal Mindset, Decisive Action, and Consistent Achievement personal learning courses
By the end of the 1990s 22 individual Paraliminals were introduced creating the beginning of the Ultimate You Library. To help our clients use the Paraliminals we created three coaching programs, one a year for three years in a row. They were:
Ideal Mindset: How to let go of the past and prepare your mind for profound growth
Decisive Action: How to break free and leap forward to success
Consistent Achievement: How to strengthen follow-through and triumph again and again
We quit offering the programs in the early 2000s and rolled the coaching content into the new Paraliminal Accelerator that came out in 2007. We found the methodology in the Paraliminal Accelerator to be more effective.
Double Your Reading Speed in 10 Minutes
Our expertise and experience with PhotoReading taught us that anyone can double their reading speed in literally 10 minutes. This amazing super-brief program makes it easy to zip through their reading, double time. I’m not sure why I can’t find in on our website right now—tens of thousands have made it into clients’ hands through the years.
Four Powers for Greatness personal learning course
Paul Scheele teamed up with J. Michael Bennett, professor emeritus, University of Minnesota, to create Four Powers for Greatness: Listening, Reading, Speaking, Writing personal learning course. The course helps you gain the knowledge, skills, and strategies you need to become a world-class communicator.
Radio and Television advertising
In the first 17 years of our life you heard about us through radio and television interviews and newsreports, a worldwide television documentary, newspaper and magazine articles and ads, millions of pieces of direct mail, the Internet, and word of mouth.
1998 saw the beginning of advertising through infomercials on radio and TV. In the next five years, hundreds of thousands of new clients came to us to for PhotoReading, Four Powers for Greatness, Million Dollar Vocabulary, Spring Forest Qigong, and Memory Optimizer. You can catch one of my infamous PhotoReading demonstrations from one of the television infomercials here on YouTube. It was a blast!
1999
Million Dollar Vocabulary personal learning course
Paul Scheele and Mike Bennett came together again to create a brain-friendly course to unlock your verbal edge for success: Million Dollar Vocabulary personal learning course.
The 1990s saw us grow from Paul, me, and a parttime secretary to a staff of dozens, a phenomenal library of unique programs, and hundreds of thousands of clients. We loved creating programs and working with our clients to help maximize their potential. It is easy to come to the office every day when you have that to look forward to.
To your personal best!
-Pete
(Posted on March 11, 2011)
