Through the years there have been novice PhotoReaders who feel frustrated in their “inability to activate” material they PhotoRead. Their approach has been to PhotoRead a book and then sit back and think of the book. They look through their 15 inches of conscious awareness and, not to our surprise, of course, find nothing about the book. Or, they try Mind Mapping by sitting in front of a blank sheet of paper waiting for total recall to occur. They project their unrealistic expectation of having a “perfect” memory of all they read (which has never actually happened with regular reading) onto PhotoReading, after having flipped through the book at a page a second. When perfect recall does not happen, they give up in frustration claiming, “PhotoReading doesn’t work!” Somehow, the concept of activation – that is, getting ACTIVE with the material in the book – got lost in the process.

Now, let’s add Intelligent Gap Management. According to Vera Birkenbihl’s brain-friendly approach, what do you do when you try to remember something and you cannot? Follow the Gap Management procedure – you get ACTIVELY INVOLVED in closing the gap! You must never assume that your knowledge web and the knowledge web of the author are the same. We often make that mistake because in school we are lead to believe that the teacher’s knowledge web and ours are SUPPOSED to be the same. So, after reading something there is often the unrealistic assumption that your knowledge web and the author’s knowledge web should be the same. THEY ARE NOT! That’s why you are reading the book – to build new threads into your web!

Here is how it works. PhotoReading exposes your neural network to the information from the text. This initiates the brain’s process of making the associative connections between your knowledge web and the ideas of the author. Now your job is to build upon those connections. This is where activation goes to work for you. With Intelligent Gap Management, it keeps on working.

Intelligent Gap Management means that you become active, exactly as we suggest that you do with your book during the Activation stage. Ask yourself first, “Do I really WANT this information in my memory web?” If so, what specifically is your purpose? What do you want to know?

After formulating a number of questions, you go into the text, much as you would if you were to enter a conversation with the author. Explore the text while asking your questions. Notice where you are guided in the text to find the answers. YES GUIDED! Because you have PhotoRead the text, the relevant information is hooked into your nonconscious 11 miles. You then use this opportunity of activation to shine your conscious mind’s 15-inch flashlight beam and NOTICE where you are attracted to explore further. You will be guided, through subtle nonconscious mechanisms, to explore where the answers reside. Stay alert to any signals: feelings, images, internal dialogue – almost anything at the periphery of your conscious awareness that pulls your flashlight beam to the information you need.

The first signals include a sense of  “recognition.” Most memory experts consider recognition a low-level memory compared to recall. However, recognition or Re-Cognizing (thinking again) is the conscious establishment of a bridge to the nonconscious memory web of information ALREADY CONTAINED WITHIN YOU. In other words, it is your doorway in. Recognition precedes and guides your way to further recall. Acknowledge the sense of recognition and peruse it by asking more questions. Use super reading and dipping or skittering to explore those sections of text that contain relevant information.

As you find what you are looking for, make notes about any information you want to recall later. Use the Birkenbihl method of Analograffiti from the Memory Optimizer course for critical ideas. Create a Knowledge ABC-List on the main ideas from the text. Also make color mind maps. These active techniques translate the information through many more of your neural circuits, aiding in your CONSTRUCTION, and leave you with a more permanent visual and spatial recording of the key points. Studying your notes enhances your CONSTRUCTION of the information you want to RE-CONSTRUCT later.

In the short time it takes to finish activating the text, you will have CONSTRUCTED an excellent mental summary of the key ideas from the book. Those ideas are actually auxiliary threads connected to the other 89 to 96 percent of the text that you did not consciously read. Reconstructing this mental summary through conversation, writing, or reviewing your creative notes will strengthen these threads, building neural highways to the information within your knowledge web.

A wonderful example of Intelligent Gap Management and activation was described by a PhotoReading course graduate named Christina, who was contacted by a television station.  She was asked to demonstrate PhotoReading and then submit to comprehension testing by a psychologist in front of the TV camera. At first she did not know if she could be successful under the “pressure to perform” that she imagined. She decided that she never would know unless she explored it to find out for herself.  Excellent gap management!

She was given the choice to PhotoRead any one of five selected books. She told them that she would preview and PhotoRead one day, then activate it for 45 minutes the next day. Then she would be ready to be interviewed. That’s an excellent example of another Birkenbihl strategy: good mental hygiene – taking charge of her own emotional state to perform effectively under duress.

While activating, her main question was not what the book was about, but rather, what she would need to know to successfully answer the questions of the interviewer. Time and again during her activation she felt herself guided to explore sections of the book that she was not personally interested in, but sensed would be good for her to know.

When it was time for the interview, Christina sat in the studio in front of the TV camera. The interviewer stood to the side behind the camera and fired question after question at her. She answered all of them correctly. After the experience and after watching the public broadcast of the TV program, Christina commented less on the experience and more on the power of her activation. “I never would have believed it possible” she said. “I had only taken the course two weeks earlier, and I felt like a novice. But I trusted that my mind could do it. That was the only way to discover I had it in me all the while! Anyone can do this if they simply choose to use the system. I am convinced of that.”

Paul