Remember Everything You Read: The Evelyn Wood 7-Day Speed Reading \& Learning Program pdfdrive com

The Stranger
and said, “Now I want to find out how
fast you can read.”
He had them read, beginning on page 1, for two minutes. Then, he
stopped them and showed them how to calculate their reading speed.
Most were in the 200-to-300-word-per-minute range.
“But you know what?” Dan said. “Any darned fool can read one
thousand to three thousand words per minute—and you can too if you
just learn to operate a little differently than you do now. So let me
explain exactly how to do it.”
Needless to say, by then you could have heard a pin drop in that class.
Dan went on to give more background on the Evelyn Wood Program and
to provide an overview of the lesson plan. He introduced them to the
concept of using hand motions and showed them the simple underlining
hand motion that I’ve already explained. At first, he instructed them just
to relax and move their hands smoothly back and forth without trying to
read.
He suggested that they try the motion at different speeds, including
the fastest movements they could manage “without breaking your
fingernails or causing blisters.” Next, he asked them to slow way down
so that they could see all the words as they moved along; but still, they
were not to worry about trying to read.

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Now, it was time to increase the speed again. “Press the accelerator a
little,” he said. “Move those subvocal linear speeds up to four, five, six
hundred words a minute. But 
don’t read.
All right, now really step on it!
Get that speed going really fast again, a light, bouncy rhythm. Underline
quickly, without reading, but keep your hand and eye movements under
control. Be sure your head doesn’t begin to swing back and forth. Move
your arm and hand easily at the elbow. Keep it loose and relaxed.”
Finally, Dan told them to stop. “You’ve got the idea,” he said. “Let’s
try something a little different. I want you to begin moving that hand
back and forth in a fast underlining motion, but again, without reading.
Gradually, slow down your hand motion until reading begins to take
place.
“Now, turn to the beginning of chapter two. I’m going to time you
again for two minutes. This time, I want you to use that underlining
hand motion at the speed you determined was comfortable for reading.
No faster, and no slower. Ready? Begin.”
For two minutes, the class became absorbed in 
The Stranger.
Then Dan
had them calculate their speeds again. The improvements were dramatic.
Many had doubled their rate or were moving along at an even faster
clip.
Why did their speeds improve?
As Dan explained, there were a number of contributing factors: first,
they weren’t rereading; second, they were attacking the book actively
with those hand motions, not just sitting still, languidly slipping into a
leisurely pace; and third, the hand motions helped them concentrate
more completely than before.
“Let me ask you a couple of questions before we wrap this up,” he
said. “First, how many of you found that during those two minutes you
momentarily lost your concentration, or your mind temporarily
wandered?”
Nearly everyone’s hand went up.
“Of 
course
you did!” he responded. “I lose concentration periodically.
We all do. But what happened when your mind began to wander? You
noticed that you were just wiggling your hand, just moving it along
across the page without reading. So you came to your senses and started
reading again. The hand motion enhanced your concentration.
“Now, let me ask you a final question: Can any of you tell me what I

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was doing while you were reading?”
No one could, so Dan said, “Let me show you what I was doing.”
He proceeded to spin like a dancer, balance a garbage can on his head,
make childish faces and clown around in other ways.
“You didn’t see that, did you?” he asked. “Wouldn’t you like to have
that kind of concentration every time you sat down to read or study?
Wouldn’t you like your students to have that kind of concentration?
Anyone with a fourth-grade reading ability can.”
Even introductions like this can increase reading speeds immediately
by at least 50 percent and often much more. Furthermore, people
become motivated to learn the more advanced techniques that will
propel them to ever higher rates of reading and studying—in short, to
the realm of Mental Soaring.
To introduce you to the next step in this process—to the higher speed
plateaus, well beyond the 900-word-per-minute subvocal barrier—let’s
take a brief look at the experience of the founder of this program, Evelyn
Wood herself.