1
The Emergence of
Quantum Speed-Reading
After flipping through a book in English, a second-grader said [in Japanese], "Hey, this
is interesting!?
Right away, I asked, ?How come??
?Well, it's about a swordfish,? he replied.
The book was Hemingway"s The Old Man and the Sea.
If My Students Can Do It, Everyone Can!
Children have a great variety of natural abilities. One of them is called Quantum Speed-Reading. Unlike the normal way of reading one line at a time, QSR involves quickly flipping through a book and picking up the thought vibrations emanating from it, and then translating those vibrations into light or imagery-based information through which the content is instantly understood.
One day I had my class first quickly, then slowly, flip through the pages of a book for a total of 30 times. The children moved their own chairs to a spot where they felt most relaxed and proceeded to flip through the pages of the book. After finishing, they came back to their desks. One child, however, was totally absorbed and continued long after the others had returned. I thought, ?Oh well, I?ll just leave him,? and I went on to the next lesson. Then I heard the sound of a chair being dragged back across the floor, and there was the child back at his desk. Then he said, ?That was really fun.? When students show any change in their speech or behavior, I generally try to listen to them. So I asked the child, ?What?s up, then??
?I mean the pictures came out of the book and I understood everything? was the reply I got from this second-year elementary school child! On a daily basis, I always try to theorize about the phenomena that the children display, in other words, the abilities they demonstrate. In this case, I realized immediately that this was a function of the right brain?s imagery at work with this child. Since the right brain processes information with great speed, I gathered that when a book is flipped through at high speed, the words are transformed into images and come out as pictures.
Naturally, my students were baffled and sat there amazed. I decided to have some of my other students have a try at it. We repeated the previous exercise, but this time with an expectation that something would happen. All of them did exactly the same thing, flipping through the pages, and, amazingly, they all saw images in their minds.
The right brain has the ability to communicate information so that it is understandable to everyone. This is called resonance. Therefore, when we have a desire to learn something or the desire to see it, this ability transmits it to us at a vibrational (quantum) level. This was an entirely new way of reading books, and I decided to call it Quantum Speed-Reading.
Even a Foreign Language Book
Can Be Read Easily
If when my student had not returned to his desk with the others, I had scolded him, saying, ?What?s wrong with you, everybody?s being held up!? I believe that Quantum Speed-Reading would never have emerged as a practice. I don?t believe children should be left entirely to do as they please. The ability central to QSR, however, is one that comes naturally from children being spontaneous. If I had scolded the boy, this ability might not have been discovered.
From that moment on, all kinds of abilities started to blossom and, for some time afterward, I was completely wrapped up in having the children flip the pages of books. The children didn?t think of this as school study. They were doing it as play, as a game. But even so, there came a time when they started to lose interest. So in order to change their focus, I handed out English books for these Japanese children to speed-read. These were not picture books but books full of text in English. The children, who could not read English, flipped through them about ten times and said nothing. I thought to myself that this was not going to turn out well. But before long, a second-grader said, ?Hey, this is interesting!?
Right away, I asked, ?How come??
?Well, it?s about a swordfish,? he replied.
The book was Hemingway?s Old Man and the Sea. The boy then went on to tell me about the story. Thinking that perhaps he had read the book in Japanese or been told the story, I asked him, ?Do you know the book The Old Man and the Sea??
?What?s that?? was the reply.
He knew absolutely nothing about the work in question and, since he could not read English, it was very strange that he had been able to understand the content.
So I asked, ?How were you able to read it??
He replied, ?Even though the book is written in English, when I do the Quantum Speed-Reading, hiragana, katakana, and kanji (Japanese scripts) come out on the right page, and in the middle there is an image so I get all of it.?
Learning to Use the Function
of Automatic Processing
In the right brain, there is a function called automatic processing. Perhaps this ability allows the mind to translate automatically any language when the reading speed is increased. There also exists the function of imaging anything and of transforming any written words into pictures. The operation of these two functions combined with the fact that many children spontaneously embrace them has resulted in all of our students being able to create this phenomenon. They can Quantum Speed-Read books in languages they don?t know: English, French, or German; it makes no difference. This can be thought of, then, as the universal translation function of the brain?s internal computer.
The Student Who Wrote a
Letter to Professor Hawking
An interesting thing happened when we did Quantum Speed-Reading on Stephen Hawking?s book The Universe in a Nutshell published in Japanese by Kadokawa Shoten Publishing.
S. K., a second-grader, said, ?Professor Hawking has overlooked something, so I have to tell him about it.?
I was a little taken aback, thinking that we would have to send the message in English. At this point, S. K. said he would speak in English. He sat in front of the video recorder and started off by introducing himself, then said there were many kinds of black holes and, although other people could not see them, he himself could use imagery to peer deep into space. He spoke all this in fluent English. Later, S. K.?s insight was verified by a newspaper report stating that there are indeed many kinds of black holes. The book in question is pretty difficult reading even for adults. Young K said, ?If Professor Hawking could change his way of looking at the black holes from being based on looking from here, to looking from there, he would gain a slightly different perspective on the matter.? I was really amazed. Young K. is now awaiting a reply from professor Hawking to the following letter:
?How I felt after QS reading The Universe in a Nutshell
by Stephen Hawking? (translated by Katsuhiko Sata),
by S. K., second-grade elementary student
of the Kasai school of Shichida training
My name is K?. I like to think about space and I like to imagine. So I think about black holes. There are many kinds of black holes. Even if you don?t see them, I can see far into space using my imaging power. And I can see right now a black hole. You may think it exists or it does not exist, but I can really see the blue-colored black hole. I think the blue black hole can suck up and eat other black holes. I hate to think about the time when the two black holes come together because they do make a big black hole.
But I do like this one thing about the black holes. When it?s born, the black hole has a pole in the middle. And I like the color of the pole. It?s like white purple for me. And I like the stars going round the black hole, because the black hole can suck in anything. The stars will go together like a ring, a beautiful ring. And I like the ring; I wish they were diamond stars, so it would be a colorful ring. I hate to think of the black hole when it comes to the Earth. Do you hate it? I know this because I see good images. It?s like having an antenna on my head.
Perceiving Sounds and Smells
Coming from Books
In our daily lives, we adults live with a left-brain focus on language. Or to put it another way, we hardly ever use the imagery of the right brain. In Shichida training, we place great emphasis on further activating the right brain. To understand this technique, adults must first step outside the ?box? of left-brain thinking. Children, on the other hand, naturally use right-brain imagery to activate many abilities.
With the children, we did Quantum Speed-Reading of a foreign language library collection as a kind of game. We then noticed a child flipping the pages with his ear held next to the book. When considered from a left-brain point of view, this would seem nonsensical. When I asked the child what he was doing, he replied, ?This way I can begin to hear sounds.?
By flipping the book next to one?s ear, sounds that should not be sensed are heard with the QSR technique. To give a concrete example, one student told of hearing the bang of a rifle shot at a bear and the splashing sound of the bear falling into the sea. By holding books next to their noses and flipping the pages, other children were able to sense smells, such as rice burning, a pickled plum, or dried fish. In stories in which a person fell into the sea, the children said, in voices that sounded like they had stuffed noses, ?It?s so cold!? It thus seemed that they were having an experience of being in real time in the place described in the book.
It appears that by stimulating the right brain and its ?nonphysical-based sense organs, a general mobilization occurs in their functioning. In other words, the right brain is sensing things without using physical organs of perception as the left brain does.
Easily Memorizing Textbooks, Too
When we considered how to use this ability, we inevitably ended up with the idea of applying it in schools as a learning tool. With that in mind, we had the children flip the pages of textbooks and they were amazed by the results. Flipping through arithmetic textbooks actually resulted in the answers jumping out. Furthermore, it wasn?t just the answers that appeared; they came along with their equations, since the test questions required the method used to solve them. Once again, the automatic processing function inside the brain?s computer was at work. I think this function perceives the overall context and, in this case, figured that a math question in sentence form required an equation as part of the answer.
We next tried flipping through textbooks dealing with Japanese language studies. We found that in poetry sections images of flying butterflies would appear, along with a great variety of other images.
After a while, I began to think that perhaps these children were memorizing text in the process of flipping through the pages. When I asked if they were memorizing, they said they didn?t know if they were or not. When we tested it, we found that memorization of the entire book was occurring. And it wasn?t just one child who could do this, but every single one. I was shocked. How was it that simply by flipping through the pages of a book, they could memorize it and repeat all of its contents?
How Colors Show Levels of Comprehension
As we continued with these kinds of lessons, colors began to appear to the students as they flipped the pages. In the years of doing this, a great deal of data has accumulated. For example, at times, the seven rainbow colors appear or striped patterns or just single colors. It seems that poor comprehension ability is related to the colors red, yellow, and orange. When green, blue, purple, and indigo appear, the level of comprehension is higher; thus the content is better understood. When red appears, the children don?t understand the content because they have never learned about it. White indicates that they understand the content instinctively, whether they have learned it previously or not.
It was in this way that I began to see that there is a profound relationship between the depth of understanding and the colors that appear. Both green and blue signal understanding, though the latter denotes a higher comprehension. Orange signals no understanding. The reds indicate no understanding because the content hasn?t been previously studied, whereas yellow means it?s hard to understand.
The colors appear to fan out in the space above the pages that are being flipped. It?s not the cover or the picture inside the book that?s being reflected at all. And if you want to change the colors, you can. There are times when stripes appear, or when red and blue both appear at the same time. At such times, the children are ?reading? the content, but they do not really understand it.
The Color Coming from the Book Indicates Comprehension
Color Level of Comprehension
White Able to understand without having studied material
Purple Can understand
Indigo Can understand
Blue Can understand
Green Can understand
Yellow Cannot understand (partially)
Orange Cannot understand
Red Cannot understand because have not studied material
Seeing Trains from the Time Schedule!
The next exercise we tried was to read more technical material. We used a train schedule. Because it had a photograph on its cover, we blindfolded the children or covered the cover with something so they couldn?t see it. Then they flipped through the pages. Afterward they said things like, ?I can see the bullet train,? ?I can see railroad tracks,? ?I can see a station,? ?I can see a landscape,? or ?I can see lots of numbers in rows.? When it comes to train schedules, it is not about understanding the content, that is, the departure and arrival times. In this case, the columns of numbers are immediately transformed into destinations or rail routes.
Next, we had the idea of flipping through planning drafts to see if anything would pop out when in fact nothing physical existed at the ?location.? We used the test paper for the architects? exam, from the second-class exam category. We thought this would be interesting since there was nothing but draft drawings on it. We went ahead and the children saw completed wooden houses. It was only later that we found out that second-class architects are not allowed to use concrete in house construction, but only wood. In this case, the imagery emerged with precise accuracy down to the finest details.
To top that exercise, we next chose musical scores to flip through, and the children heard the music playing! We tried high-school differential calculus and physics textbooks, too. The children reported seeing red coming from inside parts of the book. In other words, they could not understand those parts because they had not yet learned that material. In the part about the four rules of arithmetic, they picked up blue because they had previously learned these calculation methods. Such exercises are how we discovered that reds and blues are related to levels of comprehension.
A New Concept Emerges
One day an editor came to our class to report on our progress. Although he had a basic understanding of Quantum Speed-Reading, his eyes grew larger on seeing children in a classroom matter-of-factly doing speed-reading exercises with results that would normally be considered miraculous.
He asked us how all this was possible. I replied that it is conceivable that the brain has a function that can automatically take letter-based language information and transform it into images. I explained further how levels of comprehension can be measured via the change in the colors experienced. I told him that if this were all there was to it, it would simply be a phenomenon. But I wondered whether this approach could be utilized as a way of learning through the right brain, and whether changing the colors of the images that represent the degree of understanding could change the level of comprehension.
We next experimented with this concept. As the pages of the textbook were being flipped and colors representing low levels of comprehension such as red, orange, and yellow appeared, the children closed their eyes and used imagery to change the colors to green, blue, and purple (which represent high degrees of comprehension). When they opened their eyes, the colors had actually changed to green, blue, and purple. They now found that they could understand previously incomprehensible material. When the right brain is activated through the use of speed in this manner, I believe its translation function allows the children to comprehend such material. After all is said and done, speed is of the ultimate importance. By elevating the speed, this sort of ability and brain functioning can be achieved.
Feelings of Oneness Are Engendered
During lessons, we have the children sit around a pile of books placed in the middle of the floor. As they go about the QSR learning process, the children treat each other with consideration and affection. It is not too much to say that their individual energies become one. When they put away the books after the lesson, they take great care in arranging them in the basket where they are kept. They have come to think of the books as having an important existence, just as they do. This might be more than the right-brain involvement; it might be stimulation of the diencephalon itself. I think that the essence of our being human is transmitted from just such a fundamental area of the brain.
This might account for understanding not only the content of the book but also the message the author intended, as well as the feelings he or she had at the time of writing. To acquire the same information through left-brain study would involve a huge amount of effort, but these children very simply Quantum Speed-Read the essence of it all.
Quantum Speed-Reading Makes Poets of the Children
At times, children who have learned Quantum Speed-Reading write at a higher level than they are thought capable. A first-grader offhandedly wrote the following on a piece of notepaper:
Who knows, maybe we are also transmitting mind energy. And then maybe people?s minds are getting telepathic. If that happens, then the Earth will become beautiful, won?t it? Then the Earth and the cosmos will get linked and won?t that be good for Nature? And then maybe everyone will get on really well together. We?ll be able to do something for Life. Yes, definitely!
Children who learn QSR also create emotionally rich fairy tales. A third-grade student penned the following:
I, the Cherry Tree
In this long line of cherry trees, I am the only one not blossoming. That huge building over there has blocked out the sun, and so I am the only one that doesn?t get the light. Little me, I don?t blossom. Nobody notices me, not the other trees, not the people.
Then one day, little Akura, who always comes along this street, said, ?Hey, I?m always coming along this street and this cherry tree is always feeling down.? Little Akura was three years old. . . .
I had the feeling it was her always telling me I was feeling down.
The next day, she said, ?Cherry tree, you look down again today. Is there something bothering you? Or is somebody being nasty to you? Is there something else going on??
I replied, ?That?s enough, you little Akura!? Little Akura was worrying about me.
And then the next day came. I said to little Akura, ?Hey, little Akura, what should I do to get accepted??
Little Akura seemed to hear my words. ?Hmmm, what should we do to get you to be accepted as a cherry tree? I know! What if you are brave whatever happens! What?s important is to do something, not just know it. Even if you can?t do it completely, try doing it one percent!?
Little Akura had taught me something important: Even if you can?t do it all, just try one percent. . . . ?Thanks, little Akura. Thanks to you, Akura, I feel better.?
?Yeah! That?s great. Bye bye, cherry tree!? Little Akura?s smiling face went on and on.
The next day, I heard the gentle sound of the wind and the falling petals of the other cherry trees. But I still hadn?t blossomed. Then little Akura came by again. ?Ah, it?s you, cherry tree. Have you blossomed yet? Looks like you haven?t, cherry tree.?
?Yes, you?re right, not me, not yet.?
?It?s OK, cherry tree. Look on the bright side,? she said.
?Yes, OK,? I said. Two weeks later, I still hadn?t blossomed. The other cherry trees had all finished blooming and their blossoms were almost all gone. Soon it would be time for little Akura to come this way. Just as I was thinking that, all of a sudden my body felt heavy and I started to give off light. What was happening? Wow! A bud opened. One by one the buds opened properly. I wondered if little Akura would come along.
But on that day, little Akura was away on a trip and didn?t show up. Two days later, little Akura came back. She?ll be coming this way, coming right this way! I waited, throbbing full of excitement. But on this day little Akura didn?t pay any attention to me. Just then . . . one by one the petals started falling off of my body.
?Hey, cherry tree!? shouted little Akura.
?Cherry tree?? said little Akura?s mother, shaking her head.
And then an old man walking along the street said, shaking his head, ?What?s this? A cherry tree?? And then a whole bunch of people started to gather around me. On that day, I was so happy, so really happy.
Through doing Quantum Speed-Reading, the human heart is enriched, as this story illustrates. To be able to imagine oneself in the position of a tree and to write about it is the same as receiving a message directly from the tree. This is another aspect of QSR. One might say that the thoughts and feelings of an actual cherry tree have been picked up at the quantum level and put into words.
This chapter has shown how QSR can be used at fundamental levels, such as in testing student preparation and school education. One could quite conceivably apply QSR to children who are autistic or disabled in some way. We have thus discovered and developed an educational technique with limitless applications.
Continues . . .
|
