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Name of Course:	Radiant Thinking Skills - Mind Mapping, Speed Reading and Memory
Our Overall Rating:	(Good)
Delivery Method:	Public Course - Two Trainers - Seven Participants - Over two days - Sat 24th Nov. and Sun 25th Nov. 2001 - 9.30am to 5.30pm
Venue Location:	The 'In and Out Club' - London - Nearest Tube - Piccadilly Circus -Lunch was taken at a little bistro in the club. Food was tasty and reasonably priced. (Pizza £5)
Trainers:	CT Training - Philip Chambers and Lady Mary Tovey
Cost:	£176.25 including vat (Discount available for full-time students) - Lunch extra.
Next Public Course:	TBA - See website http://www.stanwell.demon.co.uk/stanwell/CTTraining.html
Contact:	E-mail Philip at Phil@learning-tech.co.uk - Company courses can also be arranged - Telephone +44 (0) 7000 853276

Reviewed By Stuart Brown

Day 1 - Overview of the Brain and Mind Mapping©

Picture Copyright CT Training Brain Stem - Controls instinctive functions such as breathing and heartbeat. Limbic System - Has a role in emotions, sexuality and memory. Cerebral Cortex - Used for thinking, talking, seeing, hearing and creating.

The  weekend began at 9.30am on Saturday morning in a grand room of the In and Out Club in London. My hosts for a weekend of 'Radiant Thinking' were Philip Chambers and Mary Tovey who together run the course for CT Training. It was to be broadly split into four areas. Discussion of the physical mechanisms of the brain, and then mind mapping, speed reading and memory in that order.

Accompanying me on the adventure in thought were six others. Quentin, a conference organiser, Judy, a student of Anthropology who is about to embark on a Doctorate studying Pygmies in Borneo, Tony, a database manager for the charity Save the Children, Paula, an operations manager for Thames water, Charles, a fifteen year old student, and his mother Mandy a Kumon Maths teacher in Kent. An eclectic mix of folk all gathered in the one spot to hopefully supercharge their brains.

We were each given a large manual which contained the course material, plus a set of coloured pens, an A3 drawing pad, and a set of three juggling balls (the balls had to be given back, whilst the rest was ours to keep). This was an unexpected and nice touch. The whole theme behind the course is that the brain is a multi-function beast that works best when all of its cylinders are being used; and what better way to enliven and interconnect all the right and left brain circuits then by getting some hand, eye, brain co-ordination going. Unfortunately however, each half of my brain was obviously not aware that it was meant to be communicating with the other, and so my juggling attempts over the weekend were generally less than successful. My companions evidently were quicker in this regard, because several of them had mastered the art of juggling three balls by the end of the weekend.

The morning was taken up with an overview of the brain and its architecture; including a rather nice model of the brain which was perfect for inquiring fingers to tug apart! The brain is interesting both in terms of the way we use it, and also in the way that it has evolved over time. The typical human brain has 100 billion brain cells, weighs about 3 pounds and its conundrums are accurately summed up by Susan Blakemore, speaking in the magazine New Scientist in March 1999, when she says, 'In proportion to our body mass, our brain is three times as large as that of our nearest relatives. This huge organ is dangerous and painful to give birth to, expensive to build and, in a resting human, uses about 20 per cent of the body's energy even though it is just 2 per cent of the body's weight. (Visit here for more facts and figures about the brain)

Picture Copyright CT Training This is a brain cell or 'neuron' the basic building block of the brain.

The idea of using the brain effectively is not of course only a twentieth century phenomena. The basis of most current memory systems were formulated to a large extent by the Greeks over 2000 years ago; and though the odd new system has emerged since the 17th century (the 'Major System' for example), the popular explosion of interest in finding techniques that can be applied on a day to day basis is new.

Mind Mapping©, which we studied for most of the afternoon, after a nice lunch in the clubs affordable bistro, is a technique of representing knowledge in a flowing visual form that the brain can better understand and assimilate. It was invented by Tony Buzan in the late 1960's, and its basic premise is that linear note taking does not suit the way our minds ideally like to remember things. We think in colour, make imaginative leaps of fancy from one subject to the other and see a wonderfully visual world around us; and yet when it comes to remembering things we write lists without pictures, in a single colour! Buzan made an intuitive leap that this was clearly madness, and that what was needed was a way of encoding information that was better suited to the way we actually think. To this end he developed Mind Mapping. Rather then remembering through a list, this first links through a theme, and secondly emphasises that knowledge is interdependent like a giant series of networks and so is better expressed in an organic and colourful way. (Click here to see an example which describes the 'Laws of Mind Mapping' in the form of a Mind Map.)

Philip Chambers, one of the trainers for this course, is the current World Mind Mapping Champion, a suitably glamorous title that emanates from winning the Minds Sports Olympiad in London last year (Click here if you fancy entering next years event!); and so is well placed to teach about the subject. The practice of Mind Mapping is an interesting one, because it turns on its head the notion that note taking has to be boring. You basically sit in front of a blank sheet of paper with a set of coloured pens and draw pictures and links as to how things slot together. In many respects it is much like going back to Kindergarten, only we justify it in scientific terms rather than fun terms. The irony of this of course is that precisely because it is good fun and absorbing it actually works!

The Mind Mapping section of the course took up most of the afternoon, firstly through explaining the reasoning behind them, followed by the best ways to draw them, and then practising with the paper and pens supplied. This was very good, and professionally handled. There were a large selection of examples of Mind Maps dotted around the room which made it easy to figure out the 'correct' way to do things, and the instruction was clear and logically paced. Also, one of the authors of the book that the manual is based upon is Tony Buzan, the inventor of the technique, and so this too offered good clear guidelines. This section of the course was the smoothest and best put together, and made a compelling case for using mind maps. The possibilities of Mind Mapping on a computer were barely mentioned however; which given the fact that Mind Mapping software is often bundled for free on the cover discs of many computer magazines should be addressed. Also, the manual did lack guidelines as to what action should be taken following the course to properly cement the knowledge. A theme that ran through the whole course.

The last hour of the day was taken up with some memory and speed reading benchmark tests designed to demonstrate current abilities. Which, almost without exception (Quentin had you been practising?) showed all of us to have fairly average and uninspiring scores (which would all be improved by the end of the second day). The day then finished off with a Quiz game, which was a nice way to end the days proceedings, and also had the affect of reviewing the days learning. All in all pretty good.

Day 2 - Speed Reading and Memory

Picture Copyright CT Training The Eyes in relation to the brain

We are faced with a barrage of written words on a daily basis that we have to deal with, and it can feel quite overwhelming to look around us and realise the sheer volume of material that we really should read, 'If only we had the time'. The problem with reading the way we are taught in school, namely one-word-at-a-time, is that we sub-vocalize the words in our heads (say them to ourselves as we read them), and hence are severely limited as a result in the speed to which we are able to read. Typically we can sub-vocalize at a rate of one word every quarter of a second, and so most people read at a rate of about 240 words a minute. (To get an idea of your own speed read a novel for a minute and then count the number of words). Coupled with the problem of sub-vocalization is the spectre of backskipping; namely that you read something and then have a nagging doubt that you really understood it, and so go back and re-read it. These two together cause people to have slow reading speeds.

Speed Reading as a mainstream discipline really took off in the late 1950's when Evelyn Wood did her own research into the subject following seeing one of her professors read some of her university work at an amazing speed (for an interesting online history of speedreading go here), and the ideas have now settled down into two mainstream camps which share a common goal of faster reading, but perceive different mechanisms to achieve them.

The first of these (which this course adopts) is largely the same way that Evelyn Wood approached it. Namely, that if you can train yourself to move forward through a text avoiding backskipping and sub-vocalisation while taking in groups of words rather then the words individually then you can dramatically improve your reading speeds. The aim of this approach is to ultimately reach the point where you are literally absorbing and understanding chunks of text. This sounds slightly bizarre at first, because the worry is that, 'If I don't read the words individually, then how will I understand them?'. The reality however is that our minds are far more amazing then we give them credit for. Our eyes and brains can immediately conceptualise, categorise and understand a great painting for example. Words are really no different. It is our conditioning and early experiences that says that words must be read one-word-at-a-time, and yet really they are no different from the painting in being a kind of representation, not an end in themselves. With this in mind techniques such as using the hand as a pacer were employed as an aid in the process of avoiding backskipping, sub-vocalization and to start to absorb words in chunks.

The second school of thought really takes up where the first leaves off and says that because our eyes can absorb and conceptualise information so quickly, that merely using mechanical techniques such as pacing out the words with the hand or a pointing device such as a pen, are inadequate; and that we should be aiming to absorb whole pages of text at a time. This is done through getting the mind focused in the right way through meditative techniques, and various page turning and recall strategies. Through this approach it is claimed that speeds of over 100,000 words a minute are possible!

Whether or not this is theoretically true given the mechanics of the eye is a moot point (Click here for facts about the eye). I have to say that I have previously tried a course that advocates trying to read this fast (Reading Genius by Ed Strachar - 6 audio cassette course distributed in the UK by Nightingale Conant), and found it next to useless. For sure I was able to turn pages at a rapid pace, but was unable to recall anything that was on those pages.

Picture Copyright CT Training The Eye

The first approach then is less earth shattering for sure, but the results are more predictable and can still be comfortingly impressive. Most people on the course doubled their reading speed; and so in that respect it would seem hard to fault. Yet, the problem is that the whole session felt muddled and unclear and techniques to develop speed and comprehension after the course were very limited. So, that although the basics were there, it left me wanting more. If improving your reading speed is your main aim, and you don't mind learning from cassettes, there are better courses available.

The course focused on two main techniques. Using the hand as a pacer, and the Power Browse. The first is a foundation step of speed reading. The idea is that by using a pen or your finger as a pacer underneath the words as you read, that it forces you to move forward more quickly through the material, aids in concentration and stops your mind from wandering. The second is more focused on establishing a framework in which you approach reading through looking at structure, browsing rapidly through and then doing a mind map to get an overview of the material before reading it in more depth. Both of these are very solid techniques, and are undoubtedly valuable. However, there was not enough focus given on how this could be applied to daily reading strategies, and comprehension was almost entirely glossed over. Reading Faster is great, but not if you cannot remember any of it. Also, at the end of the speed reading section there was very much a sense of 'What next?'. There was no formality in the manual or the instruction received as to what steps we should next be taking to build on what we had learned. We touched upon certain speed drills to increase speed; but this was rushed and not really placed in context as to how this could be used in the future.

For those in this position who have either been on a speed reading course and been left floundering at the end of it, or have read a book on the subject and wonder what to do next I would strongly recommend they get themselves a copy of the Evelyn Wood Reading Dynamics Course which offers a secure platform to build confidence in the techniques while in the early stages of using them. (You can find further details here).

Picture Copyright CT Training

The 'Memory' part was the last element of the course and started at three o'clock on the final day. Our memories (or to be more precise our lack of them) is something that many of us moan about, but few do much about rectifying. The six memory strategies that were chosen for this course had a good balance between ease of use and power in application; and the principles behind memory improvement were clearly outlined. There was however no mention of strategies to remember foreign languages, and this would have been welcome.

The techniques chosen were as follows:
1/ The Link System - Items linked in a list in the mind through vivid associations.(more info)
2/ Names and Faces - Various strategies involving location, association of features and famous people.
3/ The Number Rhyme System - Using rhyme words to represent numbers e.g. 4 - door. And then using that item in the mind to remember.(more info)
4/ The Number Shape System - Making use of the fact that the shape of certain numbers looks like objects e.g. 7 = Boomerang.(more info)
5/ The Dominic System - System utilised by the current World Memory Champion Dominic O'Brien which associates pairs of numbers with the names of celebrities in order to be able to remember them.(more info)
6/ The Journey Method - Associating things with a pre-defined mental journey in the mind in order to remember them.(more info)

The basic idea of all these systems is that the mind works as a synergistic whole utilising all the different senses, and that the more mental hooks that we can use in order to try to remember something, the more memorable it will be.

The memory part of the course was good, but was a bit short and the course would have benefited from moving the half of the Memory part that dealt with the techniques to Day 1. These were complicated techniques, and it would have been better to have had them repeated to some extent on both of the days. This is especially true of the Dominic System (details of which you can find here) which requires each person to make a personalised list of characters based on the fact that certain numbers represent certain letters. This is a complicated and time consuming system to learn and develop, and it felt like it was breezed over too quickly.

Again, there was no supplementary material provided in the manual to build on what was learned in the course and no real discussion of how to develop these skills further. The course did provide a good introduction to memory techniques and open the mind to the possibilities of memory training, but it was rushed and did not help to build on what had been learned in the course by planning how the techniques could be integrated practically into daily life.

Summary

FOR: Generally a good course - Comparatively cheap compared to similar courses - Nice overview of what makes our minds tick, and opens up a lot of scope for further investigation into the different areas - Great course for children, or their parents thinking how they can best introduce their kids to twentieth century learning techniques - Very strong and clearly focused Mind Mapping component - Good Manual and Friendly instruction - Good choice of techniques for Memory section - Unexpected enhancement of Juggling Skills.

AGAINST: Slightly weak speedreading section - Memory section was a bit rushed with only three hours for the main learning, and could have had greater integration with the other areas - More materials for carrying learning of the course content to the next stage needed - Could do with the inclusion of Mind Mapping software for the PC - A bit mean not being able to keep the juggling balls.

Rating of Different Areas
Speed Reading		OK
Memory		GOOD
Mind Mapping		VERY GOOD
Venue Location and Organisation		GOOD
Teaching		OK
Value for money		VERY GOOD

Conclusion

In general this was a good course which gave a tidy overview of its main themes. It suffered however from feeling rushed in places, focusing on techniques rather than applications and seeming to work on the assumption that the training period was an end in itself; when really it should just be the start of a whole new way of doing things.

In reality without direction people will quickly fall back to their old habits, and I rather fear that many of the people on the course, whilst enjoying it, will not fully utilise it for lack of information and direction as to what they are supposed to do next.

The course offered a good starting point to be sure, but unfortunately fell short of the help it should have offered to cement those skills. Whilst it is important to accept that there is still a high level of commitment required from the individual, and that without a certain amount of application, no techniques can hope to succeed; more guidance was required as to where that application should be directed once the course was over.

Nevertheless, this course was enjoyable to attend and was interesting, informative and cheerfully taught. Overall, it offers good value for money in a market where many courses cost much more and deliver much less.

More Interesting Links

Memories are Made of This - Link to another article I wrote for FirstScience about memory.
www.mind-map.com - The homepage of the inventor of mind maps Tony Buzan.
www.psychwww.com/mtsite/memory.html - Terrific page of links to information about alot of different memory techniques.
www.ucc.vt.edu/stdysk/suggest.html - A good page of suggestions for improving reading speed.
http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/facts.html - Facts and figures about the brain.
http://webvision.med.utah.edu/ - Facts and figures about the eye.
www.msoworld.com/index.html - The homepage of Mind Sports Worldwide
www.speakernetnews.com/tsem/handouts/abbyhistoryofreading.pdf - History of Speed Reading

For more details about the course featured in this review you can visit the companies website at http://www.stanwell.demon.co.uk/stanwell/CTTraining.html or Contact Philip at Phil@learning-tech.co.uk - Company courses can also be arranged - Telephone +44 (0) 7000 853276