Dr. John F.

Demartini’s

Speed Reading
& Learning Dynamics

_______________________________________________________________________
Learn in just a few Hours what some people will not learn in
their entire life . . . and more. With the information
contained in this album some people have doubled, tripled
and quadrupled their reading capacity. Now, you too can
expand your Reading and Learning Dynamics.
_______________________________________________________________________

Copyright: ( c) First Edition 1993 by Dr. John F. Demartini

Second Edition 1999 by Dr. John F. Demartini
Third Edition 2010 by Dr. John F. Demartini

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by means, electronic, or
mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any information storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented,
without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer who wishes to quote brief passages in connection with a
review written for inclusion in a magazine, newspaper or broadcast.

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Dr John Demartini is a human behavioral specialist, founder of the
Demartini Institute and a bestselling author and business consultant
working with CEOs of fortune 500 companies, celebrities and sports
personalities.

Dr Demartini work incorporates a broad spectrum of disciplines and has

relevance in markets such as finance, business, health, family,
psychology, sports, education and is relevant for any aspect of self
development from dealing with emotions to awakening leadership in self
and in others.

He offers practical solutions to life's challenges in numerous television,

radio and print interviews, published books, CDs and DVDs. Globally he
works with individuals and groups across all markets, sectors and age
groups including entrepreneurs, financiers, psychologists, managers, HR,
educators and young adults, assisting and guiding them and the people
they influence through their work to greater levels of achievement,
fulfillment and empowerment in all areas of life.

For more information call our toll free number 1 - 888 - DEMARTINI
2800 Post Oak Blvd., Suite 5250 Houston, Texas 77056 www.drdemartini.com

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 Table of Contents

Introduction 4
Practice Procedure 5

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 Introduction
According to my mother, the first words that ever came out of my mouth as a
young infant was “Why” and “Let me see.” Throughout my whole life I have
just wanted to “know”. But, I had difficulty learning and reading as a young
child. My first grade teacher told me in front of my parents that I was learning
disabled, would never read, write, or communicate and would probably never
amount to anything, nor go very far in life. By the time I was a young teenager
I had become discouraged, had failed, and had dropped out of high school. In
fact I was never able to read a complete book cover to cover until I turned 17
years old. At that time I experienced a life threatening illness and was soon
thereafter inspired by the teachings of an amazing 93-year-old mentor named
Paul Bragg. It was he who helped me discover my mission for life. It was this
wonderful man who helped me decide to dedicate the rest of my life to
learning.

Since the time of that special life-changing event at age seventeen, I have
dreamed of mastering the skills of learning and reading. My desire to
understand became enormous. Upon turning 18 years of age I was blessed with
an opportunity to pass a GED test. From this point forward I was finally able to
return to school, this time to college. From that moment on I have been on a
mission to learn the laws that govern this magnificent universe. I have wanted
to know how to master reading and how to develop a genius mind. Since then I
have continuously refined my skills of reading and learning and am even more
inspired today than ever before. I am a voracious reader and I love it. I average
at least three hours of reading a day.

The information presented in this program will impact your life in more ways
than one, for it will take you along my journey of learning how to read more
rapidly and how I organized my learning. It will help you awaken your true
genius.

Dr. John F. Demartini

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 Speed Reading and Learning Dynamics
Practice Procedure

The primary means to improve oneself is through reading.

1. Understand the meaning and significance of your reading.

The word ‘read’ comes from the word “raedan” which means to advise oneself.
Reading allows you to explore the universe.
Reading allows you to not reinvent wheels.
Reading allows you to merge your primordial boundary between yourself and others.
Reading allows the seer, the seeing and the seen to be the same.
Reading allows you to honor the Logos by exploring the various logoi.
Reading allows you to study the many disciplines of life so you may become more
‘disciplined’, a literal disciple of the Logos.

2. Determine your existing standard “old style” reading pace by

logging/marking it.
To not know where you start from is to not know how far you have come.
The average reader reads about 250 words a minute.
The advanced reader reads about 1,000 words a minute.

3. Read with a purpose and link everything you read to

your purpose.
Align and integrate your reading with your purpose.
Ask the question, “how will this book help me fulfill my purpose and/or highest value.

Reading with a purpose:

Increases your attention.
Brings more comprehension than reading just for pleasure.

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 Expands your retention and “pretension”.
Increases the organization of your thoughts.
An organized mind has power.
Increases your power.
Purposeful reading has power.

The clearer your purpose:

The clearer your understanding of the book.
The faster your reading of the book.

The more definite your purpose:

The more centered will be your focus
The more meaningful will be your fixation
The more expanded will be your chunk
The less limited will be your reading
Read for a purpose not just for pleasure. A purpose embraces both pleasure and pain
equally.
Let neither your pain nor your pleasure interfere with your purpose of reading.

4. Follow the whole “Manifestation Formula” before you

begin reading.
Purpose:
Review your purpose before you read.

Thought:
Dominate your thought on how rapidly you would love to read.

Vision:
Visualize yourself reading at incredible rates.
Visualize yourself having a photographic mind.
“A master is one who focuses on ever finer detail”.
Dr. John F. Demartini

Affirmation:
Affirm to yourself the following statements.
I love reading.
I am a master reader, whatever I read I retain.
I have a photographic mind.
Whenever I read I become inspired.
I can read anything.

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 I am an unbelievable, simply amazing reader.
I am a genius and I apply my wisdom.

Feeling:
When you are inspired when you read you remember more.
When you love what you read you remember more.
When you are enthused about sharing what you’ve learned you remember more.
When you are grateful for what you read you remember more.

Writing:
Write down on paper exactly how you would love to read.

Acting:
Act out the role of you reading incredibly fast.
Read this book over and over again.

Thanking:
Be thankful for the opportunity to read.
Be thankful for the ability to read.
Be thankful that you have something inspiring to read.
Be thankful that you are learning how to master the art of reading.
Be thankful for the many authors who have provided you some selected books to read.
Be thankful that you came across this special program of speed reading and leaning
dynamics.

5. Plan the who, what, when, where, how and why of your reading.
Plan your reading and read your planning.
Failing to plan is planning to fail.
Nature fills our lives with what we don’t love if we don’t fill it with what we do.
Plan the who, what, when, where, how and why of your reading.
Plan a set time each day to read, commit to it.

a. If you read ½ hour a day on a particular chosen topic in 7 years you could be at the
cutting edge of that chosen field.
b. If you read 1 hour a day on a particular chosen topic in 4 years you could be at the cutting
edge of that chosen field.
c. If you read 2 hour a day on a particular chosen topic in 2 ¼ years you could be at the
cutting edge of that chosen field.
d. If you read 3 hour a day on a particular chosen topic in 1 ½ years you could be at the
cutting edge of that chosen field.

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 Set a deadline on reading a certain number of books by a certain date and present an oral
and written summary of the books to some group at that time. This will commit you to
higher gear reading.

6. Read quality books.

You only have so many days available to read, use your time wisely.
The best way to introduce yourself to a new -ology is reading the immortal classics.
Read and master the classics, which have stood the test of time.
The information in the fewer master’s classics will be generally be more long lasting than
the many changing, trendy or fad books for the masses.
One immortal classic is worth a thousand mortal fads.
One immortal classic contains more wisdom than a thousand mortal fads.
The Great Books of the Western World by Britannica are excellent masterpieces.
Compile a list of the Nobel Prize Winners and read their life’s works.
You cannot put your hand into a pot of glue without some of the glue sticking. So
too, you cannot put your mind into the great works of the immortal masters without
some of their ideas sticking.
The more you read the immortal masters, the more you will become an immortal
master.
Turn to the original thinkers and their great works for your sources of information and
inspiration.

“Nothing is of any value in books excepting the transcendental and

extraordinary”.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

“The books that everybody admires are the books that nobody reads.”
Anatole France

7. Determine the quantity of books you read.

Determine how many books you read in an average month.
Multiply this number by 12.
Multiply this number by the number of years you believe you have left to live.
This tells you how many books you’ll read during the remainder of your life at your
current speed.
The average Ph. D. will read about 72 - 84 books during their doctoral program.
Set a goal to complete many self-disciplined doctoral programs.

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 The greatest geniuses were versed and masterful in many disciplines, not
just one.

8. Read and then reflect, read and then reflect.

“To study the phenomena of life without books is to sail an uncharted sea, while to
study books without people is to not to go to sea at all.”
Sir William Osler

No amount of meditation on your own thoughts will of itself improve your understanding
of anything without also being reflected upon by others. This is one of the great reasons
for reading.
No amount of reading of other’s thoughts will of itself improve your understanding of
anything without also being reflected upon by yourself. This is one of the great reasons
for reflecting.

True understanding demands both reading and reflecting.

Reflect on what you read and organize it into some form of product, service or idea,
otherwise the fog increases with every new tomb that comes to light.
Most great geniuses commercialized the result of their reading and reflection.
It is a thankless task to study the many mortal books without order and direction, for it
leads to literary indigestion and disillusion.

When you learn by reflecting, meditating, contemplating and thinking for

yourself you:

Create authority within yourself.

Become more of an independent thinker.
Develop your ability to self-thought.
Reduce the tendency to scatter your thinking.
Reduce the impact of varied opinions.

When you learn by listening to, observing and reading others you:
Gain confirmation from other authorities.
More rapidly acquire second hand knowledge as a more dependent thinker.
Stimulate your own thinking.
Expand your viewpoint.
Strengthen your ability to receive ideas from others indirectly.

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9. Use your whole brain to read; there is time for both.
As a planet orbits the sun it moves slower then faster, slower then faster, so too do
readers read slower then faster, slower then faster. There is a natural rhythm and
balance between these two velocities of motion and reading.

Ideas enter into the brain and produce both slower verbal messages and faster visual
images. When you read slow you read with left brain dominance and read vocally. When
you read fast you read with right brain dominance and read visually.

Left brain dominant readers read best with vocal rhythms and right side up reading:
Believe one slow reading is greater than ten fast readings.
Read linearly and have sequential comprehension.
Read letters, syllables, words, or phrases.
Remember and recall their read information.
Judge their readers or readings.
Remain more intellectual and less intuitive.
Assertively and actively search and read for specific, detailed facts.
Verbalize or vocalize what they read.
Limit their speed to < 250 words per minute. That is about as fast as they
can talk.
Are more receptive to the adjectives and adverbs of a sentence.
Let the words do the painting - one word can trigger a thousand pictures.

Right brain dominant readers read best with visual guides and upside down reading:
Believe that ten fast readings are greater than one slow reading.
Read non-linearly and have holistic comprehension.
Read sentences, paragraphs or pages.
Review and re-experience their reading information.
Judge less their readers or readings.
Remain less intellectual and more intuitive.
Passively and receptively allow for general, highlighted concepts.
Visualize what they read.
Don’t limit their speed to, 250 words per minute.
Read hundreds or thousands of words per minute and even entire pages at
a glance.
Are more receptive to the nouns and verbs of a sentence.
Let the pictures do the talking - one picture can trigger a thousand words.

To become a master of the art of reading you will learn to master the sub-arts of both slow
and fast reading. Since you probably already know how to read slow, your goal will now be
to break the sound barrier and let your reading approach the speed of light.

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 When you read with a balanced brain you have the capacity to integrate your vocal and
visual sensory information accessing. When you read with an imbalanced brain you partially
express or repress one side of your information accessing skills.

10. Break in the book by bending the spine backward at 1/2, 1/4, 1/8,
and 1/16 portions.
It is wiser to have a beat up, broken in book that is read and ear marked than it is to have
a nicely preserved book that has collected dust and never been read.

11. Have fresh air circulating.

Open the windows.

12. Have plenty of water present and drink it.

Drink only water.
No other liquid will provide you with the steady brain function benefits that water will in
the long run.
Minimize any sweet drinks for sugar can make you experience fluctuating moods and
attention capabilities.

13. Have a dictionary present and use it whenever a word

is unknown.
Look up and read in a dictionary every word you are not familiar with and compile on your
computer or on index cards a glossary of your own with your summarized definitions and
uses of each word.

14. Have diffuse lighting without shadows or glare.

Have light originating from above you and preferably from all sides.

15. Have the temperature between 68 - 72 degrees.

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16. Wear loose clothing.
Wear loose clothing so as to not restrict your breathing nor cramp your abdomen, both of
which can lower your vital energy level.

17. Sit upright with the book angled up for easier viewing.
Make sure your book is angled up so you don’t strain your neck and shoulders.

18. Preview and review the book.

Before and after you read a book preview and review its key elements.
Then again in a day, week, month and year consider reviewing the book again.
Front and back covers or cover jackets.
Titles
Subtitles
Authors
Copyright and publishing date
Biographies
Preface
Table of contents
Bibliography
Glossary
Index
Pictures
Graphs
Headings, sub-headings, bold print, italicized sections, summaries
Chapter beginnings and endings

19. Complete the Demartini Method Process on the book and/or the
author if you are emotionally charged.
The Demartini Method is the most powerful method available to date to help you dissolve
your emotional biases concerning a book or its author. By dissolving the emotional charges
you have about the writer you become one with them. The love that arises from the
Demartini Method maximizes your ability to retain what you read. The feelings of LOVE
widen your “now” or enhance your “presence” and synthesize your memory and
imagination.

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 To do a Demartini Method on the author or their book simply finds the balance of their
positive and negative traits or the things you like and dislike in them and helps you to see
where and when you have enacted these same liked or disliked traits in your own life.

“Everyone is our mirror. What we see in them we have within ourselves.”

Dr. John F. Demartini

Keep your eyes open for signs of uncertainties in author’s writings that tend to cover or
distort the meaningful truth. They may include the following:
Rationalizations to self
Justifications to others
Exaggerated or minimized adjectives
Exaggerated or minimized adverbs
Bias emotive words
Quoting names to prove points
Put downs
Build ups
Over generalizations
Falsities
Undefined sources
Proof by analogies
Misuse of statistics

20. Be present with your reading for future imagined fear and past
remembered guilt results in:
As you read you generally move across the page from left to right and from top to bottom.
Therefore the left and above represents the past remembered and the right and below
represents the future imagined on the page. The “present” or “now” represents wherever
and whenever your focal point fixation occurs.

When you read in the “moment”, the “present”, or the “here and now” you:
Maximize your reading capacity.
Expand your focal point fixation.
Dissolve your limiting perception of time or space.
Reduce the backward skipping and regression because of fear.
Reduces the forward skipping and progression because of guilt.
Reduce the wandering above and wandering below of your focal point.

Be sure to apply the Demartini Method to dissolve your fear and guilt of reading.

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 When you read with left brain dominance your focal point narrows. When you read with
right brain dominance your focal point widens.

21. Centre your eyes on the letter characters which spell L O V E S.

If you focus on the top of the lower case letters and the middle of a higher case letters as
you read you will maximize the area encompassed by the focal point. In the average reader
if their eyes are two feet away from the book their fovea will see 3±2 letters as a focal
point.

When your eye is centered and steady it sees in love and widens the central vision thereby
approaching and including more of the peripheral vision. When your eye is not centered,
not steadied and is wandering, it sees in the past or future and narrows its central vision
and misses much of its peripheral vision. Your eye makes small movements around even a
dot to maintain contrast and prevent fading.

Your eyes strive to centralize their focal point at whatever level of the reading dynamic
they view, whether it be a:
Whole page
Paragraph
Sentence
Phrase
Word
Syllable
Letter
Letter character

There exists in the easiest reading format a principle of proportion and order. I have called
this the 3±2 rule.

There are:
3±2 pages per chapter
3±2 paragraphs per page
3±2 sentences per paragraph
3±2 phrases per sentence
3±2 words per phrase
3±2 syllables per word
3±2 letters per syllable
3±2 letter characters per letter

There exist five primary letter characters

Vertical lines l

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 Closed circular curve o
Angular interactions v
Horizontal line/curve e
Cyclical curve s

When you read you may become confused by the following letter arrangements.
Inversions s z
p b
n u
m w
Rotations p q
Similarities d b
n h
e c
f t
Infrequencies j, q, v, x, z
Ascenders t, f, k
Descenders j, q, y, g, p
Confused n+l=h
Combinations x +1 = k
o+l=d
Order saw - was
Additions s - ss
Deletions tt - t

22. Use a visual guide: use either a finger, pencil or marker and a vocal
rhythm while you read.
A visual guide and vocal rhythm will:
Enlarge the central focal point.
Reduce the level of fear and guilt.
Reduce the number of wanderings, meanderings.
Reduce the number of scatterings.
Reduce the number of regression or progressions.
Reduce the number of backward skipping or forward skipping.

23. Turn the book upside down.

a. For a one minute interval move your finger or pointer across a consecutive series of
single lines (on one page) one after another while having your eyes following and
scanning behind the finger.

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 b. Repeat number 22 above 10 times with each time the hand movement becoming
progressively faster until fast as possible.
c. For a one minute interval move your finger or pointer across a consecutive series of
single lines (on two pages) one after another while having your eyes following and
scanning behind the finger.
d. Repeat number 24 above 10 times with each time the hand movement becoming
progressively faster until fast as possible.
e. For a one minute interval move your finger or pointer across a consecutive series of
single lines (on one page and then two pages) one after another while having your
eyes following and scanning behind the finger.
f. Repeat number 26 above 10 times with each time the hand movement becoming
progressively faster until fast as possible.

24. Turn the book right side up.

a. For a one minute interval move your finger or pointer across a consecutive series of
single lines (on one page) one after another while having your eyes following and
scanning behind the finger.
b. Repeat number 22 above 5 times with each time the hand movement becoming
progressively faster until fast as possible.
c. For a one minute interval move your finger or pointer across a consecutive series of
single lines (on two pages) one after another while having your eyes following and
scanning behind the finger.
d. Repeat number 24 above 5 times with each time the hand movement becoming
progressively faster until fast as possible.
e. For a one minute interval move your finger or pointer across a consecutive series of
single lines (on one page) one after another while having your eyes following and
scanning behind the finger.
f. Repeat number 26 above 5 times with each time the hand movement becoming
progressively faster until fast as possible.

25. Read with your finger or pointer at a rate that feels at the border of
comfort and discomfort and notice the tendency to want to remain
reading fast; notice how the words now just jump out at you. Your
speed will probably be two to four times your original speed.
You will notice how the words now just jump out at you as if to say read me as you scan
across and down the page.

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26. Read for 45 minutes at a time while progressively:
Reading faster
Narrowing the margins of the finger or pointer movement
Adding more lines per sweeping movement until what starts out to be a primitive horizontal
sweep per line gradually becomes an evolved vertical sweep per page.

27. Take five minute breaks during which time you do the following:
Taking breaks during reading (5 min. / 45 min.) increases recency and primacy.
a. Review what you just read in your head - “Recency”.
b. Drink some water.
c. Stand up and stretch backward and forward as you in inhale and exhale deeply.
d. Exercise and stretch your eye muscles by:
Looking up
Looking down
Looking right
Looking left
Looking right up
Looking left up
Looking right down
Looking left down.
Looking far
Looking close
Looking centrally
Looking peripherally
e. Briskly rub your palms until they are warm and then cup your eyes while they remain
open, covering them thoroughly.
f. Review again what you had previously read - “Primacy”.

28. Design your own symbolic codes for logging information while you
read with your pencil guide, marking the symbolic codes in the left
or right margins adjacent to the corresponding lines in the book.
Spiritual Sp
Mental Me
Vocational Vo
Financial Fi
Familial Fa
Social So

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 Physical Ph Phb - Breathing
Phd - Diet
Phem - Emotions
Phex - Exercise
Phf - Fasting
Phg - Genetics
Phm - Mental
Phs - Sleeping
Phn - Nutrients Phnv - Vitamins
Phnm - Minerals
Phnf - Fats
Phnc - Carbohydrates
Phnp - Proteins

29. Have 3 x 5 index note cards for documenting ideas, quotes, as you
read placing the same symbolic codes in the upper left or right
corners of the cards.
a. Print the note of every inspiring quote or idea you come upon on the index card, one
idea per card.
b. Print the corresponding symbolic code in the upper left or right corner of the card.

30. Organize these 3 x 5 index cards into an alphabetically arranged

sequence, according to topic and sub-topics.
a. Organize by sorting these ideas by topic and place them in a storage bin or box
alphabetically.
b. Accumulate these ideas until they can either be used for a book, an article, a
speech or some other product, service or idea.

31. Teach whatever you have learned as quickly as possible.

Your retention will be maximal if you share what you have learned instantly.
The quicker you give your ideas out the quicker you receive new ones in.
Everyone has a mentor and everyone has a student.
If you help others learn you help yourself learn.

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32. Read from the back of your head (visual cortex) through your eyes
not from your eyes.
The area of your body that you concentrate on receives a richer supply of blood.
Concentrating from the visual cortex brings more blood and oxygen to this region.

33. Read while imagining yourself being present within different regions
or parts of your body and find the region to read from that matches
the author’s or that maximizes your attention.
You may read from your whole body or from only parts.

34. Read while imagining yourself using another ingenious person’s brain;
i.e.
Leonardo da Vinci
Galileo Galilei
Sir Isaac Newton
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Albert Einstein
John Demartini

“Reading is to the mind what exercising is to the body.”

Augustus

“Leaders are readers.”

Charles Tremendous Jones

“There is more treasure in books than in all the pirate’s loot on Treasure Island and best of
all, you can enjoy these riches every day of the rest of your life.”
Walt Disney

“There is no friend as loyal as a book.”

Ernest Hemingway

“I am part of everything that I have read.”

John Kleran

“Books have meant to my life what the sun has meant to planet earth.”
Earl Nightingale

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“Today a reader, tomorrow a leader.”
W. Fusselman

“Many times the reading of a book has made the future of a man.”
Emerson

“Beware of the man of one book.”

Saint Thomas Aquinas

“Reading one book per month would put you in the top 1% of all Americans.”
Brian Tracy

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