Glossary of Semantic Restructuring

By now you might have stopped wondering just what the title of this book means. The ``Look, Ma, No Hands'' part is probably clear, that has to do with the lack of hand pacing. And the speed reading part is probably the part that got you to pick up the book in the first place. But the "Semantic Restructuring" part of the title probably doesn't mean much to you yet. Semantic restructuring is really what the whole book is about. The short definition is that semantic restructuring is the applied art of re-arranging the building blocks of meaning. And that is exactly what you have done by learning to take in written information without having to first hear it, you have re-arranged the process by which you make meaning of what you see on a page. I have used and taught the principles of Semantic Resructuring in personal development seminars and in private practice since the mid 1990s, and it was this work that lead me to write this book as a way to introduce people to ideas such as mental bookmarks and automatic knowing. How fast you read is really a trivial issue compared to all the things you can do with the ideas you have already read about in the context of reading faster and better. Context may be the single most important concept for you to master in the beginning. Context is what makes the speed reading system work, words in context of other words making meaning-based groups. But all meaning is controlled or influenced by context, and context includes all the sights and sounds and smells and tastes and feelings in the data banks of our brains. Asking the questions "What is reading" and "What is understanding" allowed you to change the context of those words, and the new meaning that comes from that change lets you experience an entirely new relationship with the written word. Ideas such as five brain theory, the mountain lake, and chunking are valuable tools for anyone wanting greater ability to change their behavior for the better. Ideas like these are the foundation of a set of skill that let people cure phobias, quit compulsive behaviors, and acheive states of excellence only dreamed of before. Mental bookmarks are one example of a specific method for accessing states of excellence or resourcefulness. The rest of this appendix is a short glossary of some of the important ideas you've been exposed to already.

Automatic Knowing

What some people call intuition. Most often this is learned knowledge that we simply have forgotten learning. A primary example is language, most of us don't really preceive the acts that go into learning our native tongue..in part because as infants learning a language we don't have any words to help us. "Two plus two equals four" is an example of automatic knowing that most of us take for granted. But anyone who has had to teach even simple arithmatic to a youngster knows that what may be automatic knowledge for one person is very difficult learning for another.

Closure/Chunk Encoding

Related to Automatic Knowing. When we have learned a task well enough we can perform without even percieving what we do. A good example is applying the breaks in your car while driving. When learning to drive you were probably very aware of the feeling of pressing the brake pedal and the effect it had on the car. As an experienced driver you alternate between brake and accelerator naturally and comfortably without noticing unless there is some special circumstance. What was previously a set of sensations and related actions has become a single chunk. Another way to say it is you have closure for that experience; it's over, done, doesn't need to be picked apart and examined each time you perform it. Miller's idea of Chunks is tied to this idea, what may be a bunch of separate perceptions at one point later is one single chunk.

Chunk

A variable amount of information. Most people most of the time can pay attention to seven, give or take a couple, chunks of information at one time, but each chunk can be a very different size or type of information. For example, you can think of a ring, a planet, a person, a plant, and a song all at the same time, even though a planet is bigger than the other things put together.

Personal Ecology

If being a speed reader is going to make your job worse because you will get stuck with the unwanted reading tasks you probably aren't going to become a speed reader. Another way to say this is that speed reading is not an ecologically sound option for your personal situation. It doesn't matter how valuable a skill or experience might be in general; if it doesn't fit your life, if it isn't ecological for who you are, then it is not going to be valuable to you.

Intangible

The noun, "Reading" is really derived from the verb, "to read." Knowing how to spot fake nouns, nouns that are derived from verbs, can help you find places where your thinking is stuck and keeping you from acting the way you want to act and doing the things you want to do. The speed reading method in this book was developed primarily by asking what it really means to read, after realizing that "reading" is an intangible.

Logical Levels

Related to chunks. Curves and lines are separate chunks at one point in perceptual development, later they combine to make patterns called letters. Later still these letters become individual chunks and combine to make up words. Later these words become individual chunks. The shift from curves and lines to letters is a logical level step up; letters are patterns of lines and curves. Likewise, words are a logical level up from letters; words are made up of letters. The primary value in the idea of logical levels comes from reminding us that things we normally think of as being a single thing are often really made up of other smaller things and rearranging those smaller things can make a difference in how we see and act in the world.

Mental Bookmarks

Context is more than just the words surrounding the word being analyzed. Context includes all the things you have ever seen or felt or tasted. What you are feeling now is very much influenced by the context of what is going on in your mind, and vice-versa. Our mental landscape makes the context for our physical experience, and our physical experience makes the context for our mental landscape. Mental bookmarks are a way to take advantage of this influence of context to re-create experiences. They can be used to make it easier to feel the way we want or need to feel in order to perform the way we need or want to perform.

Multiple Descriptions

Five brain theory is a way to talk about the different descriptions we each have of our world. The world of our nose is very different from the world of our eyes, even though there really is only the one world that they both share. In general it is valuable to have a variety of descriptions of things to choose from--if we also have a useful method for determining which descriptions to use when. Put differently, the pictures on a menu at a restaurant may be mouthwateringly good to look at, but the description your tongue gives you when you put the menu in your mouth will probably be a disappointment.

Reality--Representation

We assume there is a real world out there somewhere, but our senses can only report on a very small part of that real world. What we actually do sense is very much less than what is possible to be sensed (most people never see the Taj Majal.) Call what we actually do sense "experience." What we notice is very much less than what we experience. Call what the experiences we notice "perception." What we can put in words is very much less than what we perceive; call that representation. These perceptions and representations control what we do and how we act in the world. Learn to creatively change them and you can creatively change what you do and how you act in the world.