The Mind Map Book Tony Buzan

Over a period of 10 years, we have composed individual brainstorming Mind Maps, and then met and interlinked our two sets of ideas. After deep discussion, we have incubated and blended the next set of ideas, spent time observing natural phenomena, individually Mind Mapped our conceptions of the next stage, and once again met in order to compare and move on.

The Mind Map of the complete book generated the individual Mind Maps for the chapters, each Mind Map forming the basis for the text of that chapter. The process has given new meaning to the word ‘brother’, and especially to the word ‘brotherhood’. Even as we were writing about it, we realised that we
ourselves had created a group mind that contained all the elements of our individual minds as well as the explosively synergetic results of their meeting.

We hope that The Mind Map Book gives you the same thrill of discovery, excitement in exploration, and sheer delight in the creative generation of ideas lam communication with the universe of another human being that we have ourselves experienced.

The history of human intelligence can be seen as the brain’s search for ways of communicating effectively with itself.

When the first human made the first line, a revolution in human consciousness was precipitated, of which the Mind Map is the latest developmental stage. (For an in-depth discussion, see Lorraine Gill’s paper, ‘Line is manmade’.)

Once human beings realised that they could externalise their internal ‘mental pictures’, development was rapid. The first marks evolved into pictures, beginning with the early Australian Aboriginal cave paintings. As civilisations developed, pictures were condensed into symbols and thence into alphabets and scripts, such as Chinese characters or Egyptian hieroglyphics. With the development of Western thought and the spreading influence of the Roman Empire, the transition from picture to letter was complete. Subsequently, for 2000 years the not inconsiderable power of the letter held evolutionary sway over the momentarily derided image.

Tony Buzan, the leading authority on the brain and learning techniques, is Chairman of the Brain Foundation. An international media personality, founder of the Brain Trust charity, and the originator of Mind Maps, he is the author of fifteen books, including Use Both Sides of Your Brain, Use Your Perfect Memory, and Speed Reading (all available in Plume editions). He is also an Olympic coach.

Bom in London in 1942, Tony Buzan graduated from the University of British Columbia in 1964, achieving double Honours in Psychology, English, Mathematics and the General Sciences. In 1966 he worked for the Daily Telegraph in Fleet Street, also editing the International Journal of MENS A (the high IQ Society).

As one of the world’s leading authors, he has published 14 books (13 on the brain, creativity and learning and one volume of poetry). His books (which include: Use Both Sides of Your Brain, Use Your Perfect Memory, Make the Most of Your Mind, Speed Reading, and Brain Training) have now been published in fifty countries and translated into twenty languages. His classic book Use Both Sides of Your Brain has surpassed worldwide sales of a million, and is a standard introductory text for staff training within IBM, General Motors, EDS, Fluor Daniel, Digital Equipment Corporation and for students of the Open University.

Tony Buzan has become an international media star featuring in, presenting and co-producing many satellite broadcasts, television, video and radio programmes, both national and international, including the record-breaking Use Your Head series (BBC TV), the Open Mind series (ITV), The Enchanted Loom (a one-hour feature documentary on the brain), and numerous talk shows. His two latest videos are MindPower, distributed by BBC Video, which teaches the concepts of Mind Mapping for business use, and which won a top award at the 1991 IVCA Festival, and Get Ahead, a one-hour video on developing ‘Brain Power for Kids’, presented by Tony Buzan and Lana Israel.