Issue 10-01
VOLUME 10 - NUMBER 1 in this issue
qBRAIN OF THE YEAR - 2015 - 4 SYNAPSIAThe “Phoenix’ Edition q PROFESSOR MICHAEL CRAWFORD - 10 a magazine for the Brain Trust Charity qMIND MAPS - PHIL CHAMBERS - 18 Winter 2015 qARTICLE - JOHN BERGER 32 Full coverage of the Brain of the Year Award 2015-2016... Dr Manahel Thabet PhD
BRAIN OF THE YEAR 2015-2016 Dr Manahel Thabet
THE GLOBAL CRISIS IN NUTRITION & THE RISE & FALL OF MENTAL HEALTH Professor Michael A Crawford
INTERVIEW WITH PROFESSOR TONY BUZAN by Raymond Keene OBE
SOCIAL CHANGEMAKER by... Nkandu Beltz
for the latest articles, interviews, opinions, crossword... www.synapsia.net 2 SYNAPSIA MAGAZINE VOLUME 10 - ISSUE 1
contents 32
44
10 featured
04 Brain of the Year 2015-2016 10 “The global crisis in nutrition” by Professor Michael Crawford 42 18 Chess Thinkers by Raymond Keene OBE 20 Social Changemaker by Nkandu Beltz 46 30 Conversations (Stainton, Buzan & Keene) 32 Synapsia Worldwide by Jezz Moore 34 Huba’s Mind Mapped Brain 36 Animal Intelligence by Tony Buzan 38 Painter as a Name-Giver by John Berger 40 From the Archives by Julian Simpole 42 Who is the Greatest Thinker of all Time? by Eric Cheong 44 Dr Manahel Thabet creates Mental Power History 46 The Art of Misdirection by Petrina 4 Kasperski 18 38 regular
From the Editor in Chief 03 MindMaps 24 Poetry Corner 26 Crossword 56 20 SYNAPSIA MAGAZINE VOLUME 10 - ISSUE 1 3
Steve Redgrave, Olympian Gold Medallist. SYNAPSIA Our new Synapsia also launches major Brain/ a magazine for the Brain Trust Charity Mind launches: EDITOR IN CHIEF 1. Synapsia launches itself in its new Editor: Professor Tony Buzan electronic internet form. [email protected]
by Editor in Chief EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR 2. The We Love the Weather Society, Raymond Keene OBE [email protected] Professor Tony Buzan generating true positive thinking, relating the ONLINE EDITOR weather to every aspect of life. Marek Kasperski Synapsia Reborn [email protected] 3. Lorraine K. Gill, former Brain of the Year CONTRIBUTORS Raymond Keene OBE ear readers. Welcome to the and the inspirer of imagery and colour in Mind Professor Tony Buzan Professor Michael Crawford Phoenix Issue of the new Synapsia Maps, the Artist’s revolutionary presentation Phil Chambers Magazine on the web. In 1989 the of human perception and vision. Frances Stainton Jezz Moore first issue of Synapsia Magazine George Huba Petrina Kasperski was published. Synapsia was 4. The Brain of the Year 2015. Nominations John Berger published quarterly for a decade. The thirty- requested from now till 31st January for next Jeremy Cartland D John Carder-Bush six issues were ‘rested’ until the global year. Please send them to Julian Simpole Petrina Kasperski internet emerged. [email protected]. Chris Day Nkandu Beltz Joe Williams In 2014 all issues were published under the Selection criteria can be found on page 8. Eric Cheong new title www.synapsia.net. All historical Marek Kasperski Synapsia Magazine covers are featured and All of this has now been made available in PHOTOGRAPHY clicking one, every page of every issue became digital format by the generous assistance of TVapex Svetlana Nadtoka (and now is!) available. Marek Kasperski. Marek Kasperski Alexander Keene Welcome now to the launching of the reborn Synapsia has been reborn in Phoenix like GENERAL ENQUIRIES Raymond Keene Synapsia Magazine, which you are now fashion and we now invite you to join us Email: [email protected]
beginning to read. now in our quest for Global Mental Literacy, The term and concept Mind Map and the elucidation, investigation and referred to in this publication is a trademark. Synapsia Phoenix features articles on the empowerment of Humanity’s most powerful COPYRIGHT Brain and its miraculous mechanics and weapon for creativity and success in the All material appearing in the Synapsia cognition, on Memory and the resolution of infinite vastness of time and space – Your Magazine is copyright unless otherwise stated or it may rest with the provider its problems, of Culture featuring Art, Poetry, Brain. of the supplied material. Synapsia Magazine takes all care to ensure Literature and the evolution and progression information is correct at time of of Culture, Nutrition, Brain Chemistry and Please go and enjoy the traversing of your printing, but the publisher accepts no responsibility or liability for the the Future of all embryos, and Mind Sports own mental universe and realise the infinite accuracy of any information contained in the text or advertisements. Views including Memory, Creativity, IQ, Speed potential of your Brain. expressed are not necessarily endorsed Reading, Study Skills and Mind Mapping. by the publisher or editor. Floreant Dendritae! Phoenix Synapsia and all those issues following feature a roll call of eminent columnists. Those have included and now include Professor Michael Crawford, the Director of The Institute of Brain Chemistry and Human Nutrition, Chess Grandmaster Ray Keene OBE, Dr. Andrew Strigner FRSM, Dominic O’Brien, eight times World Memory Champion, World Chess Champion Garry Kasparov, His Serene Highness Prince Philip of Liechtenstein who gave his royal patronage to the Grandmaster Titles of Memory and Sir 4 SYNAPSIA MAGAZINE VOLUME 10 - ISSUE 1
Professor Michael A Crawford speaking at the event.
Raymond Keene OBE opening the Brain Trust Charity: Brain of the Year Award. Brain Trust Brain of the Year Award & Avicenna Medal
Left: Professor Michael Crawford, Dr Manahel Thabet. Lorraine Gill, Dominic O’Brien and Professor Tony Buzan. BRAIN OF THE Multiple World Memory Champion, Dominic O’Brien.
invitees to honour the most notable achievements of the YEAR-2015 past year in the fields of intellectual endeavour. BRAIN TRUST BRAIN OF THE YEAR AWARD AND AVICENNA MEDAL. The Brain of the Year Award goes back to 1991, when world chess champion Garry Kasparov was named the inaugural n Sunday the 31st of May, the recipient at a ceremony in the Jules Verne restaurant of Brain Trust annual gathering the Eiffel Tower in Paris. Since then , illustrious Laureates took place at the Phyllis Court have included Prof Stephen Hawking; Gene Rodenberry, Club on the banks of the River creator of Star Trek; Edward de Bono , the apostle of IQ and Oat Henley on Thames. Creativity; former Director of The Royal Institution, Baroness Susan Greenfield; Eight times world Memory Champion Synapsia magazine and the Brain Trust Dominic O Brien; Michael Gelb, global best selling author had already celebrated their Silver of How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci; record breaking Jubilee in private rooms at the RAC Pall Olympian Gold Medallist and exponent of extreme mental Mall London on the 14th of April. Now toughness, Sir Steve Redgrave ; Professor Michael Crawford; the time had come for the assembled His Royal Highness Prince Mohsin Ali Khan of Hyderabad SYNAPSIACONTEMPORARY MAGAZINE MAGAZINE VOLUME MONTH 10 - ISSUE 20XX 1 5
Brain of the Year, Dr. Manahel Thabet making her acceptance speech and visionary artist from Australia, Lorraine K Gill. Of that eminent roll call of the Titans of planetary intelligence, no fewer than four honoured us with their presence on May 31st. We were also extremely honoured by a special visit from Dr Suhair Al-Qurashi , President and Chief Executive Officer of Dar Al-Hekma, House of Wisdom, University, Jeddah, in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
First to be presented was this year’s Avicenna Medal, named to demonstrate our respect for the celebrated Islamic Philosopher, medical practitioner and polymath, Ibn Sina. The winner , nominated by the previous incumbent, Dr Manahel Thabet, was the world’s leading expert on Brain Chemistry and Human Nutrition, Professor Michael Crawford from Imperial College, London. The prestigious medal was presented by the distinguished psychiatrist , medical doctor and peace campaigner, Prof Dr Ahmed Ali Khan, co founder of The Avicenna Society and President of The Brain Trust for India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
Avicenna Medal winner, Dr Suhair Al-Quraishi 6 SYNAPSIACONTEMPORARY MAGAZINE MAGAZINE VOLUME MONTH 10 - ISSUE 20XX 1
Director of the Brain Trust Charity, Raymond Keene OBE with artist Lorraine Gill
A special award to the Brain Trust Founder in our Silver Jubilee Year, came to Professor Tony Buzan. This was in the form of a bust of Aristotle, the outstanding philosopher of Classical Greece, named by Dante as “Il Maestro di collor che sanno” the Master of the Men Who Know! Tony has often been compared to his great forerunner, as the modern Aristotle. This token of appreciation was, therefore, entirely appropriate.
Then, the culmination of the day, forward and defended to the hilt. The Brain of the year award for 2015, proposed by Professor Michael Crawford presenting Tony Buzan with the bust of Aristotle Mayor Frances Stainton, seconded by Prince Mohsin Ali Khan and, after strenuous competition, discussion and debate, the fields of the nature and nurture of Giftedness and Talent, endorsed with enthusiasm by the Brain Trust Committee, High IQ, consciousness and her passion as researcher in was the brilliant young Arabic scientist and , as noted above, Quantum investigation, it is clear that the ranks of Hawking, winner of the 2014 Avicenna Medal, Dr Manahel Thabet. Kasparov, de Bono, Redgrave and Greenfield, will have gained In her acceptance speech Dr Thabet modestly proclaimed a full planetary equivalent presence and co-equal mental herself to be a “dwarf planet” between the cosmic Giants force! of previous winners specially Prof. Michael Crawford and Professor Tony Buzan himself. The Brain of the Year award Article by Raymond Keene OBE recognises the most outstanding contribution to the ideals of Photographs by Svetlana Nadtoka Global Mental Literacy. As Dr Manahel extends her work in SYNAPSIA MAGAZINE VOLUME 10 - ISSUE 1 7
Professor Tony Buzan.
Brain Trust annual gathering took Left: Professor Tony Buzan and Phil Chambers, World Mind Mapping champion. place at the Phyllis Court Club on the banks of the River at Henley on Thames
Left: Professor Michael Crawford and Dr Manahel Thabet
Multiple World Memory Champion, Dominic O’Brien
Professor Dr Ahmed Ali Khan
Mrs Annette Keene 8 SYNAPSIA MAGAZINE VOLUME 10 - ISSUE 1
Brain of the Year Award - Criteria
Left: Professor Michael Crawford, Dr Manahel Thabet. Lorraine Gill, Dominic O’Brien and Professor Tony Buzan.
Brain of the Year Award - Criteria
his prestigious award is made to recognise superlative mental achievements.
For over a decade this award has not only honoured some highly talented individuals but helped to raise the profile of the Brain Trust and to create greater awareness of the potential for mental achievements that lies within us all. T To qualify for consideration for this award an individual will need to satisfy the Awards Committee that they satisfy the following criteria.
1. The candidates must be pre-eminent in their field 2. The candidates must have made a major new contribution to their field in the preceding year. 3. The candidates must have contributed major new creative developments to their field of endeavour. 4. The candidates must have made a notable effort to educate others in their chosen discipline. 5. The candidates must have integrated the principle of Mens sana in corpore sano (a healthy mind in a healthy body) in their lives. 6. The candidates must have exhibited persistence and stamina over time. 7. The candidates must have demonstrated a general cultural awareness. 8. The candidates must have demonstrably contributed to society. 9. The candidates must have demonstrated a concern for humanity. 10. The candidates must be active and known on a global level. 11. The candidates must be outstanding role models for those in their fields and for youth in general. SYNAPSIA MAGAZINE VOLUME 10 - ISSUE 1 9
Previous Recipients
dward de Bono – Regarded as one of the leading authorities in the world in the field of creative thinking and the direct teaching of thinking as a skill – Malta.
Chionofuji – Sumo grand champion who used brain rather than brawn to triumph – Japan
EProfessor Michael A Crawford – for his contribution to improving mental health by better nutrition – UK
Leif Edvinsson – Educator and author of the book Intellectual Capital – Sweden
Wang Feng – History student at Wuhan University, achieved the highest ever score in a World Memory Championship – China
Michael Gelb – Author of ‘How to Think Like Leonardo Da Vinci”, and many other best selling books on developing mind and body. Internationally renowned as a teacher of the Alexander Technique, the martial art of Aikido and as a professional juggler. See http://michaelgelb.com/ – USA
John Glenn – Pioneering astronaut, US Senator, athlete and fighter pilot.
Professor Stephen Hawking – Astro Physicist Extraordinaire and holder of Sir Isaac Newton’s Professorship at Cambridge – UK
Ted Hughes – Poet Laureate – UK
Lana Israel – Rhodes Scholar, teenage polymath and world promoter of the ideal of Mental Literacy – USA/South Africa
Prince Mohsin Ali Khan of Hyderabad – for his lifelong commitment to charity, world peace and understanding – India
Garry Kasparov – World chess champion (highest rated player of all time), linguist, athlete and campaigner for improved global education – Russia
Dominic O’Brien – Eight times World Memory Champion – UK
Sir Steve Redgrave – Five times Olympic Gold Medalist in rowing and proponent and living example of the belief that brain power can be the determinant for success in an ostensibly physical activity – UK
Gene Roddenberry – Engineer, philanthropist, the originator of and mastermind behind Star Trek – USA
Dr Marion Tinsley – Legendary mind sports champion and the first human ever to win an official thinking sport world championship against a computer – USA
Lorraine Gill - Artist 10 SYNAPSIA MAGAZINE VOLUME 10 - ISSUE 1
The global crisis in nutrition and the rise and fall of mental health by Professor Michael A Crawford, PhD, FSB, FRCPath. Imperial College, London.
ast century the average height We published some 60 peer reviewed rose by about 0.4 inches/decade. papers in academic journals like the Lancet Death from heart disease rose from and Nature and British Journal of Cancer the a rarity at the beginning to be the conclusion of which was that the difference first cause of mortality by half way between disease profile in Uganda versus the Lthrough. Working at Makerere Medical College UK was basically nutritional. Yes Burkett’s in Kampala, Uganda in the 1960s, it was clear lymphoma first described by Dennis Burkett that heart disease as was common in the UK working with the NIH-USA Cancer Registry was absent, similarly breast and colon cancers team at Makerere was the first proven cancer were absent. Oh yes they had other health identified as caused by a virus. The contrast problems such as endomyocardial fibrosis between Uganda and the UK was undoubtedly (EMF) which was the commonest cause of due to the contrasts in the two different food death from heart failure, a disorder hardly systems. ever seen in the UK. The commonest surgical emergency was volvulus of the sigmoid colon: an excruciatingly painful condition. Again volvulus is hardly ever seen in the UK. Primary carcinoma of the liver was common ”In 2004 the cost was in children. In the UK primary liver cancer €386 billion for the EU” in children is rare and cancer of the liver is usually secondary to alcoholism. In certain tribes, cancer of the penis was as common as Yes lifestyle came into it. However, life breast cancer was and is in the UK. style - lets say lack of exercise also has a nutritional fundamental. It influences what people eat and importantly what their body does with food ultimately determining how an individual’s cells and organs are fed. That is nutrition. Indeed a famous scientist Bill Lands of the USA concluded many years ago that “the tissue is the issue”. We all vary in genetics and hence metabolic efficiency and we all do different physical things. What matters is what ends up in the tissues and that is nutrition. Consequently on return from East Africa to head biochemistry at the then Nuffield Institute for Comparative Medicine in London, I was astounded by the contrast in what SYNAPSIA MAGAZINE VOLUME 10 - ISSUE 1 11
”The cost of mental ill-health was assessed at £27 billion. This was a cost greater than heart disease and cancer combined! When reassessed in 2011 the cost came in at £105 billion. The Wellcome Trust website independently put the cost in 2013 at £113 billion. Moreover, mental ill-health is being globalised. If brain disorders continue to increase this century as heart disease did last, then we are looking a the breakdown of civilised society. It is time for action”.
people were eating in the UK compared to less they appear in cell membranes. There Uganda. Meat was not recognizable as meat. was a consensus of opinion at the time that It was an apology of tissue infiltrated and bad fats, sugar and purified carbohydrates marbled with fat consequent on absence of were responsible for the rise in non- exercise, feeding the animals with high energy communicable diseases (NCDs). Saturated foods, antibiotics and growth promoters. I fats and transisomers were in particular described this contrast in the Lancet in 1968. linked to atherosclerosis, thrombosis and You can work it out quite simply without coronary artery disease. These sort of bad fats going into the detailed loss of essential fatty competed with the omega 6 essential fats . If acids and other nutrients. A carcass fat there was a problem with bad fats, I thought content was 30% and lean 50%. This compared what then about the brain which is made of with a free living equivalent in East Africa fat – 60% of its building materials are highly with 5% fat and 75% lean. Muscle (meat) in specialized fats. Andrew Sinclair and I then set 4/5ths water so it is 1/5th protein and 1/5th about analyzing the fats from the brains of of 50% lean is 10%. There are 4 calories per 32 different species. What we found was that gram of protein so that equates to 10 times they were all the same. The difference was 4 = 40 calorie equivalents for the meat of in size not content. There are two fatty acids an intensively reared UK animal. In the free that were major constituents, arachidonic acid living animal free to select its own food the and docosahexaenoic (DHA) acids. Arachidonic equivalent is 15 times 4 which is 60 calories acid could be obtained from meat. By contrast, equivalents: more! However let’s look at the DHA was sparsely available on the land based fat. There are 9 calories per gram of fat. In the food web but was very rich in the marine free living animal you get 9 times 5% which = food web where it was also associated with 45. In the UK animal it is 9 times 30 which = iodine another nutrient vital for the brain. We 270 – a great deal more: indeed. That works established already in 1973 that a deficiency out at 9 times the amount of fat per unit of of omega 3 fatty acids caused severe protein on the UK animal compared to the Ugandan.
Now being trained in biochemistry and chemical pathology I had some idea about certain fatty acids which occur in tissue cell membranes being essential for life. You cannot make them so you need to get them in your food. The omega 6 fatty acids were known to be required for mammalian reproduction. There were also the omega 3 which people said were not needed. Nine the 12 SYNAPSIA MAGAZINE VOLUME 10 - ISSUE 1
behavioral disorders in capuchin monkeys. clear in the pages of the Sunday Times. With Later with Pierre Budowski from Rehovolt, in inaction, the prediction has been tested and Israel, showed that a diet rich in the omega 6 now proved to be true. linoleic acid and deficient of the omega 3, fed to hatchling chickens resulted in bleeding and Brain disorders have now overtaken all inflammation in the cerebellum of the chicks. other burdens of ill-health. In 2004 the The cerebrum is formed before hatching so cost was €386 billion for the EU. Of course the chicks can identify the mother and go the critics said that ascendency was due to about copying her feeding. The cerebellum new diagnostics and new types of mental ill by contrast develops after hatching as it has health. Well even so, at the top of the tree more to do with balance and coordination someone should have been concerned. A re- which in birds involves flying and that comes assessment was called for. In 2010 the cost of a few weeks later. However, the chicks fed the brain disorders was put at €789 billion. omega 3 deficient diet all died within 3 weeks. Following a question we had asked in Add omega 3 to the diet and none died! Parliament Dr Jo Nurse at the DoH did the Hence we concluded omega 3 fatty acids were numbers for the UK in 2007. truly essential and especially for the brain. The cost of mental ill-health was assessed The, meat in the UK was so swimming in body at £77 billion. This was a cost greater than fat that any arachidonic acid would clearly heart disease and cancer combined! When have a hard time making it to your tissues. reassessed in 2011 the cost came in at The increasing use of intensively reared foods £105 billion. The Wellcome Trust Web site produced at cheaper prices meant that the independently put the cost in 2013 at £113 traditional use of fish and sea foods was billion. Moreover, mental ill-health is being going out of the window. Remember that globalised. If brain disorders continue to during food rationing during and after World increase this century as heart disease did War II, meat and milk were rationed but fish last then we are looking at the breakdown of and sea food were not. Everyone ate fish and civilised society. It is time for action. sea foods of all sorts including whale meat. As a species we have the rare capability to My wife and I then wrote a book in 1971(1). It predict and respond. We can respond in a way was a story of our experience in nutrition and to safeguard the future. We can either have health in Africa and the contrast with the UK. a breakdown of society or achieve continued In the book we predicted that unless action evolution of mental capabilities, health and was taken to prioritize the nutrition of the with it prosperity. That is the choice. At the human brain, then the accumulation of the moment the direction being taken is to travel wrong type of fats in the modern diet would down the breakdown pathway. That choice result in a rise in brain disorders following the is through ignorance. With the globalisation rise in heart disease. of mental ill-health we are facing the most serious threat to humanity. It is the future of The book was reviewed by Graham Rose in our children that is at stake. the Sunday Times (2). He essentially wrote that unless something was done “We would (1) What We Eat Today, by Michael and become a Race of Morons”. He clearly got the Sheilagh Crawford, Neville Spearman 1972. message. The problem is that no one else did or they did not want to get it! (2) Graham Rose, The Acid Key to your Brain Power” Sunday Times 5th November 1972. In the scientific method a prediction is made and then tested to be true or false. We made a prediction in 1972 which was made crystal SYNAPSIA MAGAZINE VOLUME 10 - ISSUE 1 13
The Order of the Rising Sun by Dr. Manahel Thabet PhD
the second highest order, the Order of the Paulownia Flowers is mostly reserved for politicians.
The modern version of this honour has been conferred on non- Japanese recipients beginning in 1981 (although several foreigners were given the honor before World War II); and women were awarded the Order starting in 2003 (previously, women were awarded the Order of the Precious Crown). The awarding of the Order is administered by the Decoration Bureau of Office of the Prime Minister. It is awarded in the name of the Emperor and can he Order of the Rising Sun is a Japanese order, be awarded posthumously. established in 1875 by Emperor Meiji of Japan. The Order was the first national decoration It can be awarded to Japanese as well as non-Japanese nationals. T [1] awarded by the Japanese government, created on 10 April 1875 by decree of the Council of State. The ’ve had the honor to be invited by Prof. Crawford to the ceremony badge features rays of sunlight from the rising sun. of him receiving the order of the rising sun by the Emperor of The design of the Rising Sun symbolizes energy as IJapan, the highest honour any Japanese or non Japanese can powerful as the rising sun in parallel with the “rising receive for their service to humanity through an extra ordinary sun” concept of Japan (“Land of the Rising Sun”). service. It was a historical moment to see my Professor getting the recognition he deserves. I believe that Professor Crawford’s The order is awarded to those who have made research on DHA and the brain nutrition is worth paying attention distinguished achievements in the following fields: to specially with the rising numbers of mental ill health globally. international relations, promotion of Japanese Prof. Crawford is an eminent, determined and recognised scientist culture, advancements in their field, development and I hold a great respect for him, I heartily congratulate him and in welfare or preservation of the environment. I wish him all the best of success in his upcoming projects and Beginning in 2003 the highest ranking medal for research which I am confidant will attract the attention of the the Order of the Rising Sun became a separate whole world. order known as Grand Cordon of the Order of the Paulownia Flowers. [1] Wikipedia (2015) It is the third highest order bestowed by the Japanese government, however it is generally the highest ordinarily conferred order. The highest Japanese order, the Order of the Chrysanthemum, is reserved for heads of state or royalty, while 14 SYNAPSIA MAGAZINE VOLUME 10 - ISSUE 1
Raymond Keene OBE, world record author of 199 books (translated into 13 languages) interviews Professor Tony Buzan, Q>A creator of the Mind Map.
Question 2. Do you apply the Q>techniques of Mind Mapping, speed reading and boosting memory QUESTION of the MONTH to yourself?
Yes of course I do. Once Question 1. Tell us about Ayourself. What drove you to are structures in nature, natural the concepts of Mind Mapping? Who architecture, which mirror our patterns inspired you to do this? of thought generation in our brains, Raymond Keene OBE then I had unlocked the key to the brain manual I had so powerfully When I was studying at both visualised and desired. Once A Question 4. What are the Q>basics of Mind Mapping? and what are the techniques one adopts to do that? Mind Mapping mirrors natural A bane of effective reading. Next you must realise that human eye span is in fact incredibly wide. If you try, you literally have eyes in the side of your head. Once you grasp this principle you can move to the third and vital lesson which is chunking. Instead of reading single words at a time, take in chunks at once. You will find that this has an amazing effect on your reading velocity and effective absorption and comprehension. Question 7. Does speed Q>reading apply to online reading too, now that many read books on Kindle and overall reading has shifted from the printed word to online mediums? There is no difference A limitations, and convinced that they anniversary of the foundation of both social or education. If those at the are hopeless at art. By insisting that Synapsia and the Brain Trust itself. helm have a perfect comprehension they all draw beautiful Mind Maps Amongst major activities later this of the concepts of Mind Mapping, on the spot, the most beautiful and year is also the 24th World Memory speed reading and memory, and colourful they can, the realisation Championship set for China this these mental virtues and strengths dawns that they can be artists, that December. are reflected and replicated within they can be scientists. The embryonic and by their support teams, it is qualities, the dormant resources of Question 10. From a larger inevitable that major benefits and their brains become suddenly capable Q>perspective, how well can advantages wil accrue. A harmonious of stunning realisation. Of course each of the concepts – Mind Mapping, and felicitous combination of the this is a metaphor to show that the speed reading, boosting memory – mental virtues throughout any brain is infinitely capable of achieving be applied to a workplace, for the organisation or indeed nation, will anything it wishes to and brings us benefit of both the employee and the lead to greater efficiency, speed of right back to my earlier point about employer? Can these, when applied, execution of decisions, designs and the brain being a sleeping giant. My lead to boost of employee productivity, plans as well as coordination between global mission is to awaken the entire corporate bottomlines and ultimately all functioning elements of that worldwide race of sleeping Giants. national productivity? organisation. Initiatives and details To further this end I am preparing will be remembered, not overlooked a whole sequence of new books To me it is self evident that or forgotten and the communality of including my learning epic Studis, my A CHESS THINKERS by Raymond Keene OBE ome grandmasters stand out by their play, others, by their Sthinking, teaching and their books. I here explore the work of three great chess pedagogues, whose influence was disseminated as much, if not more, by their writing, as by their games. Dr Siegbert Tarrasch (5 March 1862 -17 February 1934) was known as the Praeceptor Germaniae, the supreme doctrinaire of the German school. In the early 1890’s he was almost certainly the world’s strongest player, but he neglected to challenge the ageing Steinitz, and when Emanuel Lasker, later to become the friend and confidant of Albert Einstein, won as Dreihundert Schachpartien on the horizon. the world title in 1894, Tarrasch’s (Leipzig 1895) and Die Moderne opportunity had gone. Schachpartie (Leipzig 1912) as well as Aron Nimzowitsch (7 November 1886 his indefatigable production of chess -16 March 1935) was the leading Tarrasch promulgated clarity and columns and articles. Tarrasch was hypermodern grandmaster. Tarrasch logic on the chessboard, laying huge the chessboard epitome of thinkers in had pushed classicism to its limits. emphasis on swift mobilisation, other realms from the 19th century, But this antiseptic view of chess failed occupation of the centre by pawns such as Karl Marx and Sigmund Freud, to take account of a new irrationalism, and active play for the pieces, even who also believed both fervently and a psychological interpretation. This at the cost of structural weaknesses. dogmatically that they had created a turned the old truths on their head, Tarrasch was, in fact, the epitome of permanent intellectual superstructure revealing hidden mysteries which the classical grandmaster, and his to explain their particular area of injected fresh fight into a game which theories and writings took chess as thinking expertise, be it Economics, was becoming excessively technical. far as it could proceed along that very Psycho Analysis or Chess. direct, powerful yet simple path. Aron Nimzowitsch was born in Riga, At this time, Tarrasch’s position but later emigrated to Denmark. His Before World War I Tarrasch was as chess professor seemed most important and influential work, the unrivalled teacher, not just of unchallengeable. But just as the old “My System”, was a direct challenge Germany, but of the whole chess European order was swept away by the to Tarrasch. The hyper- modern world. His undying reputation rests war, so, in parallel, fierce opposition to school held (amongst other things) on such great books of exposition Tarrasch as the supreme teacher, was that control of the centre did not SYNAPSIA MAGAZINE VOLUME 10 - ISSUE 1 19 necessarily derive from occupation by pawns. Nimzowitsch also advocated the concept of ‘Heroic Defence’. By this he meant the deliberate selection of difficult positions, in order to drag the opponent onto a precipice, where draws would be unlikely and one player would hurtle to his doom. This cast of thinking, with its messy loose ends and its appeal to raw struggle, must have been anathema to Tarrasch. In fact, though, the process whereby apparently incontrovertible certainties were being challenged in chess was identical to a similar process at work in other branches of contemporary intellectual activity. lt could be seen, for example, in the music of that time, the wild rhythms of Stravinsky’s Sacre du Printemps, in Dada and Surrealism or with the seemingly impenetrable novels of Franz Kafka. That Nimzowitsch’s theories were successful can be deduced from his colossal tournament results, such as first prize in the tournament at Dresden 1926, ahead of Alekhine, and again, at the true spark of dynamism somehow Practice) has become a modern classic. Carlsbad 1929, ahead of Capablanca. eluded him. He could never, for Since the mid-I920’s, My System has, example, match the impressive In it, Bronstein guides the reader in fact, been regarded as the essential blitzkrieg style of an Alekhine. through no fewer than 210 games by book to read on chess strategy. top grandmasters, explaining in minute If this dynamism, so vital to modern detail the thinking behind such dynamic Nimzowitsch’s vision may have been chess, and visible in the games, for openings as the King’s Indian Defence, revolutionary, but it still retained static example, of Tal, Fischer and Kasparov, the new variations of the Nimzo-Indian, elements. His creed, expressed in My is anywhere encapsulated, it must be the Volga Gambit in the Benoni and System, could be summarized as: ‘first in Bronstein’s massive book, The Chess many others. This book has become, restrain, then blockade, finally destroy.’ Struggle inPractice. David Bronstein for so many subsequent generations of Here we see another parallel , that (born 19 February 1924- 05 December grandmasters, the Bible of the dynamic between chess and contemporary 2006) came as close as is possible to war of movement that is modern chess. warfare. Trench and blockade strategy winning the World Championship. In was, of course, the paramount mode of 1951 he tied a match with Botvinnik From these three examples of supreme combat on the western front of world in Moscow, but this meant that the chess thinkers we can see how chess war 1. defending champion (Botvinnik) thinking reflects other areas of life : retained the title. Two years later, in intellectual theory, art and warfare and Nimzowitsch’s strategic thinking the Candidates’ Tournament of Zurich can operate as a microcosmic litmus concentrated on draining the 1953, Bronstein made a renewed effort paper and mirror for thinking and opponent’s dynamism, rather than to qualify for a title match. He failed, strategy on a global scale. increasing his own. At other times, he but he failed magnificently. achieved results by luring his opponents into attacks on himself, which he would His book on the Candidates’ beat back with relish. Nevertheless, Tournament (The Chess Struggle in 20 SYNAPSIA MAGAZINE VOLUME 10 - ISSUE 1 Social Change Maker by Nkandu Beltz most homes in the community. At first I thought that was something normal that people do, but as I got older, I questioned him, “why do you do this, it is not your responsibility to feed everyone”. My Pa would always respond with “Ubuntu”. He sat me down and explained what that meant. It is an African philosophy, which describes the oneness of humanity. The direct translation is “I am because we are”. Nelson Mandela also emphasized on the concept of Ubuntu. Desmond Tutu, the Archbishop also uses Ubuntu quite a lot. This concept in not something unique to Africa, it’s a global concept about looking after one another, and knowing I am my brother’s keeper, I am my sister’s keeper, and that we’re in this together. So we shatter the illusion of separation, knowing that we are one. So I finally understood what Ubuntu meant, I thought, OK, I need to do more acts of kindness and share food with the people that come to school without food, but my journey Nkandu Beltz took a turn when I went to join my Mum and Dad in Ndola, that capital city of the copper belt. While I was there, my Dad, being a very laid back person, he wouldn’t mind what we were wearing or what we would be doing. I would be was born in Zambia in Katete, a small town in the eastern climbing the roof, the trees, playing soccer with the boys and part of Zambia and lived in Botswana and the Netherlands that was perfectly fine. But his family thought that, as a girl, and now I call Australia home. I should be wearing long skirts and not climbing trees but doing the opposite. One time we had our relatives visiting II identify myself as a social change maker, because from a and he said to me, he was quite aggressive about it, go and very young age, I was actively involved in the community and change and put on a dress, because I was wearing little every community I lived in. brown shorts. I have a background in journalism and news writing, and have worked in print as well as radio. My story started when I was about 4 or 5 years of age. I was on a farm with my grandfather who was the High Commissioner for community development, as well as a subsistence farmer. We used to grow maize and a couple of vegetables and we also had a banana plantation. So that was just along the K????? river, a beautiful, beautiful area that we lived in. I was during my early childhood I realized that there was a lot going on in the world, and there were a lot of people who were not as fortunate as we were. But Grandpa (I called him Pa) would make food parcels for my Uncle and I to deliver to SYNAPSIACONTEMPORARY MAGAZINE MAGAZINE VOLUME MONTH 10 - ISSUE 20XX 1 21 Nkandu Beltz I thought, OK I will go and do it. But then Dad stopped me, looked me in the eye and said to me, “Nkandu, don’t ever let anyone suppress your integrity or tell you what to do (just) because you are a girl. Go and get changed because you want to not because you have to”. Those words have stuck with me for a very long time, and it has become a foundation on which I have built my whole life. When I shared that story with my friends at school, my friends said, “I don’t know what you are crying about, we don’t even eat from the dining room”. There were a lot of people from the community that was happening to. I realized that a lot of girls in my country and also in surrounding countries were treated as second-class citizens. So 22 SYNAPSIA MAGAZINE VOLUME 10 - ISSUE 1 most of the girls do not have the same privileges as the boys So it was suddenly a difficult journey, but I had a lot of and in some African countries you will find that if a family support from my father as well as my grandfather. We also has the opportunity to send a child to school, it would be the had a very strong family history, where my Auntie was the boy that would go, because the girl would be married off at first female engineer to work with the Zambian Airlines. So some point, and the boys will be the bread winners. But there were women in the family who were trail blazers, but there is evidence to show that if you educate a girl, and you not may people I knew in our community that had the empower a girl, the community in which that child lives in, opportunity to do so. when she grows into a woman, will be a better thriving community, because they give back into the community. So at the age of fifteen, when the economy way really going downhill, and my parents hadn’t been paid for three months, So for me it was very confronting, it was very personal that and we started to deplete our savings, and we were scared there was such an acute difference in our community in the that we would end up in poverty. way our girls and boys were being treated. Then going home to a house where my father was saying you can do anything, My Mum decided to apply for a job in Botswana, so both my you can be anyone you want, and I realized it wasn’t the Mum and Dad left with my sibling while Dominic and I stayed same at school. Girls were encouraged to do subjects like to finish our junior high school. When we finished our junior home economy and literature, and boy would do physics and high school, we went to join our parents. The reason for this mathematics, things like that. is that I didn’t want to go to Botswana before finishing my junior high, because then I would have to repeat school and I It was very dis-empowering and I was like a disrupter, “I don’t didn’t want to do that. want to play with dolls, I want to play with cars too”. I want to be judged based on my capabilities, not based on So when I went to Botswana, me being me, I wanted to be my gender. actively involved in the community. Botswana was a whole different ball game altogether. Zambia was all about empowering girls and the girl child movement, and in Botswana it was very confronting because we had HIV AIDS issues and the stigma that was attached to HIV AIDS. Also girls who would get pregnant would go back into their nursery educations. When that happened, the girl child… it would be the end of her life. They would go straight into poverty. Working with the Botswana National Youth Council we managed to set up programs and systems in place that would help. If anything would happen to the girl child we would set up some social enterprises, or the girl could go back to school. This worked very well and the Botswana government was on board to make sure that would happen. But my passion, my love for making change continued and I wanted to travel around the world teach, to empower people, bring out the best in people. But I also realized that we live in a world where there are perceptions and we need balance. So I went into journalism and news writing. I worked in print to start with and then into radio. But I found that working as a journalist was very restrictive, I was restricted on what I could write on, which publications would actually publish what I was writing, so for example, anything about corruption… you couldn’t write about that, human rights abuse… you couldn’t write about that. There were a lot of things happening that we just turned a blind eye because its Nkandu Beltz and Tony Buzan in Sydney, Australia 2015 too sensitive to talk about. Even here in Australia there are SYNAPSIA MAGAZINE VOLUME 10 - ISSUE 1 23 quite a lot of things that potentially we need to do something about that, we just cannot go there. Freedom of speech is not freedom when there is restriction there. So coming to Australia, I was an executive member for the United Nations Association of Western Australia, and I was working in indigenous communities and also working for Save the Children Australia. I decided to branch out after a few months and set up my own foundation. The reason being that I come from a very diverse background, my grandfather was from Mozambique, my mother is from Zimbabwe, dad is half Congolese and Zambian and I grew up in Botswana. I found that it was just easier to have one program. So being a social change maker is the only thing I know how to do, the only thing I have been exposed to… it’s my life, helping to make this world a better place. By changing the narrative as well and letting people know they are not victims, but they have so much power within them to actually change and to do that starts with thinking, by changing your thought and having a balanced perception of life. The story of Incandu Belts, Social Changemaker, will continue in the next issue of Synapsia. 24 SYNAPSIA MAGAZINE VOLUME 10 - ISSUE 1 Exam Revision: Modern History - A Mind Map overview of significant events and culture of the 1960’s. IMG© PHIL CHAMBERS MindMaps BY WORLD MIND MAPPING CHAMPION PHIL CHAMBERS . ind Mapping is a revolutionary technique that has been very widely adopted in Education and Business around the world. It has helped millions of people succeed in may different fields. M Despite being deceptively simple it is important to follow the rules to be effective. [See ‘Use Your Head’ and ‘The Mind Map Book” by Tony Buzan] Here, World Mind Mapping Champion Phil Chambers showcases some example Mind Maps demonstrating best practice using iMindMap software. Phil Chambers: Mind Mapping Champion SYNAPSIACONTEMPORARY MAGAZINE MAGAZINE VOLUME MONTH 10 - ISSUE 20XX 1 25 A Mind Map Overview of a one hour keynote presentation on Memory Skills. IMG© PHIL CHAMBERS English Literature: A Mind Map examining the characters and their roles in the book, “Of Mice and Men” by John Steinbeck. IMG© PHIL CHAMBERS 26 CONTEMPORARYSYNAPSIA MAGAZINE MAGAZINE VOLUME MONTH 10 - ISSUE 20XX 1 Poetry Corner Poet: Tony Buzan he King of Beasts T by Tony Buzan. Nose like a Thorn Ripped from a once-protected Rose; Nose-and-mouth like a Glass filled with Black Champagne; Eyes grappling with the undulating uncertainties of the dream-imagined Photon Universe Are the grooves between the Tracks of Tear Waterfalls sourced by the man-imagined End of the Rain of Power? Drawing by Tony Buzan SYNAPSIACONTEMPORARY MAGAZINE MAGAZINE VOLUME 10MONTH - ISSUE 20XX 1 27 Poetry Corner The Frog Prince by Jeremy Cartland. Poet: Jeremy Cartland It was quicker than a kingfisher’s dive, Clio said. She bent her wimpled neck to kiss, and before she straightened I became Prince. For me it was an age. I remember the agony in each tissue: the ripping of webs, the rasp of eyelids, choking on a tightening pharynx. Blood howled through throbbing muscles, bones scored cramps into the limbs, a burning wind seared my skin to dryness. And the hollow ache for the Princess. That remains, and uncertainty. When I was Frog, it was simple. There were no questions; all was Frog. I roamed two words at will. Now despite castles, riches, and my Princess, I am trapped in air. I give commands. My periwig is powdered by powdered flunkeys, every bodily need is satisfied. But still the void inside, the search for a lost element, the missing rhyme. All is not Prince, and I harbour a peculiar craving for flies. 28 SYNAPSIA MAGAZINE VOLUME 10 - ISSUE 1 Old Friend, Old Enemy by John Carder Bush. Now you are dead and truly gone, The nerves that bound us are severed, And I miss you like bone misses bone. For years I stopped you leaving me, Carefully attending to your simple needs Never allowing you to be abused, Twisted, ground down or expelled By the vagaries of our existence, By the sweetness of the life we shared. Our sixty years of feasting, laughter, The smiles of romance, the tastes of blood, The fights when I watched your back, Kept you out of danger, never let you get hit, The rugby matches when I stopped you Getting a smash from an aimed knee Or a crunch from a devious elbow And took them until my eyes were black, The nights when we shared another’s lips And tongue, bruising mouths, biting, The sex-scented spring of hair Caught on your glistening neck After an afternoon of cunnilingus – All these moments rooted in our past, Snagged like debris in the canals of recall, IMG© JOHN CARDER BUSH Are gone, and your crown is down. But they will never be I look at your corpse, naked and alone, As you were to me, Still perfect, gleaming like ivory in death; Upper Left Three, never so close, Feeling your uncorrupted smoothness, Old friend, old enemy. I touch you as I never touched you before And cannot understand why you left me, Leaving such a gaping gap in my life, Missing you each time I try to smile. Though you taught me about mortality Through pain, distress and bereavement, When you finally died and broke away, There was a strange, ecstatic freedom Squirming amongst that awful loss. Now I am forced to turn to things unreal To take your place, to become familiar, Even though I still need to run my tongue Over the coolness of your strong body. SYNAPSIA MAGAZINE VOLUME 10 - ISSUE 1 29 The Butterfly Project The Collection of the Butterflies is a collection of Butterflies from the Multiple Universes and Planets of the Human Imagination. All of these Butterflies have been drawn by students and teachers, including many Headteachers who all believed that they could not in any way draw. They were convinced, and publicly proclaimed, that they were not, could not, and would not ever be Artists. These ‘non-Artists’ demonstrate the Global belief that they (and more than 90% of the surveyed population) KNOW of their incapacity. The Butterfly Universe Project commenced with allowing them to experiment with their own Creative Potential, Ability and Capacity, following the commandments of Leonardo da Vinci. Leonardo stated, in the context of Art and The Artist, that the word ‘Artist’ was much more meaningful to Leonardo than the one originally thought. Both Leonardo and Buddha observed that most Human Beings Look and Don’t See. Leonardo’s commandment was, step-by-step, the following: “I am a student of nature” “I Observe Her” “I Study Her” “I Analyse Her” and finally, “I Copy Her”. Following Leonardo’s and Buddha’s Observations, they both reverse with impact the unseeing behaviour to look and See! The Butterfly Universe Project is confirming and proving that everyone is a natural and gifted Artist who simply needs to follow the guidelines of the Brain’s Laws, releasing the Brain and its Mind from the prisons of non- perception into which it is categorically and consistently incarcerated in many global educational systems. Many of The Butterflies are from: The Butterfly Universe Project has already 1) The Universes of Imagination; ‘unleashed’ thousands upon thousands of Butterflies from the Universes of the Human Brain. 2) Some have mimicked the Butterflies of others drawing near them, with new manifestations; All of the Butterflies have come from a different Planet; a different Galaxy; a different Universe; 3) Others have seen and drawn copies of Butterflies from the catalogues of Butterflies in the Human Memory; 4) Butterflies that have been observed in books, computers, phones and have been transcribed using their Brain Waves, transferring them from the External Universe, through their Internal Universe, to the External Universe, on the sheet of art paper. Thus manifesting the “Fingerprint / Brainprint” of their Unique Being. The Butterflies manifest the Artists’ profound Intelligences and their exquisite Cosmic Intelligence. In Terrestrial Academic Lepidoptery, all Butterflies are classified in the following way: Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus and Species. 30 SYNAPSIA MAGAZINE VOLUME 10 - ISSUE 1 Frances Stainton: So tell me Ray, you are so famous as a chess grandmaster, how did you start, what age did you start playing chess? Ray Keene: I was six years old when I learnt how to play chess. What happened was that my mother wanted to take a bath. I was generally annoying her and pestering her and saying ‘don’t take a bath, come play with me’. And Between Frances Stainton, Raymond Keene OBE and Professor Tony Buzan she said, ‘play with these!’ And she brought out a box with chess pieces ... Jan Rosen was sick or otherwise and I saw him drawing a Mind Map of and a board. I emptied everything out indisposed and couldn’t make it. Happiness. He was drawing a picture on the floor and said, ‘I do not know of desert island in the middle of a how - you’ll have to teach me’. So she The organisers told Tony of this large piece of paper with branches showed me the moves and she never and Tony said to them to find coming off it. I thought... I had never got the bath. somebody else. The various faffings seen anything like that! and discombobulations led to the Frances Stainton: organisers returning to Tony saying Tony then moved onto a pre- That’s a fabulous way to learn how that they couldn’t find another chess prepared Mind Map done of a man to play chess. So, you’ve been playing player. Tony retorted to them: ‘there called John Naisbitt in the book chess ever since you were six. And must be another chess player in the “MegaTrends 2000” written by Mr your mother never got her bath! known universe. Find someone who Naisbitt and Patricia Aburdene and is prepared to come to the London published that year in 1990. This Frances Stainton: course.’ Time was running out and a book was about future predictions: Tony and Ray, I have always wondered couple of weeks before the course was will we run out of resources? Will our how you two met. You seem to have about to start and a little boy of one resources be essentially sustainable? known each other forever. I am of the organisers, whose name was Will major wars have stopped? Will fascinated. Simon Webb, said, ‘Mummy, why don’t communism die out? Etc. you try Raymond Keene?’ Ray Keene: It was a Mind Map with John It happened in 1990 when Tony was He had heard of me whilst his Naisbitt’s face as the central image of doing lectures for Management mother and the organisers had not. the Mind Map. He had a bright orange Centres Europe, both in Brussels So, she asked Tony whether it would beard and branches off indicating and in London. As part of the lecture be ok to invite Raymond Keene. all the major predictions he’d made. course which consisted of Mind In Tony’s own words, as he often Then we took votes on whether Mapping, Memory and Speed Reading, describes, he said, ‘This is rather like John’s predictions were right and the he also had various activities. One of being asked whether you would prefer audience was pretty optimistic. It was them was trying to sing and teaching the amateur champion of Scunthorpe a jolly, optimistic bunch. people who thought they couldn’t or Muhammad Ali to come to your sing to sing. Another one was playing event.’ So they rang me up and I Tony proceeded to finish his lecture chess. He had a Dutch Master living in said I would be delighted to come. I on Mind Mapping and after that we Belgium called Jan Rosen who came was asked to play twenty people at met up, having never met each other along and gave these chess displays. chess which I do and did quite often. before, and there was an instant It so happened that once in the hotel I pitched up and Tony was lecturing attraction. After that I gave the chess SYNAPSIA MAGAZINE VOLUME 10 - ISSUE 1 31 display where I played twenty people future. all at once and I thrashed them all. Tony and I went to dinner later to a Tony Buzan: local Italian restaurant which was the Once upon a time there was a first time I met Lorraine. Interesting wonderful thing that Frances was experience. So the inaugural meeting instructed. Please tell me more. was caused by the little boy Simon Webb, who was the son of the main Frances Stainton: organisers. I was an only child and I discovered that if you tell grown-ups you’re bored Frances Stainton: it stirs something and they go and do Well it has to be fate doesn’t it something. I didn’t know what bored because it’s such a long shot meant but I knew it was a trigger. otherwise. So I went off to grandpa and said Ray Keene: I’m bored. I had the shock of my life Yes. God doesn’t play dice. when he drew himself up to his full height and he looked down at me Frances Stainton: (laugh). with utter scorn and said, ‘Boredom is Yes. the outcome of inward stupidity’. He turned on his heel and walked away. Tony Buzan: In a state of total shock, I thought I’d Coincidentally, six year and seven year better go off and do my own thing. I’ve old children. When I was seven I did never been bored in my life since then, not play chess and was working in my thanks to him. family’s little restaurant in Whitstable. Ray Keene: One of the customers was known Boredom is considered, although as a very eccentric little old lady who not as bad as the others, a Deadly had come in every lunchtime and have Sin. It was known technically by the lunch with her dog and sit there and medieval Church as “Accidie”. If you think. One day when I was serving her, were bored, you’ve lost faith in the she turned to my mother who was possibility of God’s Creation and running the kitchen and said, ‘Jean, therefore you doubt the existence of you need to teach your boy Anthony God. chess!’ My mother said, ‘really? I don’t play chess, my father doesn’t, my Frances Stainton: husband doesn’t’. This little woman And you’ve shut down all your creative looked at me, pointed at me and said, faculties. ‘You must learn to play chess. I will teach you.’ The next time she came in Ray Keene: with a chess set and taught me. I was Yes, but to the medieval Church, it was mesmerised. more the theological stance connected with disbelief of God. Boredom or My mum and dad set up a place “Accidie” was more or less on a par for chess players in Whitstable. with the Seven Deadly Sins. The Whiststable Chess Club had its matches in our restaurant. When I played at that time, I followed The Times and Harry Golombek, The Times Chess correspondent, and Ray followed on from Golombek and so I got to follow Ray. So, when a child is young, a major impact is made on their 32 SYNAPSIA MAGAZINE VOLUME 10 - ISSUE 1 and I was 20 years old and managed to get myself onto a new course, an HND, when I was in a class and the lecturer introduced me to what he called “Buzan diagrams” you will know them as Mind Maps… But this was 35 years ago..! It was a Eureka moment, quite literally, as I suddenly realised that being clever wasn’t very difficult, it was like someone had shown me how a magic trick is done, it’s so obvious when you know! This moment cannot be underestimated as I went to get a distinction on this course, which then got me into University of Bristol to read economics and politics (joint hons). It didn’t stop there as this gained me a career in “The Left: Tony Buzan and Jezz Moore. City” whereupon I did my Corporate Finance Certificate from London Business School and after a successful career in Private Equity, I left in 1997 to complete a full time MBA. Not Synapsia bad for the kid who failed all his O levels at 16. After my MBA a briefly went back into Private Equity but my heart was now set on bigger things, so I ventured into Worldwide the world of being self-employed trying my hand at various projects around coaching and how do we become the “best JEZZ MOORE: PREVIOUS BIOGRAPHY AND SYNAPSIA version of ourselves” and reach our hidden potential. Most CONTRIBUTOR/FRIEND. excitingly of all I met my, now, colleague Dr Ram Raghavan who has a PhD in measuring “human capital” and we formed o… I was chatting with Tony Buzan who was really Riddlebox Limited four years ago to improve how people excited about the re-launch of Synapsia and even across the World are treated at work, and we specialise in more honoured when he said could I pen a few words measuring Human experience” currently in 52 countries. telling the world what Mind Maps have done for me. SI’m guessing you have already figured out the answer is “an Our passion is how we find out how to optimise human awesome amount” otherwise he wouldn’t have asked me..! performance but more importantly make leaders accountable for the experience they create and for them I am not going to rehearse the background to the whole story to be accountable. Why does it matter so much to me..! again, you can go to Tony’s biography [1], I am chapter 14, if Well for me leadership finds its early roots in school and you want all that, but you should know the following. Me… education from the experience that teachers produce, it is kid sent to private school, so given an expensive education one of our most fundamental influences in life. Its seems and at 16 years old I failed everything and had to drop out that educators have become so obsessed with distributing and work in a factory. How did I feel at the time? Frustrated, knowledge, measuring key performance indicators, and scared, a failure and my self-esteem could not have been producing statistics which bear little relevance to the much lower. Go forward a few years, well four to be precise potential and amazing creativity that exists before them… SYNAPSIACONTEMPORARY MAGAZINE MAGAZINE VOLUME MONTH 10 - ISSUE 20XX 1 33 Jezz Moore namely their students..! But maybe I should rant about this My journey is continuing and even gathering pace and yes over another blog or article. my colleague and I always scope out our ideas on a Mind Map, in fact we have two desks in the office painted in black So back to the original question… What have Mind Maps board paint and coloured chalks for such moments. done for me? If you want more “Mind Map rants”…. Just ask. I said to Tony, the biggest things Mind Maps have done for me is change my feelings about myself. Gone are those Jezz. feeling of self-doubt and low self-esteem, to be replaced but confidence and the heart felt belief that when I have a dream I can explode those ideas into a Mind Map which then make me become a resource gather focused on what I need to achieve to reach my goals. Yes of course I have my frustrations at times, don’t we all, but why aren’t all educators reminded that they have a responsibility to inspire, to provoke to fertilise those young minds and just throwing [1] “knowledge down a funnel” is not the answer. My education The Official Biography of Tony Buzan: was mugged, not by teachers who didn’t work hard but by The Man Who Introduced the World to teachers who had lost sight of the privileged and amazing Mind Maps, position they are in. Luckily I found Mind Maps, but there are by Raymone Keene OBE plenty who haven’t, we need to spread the word and bring back confidence and excitement to the subject of knowledge and learning. 34 SYNAPSIA MAGAZINE VOLUME 10 - ISSUE 1 n 2010 I was diagnosed with a very rare of using visual objects (pictures, drawings, neurodegenerative disease that also tree-like diagrams) to shift to critical visual Iincludes dementia. I have a mixture of thinking to retrain the brain to use techniques symptoms of Progressive Supranuclear and areas of the frontotemporal lobe that are Palsy and Frontotemporal Dementia (many relatively unaffected by the brain disease. neurologists do not think that these are separate brain diseases). The dementia has I think Mind Mapping worked very well for features that are different from those of me. It did not cure my brain disease (how Alzheimer’s Disease in that general memory could a technique of drawing pictures to loss is not as much of an issue in PSP/FTD enable better thinking change the anatomy of at the early stages but loss of executive nerves and neurotransmitters?). I don’t think functioning, personality change, social it slowed down the progression of my disease isolation, and other cognitive-personality- (again, how could a cognitive procedure affect motor are more pronounced at the early how fast nerve cells become dysfunctional stages (like all brain diseases, eventually all and die?). But I do know the mind mapping of the brain functions are severely affected, greatly improved my quality of life because although the order of appearance of severe it allowed me to think better, create more impairment in different brain functions differs than 300 blog posts since 2011, obtain more among diseases). than 85,000 followers on Twitter, 350 friends on Facebook, more than 1,500 connections Given that most of the diseases that to other professionals on LinkedIn, have 750 cause dementia have no cures or even a individuals following my PinInterest boards, pharmaceutical means to slow the rate and hundreds of re-Scoops from my Scoop. of disease progression (including mine), it boards on neurology, mind mapping, and I concluded that I should use what I had my quirky sense of humor. Oh, and I also learned in the 37 years since receiving my WROTE a book about the the Mind Mapping doctoral degree in psychology to try to techniques and how I used them and why I employ behavioral-cognitive tools as a way think these worked FOR ME. of assisting me in dealing with the stages of disease and dementia. I tried 100s, if not If you want to see about all of my work, ideas, a thousand, apps on my iPhone, iPad, and experiments on myself, and conclusions about Mac to list to-do items (tasks), calendar, ring the efficacy of Mind Mapping in increasing my alarms when I should swallow pills, recall the own quality of life during stages of increasing names of long term friends and their children, cognitive impairment and dementia, LOOK TO remember what I had for lunch, and run a YOUR LEFT and click on one of the “book cover continuing social life in a university town with buttons” to order the ebook on the iBookstore great restaurants and concerts and theater. (for Apple hardware) or the Amazon Kindle Store (for non-Apple hardware supported by a Forget the traditional To-Do Apps and Fancy Kindle app). Calendars and Alarms Apps going off in tandem on my Mac, iPhone, and iPad. Forget Read the book and you will know the why and what people (especially developers) call how in a very integrated way that transcends “dementia assistance” apps. this blog. After seeing the hundreds of images, you will also understand why this For me, the one thing that worked was book could not be published in a paper Buzan-style organic Mind Mapping which format and why the materials all need to be in its more general form is really a method presented together. SYNAPSIA MAGAZINE VOLUME 10 - ISSUE 1 35 ”You only get the full benefits of these techniques if you use Buzan- style organic Mind Maps. Those maps you have seen with thin lines, little colour or curvature, and a half sentance on each branch, are not the “real deal” and do not ptoduce the same good results as do the Buzan style organic Mind Maps.” More importantly than any of the professional Oh, and one final note … You only get the achievements that are more quantifiable full benefits of these techniques if you use mentioned above, I think that Mind Mapping Buzan-style organic Mind Maps. Those helped me feel far less anxiety because I could “maps” you have seen with thin lines, little still understand information at the level I had color or curvature, and a half sentence on been trained, sparked my creativity, help me each branch, are not the “real deal” and do behave better in social situations by planning not produce the same good results as do the them in advance, and enhanced my ability to Buzan style organic Mind Maps. function in family and larger social networks. It is the positive effect of being able to better George Huba interact with my family for which I am the most grateful. Here’s a few more thoughts in a Mind Map. Click it to expand the map. I am very glad I used mind mapping in the five years I have been coping with cognitive impairment and dementia. I did and still do enjoy a very high quality of a life I greatly enjoy. 36 SYNAPSIA MAGAZINE VOLUME 10 - ISSUE 1 Animal Intelligence by Tony Buzan. The Hidden Senses of Pets and Their Communication Skills 1 It is increasingly known that dogs use their sense of smell to navigate and memorise an entire city. Every goldfish has newly discovered ‘secret senses’ that can detect tiny movements in the water that we cannot. Horses use their ears as major communication tools as we do our mouths. The Elephant Nose The elephant’s nose is not simply a thumping and waving and water-spouting snout. Each elephant has a nose that 2 contains 40,000 muscles! The entire human body has closer to 800. Just one elephant’s nose contains nearly 60 times more than we do. The Brain of the Elephant, a bigger brain than ours, handles, with every one of its millions upon millions of brain cells, controls, manipulates and manages this incredible sensing instrument. The elephant (k)nose a lot more than we have ever thought! It has an exceptional brain and a phenomenal memory. 3 Pastoral Symphonies by a Bird Brain Musician ‘The New Scientist’ Magazine reports (8th November 2014, p.12) that anybody who has listened to Australian birds, particularly the Butcher Birds, can never doubt that birds make music. The Butcher Bird’s songs can all be transcribed into western notation including both rhythm and pitch. Indeed, many Australian composers, including the recently departed Australian nature and musical guru Peter Scunthorpe have used the Butcher Bird songs as did also Brett Dean, who incorporated and wove into his pastoral symphony an actual recording of the Butcher Bird song. Butcher Birds, with “Genius Bird Brains”, use other capabilities attributed to, previously, human musicians, such creative innovation techniques such as adding ornamentation, or sing melodies that are followed by its inversion - a very “Bachian” feature! Butcher Birds also duet with other song-bird musicians including the Australian Magpie. An Australian ornithologist Guy Cox from Sydney, New South Wales, reported that “I once got a Butcher Bird to duet with me by whistling its song back to it. The bird replied, slightly changing the melody. This delightful musical conversation carried on for a minute or two before it flew away.” If anyone has said to you that you are ‘Bird-Brained’, thank them! For we now know that birds, on many levels, are astonishingly intelligent. SYNAPSIA MAGAZINE VOLUME 10 - ISSUE 1 37 More Fantastic Facts about the Favourite Pets 4 Cats ‘use’ other cats as baby sitters. Suckling kittens prefer and decide not to share their mother’s teats and “name tag” their preferred supply source of milk with their own scent. Fascinatingly, when not suckling, mum’s ‘ask’ or ‘order’ other cats as their baby sitters. Cats are therefore not only ‘loners’. They are, on many levels, and in many areas, social animals. Cats have exceptional control over their paws. Cats have a hidden claw, known as the Dew Claw. The Dew Claw flicks out like a flick- knife particularly when they climb. The control this with their brains in order to make climbing perpendicular objects, especially trees, much more easy. Cats use their brain to control their senses as powerful tools of communication. Don’t be frightened or threatened when cats narrow their eyes - it’s usually a sign of affection and friendship. Budgie Brains: Initial research has confirmed that many pet budgies have been able to mimic up to seventy human phrases. With additional inflections that they also include, the budgies’ “human” vocabulary is more near two hundred plus. In the ‘Budgie Grapevine’ it is reported that many budgies have assigned names to their offspring. Again please let us have your personal research budgie results. The Goldfish 5 Second Memory. This above common global assumption is Goldfish Balderdash. It’s an arrogant, supercilious and inaccurate awareness of the Goldfish Brain. Many new researches are now confirming that goldfish can remember, perfectly, for more than three months. Better than many University Professors! More research on Goldfish Brain is recently confirming that through their light-inflecting water and glass, they can recognise, distinctly from other human beings, their owners. Bee Brain Nutrition When worker bees are malnourished, especially without access to adequate pollen early in their life, results in their 5 becoming both poor foragers and poor dancers when they reach adulthood. The bees so-called Waggle Dance, a main communication tool, tells all other members of the bee colony both the distance and direction of the finest pollen. When pollen- deprived, malnourished bees, when they went out to forage, often did not return. At Wesley College, one group of bees was raised with limited access to pollen. Another group with adequate pollen. After researches joined both groups of bees in one hive and studied their behaviour. Their study was published this month in ‘PLOS One’. “Pollen-stressed workers were less likely to waggle-dance, and if they danced, the information they conveyed was less precise,” said Dr Mattila and Hailey Scofield. All malnourished brains whether human, animal, or insect, are all ravaged of their Intelligence by malnutrition. GFGB; JFJB. Good Food, Good Brain; Junk Food, Junk Brain! Feed Your Brain well! 38 SYNAPSIA MAGAZINE VOLUME 10 - ISSUE 1 Painter as a Name-Giver by John Berger. she made surprising connections. When we talked, we talked mostly about London street- life. She was Australian and during her childhood and adolescence had spent a lot of time in the wild outback of that vast country, around Alice Springs, in the company of still roaming aborigines. She claimed to have, in part, aboriginal ancestors. She was both fearless and wary in ways that had nothing to do with London or Europe. At the age of eighteen she saved up enough money to take a ship to Spain in order to become a flamenco dancer. She was taken on as an apprentice (it’s a more apt word than pupil) by the legendary now elderly dancer John Berger as sketched ...... , with whom she lodged and for whom by Lorraine Gill. she danced. After two or three years she left Spain to come to London in order to paint. have followed Lorraine Gill’s paintings During her teens she had already attended an during forty years. The first ones I saw art school in Australia. I was when she was an art-student in London. She was older than many Occasionally in London we spent the night students, around thirty. Nor did she talk or together, because it felt like the only way of behave like a student. She had an unusual sharing the same place. When I woke up in confidence and conviction and an air of the morning I had the sensation of being in having come from far away. A stranger. one of her incomprehensible paintings. We never discussed plans. Our tenderness was I couldn’t make head or tail of her paintings. distance. Thee was nothing I could latch on to. Yet I believed in her as an artist. I sensed it As time passed, her painting evolved. She somehow in her physical and psychic worked ceaselessly. But the essential constitution and in the speed with which character of her painting did not change and it still belongs to a category which is hard to name and therefore to place. What has changed, however, is that today I feel capable of perhaps describing — not her paintings which remain indescribable but the category to which her art belongs. And I believe this may be of some interest to the public which, I’m certain, her art will eventually find. Lorraine Gill’s paintings are about places. But they have nothing in common with the European tradition of landscape painting. Absolutely nothing. She uses exclusively primary colours. She rejects Renaissance perspective — and, for that matter, Cubist perspective, she rejects atmosphere, she Lorraine Gill does not use the logic of figuration, although SYNAPSIA MAGAZINE VOLUME 10 - ISSUE 1 SYNAPSIA MAGAZINE VOLUME 10 - ISSUE 1 39 occasionally she invents figurative signs. Some of the places she paints have been painted by other Australian painters such as Sidney Noland and Arthur Boyd, and for them the places were explicitly narrative settings, whereas for Gill their stories are secret and there is no decor. Her paintings have nothing to do with looking out of any window; but everything to do with surviving in a place where survival depends upon recognising the manner in which its unique local elements coheres to form its hidden but ever-present spirit. Nomads and hunters more familiar with such spirits. In their own way they conversed with them. Today children and solitary travellers sometimes undergo similar experiences. Think of an illustrated book of medical anatomy. Gill’s paintings have something in common with the illustrations in such a book. What they reveal, however, is not the anatomy painting by Lorraine Gill of a body, but the anatomy of a place’s spirit, of its genius loci. They are three-dimensional diagrams of the As a painter, Lorraine Gill is a name-giver. places’ organs, which are not substantial, but which consist of traces or signs. These paintings are configurations of intangible Description of the Musical Warp realities which have been left behind: left behind either on the ground or in the air or in Painting. the mind, and in the memory of those who survived there despite the place and thanks to The painting is based on the shape of the the place! They are charts of survival. guitar. Within the shapes the geometry of the guitar, However it is quite mathematical Normally charts like maps are static even in geometry and optics. Music is frequencies; when they indicate the flow of rivers or colour is frequencies; each colour an optical the course of prevailing winds. Gill’s charts effect. The overall aim was to balance the are dynamic: they revalue, recede, advance, subject; with all its inherent meanings. dissolve, return like the silent accompaniment to a dance. Like a dance’s memory in a Lorraine Gill dancer’s body. After a while your eyes follow the rhythm, read the traces and listen to the silence. It is the particularly silence of a nameless place, a place to which only those who survived in it can give a name. These names are vitally present but unpronounceable; they can only be spoken by paintings. Each painting is a place’s name. 40 SYNAPSIA MAGAZINE VOLUME 10 - ISSUE 1 Joe Williams An interview with Tony Buzan Joe Williams, Boxing Champion nterview on Wednesday 28th of October who had dreams to be in the NRL - National 2015 in Sydney, Australia. An interview Rugby League player and we would do Ifor Synapsia pugilistic personality who is a everything that we can possibly do to achieve mental warrior, a mind warrior. And his name those dream. Along the journey I moved from is, and the main information about him, to Wagga Wagga as a 17-year-old who dared you is Joe Williams, an aboriginal from Wagga to play with the South Sydney Rabbitohs and Wagga in New South Wales, at the Mind Map after a while I guess I wasn’t noticed as much conference in Sydney looking to learn as well because I was always around home and around as share his story. family. I started what I thought was home sickness, general home sickness but there were Tony Buzan bouts of anxiety some fairly highs and some intense lows. My life was a fairly roller-coaster So Joe, your story and how that connects to from 16-17 to 26 when I sought some help people who get into trouble and have to battle because I went through a bout where I was a thinking intelligence. All of that, so tell us functioning alcoholic and recreational drug user. your story and we will love to hear it. As one, it was part of the sport and two, as for my health it was fantastic. Joe Williams Tony Buzan Oh it’s like you know I was like any other kid SYNAPSIA MAGAZINE VOLUME 10 - ISSUE 1 41 Joe Williams “Aboriginal people, especially with Aboriginal art, has a story connected with what we call Mother Earth” Still playing football? Joe Williams Still playing football, still playing in the rugby league in the national rugby league. Then I went to the doctor and I was diagnosed with depression and about 12 months later diagnosed with bipolar as well, so the ups and downs made sense. I was medicated and then in December 2005, I decided to give away alcohol and drugs and concentrate myself as a healthy person. Ten years this December it will be since I have touched any alcohol or drugs but the one thing that stays with me along that path are my struggles and my battles with mental health. Tony Buzan Joe, you went into another sport. When did you do that, why did you do that and what happened when did you do that? Joe Williams Look... I’ve been fairly fortunate my dad was an NRL player well. He was an amateur boxer and I grew up in the gym learning how to be a boxer and always around the place. Joe Williams, Boxing Champion Tony Buzan the gloves on the side and you know I went home From how old? and said to mum and dad look I’m going to stop playing fully and start boxing. The old man looked Joe Williams at me and said it’s a matter of time because he knew that that’s the right thing. It’s been a From the age of six and seven I was always in fantastic journey to be honest. You know, I’m the gym that was a boxer so till I sort of took learning to be a boxer. I go to the gym every day. interest in it as well if there was football on The best thing that I’ve learned, in a boxing gym, is television and boxing. I would watch boxing that I’ve learned something about myself. all the time and although I was a professional Because in the tough time when I was a rugby footballer, I tend to watch the boxing and league player, I tend to shirk way from tough support the boxing saying a lot. So you know times. Physically, as a boxer there is no way to when I came to the end of my career, my escape, you know, when there is a tough time, you rugby league days, I knew it was time to put either got to keep your heads up and get strong 42 SYNAPSIA MAGAZINE VOLUME 10 - ISSUE 1 back or you lose your teeth and such. You with my partner so when I had my divorce my know, I learned a lot about, mental discipline two oldest children got separated again. Gone and physical toughness and discipline as well. from a guy who loved to being a dad to a guy I became extremely fit. I became a who had three children in two separate places professional boxer. Professional boxer at the that weren’t living with me at all. It had end of 2008. When I finished playing with something of a negative effect on me. I rugby league. And pretty much I had my last started to battle with my mind a little bit. I bite in May this year. So I juggled county footy guess I absconded a little bit from taking my (football) as well as professional boxing as medication. So that was not the worlds well because you know because I wasn’t greatest idea. And because I believed I could overly taxing there the professional sorry the get through it all by myself. You know I amateur rugby league and the bush. But in couldn’t. On the day of 2011 you know I made the professional boxing, I barely had three a decision I was battling with my own mind. losses. Out of 16 fights. Three losses out of Searching that I made a decision that enough 16 fights and eight WBF world title, WBCH was enough. I wrote letters to my kid. Saying Asian title, the World Boxing Federation titles. that be better off without me. I’m sorry I couldn’t be their father that I wanted to be. If Tony Buzan you ever need me just look up, obviously referring to the sky, you know aboriginals In what division? have ancestral spirits live on in the clouds. You know I said I will always be there with the Joe Williams kids. I don’t want to go through extreme details but pretty much took enough In the junior light weigh division at 3.5 kg or 43 prescription drugs to kill an elephant. And 1/2 pounds. As a boxer I’m not an aggressive the next day when I came to, I, you know like person. Being in the rink I struggled at it. before, wrote letters in my bed and begin to Punched another man in the face. But I love drift off. I thought this was it you know. No the discipline the hard work and the stuff that comeback from this. goes on behind-the-scenes. And of the bright lights as well. Tony Buzan Tony Buzan How did it feel when you disappeared? So when you did that what happened when Joe Williams you were in the middle of being a champion? Oh I was happy and content with my decision Joe Williams at the time. Happy and content. I truly honestly believed my kids are better off For me in 2011. I’ve been through a divorce without me. I truly honestly believe the world was better off without me. And I guess coming to the next day when I woke in coming out sort of confusion I didn’t know whether to be disappointed that it didn’t work will be thankful that it didn’t work. I guess in that clear moment you know, I thought about it, was too strong for me. So I went to seek professional help. I was admitted into a mental health Facility. And once the fog started to lift I made a major clear decision. Every day I’m going to have a positive impact on people. I’m going to be out there and try and change the world for the better. Joe Williams, Boxing Champion Tony Buzan SYNAPSIA MAGAZINE VOLUME 10 - ISSUE 1 43 Joe Williams, Boxing Champion mentally. Even when I’m in a fight in the rink. Why? Like I said, nothing is tougher than battling your own mind. You know I’ve raised my hands in victory numerous times. I’ve had Joe Williams championship belts in my hands. Probably the most memorable day of my life is a Ah because it’s not often that you get a negative one. And that being the day I second chance in life. So you know for what attempted on my life being that it’s a negative ever it there that’s bigger and powerful and one you tend to not to go back on it too many better than me you know I try to do anything times. in my power to not be here any more. It’s clear to me that there is a bigger higher Tony Buzan power. My time wasn’t up. So knowing that I made the decision to do impact on people the Could you reconsider that? And have it as a best way I can. real championship day? You won a championship. A universal championship Tony Buzan against death. Against suicide. A battle in Were you still champion 2008? your head and your mind when you have taken an elephant’s worth of pills. It was your Joe Williams mind that decided when you are “out of it” your brain decided. Hold on, I can out-battle I wasn’t champion at that stage. It was 2011 those pills. I will stay alive. So it could be a so you know I had only had a handful of universal championship day not a negative professional fights. I guess even though it’s day. What do you think and feel about that? tough times, that suicide attempt, taking into the physical aspect of training side of things, Joe Williams nothing that ever happened in training was ever tougher then, what I went through Most definitely you know. Although it wasn’t 44 SYNAPSIA MAGAZINE VOLUME 10 - ISSUE 1 a negative day it’s an upsetting memory. But I guess I started noticing, little things like the outcome of that has been extremely slurred speech, like forgetting things, and not positive. And that’s definitely why we are remembering where I parked my car. I live in a here today. You know I look back at what I small town of Wagga Wagga. It’s not a huge think is the most upsetting time of my life - place you know when I park my car in the my most upsetting time of my life. That main street. When I walk around for an hour suicide attempt, and the day, and all the trying to find it. Because I could not events that surround the day, are bought me remember for the life of me where it was. to speaking about such, in conferences like And the harder I try to concentrate on where it mind and potential. Having an aid of impact was, the tougher it becomes. I just realise in my life has given me a hell of a lot of when I sat down in the moment, got to relax a positives. So I definitely see that as a life little bit, and eventually had come across it. changing moment as a huge positive in my Yeah that has been difficult times in that. But life. As I said it was a part of my journey. I I’m working towards and again I don’t dwell wouldn’t be here, right where I am today, if I too much on the negative situation. I look for hadn’t gone through that. So I definitely see a positives in it. And I look for how to build on positive side of that day. this positive. Tony Buzan Tony Buzan So back to your championship. You also had So what caused these problems with some time the problem with your brain memory? because of the of your skull. What happened? Joe Williams Joe Williams SYNAPSIA MAGAZINE VOLUME 10 - ISSUE 1 45 I guess having a long span plan right below us thinking about my friends and mates so since I was three years old to around about forget it. And the so that’s one point. Back to 25-26 then as professional going to an even the aboriginal’s philosophy. Tell me about the more contact sport as a boxer you know with history of the aboriginal thinking? Synapsia is head blows and so forth. The head come fascinated with the thinking. So tell me how under a bit of pressure. As a boxer I’d like to long did the Australian aboriginal thinking and think I was evasive but clearly I wasn’t that when did it start what is the summary of it evasive. You know I must have a got a few and what about Art in the minds of the too many because there are things like you aboriginals? know I was sitting at night and go over different things with my fiancé in bed about Joe Williams my errors because I couldn’t remember. I got someone who organizes my diary and books Aboriginal people, specially with aboriginal art, me in different places because you know I’ve has a story do you have a connection to what been guilty of forgetting where things you we call mother Earth. You know is a mother know when I was due at certain places. You Superior and Father Superior. Mother know playing I guess sort of after it some Superior is obviously mother Earth and the different parts of my life and definitely can’t Father is Bami you know the spirit. be walking around and forgetting different things and this where my future lies. I’ve got So a lot of our artwork about our stories about a huge strong interest in politics. I want to be our dreaming. It is not about our dream is a politician so you sort of need your marbles what we thinking in our head but dreaming or that can be questionable to. But you about life and how everything goes on. There definitely need to remember. Certain things are animals and there are spirits there. The you talk about. physical things, the spiritual things. All coming together. To what we believe in. You Tony Buzan know the Australian aboriginal culture. The aboriginal culture has been dated for 60,000+ So onto helping other people and your vision years. Is the longest living culture on earth. and aboriginal philosophy and art and the So how do you know this country Australia, artist who gave rise to Mind Map. Which are being settled for 220 years. Like I said the definitely it will help you with memory. The Australian culture is been dated back from problems you mentioned like forgetting a day 60,000+ years. So the longest living cultural forgetting where are you parked your car on earth, it’s no accident, and being there. It’s nearly everybody who drives the car forgets because we live in the old ways, with humility, where they put it. They actually forget where respect, and care. And it’s about what they put it is a three ton thing! It’s theirs Aboriginal people are saying, we are all in a they drove it they parked it they turn the key journey together you know, there’s millions off they close the door three times and they thousands of aboriginal people all over. All forgot. So the problem is that you mention is over the country and such but you know we a universal problem. And much of it may not are pretty much at a rite of passage. You be connected with concussion at all. It’s just know it’s about responsibility and obligation. normal and the reason why is that the brain Responsibility and obligation to the people focuses on the thinking and you got is great that we come in contact with. The land, the thoughts and do you know if you’re going just obligation to care for the land. That’s what we see some friends. In a restaurant, in a sports see. centre and you drive near it and the different places you have to go to park. When you are Part II of this interview can be parking it, your brain is filled not with the car , read in the next issue: it is filled with a mate you going to see the food are you going to eat the things you’re going to do see you don’t see the car at all. Volume 11 - Issue 1 Which is why people forget it because the brain is saying that is not as interesting as 46 SYNAPSIA MAGAZINE VOLUME 10 - ISSUE 1 From the archives by Julian Simpole Raymond Keene OBE. sychologist Howard Gardner leads this edition with enthralling observations Pabout the nature of human intelligence. He explains his early dissatisfaction with the standard teaching on his subject, and de-scribes the circumstances that led to his decision to challenge much of this ‘received wisdom’. The result was Dr. Gardner’s own controversial theory, detailed in these pages. Games are much to the fore this month, and that is in keeping with Brain Club ideals since games develop faculties beyond the immediate demands of the games themselves. Julian Simpole It was the Victorians who recognised that game-playing had spin-off benefits, seeing that the enthusiasm generated by involvement in rule-observing fun activities Forward by Raymond Keene OBE led to improved performance in other, related fields. t the online relaunch of Synapsia it is worth recalling how prophetic and cutting edge had A glance at the interview with chess prodigy Abeen our stance in the in print volumes from Luke McShane shows that he regards the 1990s. chess (and tennis) as fun. This being so, he is probably able to concentrate on other A great example of Synapsia’s prescience was the subjects for periods longer than ‘usual’ for an Editorial by Julian Simpole from Autumn 1992. The eight-year-old. His cognitive skills, particularly first ever world Championship in any thinking sport his understanding of logic and problem- between a human and a computer had just finished solving, are also likely to be enhanced by and this battle between Dr. Marion Tinsley and The devotion to his chosen game. Chinook Draughts program was to pave the way for the most watched contests ever on the internet : the It is on this basis that chess has occasionally Kasparov v Deep Blue chess matches. found its way onto school timetables as an option. Although puritanical undertows still Julian also predicted the educational role to be played drag at the idea of pastimes as viable aids to by chess. Indeed now chess has been accepted as learning - ‘it ain’t doing good unless it hurts’ part of the academic curriculum in countries as - the overall worth of games as vehicles for diverse as Spain, Israel,Armenia ,as well as some intellectual growth is being rediscovered by schools in The UK. educationalists*. Along with the oriental game of GO, also mentioned World Draughts Championship sponsors in Julian’s prognostications, it is now becoming Silicon Graphics have therefore done more for increasingly accepted that such Mind Sports humanity than fund a unique advance in the encourage logical and analytical thinking, that they application of artificial intelligence! Champion help students with Maths and finally, that they foster Marion Tinsley eventually prevailed over an all important sense of self worth! Chinook, the computer program developed by SYNAPSIA MAGAZINE VOLUME 10 - ISSUE 1 SYNAPSIA MAGAZINE VOLUME 10 - ISSUE 1 47 From the archives the Al experts from Canada, but the outcome Mexico that lives by Skinner’s precepts, follow was decided only on the last day of the match. Ken Blanchard’s article. The news that NASA has launched a Animal Intelligence informs us of the comprehensive search for intelligence beyond extraordinary faculties possessed by our planet is truly historic. Read Intelligence creatures that tend to be viewed as ‘lowly’. In About Intelligence with keen anticipation of the case of the ant, man discovers once again the moment when we might hear from ET. that he can learn from nature. Brian Timmins has provided us with an Brian Lee’s Quote of the Quarter is thought- absorbing history of Go, and James Lee has provoking, as is Lorraine Gill’s ex-position of taken over much of the Brain Club news her abstract painting Night Owl, the work that section with his account of the Second Annual embellished the cover of our previous edition. Conference held at the University of Durham. Enjoyment and the acquisition of knowledge The Brain Club Doctor is currently formulating were evidently in perfect accord during that a theory about calories, and will expound on weekend. this and other dietary matters next quarter. He will also contribute a review of the best- Amazing Memory Stories details the lives seller Dine Out and Lose Weight by Michael of two past prodigies, and the ex-ample of Montignac, which is involved with these George Bidder leads us to think that we can issues. ‘train to do the same’! Lana Israel relates the story of her re-cent exciting tour around Britain promoting her video Get Ahead, and something of the breathless nature of the visit comes through in her conversational style. It is good to see that readers are responding to my request for their Top Ten book lists, and in this issue Diane Carter reveals her ten favourite books. We welcome more lists, so please keep sending them in. New member David Bluck was so taken with Use Your Head that he has written a piece about how the book helped him to study and improve the quality of his life. Read Head Start to find out exactly how he turned Tony Buzan’s teaching into practical success. Russ Burns has sent in five poems, including the metaphysical reflection chosen for this edition. Dash to your pens and submit the results of your lucubrations! Details of The Times/Brain Trust national school chess teams championship and Ray Keene’s Check Mate precede Managing Your Brain, the conclusion to Dr. Blanchard’s lead feature in the previous Synapsia. This wide- ranging dissertation opens by extolling the achievements of behaviourist B. F. Skinner. Scenes of Los Horcones, the community in cartoon by: Pecub 48 SYNAPSIA MAGAZINE VOLUME 10 - ISSUE 1 Who is the Greatest Thinker of All Time? of mankind. As early humans faced new environmental challenges, they evolved larger and more complex brains with their bigger bodies. Large, complex brains can then process and store more information. This was advantageous to humans in their social interactions and encounters with unfamiliar habitats. The modern human brain is the largest and most complex of any living primate, so as to be adaptable and to engage in higher levels of thinking in the new world. Eric Cheong: Editor of Brain Capital. Reference: Falk, D., et al. (2012). Metopic suture of Taung ho is the greater thinker of all time? (Australopithecus africanus) and its implications for hominin brain evolution. Gurus and legendary thinkers of the past like Leonardo da Vinci, Aristotle, Sosipatra of However despite our newest brain model, I profess WEphesus, Queen Elizabeth I, Galileo or Socrates may come to that we have not upgraded our operating “Thinking your mind immediately. Software”. In order to become the productive innovators and problem solvers this world requires, we will have to Some may feel that contemporary thinkers like Albert upgrade our thinking. We will have to sharpen our skills in Einstein, Maria Montessori, Stephen Hawking, Steve Jobs or communication, and become better at discerning fact from perhaps Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page are not opinion. only smart, but their ideas and contributions have impacted millions of people in our present lifetime. They have also How to do this? We have to probe further into our thinking, generated huge wealth for themselves. to be aware of what we are thinking and to understand our thought processes well. To develop a metacognitive mindset, Does this mean the contemporary group of thinkers are we can begin by asking questions. According to Leonardo better than those in the past? da Vinci, we should always remain curious in everything (curiosità) so that our brain has a strong desire to learn and If I need to stake my claim on this, I dare say the improve continuously. By asking the right questions, we can contemporary group of thinkers has a competitive edge make good value judgement and better decisions, thereby because we are equipped with the newest brain model than improving our life outcomes at work, in schools and in our fore fathers centuries ago. Scientific research has shown families for the better. that the brain has actually evolved throughout the history SYNAPSIACONTEMPORARY MAGAZINE MAGAZINE VOLUME MONTH 10 - ISSUE 20XX 1 49 Our world has changed dramatically over the years, so ABOUT THE AUTHOR: should our thinking: in the way we think and how we think need to change correspondingly. To better engage and ERIC CHEONG is the editor of Brain Capital magazine adapt ourselves in the new world, I will encourage you to published by the Brain Capital Group Pte Ltd. He is an spend a brief moment to think about how to manage your accredited Master Trainer with ThinkBuzan in UK, certified knowledge manager – how to input new content, how to use in Prof Tony Buzan’s techniques in Mind Mapping®, Memory, tools to filter appropriate information and how to learn new Speed Reading and the iMindMap software. He also holds techniques to think critically. Once you have developed your the Advanced Certificate in Training and Assessment (ACTA) Brain Capital, you will be ready to “reboot” your brain with the for the Trainer, Developer and Assessor accreditations latest version of your operating software - Thinking 2.0. under the Singapore Work Development Authority. Eric currently runs his own company Esterisk Consulting Group, As you start to build and enrich your Brain Capital, you will and is also the Senior Consultant with Buzan Asia and Brain begin to feel differently and think differently in the way you Capital Group. He has more than 14 years’ experience in perceive things and conceive ideas. management and corporate training. So who is the greater thinker? If you upgrade your Thinking For more information, e-mail him at [email protected] or Software, you could possibly become the next greater find out more about him at http://thinkbuzan.com/training/ thinker. global-instructors/ 50 SYNAPSIA MAGAZINE VOLUME 10 - ISSUE 1 Dr Manahel Thabet Creates Mental Power History by Raymond Keene OBE r Manahel Thabet, Brain Trust Charity Brain of the Year for 2015/2016, and DFounder of The Gifted Academy, has created intellectual history and broken amazing new ground in the annals of Mental World Records. At Dar Al-Hekma, House of Wisdom, University in Jeddah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Dr Thabet has taught 1307 Female students and faculty how to Mind Map in just thirty minutes. In a further two hours, in an epic feat of physical endurance and focused mental concentration, Dr Thabet scrutinised and corrected all 1307 Mind Maps. In recognition of her unique achievement, The Guinness Book of World Records fast tracked her Certificate as the new world record holder in just two days, whereas the normal time frame for verification of records can last up to two weeks. In anticipation of the importance of Dr Thabet’s contribution to global education and Mental Literacy, the Editor in Chief of Guinness World Records Craig Glendy sent an advance video message of support which was broadcast to the packed auditorium. Guinness World Record Holder: Dr. Manahel Thabet Dr. Manahel Thabet being congratulated by Mr. Chris Day, General Secretary of the World Memory Sports Council SYNAPSIA MAGAZINE VOLUME 10 - ISSUE 1 51 I have been privileged to witness one of the most Dr Manahel Thabet Creates impressive ever demonstrations of mental power and Mental Power History intellectual force”. Chris Day: General Secretary of the World Memory Sports Council. Guinness World Record Holder: Dr. Manahel Thabet with her students. This important step heralds a totally new era memory capacity and, above all, to focus and increase their potential for in official recognition by Guinness of Mental Creativity and Innovation. World Records. Dr Thabet’s world record breaking triumph was supervised, as Official A further video message of support was Guinness representative and Invigilator, by Senior UK Mind Sports transmitted by Inventor of Mind Maps Administrator, Chris Day. Chris, General Secretary of the World Memory in person, Professor Tony Buzan, from Sports Council and Director of The Guild of Mind Sports Arbiters, said: Singapore, where he has been engaged for a series of high level lectures. Mind Maps are a “I have been privileged to witness one of the most impressive ever revolutionary technique, using images, colour, demonstrations of mental power and intellectual force. I congratulate Dr key words, and branches, which mirror the Thabet on her focus, eloquence, talent for teaching, and her overall gift of structure of the human brain. The Mind Map genius. I look forward to further original and mould-shattering successes has helped millions of people across the world from her fertile Brain.” to significantly enhance their learning power, 52 SYNAPSIA MAGAZINE VOLUME 10 - ISSUE 1 from chasing cats) is that she couldn’t resist our bed and the very soft eider down quilt on it. It was not unusual to come home after work and find a “Molly nest” on the bed clearly showing a big, perfectly formed, warm hollow in the quilt. The culprit was very easy to find as the nest indentation matched Molly’s body to the inch. When questioning Molly, the guilt on her face was most amusing - she knew we knew. Despite chastising Molly over sleeping on the bed, she continued to do so for a long time. Even closing the bedroom door was a waste of time, as she watched us open doors and taught herself how to do it. We were most curious to see how she went about this little “caper”, so we installed a video camera in the bedroom before we left for work, to record her in the act. Petrina Kasperski What we found was priceless. As the car was leaving the driveway we noticed Molly The Art of Misdirection looking carefully outside the bedroom window by Petrina Kasperski tracking our progress. She even craned her neck to make sure she could keep eye contact with us as the car left the driveway and started driving down the street. When the ur dog Molly was the unwanted and unexpected product of a union car was out of view, she ran to the back of the between a local farmer’s Maremma sheep dog, who was meant house to the large sliding doors, so she could Oto be guarding his sheep, but instead broke into the kennel of his see us drive up the street behind the house prize Doberman. The result of this union was six beautiful and unique just to make sure we had gone. Maremma/Doberman cross puppies, now destined for a pet shop. The videotape showed Molly coming back to Molly was one of these puppies. As a young puppy she was very difficult to train and failed puppy school quite spectacularly. She made it quite clear to the trainer that learning a trick, like rolling over, was not only beneath her, but wasting her precious time. I tried to explain to the trainer that Molly isn’t stupid, she needs to see the reasoning behind the request – and in this case, there is no reason! It is fair to say that was our last day of school. By her actions and witnessing how she would look at an object or a task and work out what was required, we knew she was very intelligent dog, with a very strong will. She has given us many hours of joy and companionship over the years, but one incident in particular made us laugh and demonstrated just how intelligent she is. We call it Molly’s Art of Misdirection”. Molly was taught from early age that she was not allowed to sit on any furniture inside the house, except for a special couch that is hers alone. Molly adhered to these rules very well as she knew her place in our pack. While Molly is very well behaved, however, but her one weakness (apart Molly at Brighton Beach, South Australia SYNAPSIA MAGAZINE VOLUME 10 - ISSUE 1 53 Molly, the artful dodger. the bedroom, standing still for 10 seconds, The videotape revealed all, and it gave us great delight in having it listening to make sure we hadn’t come back, confirmed how intelligent Molly is – now…. then satisfied that the coast was clear, proceeded to jump very elegantly onto the I just need to find that trainer! bed, where she would make three or four circles before gently folding down into the nice soft quilt, where she slept for hours. When she could hear the car coming home and the sound the garage door opening, she quickly got off the bed and left the bedroom. But the pure genius was still to come in her art of misdirection. Instead of greeting us at the door, coming from the left, which would indicate she was coming from the bedroom, she walked past the front door to the back of the house in the opposite direction from the bedroom, so that when we open the door she would be coming to greet us from a direction that indicated she was no-where near the bedroom - the “locus in quo”. Somehow she was able to determine that if she came from a different direction it would miss direct us into thinking it was not her imprint on the bed. Petrina & Molly on their daily walk. 54 SYNAPSIA MAGAZINE VOLUME 10 - ISSUE 1 We Love the Weather Society by Tony Buzan & Marek Kasperski hat I have found upsetting, even infuriating, when I see people You have a minimum of 9 major options to complaining about the weather. live in a different place in our sort of system. W Consider the following options, and make No matter what the weather is, there are always complaints both from your decision when you have examined the the general public and the media weather forecasters. If the temperature weather of each planet. goes below 15 degrees, its considered cold and cold is bad! 1. Mercury: The weather on Mercury If it is warm then warm is not precise enough and too vague. When it’s will be very inviting. On one side of Mercury either cold or warm, people complain about there being not enough heat the temperature will be 1000 degrees C or sunshine. There is a global complaint about the absence of heat or sun and contains not only no oxygen but no air – not enough “holiday” weather. of any sort. Mercury has no atmosphere. The delight of no storms and the delight of As soon as it is sunny, it’s too hot, it’s too sweaty, it causes sunburn, and instantaneously of reducing you to a teaspoon it helps bring about decertification of plant-friendly weather and predicts of ash in a millisecond. On the other side of the planet will become a dune planet. Mercury, it never faces the sun, facing only the depths of the Universe. The temperature When it snows it is considered to be too cold, too dangerous, causes will be below -150 degrees C and similarly to slipping and breaking of bones, and destroying all the transportation the other side has no atmosphere. You will be systems; bikes, cars, buses, trains, and planes. When snow lands it asphyxiated crystalised instantaneously. quickly makes slush and quickly makes everything dangerous and ugly. 2. Venus: Venus is named after the When it does not rain, it makes the ground and the plants dehydrated, beautiful goddess of beauty, Venus and is and ruins crops and flowers. When it does rain, it is horrible, unpleasant, known as the twin of earth. The planet is slippery, and slows everything down. It also causes floods and destroys considered another “pearl” planet. When you homes and crops. land on Venus to explore the weather you’ll discover that the atmosphere of Venus is In many of these situations people’s postures are hunched, bent, tense, incredibly thick, is solid cloud to a depth of 10 and stressed. miles completely blocking out the sun, and is composed of sulphuric acid and nitrous acid When there are no winds, people complain that there is no variety of of which all the Clouds are composed. The air currents on the other hand, breezes causes stiffness and pain in the winds of Venus are comparatively light in our neck, and general overall stress. Winds of over 30-40mph are considered solar system, blowing between 100mph and dangerous and destructive and make life dangerous outside. 500mph constantly. There are no plants or life forms on Venus and no oxygen other than WE HATE THE WEATHER!! that contained in acids and carbon. SYNAPSIA MAGAZINE VOLUME 10 - ISSUE 1 55 3. Earth: (to be considered later after its winds are in the range of 1,000mph. Being even further away from exploring the others). the sun, Uranus would be even colder and darker than its previous giant planets. 4. Mars: A small planet with a very thin atmosphere, and winds that blow consistently 8. Neptune: The fourth giant planet is named after Neptune, the God carrying Mars’ red sand at rates of 80- of the oceans. As far as we now know, Neptune has no oceans or water, 110mph. Again, Mars has no evidence of life only (probably) oceans of acid. Giant acid baths. Like Jupiter, Saturn, in fauna, flora or microbes. The summers and Uranus, Neptune has deep atmospheres of acid clouds and also has of Mars reach a maximum temperature, hurricanes of over 1,000mph. The Sun is simply another one of a million occasionally; of 15 degrees C, and plummet, stars in our sky. through Springs, Autumns to Winter of below -100 degrees C. 1 billion miles away from 9. Pluto: Pluto, recently demoted from a status of planet-hood, was the sun, you will see the sun when you are restricted to being a “dwarf planet” and therefore a planet, simply a dwarf on Mars, as a star. Mars is also a planet with one! This year Pluto was visited by NASA’s probe and discovered that very little gravity, which means that you will it was bigger then we had thought and it had beautiful mountains and find it very difficult to perambulate. valleys. However, Pluto is too tiny to have gravity or any atmosphere and is so cold it is near the Absolute Zero, 273 degrees C. If you were placed 5. Jupiter: Jupiter is the giant of giants, on the surface, you would immediately explode and be reduced into named after the king of Gods and is by far the molecules, each near the temperature of zero. biggest planet in our solar system. Jupiter is very different to the other planets you have 10. The asteroids: In the solar system you could visit any one of the explored. To reach the surface of the planet, hundreds of thousands of asteroids, each one harboring no atmosphere you would have to travel a few hundred with no gravity, and depending to their closeness to the Sun, their miles through the atmosphere of sulphuric temperatures will either incinerate you or crystalize you. and hydrochloric acids, at a temperature of below 200 degrees C. The many mile thick 11. The Earth: Now think about it. atmosphere would completely block out all light from the sun, so you would be in a frozen ow is it that people hate the weather no matter what the weather hell and you would be a frozen mummy. will be? It seems that this is a classic example of “glass half Were you able to land on the surface, you Hempty”. Pessimists are glass half empty people and optimists are would have to travel through liquid nitrogen glass half full people. In fact, the word OPTIMISTIC come from the Latin and reach a core of frozen molecules and word “optima”, meaning the best outcome or belief in the greatest good. elements. The winds on Jupiter would make those of Venus and Mars seem wimpish. Here are some tips to turn you into a glass half full person: They would travel at 1,000mph ongoing. The You are not perfect, so don’t be hard on yourself, tornadoes in the atmosphere of Jupiter would Smile, be the size of a planet. Connect with nature, Forgive yourself, 6. Saturn: The beautiful giant planet Exercise, beautifully surrounded by exquisite rings. The Believe you will be successful, smaller giant relation of Jupiter is similar in Remind yourself that you are blessed, that its atmosphere is 100’s of miles deep Sing, and is composed of acids. Saturn also has Meditate. incredibly strong winds, even faster than Jupiter, reaching over 1,200mph. Saturn Ultimately, every morning when we wake, we can decide to have a “glass is even further away from the sun and is half full day”. Be a “glass half full” person and therefore be a member of therefore even colder and darker. No life the... forms of our type would be possible. None of your senses could be used, because for a Nano second, they would all be deadened. WE LOVE THE WEATHER SOCIETY 7. Uranus: The third giant planet has similar qualities of its giant relations. As with the others, its atmosphere is acidic and 56 SYNAPSIA MAGAZINE VOLUME 10 - ISSUE 1 Crossword by Marek Kasperski For a printable or online version of this puzzle, please visit synapsia.net/puzzles.html. Select “Brain Trust Crossword Puzzle Volume 10-1 Synapsia Crossword Volume 10 Number 1 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 A D AcrossAcross Down Down 1. Furnish evidence 2. Based on good judgment 5. On with exceptional ability 3. Above average ability 1. Furnish evidence6. Very unpleasant 4. Protest 2. Based on good judgment 5. One with exceptional8. Show by ability reasoning 7. Century segment3. Above average ability 9. Raymond Keene 11. Find out for sure 6. Very unpleasant10. Blissful spot 15. Myopic Mr 4. Protest 8. Show by reasoning12. A metal-bearing mineral 17. One of seven deadly7. Century sins segment 9. Raymond 13.KeeneDigs OBE 11. Find out for sure 14. Professor Tony Buzan 10. Blissful spot16. Sweets and chocolate 15. Myopic Mr... 12. A metal-bearing18. Beurling mineral or Bishop 17. One of the 7 deadly sins 19. Toy wind instrument 13. Digs 14. Professor Tony Buzan The answers can be found in 16. Sweets & Chocolate the next issue, or online at 18. Beurling or Bishop synapsia.net/crossword10-1 19. Toy wind instrument.