According to Prof Michael Crawford, leading global brain nutritionist from London’s Imperial College, and President of the Institute for Brain Chemistry and Human Nutrition (with whom the Brain Trust has a long-standing alliance), the cost of mental ill health costs a staggering 120 billion pounds per annum, just in the UK, thus exceeding the cost of all other major causes of ill health combined!
Tony Buzan, who passed seven years ago, was originally motivated by the question of “who is intelligent?”. During his time at junior school, the young Tony was struck by the anomaly that one boy, who had a tremendous knowledge of nature, repeatedly failed in school tests on his favourite topic, because of an inability to express himself. Unsurprisingly, the nature expert was consigned to the bottom of the class, in spite of the fact that Tony knew that this boy’s knowledge was far superior to his own. The authorities had decided who was intelligent and who was not. Tony experienced this as grotesquely unfair, and it eventually led him to develop three beliefs.
The first was that an operations manual was needed for the human brain, not its medical functions, but the way it works. The next was that every human has a spark of genius within, but the problem was to ignite it. Tony’s third and final insight was his invention of the Mind Map, a tool for recording thoughts, plans and general creativity, which bypassed conventional academic norms. The Mind Map was predicated on radiant thinking, spreading out from a dominant central concept, utilising colour, dimension and association. The Mind Map also revealed itself as a powerful memory aid.
Tony went on to write over 140 books, translated into 40 languages, as well as lecturing around the world and making numerous TV programmes about his ideas. He was an enthusiastic player of mental games, such as chess and go, and a near-Olympic-standard rower on his favourite stretch of The Thames at Marlow, where he often sculled with Sir Steve Redgrave.
The perception that the Mind Map also promoted memory drew Tony towards the foundation of the World Memory Championship in London in 1991. This was won (for the first of eight times) by the dyslexic Dominic O Brien. Growing from just eight entrants in 1991 to over three hundred entrants, the 2018 world championship was won by a 14-year-old Chinese girl, Wei Qinrun. Both victors exemplified Tony’s belief that everyone possesses an immortal spark of genius that merely awaits the right flame to set it in motion.
Having known Tony for thirty years and written his biography, what struck me most about him was his inner child. It was clear that his own school experiences had marked him deeply and left an indelible impression. I have already remarked upon his early questioning of who decided who was intelligent or not, and throughout the rest of his life Tony repeatedly positioned himself as the headmaster of the human race. Indeed, one of his numerous unfinished books at his death was an ambitious report card on the human race, marking humanity out of 100 on such topics as the environment, education, peace, economics, race and gender relations ad infinitum. Another was an exploration into animal intelligence, a subject which constantly absorbed him. His speciality was the brain: how could insects with micro brains achieve such feats of organisation as, for example, evinced by ants and termites, or arachnids such as the Portia spider?
Unsurprisingly, Tony found himself particularly at ease with kids, and one of his triumphs was the TV series In Search of Genius, in which Tony, on camera, took a class of wild comprehensive school children and converted them over six programmes into model pupils. In contrast, at the elite end of the spectrum, Tony once received a mysterious phone call inviting him first class, no expense spared, to a desert hideout in Bahrain; sworn to secrecy, Tony was greeted by none other than Michael Jackson, who offered Tony £100,000 to teach mental literacy, mind mapping, memory and speed reading, to the megastar’s offspring.
Tony’s enduring legacy will be in those generations of readers of his books and attendees at his lectures who found unsuspected depths within themselves and were inspired to maximise what Tony frequently referred to as that sleeping giant – the human brain.
The Brain Trust (a charity founded by Tony Buzan in 1990) relaunched at the House of Lords to focus on mental health at a glittering occasion to further in its quest to raise funds to combat mental ill health, on both a national and global scale. The relaunch took place at the House of Lords on the evening of October 7th, 2024, and was attended by world-renowned banker Prince Philipp Erasmus of Liechtenstein, Princess Isabelle, Lord Rami Ranger, Prince Marek Kasperski, and Princess Petrina.
The Brain Trust’s mental health initiative has been propelled in alliance with a combination of illustrious global and national partners, including the Institute For Brain Chemistry and Human Nutrition, based at London’s Imperial College and led by Prof Michael Crawford, awardee of the Golden Chrysanthemum (check exact title) from the Emperor of Japan; The Tony Buzan Global Academy; founded 1994; The World Memory Championships (founded 1991); The Psychiatric Association of Pakistan; Bridging East and West Symposium at the Royal Society of Medicine and Combat Stress, working for the improvement of mental health amongst UK military veterans.
The Brain Trust Charity is based in the UK but numbers amongst its established supporters: Prince Philipp of Liechtenstein, Prince Marek Kasperski, formerly of Poland and now Australia, Lord Hardinge of Penshurst, Dame Joanna Lumley, Cllr Frances Stainton, Sujan Katuwal MBE, Princess Petrina Kasperski, Princess Isabelle of Liechtenstein, Prof Iqbal Afridi, former President of the Pakistan Psychiatric Association and Dr Vicente Fox, former President of the Republic of Mexico.
The Brain Trust will be seeking substantial grants and funds to further the educational ideals of its founder, Tony Buzan, and to advance his work towards creating both UK and planetary mental good health.
Read The Official Biography of Tony Buzan: The Man Who Introduced the World to Mind Maps by Raymond Keene OBE, available from Amazon and all good book stores.
