Question 1. Tell us about yourself. What drove you to the concepts of Mind Mapping? Who inspired you to do this?

When I was studying at university I found myself suffering from information overload. My black and white linear notes written down assiduously during the lecture courses were becoming monotonous and the entire process of memorising those notes was demotivating and boring. I decided to consult the university library and asked where was the section on how to use the brain. The librarian directed me to the medical section! I said I did not want a book about brain illnesses and diseases but a manual on how to make the most of my brain. Such a book did not exist. Every electrical appliance or piece of machinery comes complete with an operational manual. However the human brain, the most complex organism in the known universe had no such manual. I therefore decided to write it myself and in that process Mind Maps were born. I realised that black and white was literally a monotone, the root of monotonous ie boring and sleep inducing. The more I looked at it I realised that the student libraries of our major universities had become giant dormitories for tired, exhausted and sleeping brains.

Question 2. Do you apply the techniques of Mind Mapping, speed reading and boosting memory to yourself?

Yes of course I do. Once I had realised that there are structures in nature, natural architecture, which mirror our patterns of thought generation in our brains, then I had unlocked the key to the brain manual I had so powerfully both visualised and desired. Once I had made the breakthrough to understanding the workings of the human brain, then I had discovered the tools including Mind Mapping, speed reading and the forgotten secrets of memory enhancement, boosting and power which I use myself in my global endeavours and which I also promote to millions of eager human beings across the planet who are hungering and thirsting after the knowledge which will supercharge their thinking apparatus, to use their heads in the way that should be intended. Together the techniques I discovered and the principles of Mind Mapping, speed reading and Memory form the triple pillars of Mental Literacy, the creed which I promulgate around the globe.

Question 3. You often say: "Your brain is like a sleeping giant". What do you mean by that?

If you look at the history of the human race certain individuals stand out. They are the universally acknowledged geniuses, seemingly a race of mental Giants set apart from the common ranks of humanity. They include Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, the philosophers Averroes , Confucius, Aristotle and Avicenna, Queen Elizabeth the First, Shakespeare, Newton, Leonardo da Vinci , Marie Curie, Bill Gates and Einstein, to name but a few. We might enquire how this exclusive club of titanic personalities was established. Who elected them. Why are they in the club and others are not? Is the rest of humanity simply made of inferior material to these supermen and women? Well I began to query who decides whom is intelligent and I realised that anyone, by unlocking the true potential of their own brains, by using the previously undisclosed secrets of mental literacy, can aspire to awakening their brains and joining the genius club. There is no automatic bar or impediment to entry. Learn the global mental literacy techniques, apply them as I and millions of others do, and your entry door to the awakened brain fraternity stands wide open.

Question 4. What are the basics of Mind Mapping? and what are the techniques one adopts to do that?

Mind Mapping mirrors natural architecture and indeed reflects the infinitely branching synapses of the physical brain itself. The principles of mental literacy which I worked out as a student require colour, they demand association and they revel in the creation and proliferation of ideas. Mind maps satisfy all these functions. The key principle is to select an idea, concept or plan as your main topic. It can be your vacation, recalling past holidays, or planning those to come. It can centre on your finances, or an academic subject. There is no limit or constraint whatsoever on your selection of a theme. Now take a sheet of paper and arm yourself with coloured pens or pencils. In the centre of this page of paper, preferably landscape A3 but it can be any piece of paper, even a scrap, draw a colour image of your chief topic. For example for a holiday it might be a swimming pool or Palm tree. Now draw radiating branches in different colours emanating from that central image to create a universe of notes and ideas.

Question 5. What are the benefits associated with Mind Mapping?

The rules of Mind Mapping demand only one key word per branch and as each branch proliferates from the central image and grows fresh associated branches, thinner as you move away from the centre, you will find that a host and wealth of creative, memorable and innovative thoughts flood onto your page. Your page becomes a reflection of the teeming flashes of brilliance in your mind, now translated into blossoming and burgeoning visual form. Your brain is stimulated, the sleeping giant awakes and the floodgates of creativity open as if by a miracle before you. You can enhance the recall power of your Mind Map by adding coloured images. Memory is not a dry as dust exercise, true and effective recall of facts you wish to remember and use, depends on the dramatic and imaginative use of image and colour- become your own artist. Etch your own scientific insights onto your page. The Mind Map records notes, the Mind Map generates strategies, the Mind Map reflects the workings of your own mind, now made manifest for you to see and recapture at a glance.

Question 6. What is speed reading? How can anyone increase the speed of reading? Does it have an impact on the quality of how well one understands/grasps the messages?

Speed reading is the ability to absorb and understand large quantities of text at greater reaction times than the human average, which is several hundred words per minute. Low hundreds I might add. It is very easy in fact to significantly increase your reading speed, at first into the high hundreds, then the first thousand and finally multiples of a thousand words per minute, without sacrificing comprehension. The three principles to bear in mind are as follows. Firstly use a pointer when you read, such as a pen or pencil. By running the pointer along the text forwards as you read you focus on your place and avoid the backsliding and repeated reading of passages which is the 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 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 between the printed page and the online page. Exactly the same principles apply. Use a pointer. Be aware of the physical bandwidths of your eyes and absorb not single words but large chunks of text. In fact there can be advantages of speed in reading online rather than from the printed page. One plus is that there is no danger of your book page suddenly curling up or the book shutting inconveniently and thus losing your place. So much time can be wasted reading a long book when you mislay your place and end up reading text which frustratingly begins to become familiar, because you have read it before. A further advantage of reading online over the fixed and printed page is that in many cases you will have the option of altering the size of the onscreen print to make it simpler to digest. A simple example is that very small onscreen print can be enlarged to a more readable size at the mere touch of a keypad.

Question 8. What are the techniques one can use to boost memory? Is it a continuous effort or one-time and fixed for all time?

Any and every study of memory will help , by gaining insights into the principles of memory, such as the recall graph after learning, knowing what is meant by the primacy and recency effects and the von Restorff case. Thus in a sequence it is important to realise that the first and last items, for example in a public speech, are more likely to be remembered. As is an item of peak and unusual interest, such as the sudden interpolation of a Tyrannosaurus Rex in an otherwise mundane catalogue of accounting figures. Of course it is better to decide on a policy of continuous review, both of the principles of memory, to which we must add association and colour, as well as what is the subject to be remembered. Experience shows, for example, that university students achieve significantly greater examination success when they Mind Map their academic subjects in bright and memorable colours and then pin them up in their rooms where they are available for continuous review and revision.

Question 9. What new things can we hope to hear and learn from you in the coming years?

My latest global campaign is to intensify the mental literacy project which is designed to reveal in dramatic and colourful form to billions of people around the planet what dormant resources of the mind are open to them. Thus students gather at my worldwide public lecture tours brainwashed by uninspired, rigid and conventional teaching into erroneous and reductive beliefs about themselves and their so called limitations, and convinced that they are hopeless at art. By insisting that they all draw beautiful Mind Maps on the spot, the most beautiful and colourful they can, the realisation dawns that they can be artists, that they can be scientists. The embryonic qualities, the dormant resources of their brains become suddenly capable of stunning realisation. Of course this is a metaphor to show that the brain is infinitely capable of achieving anything it wishes to and brings us right back to my earlier point about the brain being a sleeping giant. My global mission is to awaken the entire worldwide race of sleeping Giants. To further this end I am preparing a whole sequence of new books including my learning epic Studis, my explanation of the roots of Memory, The Equation and my latest venture, The Report Card on the Human Race. Watch this space. Also we celebrate this year our Brain of the Year 2015, and of course the twenty fifth anniversary of the foundation of both Synapsia and the Brain Trust itself. Amongst major activities later this year is also the 24th World Memory Championship set for China this December.

Question 10. From a larger perspective, how well can each of the concepts – Mind Mapping, speed

reading, boosting memory – be applied to a workplace, for the benefit of both the employee

and the employer? Can these, when applied, lead to boost of employee productivity, corporate bottomlines and ultimately national productivity?

To me it is self evident that the adoption and inculcation of all the related and associated principles of global mental literacy must ineluctably bring about serious benefits in every sphere of human activity, be it business, corporate, government, military, social or education. If those at the helm have a perfect comprehension of the concepts of Mind Mapping, speed reading and memory, and these mental virtues and strengths are reflected and replicated within and by their support teams, it is inevitable that major benefits and advantages wil accrue. A harmonious and felicitous combination of the mental virtues throughout any organisation or indeed nation, will lead to greater efficiency, speed of execution of decisions, designs and plans as well as coordination between all functioning elements of that organisation. Initiatives and details will be remembered, not overlooked or forgotten and the communality of shared mentally literate templates will ensure that corporate, national and indeed global hand and eye, body and mind, understand each other perfectly and function as one.