association

The Australian aborigines go on a 'walk-about' when they need fresh ideas

Our success depends for at least half on the way we can make use and gain access to our brain. For creative thinking memory is a key as new ideas (see there) seldom are entirely new, mostly they are new combinations of ideas known. For this Tony Buzan has designed the Basic Memory System. This system is based on the mnemonics techniques developed by the ancient Greeks. The techniques were based on fundamental principles that were, while being both easy and enjoyable to apply, profound in their effect on memory improvement. The major principle is that memory is an associative process; that memory works by linking things together. The Greeks discovered that these associations (e.g. 'apple' calls to mind colours, tastes, smells, etc.) or links, could be made stronger and more lasting as long as certain basic principles were applied. It is said to have been invented by a certain Simonides. When invited to recite a panegyric at the house of the nobleman Scopas. In his poem he praised the gods - reason for Scopas to pay him only half of the sum agreed upon: the other half the gods would pay him. Shortly afterwards Simonides was called from the hall. Outside he found nobody, but he had hardly passed through the gate when the hall collapsed killing all party goers. The poet then understood that he had cashed his reward from the gods. However, the story continues. The bodies were so maimed that they could not be identified. Simonides, however, remembered their places at the table and was thus able to identify all bodies. This story demonstrates the principles of mnemonics. Spaces are created in the memory (loci), which are filled with pictures (imagines) to be remembered. Once the memory is activated one walks, so to speak, through the edifice and visits all places and pictures.
This is the basic idea behind mind mapping. The mind map is, in fact, a multidimensional mnemonic, using the brain's innate function areas to to more effectively imprint information upon itself. The mind map uses the brain's unique property to self-create.
The idea is to take a large sketchbook paper, put the main idea in the middle (always visualize if possible = associative) and then draw branch-lines (cf. linear function of brain). On these lines key words are put and then these will be branched off. Thus a "map" is generated of the information available from the brain.


Certain branches may want more information, and then you can quickly see that a next time you look up your mind map. The point is to make dramatic, colourful, sensual, imaginative, and consequently unforgettable images in one's mind. Extensive projects can so be plotted and as certain branches end up on similar ideas, these can again be connected. Possibly they will prove the beginning of new mind maps.
This approach is handy in keeping check of telephone calls about a project, for essay-writing and speech preparation, meetings, etc. One whole page gives a survey of what one is supposed to be doing, where one is and what there is still to be done.
Mind mapping uses the full range of the brain's abilities, placing an image in the center of the page in order to facilitate memorisation and the creative generation of ideas, and subsequently branches out in associative networks that mirror externally the brain's internal structures. It improves the memory, instead of looking through pages filled with letters, quickly a comprehensive idea is formed of what it is all about. Time needed for preparation could be decreased to one fifth of the normal time.
The reason is that you deviate from the norm, you become an abnormal person. You use a different formula to store your information viz. your own. You are using your brain in your own way as a guarantee for personal success; we all learn in a different way. You will discover that mistakes are fascinating, they are feedback material and you will use your brains in the way they (probably) were designed in the first place: as a tool with which you must learn to learn, after which the real learning can start.