SIMPLY GENIUS!

Most readers will be familiar with Ervin as a systems philosopher, holistic thinker and founder of the Club of Budapest. In this book of autobiographical episodes, readers will learn a great deal more about his background and especially about his earlier career as a concert pianist. He was taught by his mother and made his debut the age of nine. At that stage he didn't know how to read a score, but could play a piece after listening to his mother play it. He writes about living himself into the music, which was also critical during his performances. He was able to absorb the music through his whole being. He remembers how, on his 10th birthday, his father came home with a recording of Beethoven's Apassionata sonata by Wilhelm Backhaus. He wanted to play it, but his mother said it was a piece for grown-ups, but she eventually agreed to teach him and he was able to learn the first movement in a few days. His mother then took him to Professor Arnold Skekely of the Liszt Academy of Music who listened to him playing the piece and remarked at the end 'simply genius!' - hence the title of the book, which has been a motto for Ervin's life every time he has faced the prospect of some improbable undertaking. Eleven years later, he met the great man himself and asked him to play the first movement, which he duly did.

Ervin gives vivid descriptions of his life during the war and the horrendous conditions that people had to endure. His parents were worried about his safety, said one point it was agreed that another family would be paid to adopt him. This ordeal only lasted a month before he was able to come back home, but here he witnessed some heartrending episodes, especially a young wife raped by soldiers and her husband subsequently committing suicide by jumping out of a fourth floor window. An important early influence on his life was his uncle Pippa, who encouraged his young mind on long walks. He himself recognised the miracle of existence and felt that people should search out their true mission in life.

He describes his experiences with various piano competitions, eventually winning a major one in Geneva at the age of 15 and then going to spend some time in Paris with his mother. Here, he lived in an aristocratic department and had his first experiences of playing with an orchestra (he had played the Emperor Concerto during the finals of the Geneva competition.) Eventually, they receive an invitation to New York, where he makes another triumphant debut that really launches his concert career. However, he also describes the inner struggles he went through and his early experiences of life in the wider world. Marriage and the family eventually bring him to a turning point, prompted also by losing his focus during a concert and wondering exactly which part of the movement he had already played. A Dutch publisher expresses interest in his work and he eventually decides to go to Yale as a visiting scholar. As it happened, a skiing accident gave him the time to read and write, completing a book on Husserl and Whitehead.

From Yale he goes to Princeton and then to an assignment at the UN in New York. He is able to pursue his research for the Club of Rome and this leads to the creation of the Club of Budapest, and, at a later stage the Giordano Bruno GlobalShift University. He explains that these institutions are designed to compensate the left hemisphere dominance of our culture with some right hemisphere emphasis. The purpose is well expressed in a manifesto from 1996 that expresses his view that we have a choice before us, which is fundamentally a choice of consciousness and value, given our planetary interdependence. More recently, he has written extensively about the Akashic field and its implications of science and consciousness. He has been fearless in his exploration of the frontiers of knowledge in this field.

On a more personal note, he describes the restoration of his farmhouse in Tuscany, which now forms the base from which he travels out to speak all over the world. An extensive annex reproduces the Worldshift Notebook that can be found online at www.ervinlaszlo.com. This summarises much of his recent thought about the limitations of the Western outlook and the need to adopt a more holistic and spiritual perspective that can be applied to our major global challenges. It is not simply a question of finding a better deckchair on the Titanic, but rather of formulating and implementing a new worldview based on planetary consciousness and cooperation. This is the work that many of us are engaged on and to which Ervin has dedicated his virtuoso life for many years. It is a truly inspiring story.