Savant Syndrome / Genius
Islands of Genius
[a rich resource on Savant Syndrome provided by the Wisconsin Medical Society]
The academy-award-winning film Rain Man brought national and international attention to the Savant Syndrome condition. But since it was first described a century ago, the phenomenon of the savant — the juxtapositions of severe mental handicap and prodigious mental ability — has remained unexplained. more...
Kim Peek (born November 11, 1951), is a savant though he is not autistic. He
has a photographic or eidetic memory and developmental disabilities,
possibly resulting from congenital brain abnormalities. He was the
inspiration for the character of Raymond Babbit, played by Dustin Hoffman,
in the movie Rain Man.
more...
Videos: See and learn more about Kim peak, here.
14-year-old Piano Jazz Prodigy
Matt Savage launched his jazz career by attempting to improve a Schubert
sonata. His piano teacher told him that the G-sharp he just played was
supposed to be a G-natural. "It sounds better my way," he protested. She
replied that only when he wrote his own music could he take liberties with a
score. Keen on taking liberties, he became a jazz composer. He released his
fifth album this year, making guest appearances on the Today show, 20/20,
and NPR.
Audio:
Matt Savage on 'Piano Jazz'
Matt Savage at Age 9
Matt's Website
Matt at Age 15-1/2
Dreaming a Discovery
One of the most famous instances of dream-discovery was that of the ring structure of Benzene. Till Kekule made the discovery, molecular structures were conceived as linear. This, however, did not explain many properties of Benzene. Kekule was trying to figure out a structure - not with much success - when the solution came to him in a dream. He described this experience to a assembly of scientists who had met to commemorate his discovery:
"...I turned my chair toward the fire place
and sank into a doze. Again the atoms were flitting before my eyes.
Smaller groups now kept modestly in the background. My mind's eye
sharpened by repeated visions of a similar sort, now distinguished
larger structures of varying forms. Long rows frequently rose
together, all in movement, winding and turning like serpents; and
see! what was that? One of the serpents seized its own tail and the
form whirled mockingly before my eyes. I came awake like a flash of
lightning. This time also I spent the remainder of the night working
out the consequences of the hypothesis." [August
Kekulé]
A Musical Genius
Compared to Mozart
At age twelve, Jay Greenberg had already written five full-length symphonies. His music teacher at the Julliard School says of Jay, "He could finish a piano sonata before our eyes in probably 25 minutes. And it would be a great piece."
How
is it possible? Jay told [CBS Correspondent Scott] Pelley that he doesn't
know where the music comes from, but it comes fully written--playing like an
orchestra in his head.
At age two he asked for a cello and drew pictures of one, though he had never seen or hear one. When his mother took him to a music store, they were shown a miniature cello. "And he just sat there. He...started playing on it," recalls his mother. "And I was like, 'How do you know how to do this?'" more...
Audio: Visit Bluejay's website and hear part of his Symphony No. 5.
Mozart
"Whence my ideas come, I know not, nor can I force them..."
"My subject enlarges itself, becomes methodized and defined, and the whole, though it be long, stands almost complete and finished in my mind, so that I can survey it, like a fine picture or a beautiful statue, at a glance. Nor do I hear in my imagination the parts successively, but I hear them, as it were, all at once. What a delight this is! All this inventing, this producing, takes place in a pleasing, lively dream." - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Poincaré - A Flash of Insight
"Many, if not most scientific insights, have come through the "a ha" of intuition. One of the best known flashes of insight is provided by Henri Poincaré. He describes how he had intensive periods of deliberate and conscious search for what he called Fuchsian functions, but had reached an impasse. He left for a geologic excursion, forgetting his mathematical work. As he stepped into a bus, the solution came to him in a flash. He says: "Without anything in my former thoughts seemingly to have paved the way for it ..." --full comprehension in a single moment! [Kendall Jouryan]
Einstein's 'Optical Delusion'
Einstein remarked, "A human being is part of the whole, called by
us 'universe,' a part limited in time and space. He experiences his
thoughts and feelings as something separate from the rest--a kind of
optical delusion of his consciousness."
While in the conservative view human communication and interaction
is [sic] limited to our sensory channels,..leading psychologists,
psychiatrists and consciousness researchers are rediscovering what
Einstein realized and ancient cultures have always known: that we
are linked by more subtle and encompassing connections as well. In
current scientific literature these connections are called
transpersonal.
[ Ervin
Laszlo]