Comments on: The Amazing Stories of 6 Sudden Savants

By: Heather

Heather — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 20:07:59 +0000

I would love to be able to speak any language after just hearing samples of it.

And I would love to be able to draw people really well–the pencil sketch artist type… :D

By: PuttinTang*

PuttinTang* — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 06:33:25 +0000

To be honest,I used to have a skill that may or may not classify me as a savant. I used to feel compelled to write poetry from the age of 14 onward. While my IQ has been evaluated at approximately 80,slightly below average,I don’t know if it qulifies me. I seem to have acquired this skill during a hospitilazation in a mental health facility. I was having trouble sleeping and was diagnosed as manic depressive,or bi-polar. The doctor precribed me a drug cocktail,the names of medications elude me. Shortly after swallowing down this cocktail,I began experiencing stigmata type flashes in my head,Jesus and all(I was raised to be very religeous)and felt compelled to write,and hardly stopped filling up notebooks with short poems of a dark,but telling nature to eat or sleep. Up until about 5 years ago after going through a complete phychotic breakdown,I had that ability. Since it has gone away,to answer you question,I wish to gain my abilities back,or my need to compulsively write,so that once again,I may feel fulfilled.

By: Gabe

Gabe — Sat, 16 Jul 2011 21:38:12 +0000

I am one of those. But my CNS was a natural X not a catastrophe. Immune overcomes disfunction equals quantum progression.

The perfect mutation is Gabe.

By: A. Estabrook

A. Estabrook — Sun, 24 Oct 2010 21:09:11 +0000

Yes I have recent work that was shown in Cambridge Ma. I can also show the actual portrait I did just after the concussion and a few others just following that time. I’ll have them in an album on face book under my name Alison Estabrook. I look forward to your comments. I’d also like to inform you that I’ve had another concussion at 20 and a MVA with severe whiplash at 38. Subsequently I have had medical problems with my pituitary and adrenal systems and a diagnosis of fibromyalgia. I question if these issues are not just results of the head traumas. In fact I’ve had hallucinations since the first accident, again after the second and sleep paralysis since the whiplash. I was never vocal about these happenings as they were quite disturbing. As I learn more about brain injury I’m coming to understand how bizarre the symptoms are. I feel so fortunate I received the blessing of my artistic skill even more so now.

By: SpaceMonkeyX

SpaceMonkeyX — Sat, 23 Oct 2010 04:32:56 +0000

A. Estabrook: That is an amazing story! Thank you so much for sharing it with us.

Is there any chance you might have some of your work online? I’m sure we’d all love to see it.

By: A. Estabrook

A. Estabrook — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 23:34:20 +0000

I have just learned that I am an acquired savant. At age nine I was walking home from school in my new gogo boots. I gathered steam to slide on a long patch of ice unaware the soles of my boots were very slick. I apparently fell and blacked out. My friend helped me home, although I do not remember. I do remember crying but not why. My mother called my friends house to discover what happened. I had a large egg on the back of my head and did vomit. It was determined I had a concussion. Just about a month later I visited my grandmother. She was a live-in with a family and an adult member was an artist. He asked to do a charcoal portrait of me. I asked to watch as he worked. It took about 40 mins. I was not any different than any other 4th grade student. I enjoyed art class and colored in coloring books. I asked him if I could use his pastels and paper the next day. He agreed. I did a portrait of his father that was comparable to a professional’s. From that day forward I have had artistic skills that have come without training or effort. I have pursued art as my field of interest and also write poetry which I also have never studied.

I feel grateful for what I consider is a gift. I wish these studies were available at the time of my injury. It certainly would have made it much more understandable.

By: Greta Hoostal

Greta Hoostal — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 18:54:32 +0000

Somebody already mentioned, correctly, that a savant is a person (of any ability, generally speaking) with extensive, specialized knowledge.

A savant with a mental disability is called an idiot savant, which is not so accurate, because the person may have a somewhat higher IQ than the threshold of the level which was once called idiot, the level is no longer termed as such, and the person is smarter than you and I in one regard, but that is the standard term.

Thus, all the people above are savants, but only Patient X, Sabine, and Mr. Clemons are or were idiot savants. The rest are, outside of their savantism, of normal to above-normal-but-not-extremely-high intelligence.

By: Jeff

Jeff — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 14:21:33 +0000

Although I am otherwise normal, I have some savant ability, but I can’t control it. It usually happens as I am falling asleep. I will hear music – a song I’ve heard before during the day, and it will play back exactly as though I am listening to it on a stereo. Every word, every note of every instrument. I often wake up wondering who turned on the stereo, only to realize the music is playing in my head.

Also, if I doze off while reading a familiar book, I will often dream that I am still reading, and will read several pages ahead, only to wake up and discover that I wasn’t really reading, I was only dreaming that I was reading, but the dreams are perfectly accurate.

Oh, and I have a photographic memory for maps.

By: Richard

Richard — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 18:29:17 +0000

@Canadiana

The Webster Dictionary defines Savaent as a person of learning, especially: one with detailed knowledge in some specialized field. No mention of having to be disabled in some way.

By: Max Power

Max Power — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 16:56:01 +0000

HOLY CR@P!!! As a kid up until about the age of six or sevenm I used to be able to do the same calendar, day of the week thing as number 5 Orlando Serrell. Unlike him, I was obsessed with calendars and would create them however, while I now have zero idea how I did it, the whole knowing what day of the week it was on a given date was not done by straight memorization.

My parents used to show this ‘ability’ off to friends and stuff and my mother even took me to her child development class in college so that the professor could study this. Finally one day after I had enough of doing it I supposedly walked up to my parents and said ‘The computer is broken’ and I never did the ‘trick’ again.

Forty years later while as I said, I cannot remember exactly how I did it, I am still somewhat interested in time. When recounting a story, I usually have to put it in context of when it happened even though it may not be that important to the overall story.

Now, I want to contact this guy!