Becoming a Genius From a Blow to the Head There are things which occur which are either extremely hard to explain or can’t be explained it all. One of these events happened to somebody I knew. He was an attorney for the state who specialized in defending mentally ill people during hearings. When a hearing is conducted in a courtroom to decide if a person should be released from a mental institution, an attorney represents them. One day this man was walking on the hospital grounds. The building he was walking next to had extremely heavy steel cable type screens on the windows. As he walked on the sidewalk one of the heavy screens fell and hit him in the head and almost killed him. As he was being taken away to an emergency room, he began talking in several different languages, none of which he had ever learned. This persisted for days while he was recovering and then the ability just vanished. People who knew some of these languages were amazed because he acted like a person who understood what he was saying and indeed it made sense. Every once in a while, we hear a story about somebody who had a head trauma of some type which changed their lives. One man who was swimming came out for a while and then decided he would go back in. When he jumped into the pool, he banged his head severely on the side of the pool. This bump was to change his life forever. As he was recovering he started to realize something had changed and went over to a piano and began to play. He had turned into a piano virtuoso and yet the man had never had any music lessons or played any instruments in his life. The medical profession has classified him as having genius level musical talent. Another man had been in a horrific auto accident. No doubt banged his head badly as he did with the rest of his body. He was in a coma for about four months and when he woke up, he claims he felt like a different person. Before the accident he had been much more self-centered, without a lot of regard for other people and said it was because he just didn’t care about anybody else. All that changed when he woke up. He took up painting and was able to paint incredible scenes and portraits without ever having lessons in his life and had never had this type of talent before. Somehow his brain had been altered. This rare condition of acquiring talent from an injury is known as atypical acquired savant syndrome, it is very rare. Another man had received a severe head trauma and was wheelchair-bound for nineteen years. He had suffered a stroke. After the stroke he was able to walk eventually. He then realized he had acquired the ability to draw incredible digital images. He developed software and was able to use it to sell his images online. A famous gaming company got in contact with him and now they use him once in a while to help design some of the games. One lady who had severe head trauma decided to change her profession. She had been a successful doctor. She gave all that up and went into the field of art and is said to have created some incredible paintings. She was diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia and even though she had gained special talents the disease was progressive and it finally killed her in the end. She had become very interested in the composer Ravel. This was strange because Ravel also had experienced head trauma and some experts think it might have led to his ability to compose. Could it be at some of the geniuses throughout history got that way because they had a severe head injury at one time? How would we ever know unless someone wrote about it? Also, might the future bring a way to make all of us geniuses by unlocking something in our brains now that we know it can happen? One person who suffered a traumatic injury to their brain has become a mathematical genius. When asked what he saw while looking at the trees around him he claimed he clearly saw the Pythagorean theorem. He suffered brain injury when coming out of a gym. He was brutally attacked by thieves. A ten-year-old boy was hit by a base ball during a game. He got hit in the head. He had fallen down but got up and continued the game. When he got home, he noticed he had acquired a strange new ability. People could give him a date and he would immediately know what day of the week it fell on. This is not all, he was able to tell you the weather on the date in question. He also gained the memory which was attuned to his whereabouts on any given day and what he was doing. This only worked four days after his accident and not before. After a child which was a toddler had a brain injury, the child began to create incredible sculptures and works of art and became famous. His name is Alonzo Clemons. He not only became prolific in sculpting but also in painting and his name is known in every art circle around the world. What can scientists learn from the fact people who have had traumatic brain injury become savants in an area such as math, art, chemistry and any others? How many countries today are looking into this phenomenon and what country leads the world in research into this? One of the sad things about brain injury causing savant-like abilities is it could decrease mental capacity in other areas. Some people with autism have become savants. Their disabilities can be so bad, they cannot even feed themselves and yet they are complete geniuses in some field. One autistic mathematician in India was an incredible genius but didn’t even have the ability to feed himself. His solutions to some of the most complex math problems were hailed by the greatest mathematicians in the world. Suffering a debilitating blow to the head is no joke. Most of the time it takes its toll on one’s body. There is an extremely rare instance when this might be helpful. Most people who suffer brain injuries do not recover, and are left with different weaknesses. Some may be paralyzed fully or partially and others may have suffered a debilitating blow and never realized it at the time. Many trauma brain injuries are caused by falls.
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