“Rain Man” – that was the name of the film by the American director Barry Levinson, whose main character was an eccentric autistic genius named Raymond. But few know that the hero The popular painting was a real prototype named Kim Peak, impressing others with its unique abilities.
Live computer
Kim knew by heart the British Encyclopedia, train schedules and aircraft around the world. Atlas easily fit in his head highways, a calendar for two thousand years, biographies of all favorite composers and writers.
A photo from open sources
This person could easily quote thousands of verses and prosaic pages, it was not difficult for him to multiply in four-digit numbers, his brain was as if equipped with a computer and powerful search engine that allows you to easily retrieve necessary information.
But brush your own teeth, dress, tie shoelaces on shoes, to relieve needs, to make purchases in supermarkets and the genius never learned how to cook.
In these everyday matters, he is an adult American named Kim Peak – reminiscent of a two year old child. He was poorly guided in space, panicky afraid of the street and strangers, all the time held on to his parents, and therefore made an impression absolutely helpless man and caused pity for others.
This is how he appeared before the venerable American screenwriter Barry Morrow, followed by a dozen excellent paintings. Possessor of phenomenal memory and other unique abilities Kim Peak made such a strong impression on the pen master that he in a month wrote the script for the film “Rain Man”, directed by which became Barry Levinson.
Photo from open sources
The screenwriter did not hide the fact that many features of the protagonist he borrowed from Kim. To better understand behavior and habits his hero, he simply settled in the house of Peaks, which allowed him create an interesting and memorable image of Raymond. In this role Dustin Hoffman shone, the image of his pragmatic brother Charlie embodied on the screen Tom Cruise. Extraordinary Adventures of the Brothers helped them get to know each other and feel a touching feeling kinship.
The name of the film comes from the similarity of the pronunciation of the name Raymond (Raymond) and the phrase rain man (“rain man”). Charley remembered that in childhood, when he was scared, he came to him mysterious “rain man” and sang songs to him, calming and cradling his. Learning his brother closer, Charlie realized that it was Raymond, who, slurring his name, turned into his memories in the wonderful “rain man.”
Brilliant Savant
After the tremendous success of the film and the waterfall of film awards, hit the creators of the tape, gained worldwide fame and Mr. Peak.
Glory miraculously changed the character of the savant (from French savant – “expert”, “scientist”). It is commonly called people with brain abnormalities and phenomenal abilities. Fame has made Mr. Peak a media star. Journalists Hundreds of articles have been dedicated to him, calling Kim “a brilliant savant.” Television producers invited him to numerous talk shows, students wanted to see him in their audiences.
And a miracle happened: Kim parted with shyness, became sociable, gained confidence in himself, appeared with pleasure in very different places. When passersby stopped him on the street and asked questions, Kim eagerly answered them, refused no one an autograph, while demonstrating a subtle sense of humor.
Photo from open sources
The genius did not resist the desire of specialists to study his brain and to understand how it can absorb and store such a volume of information. Doctors concluded that Kim’s brain is not designed like the vast majority of normal people. In particular, the tomograph recorded the absence of the corpus callosum (a powerful bundle of nerve fibers), which provides communication between left and right hemispheres of the brain. A similar defect is extremely rare, but not always accompanied by functional impairment.
Scientists have suggested that some kind of brain appeared in Kim’s brain. additional, reserve and not yet explored channels hemisphere interactions.
Perhaps this allows them to work as one giant the hemisphere, combining under one “roof” those functions that are normal are divided. If this assumption is true, then some of their Kim owes talents to this anomaly.
We studied the abilities of Kim and psychologists. They all agreed on that the abstract concluded that Kim received extraordinary abilities in as compensation for their inferiority. ”
Interestingly, in the first months after Kim was born doctors diagnosed the boy with a disappointing diagnosis: mental inferiority – and tactfully invited parents to give it to special boarding school. Note opposed the advice of the Aesculapius and left child in the family. They hoped that they could somehow adapt it. to real life.
Photo from open sources
For the first time, unusual abilities showed up in Kim when he wasn’t It turned two years old. At a family meal, father, as usual, read your favorite newspaper, and suddenly realized that the son sitting next to him was reading news with him. Since then, Kim’s favorite pastime has become reading.
He admitted that by the age of 20 he had read about 10 thousand books. And not just read, and could easily quote any of them. All of them miraculously recorded in his memory. For reading and memorizing the page took a few seconds for the boy. Thick tom he “passed” in just a couple of hours, and years later could easily play back by heart.
Contact with the world
People with extraordinary abilities have always attracted increased attention. But only in the 19th century did scientists pay attention on savants and studied their outstanding abilities. A the first article on this subject came from the pen of John Down in 1887 year.
The scientist noted the relationship of the mathematical abilities of the researchers with the inherent astounding power of memory. As an example he cited a case where the savant could literally quote any excerpt from the multi-page “History of the decline and destruction of Rome Empire of Edward Gibbon.
It should be noted that if at the beginning of his life, Kim absorbed indiscriminately any information, then in adulthood his interests spread only on your favorite topics. Greatest preference he gave world and American history, and he was also interested religious treatises, sports, cinema, theater, geography, development space, fiction and classical music.
Photo from open sources
Kim could not stand heavy rock and slurred rap, calling these musical directions are “aggressive and annoying”, and I got the most pleasure from the works of Mozart, Handel, Vivaldi, called them “bright and clean.” In communication with musicologists Kim hit them with a depth of knowledge.
He could tell where and when it was written and first performed work, called the name of the composer and quite professionally talked about the features of musical form and tonality works. And in the last years of his life, Kim became addicted to the piano and He began to perform his favorite works.
Kim’s adaptation to the realities of life has helped others find hope. parents savants. They realized that if carefully and subtly relate to the phenomenal abilities of their children, do not brush off from them, as from annoying flies, their talent will manifest. With his using an unhealthy person can make contact with others peace and compensate for the consequences of their ailment. This way is extremely difficult because it requires sacrifice, patience and hard work.
The efforts of Kim’s parents embodied in the fact that their son was timid the recluse turned into a world celebrity and lived a busy, full of vivid events life. Over the past 20 years he flew 3 million miles and chatted with thousands of people. Kim-Peter died (so it was jokingly called by scientists) December 19, 2009 from the heart attack in Salt Lake City, not two years before sixtieth anniversary.
Scientists examined Kim’s brain and found the following: a number fragments of the brain in the late savant are much larger than in ordinary people. They also confirmed that the right and left hemispheres Kim’s brains are not divided at all, but form a single unit. Besides Moreover, the doctors concluded that Kim had an inborn pathology cerebellum.
Neurosurgeon Jim Ryder, who participated in the study of Kim’s brain, stated:
– While we can’t solve the secret of unique abilities savants, but we are on the way to this. I believe that the brain is healthy person has a storage management mechanism where millions of “boxes” with information are located, and is capable of Transfer to the appropriate “box” what is needed in this moment. But the savants of such a mechanism and such “boxes” are not have. They live as if in a warehouse of their memories, surrounded by of their treasures, be they numbers, names, arithmetic operations, paintings by artists, sounds of music and words. No wonder therefore that many of them behave inappropriately and look (according to healthy people) cranks. I am sure that if we do we’ll unravel the secret of “rain people”, a real chance will appear sharply increase the intellectual abilities of normal people.
Vladimir PETROV
Life time
