The human mind is amazingly resilient, which becomes evident in so many different ways. One is
Savant Syndrome,
in which a person who is disabled in some way develops a very strong
ability in some other area. Some were born this way; others changed due
to a brain injury. A brain hemorrhage led one man to start painting
obsessively at age 51. A traumatic injury left a child with an estimated
IQ of 40, yet he became a world-class sculptor. And there are two sets
of twins who are autistic but can calculate numbers instantly, such as
dates for any year. Tom Wiggins was a blind child musical prodigy who
demonstrated how he could hear a song once and play it on piano. He
could even do this with two songs played at the same time!
Born
a slave, Tom Wiggins’ abilities were soon discovered by his white
masters, and they began touring him around the southern US. It’s
estimated that Tom’s owner made about $18,000 off him per year. It
wasn’t long before “Blind Tom” became a sensation. He had a remarkable
ability to mimic nearly every sound he heard, and it was claimed that he
could perfectly reproduce the sound of any animal. Tom could play a
piece with his back to the piano and could play one song with his right
hand, another song with his left, and sing a third at the same time.
Read the stories of
nine such talented people at Man-Trends
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