The blow that turned the sofa salesman into a genius (8 photos)

Usually a person or a physicist, or a lyricist. Transition to another side in adulthood does not occur. But there are exceptions, although very specific.





Strictly speaking, Jason Padgett belonged to neither others. The guy did not finish school, considering his studies an unnecessary waste time. He went to work as a furniture salesman in his father's shop. Knowledge there were enough dropouts for this, and Jason's main hobbies were girls, drinking and car racing.



Padgett in his youth

But the case changed everything. The unfortunate one who became for 31-year-old male happy. September 13, 2002 he and his friends relaxing at the bar. He drank a lot and got into a fight when he was tried rob. During which he hit hard on the head.

Subsequently, Padgett told what he saw before his eyes a bright flash, and then he ceased to realize who he was and where he was. Two weeks the man lay in the hospital, recovering from a concussion brain. And then he ceased to be the master of his life. Because from now on ruled by Her Majesty Mathematics.



Yes, yes, the science that the sofa seller considered the most useless. The man became a hermit, because his society openly frightened. And suddenly he was inflamed with love for perfect squares - numbers, whose square root is an integer. Jason became to see the world differently - all objects seemed to consist of tiny grain-pixels.



Accidentally stumbled upon a site about fractals - sets, possessing the property of self-similarity, the guy felt as if he had met with something important and dear, but well forgotten. Began to study the topic. AND was so fascinated by her that he began to create fractal drawings with ruler and compass.



Gradually began to go out into the world for new ideas, and the mental state of the involuntary genius began to improve. Random an acquaintance who noticed the drawings in Padgett's notebook turned out to be a physicist and advised him to enroll in mathematics courses.



The man began attending lectures in college. And at the same time tried to deal with his new condition, in which he had to stay and live against your will.



Neurologist Berit Brogaard suggested that the injury provoked synesthesia, a rather rare phenomenon in which a person connects a signal from one sense organ with a signal from another, although there is no apparent reason for the connection between them. And all items of the surrounding world began to cause a man to look like geometric shapes and mathematical formulas. MRI examination confirmed the assumption Medic: Jason was found to have access to areas of the brain that others people are not involved.



After an official diagnosis - savant syndrome Padgett wrote Struck by Genius, went into sales fractal drawings and help people who have experienced similar cases. By biographies of the only ones, he plans to make a film.

By the way, the criminals who gave birth to the savant were found and tried. But they came out dry. True, years later one of the attackers sent Jason a letter of apology, in which he said that he repented, revised life principles and, like Padgett himself, has long become different man.