The Man Behind "Rain Man"

Many of us are familiar with the movie Rain Man but few of us know who the movie was based on. Kim Peek, an American savant was actually considered a "megasavant" for his exceptional memory. Unlike the character in Rain Main, Peek suffered from both autism and FG syndrome. What is so interesting about Peek is that his knowledge has no bounds. He memorized information in subjects ranging from history to literature and sports to music. Peek also had the ability to read the left page of a book with his left eye while also reading the right page of that same book with his right eye. This made it possible for him to finish entire books in record time. Peek scored an 87 on a general IQ test which is below average but despite this he is claimed to have read at least 12,000 books and be able to recall any information from any and all of them. Peek also had the talent of calendar calculations meaning that he could tell anyone the day of the week on which they were born or what appeared on major newspaper covers on any given day. Unfortunately, Peek died at the young age of 58 due to a heart attack. Along with this post I have left a documentary that goes through Peek's life and talents. If anyone is interested the movie Rain Man is also posted on YouTube. Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed!