Jason Padgett felt he was going to die when he was mugged outside a karaoke bar in Tacoma, Wash., a decade ago.
The attackers continuously kicked him in the head, claiming they were for his leather jacket. He not only miraculously survived the attack, but he also got a secret mathematical gift as a result of it, according to ABC News.
Jason Padgett does not see the world like most people do.
He sees intricate mathematical formulas everywhere he looks, such as the Pythagorean theorem. He told ABC News that “every single little curve, spiral, and tree is part of that calculation.” Padgett transforms these formulas into fractals, which are complicated diagrams. Fractals, he argues, are “form(s) where the pieces are the same or similar to the whole when you take the shape a part into pieces.”
He can, for example, create a graphic representation of Pi, the infinite mathematical constant that begins with the number 3.14.
Padgett is the only person known to have this skill, according to the Daily Mail.
Padgett, who is a college dropout, has no advanced math degree. He couldn’t even sketch before the mugging, according to Q13 Fox News.
Berit Brogaard, a neuroscientist and philosophy professor who has conducted tests on Padgett, told ABC News that his genius was most likely acquired by chance when he was savagely beaten by muggers. According to Q13 Fox News, two specific parts of his brain lit up throughout the tests: the area that regulates math and mental images.
Brogaard added that the attack caused damage to Padgett’s brain, forcing him to overcompensate in areas most people don’t have access to, turning him into a “acquired savant.”
“Savant syndrome is the extraordinary growth of a certain skill, which can be mathematical, spatial, or autistic (sic), that makes a person superhuman,” Brogaard explained.
Padgett says that his “superhuman” ability might be overwhelming at times. “I’d like to turn it off sometimes, but it won’t,” Padgett told ABC News. “However, the benefits much exceed the drawbacks, and I would not trade it for anything.”
According to the Daily Mail, the mathematical genius, who sells both original and print versions of his amazing drawings, intends to one day take his skills and newfound love for arithmetic out of the furniture business and into the classroom to teach others.
