Superhuman Geniuses (Extraordinary People Documentary) | Real Stories

the teenage art prodigy whose gift has become a million dollar business the real Rain Man with the biggest factual recall in the world the child scientist who passed a level chemistry h7 the unemployed accountant with the record-breaking memory and the ten-year-old music prodigy ready to hit the international stage five people five extraordinary talents five very different lives meaning God are both in control of everything I am absolutely completely flat folk at the moment I don't like the meaning of child prodigy you don't have to be handicapped to be different everybody's different welcome to the world of genius [Music] to some genius is an arbitrary label the strict definition is an outstanding artistic or intellectual ability in short extreme talent thirteen-year-old are kianak Romaric fits the bill perfectly and she has a unique claim behind her gift [Music] one day started having these very amazing and mysterious visions those voice was following me guiding me through these galaxies and he asked him do you know who are you mine and I started calling him God a keanu is an art prodigy from Idaho who claims that God told her to paint [Music] and for nine years she hasn't stopped [Music] I just say you me and God are both in control of everything like a so he tells me an idea and I could just take that idea and make it better and polish it better and just put it into paints so he's like my personal teacher I Teeter she was 4 years old when I knew there was something special about her because she was describing a lot of new things on spiritual matters and also she started drawing exceptionally well Oh Kiana developed an intense interest in sketching by 5 years old she was already drawing at a level way beyond her years myself I thought she was dreaming I thought there was something made out of an imagination but when she started describing more and more it became apparent that this was actually something that did happen by 8o Kiana was painting portraits on giant canvases it kind of took me aback cuz we never read the Bible or we didn't have any kind of spiritual connection with no artists in her family she was completely self-taught this is actually one of my absolute favorite and most memorable painting this is called the Prince of Peace when I was paying this when I was 8 years old with oils many many artists all around the world they always asked me so how did you do this and how did you do that I was like oh no I just did it it's very complicated for you know a child to explain what they did the only way they could span is through you know painting or through their creativity described by art critics as a phenomenal talent she has now produced more than 100 paintings ranging from realist portraits to fantastic landscapes and the natural world they can each take anywhere from 15 to 300 hours to complete a Kiana's genius could be explained by sheer hard work home-schooled she gets up at 4 a.m. 6 days a week and paints for up to 5 hours a day sometimes there are days in there sometimes when she's finishing up a painting she might paint for 1214 hours and I would ask her to I take breaks and have something to eat or drink and sometimes she would refuse Oh Kiana only studies the subjects she enjoys she loves printing publishing her books and poetry and art and that's what she loves doing them her - all day long I don't ask her to ever do math if critics say no wonder she's a genius because she is devoting all her time for art then it would be a better place in the world that there would be more people who are interested in focusing their energy to the fields that they are interested in [Music] while some geniuses use their talents to create a feast for the eyes others may find that their unique skills are not quite so useful been print more an unemployed accountant from Darby is perhaps an unlikely genius but on today's shopping trip he set himself a challenge [Music] Ben is going to attempt to remember the 13 digit barcode of every item in his basket this means memorizing the order of 130 digits in just 5 minutes most of us can only remember up to 7 new numbers time for Ben to see how far he can go bacon 5 0 0 0 1 9 2 0 1 4 1 8 7 big pie that's five zero zero zero one nine two two six four three six zero Ben is the UK memory champion and a world record breaker I hold a record for memorizing the most packs of cards in an hour 27 packs and also four binary digits that's ones and zeros I hold the record for memorizing the most of those in 30 minutes 4140 digits garlic bread that's five zero zero zero one nine two zero four three seven seven four yep really it's only since discovering this hobby of mine that I firm well Excel did anything has the Bears sweet five seven zero three one seven zero four zero five two six I turned the numbers into pictures we should have at lemons there were a lemon being fed to a sasquatch which is wearing a plastic Mac consumed the pack of sausages and a leg in practice people are either completely nonplussed by it or they think it's extremely cool it's sort of about a 50/50 split I think it's weird that is amazing yeah I can't just I can't even remember Mary shopping this some days I won't if the few people who find this kind of thing really fun [Music] did you tell him your birthday Oh 706 1980 it's a Sunday and this year it's a Sunday you retire in 2045 on a Thursday you'll be 65 in 24 in Salt Lake City Utah everyone knows 56 year-old genius Kim peak April 12 2006 so Wednesday and shall be two years old on Saturday and when can she retired good little girl when you gonna let her retire known by many is the real Rain Man Kim was the inspiration for Dustin Hoffman's character in the oscar-winning film of the same name brain-damaged since birth and a rare condition known as savant syndrome have somehow given Kim an ability to memorize facts and information that is without equal savant syndrome is a rare but spectacular condition and with somebody with a developmental disability such as autism has some spectacular island of genius that stands in stark contrast overall handicap for years doctors have tried to fathom Kim's spectacular brain I'm just gonna ask you some general questions can I do that yes okay today it's the turn of the world's leading expert on savant syndrome dr. Darrell Trafford when did President Truman removed gentlemen MacArthur from his command April 19 April 11th I'm 51 when at Hong Kong returned from British colonial rule to July 1st 1997 when did Saigon fall to North Vietnam April 29th 1975 when Kim was 9 months old the medical world said he would never walk talk or be able to learn proving experts wrong he is now believed to have the greatest factual memory in the world memorizing 98% of everything he reads I keep thinking that pretty soon the memory full sign has to come up like it does not a computer but it doesn't he continues to absorb and not only absorb but also recall what what day was was Easter this year what was the day it was March 23rd we won't see another one this early again until 21 60 then we won't when is the last time that we 1913 you folk should remember so how many years before the next a hundred and fifty-two years what year will that be the 2160 it's believed Kim's talent may be partly down to the fact that his brain is wired in a completely different way from the rest of us since birth Kim's corpus callosum the white matter that carries vital connections between the left and right halves of the brain has been completely missing but somehow Kim's brain has managed to rewire itself in a unique way this could explain his extraordinary genius what is what is the earliest that Easter has ever fallen 1761 1818 2274 how do you figure those things out Kim how do you do it by looking at my own heart my own mind Kim like most savants doesn't explain how they do it Kim Kim's how do you remember all that stuff I just know that how do you remember all that stuff I just know a lot about it and they don't really explain their methodology and I think in in reality salons are not aware of what that process is every time I look at him and I when I see it it is and it blows me away [Music] you music is everything for ten-year-old Ariel Lonnie a child prodigy from Israel Arielle is more than just a pianist is a composer too oh this could be an intro and then there could be there before no that's what I want to right now now first of all I want to jot down the intro okay before we start anything you have a subject you got a subject now going to do my opposite of post 9 and it puts 10 so I'm going to work on a 6 or 7 I don't have to do so then I work on the procedure not one of them no custom he'd achievements are beyond far far beyond of any most gifted child that I've known the question was why do you take criticism from your teachers hell from your parents not from your mother I'm not from your father either welcome my teachers are way smarter parents Gabi and Olga have raised their son in a home dominated by music Ariel was destined to be a pianist right from the off we were negotiating for a piano and when all that was pregnant was a yeah and she said well why why are you so anxious about it what's the big deal is not gonna come back home from the hospital and and start taking piano lessons that I said no but I don't want to bring a child back from the hospital into a home that doesn't have a piano neither Gaby no Olga could play the piano it was for one person only their newborn child when he was born he started listening to music right from the beginning because there was a tape that his father prepared for the occasion and from then on he was listening to music almost 24 hours a day there is a theory that the young children can be taught anything they don't have to be born that way but the earlier you start the education the more you'll be able to achieve it soon became apparent that the theory was working he was less than three just a little lesson 3 and then we were driving in the car and he was sitting in the back and listening to the radio and it was Beethoven's 2nd piano concerto which I recognize but I didn't I don't know the key and I didn't have the CD so I told him this is piano concerto by Beethoven and that he said Ian and I didn't have the answer because I didn't have the city to look at right now he said cannot tell so he says in b-flat major and I look in the mirror and I said are you sure and he said yeah so needless to say as soon as we got home I take out the city and I look at it man it's in b-flat major by five aerial had already told himself to play the piano and started taking lessons by 7:00 he was playing classical concerts with an orchestra of adults in a way we created it to some degree by exposing him early on and a little baby doesn't have many choices or he just lies on his back and you play bar when you play Barto he listens Ariel is now firmly on the path for a life of music but although showing a talent way beyond his years he's wary of being labeled I don't like the meaning of child prodigy cuz child prodigy is basically someone who can play fast and not more than that no understanding music just playing fast and how are you different cuz I understand the music I analyze are you a pianist or a musician physician no you genius not yet I will be wonderful not yet while Ariel developed his gift from an early age others find greatness much later in life but it doesn't always reap rewards [Music] Ben Britt more started out on the path Virginia's in his mid-20s when he began training himself to memorize decks of cards I held the record for memorizing a pack of cards in the quickest possible time 26.2 eight seconds from just a single glance Ben is able to recall every number and every suit in the exact order in which he saw them six of spades Queen of Hearts queen of diamonds eight of Spades Ace of Hearts no ace of diamonds never mind queen of clubs Ben is in treasure clubs in just two days he's going to push himself to the limit and attempt to smash his own world record nine of Spades King of Hearts and three of diamonds Ben's genius is not simply in remembering playing cards but in the elaborate mental process he uses to do it I have an image in my head of a person or an object for each pair of two cards which comes to a total of 2700 for possible images so for example this pack of cards starts with the 7 of Spades King of Spades which is a pack of seeds growing into m2 of Hearts 5 space which is multi pello out of wet wet wet and 5 of Hearts king of clubs which is Alma furred okay making a bration time starts now the key to Ben's memory genius is that he uses a different part of his brain to store new information compared to the rest of us to remember cards most of us would use our working memory but this can only store up to seven new pieces of information such as a phone number this information is only held here for a few seconds before it's forgotten but Ben can link any sequence of numbers and cards with images that he has permanently stored in his long-term memory this system means that in the UK memory world he reigns supreme it's a real community the memory championship people we all get on well we hang out outside competitions we sit around talking it pubs about our systems sounding like a terrible bunch of nerds well be aware of a terrible bunch of nerds let's be honest about this but being a memory giant hasn't translated into financial success two years ago Ben gave up a career in accountancy to focus on his talent now he's struggling I am absolutely completely flat broke at the moment I've got no money at all I've got less than no money I've got loans and things so I am actually quite desperate to get back to work at the moment and I was struggling to find a permanent job in accountancy people tend to assume I'm a naturally billion person which I deny absolutely I'm a bit of a thick overly in a lot of ways I just have a an interesting hobby possibly because I've got too much time on my hands [Music] thirteen-year-old art prodigy are kianak Romaric absolutely believes that her god-given talent is behind her extraordinary success today at a local gallery selling prints of her work she has come for a meet and greet with some of her fans yes actually for a couple years since I was 4 to 7 years old I had constantly visions of heaven and I used those visions and I paint them when I'm thinking it you know you're at your age and you're already you know so established in this industry you know I look up to you thank you very inspiration to me thank you she's really been in touch with another dimension that is not common to our normal human experience it's definitely projected she's like a projector from God onto a canvas an artist since the age of four this is no mere hobby for our Kiana her prints alone sell for thousands of dollars at home she is the sole breadwinner with her parents and brothers carrying out specific roles in her business being the main moneymaker in the house is a great responsibility but he actually my pain I just don't feel like I'm making money I'm making them business but it just feels like I'm having fun with the painting but a Kiana's genius has made her family rich since it's slow now and the economy's kind of a little flattened out I probably do where we do I should say we 50 prints a month the print is $1,800 US dollars to 3100 on top of the $100,000 plus a month they make from prints every so often they sell an original well the most originals are between 100,000 and 300,000 our highest once sold is 175 and that was a challenge there was the one with the horse in the middle of the pine trees within the snow and the sold to all of rancher down in Texas we try not to sell the originals you know she has control cuz all of this you see it here is all hers so when she's 18 this is hers I walk out of the picture and I do something else and the fruits Avakian is later a new million dollar family home should be painting in this area here we'll have her probably easel here I know if a easel on this wall or easel on that wall but we asked Lee gave her a little kitchenette where she'd be able to have her daily coffee or tea washer brushes but is this a normal childhood for a 13 year old girl if a normal childhood is to sit in front of television and just be on set alone for 3-4 hours a day I don't know if that's not much in childhood I consider a normal childhood and being able to serve to serve other people to help other children to enjoy what you're doing to be together with the family yeah I agree on that I got nothing to add to that one she's not missing out a thing [Music] a self trained genius is about to push himself to the limit I'm going to try to break my world record that speed cards I'm going to try to memorize a single pack of cards in some time faster than twenty six point two eight seconds [Music] but things aren't going quite to plan for the UK memory champion pushing it too much in the middle I lost track of all the images and has done this before he's very experienced his current record is around 26 seconds and we're very much hoping that he can push it down and give us a whole tremendous shock [Music] Ben gets a second chance [Music] Ben hopes to have memorized the pack in less than 24 point six eight seconds but to prove it he must now arrange a separate pack of cards in the exact same order that's my best guess anyway to decide it the two packs must be compared card for card [Applause] [Music] I did it yeah twenty four point six eight it was in the end which is just about exactly the kinda time I was hoping for he's broken but you know the four-minute mile for the brain we started out with a puppy teaching a lesson to a mouthy it was holding a microphone over a necklace owned by her machine hammered it was using a pair of tongs to hold a pack of sherbet pouring it into a sieve it's an objective test of how fast he can be done and in that sense it's unbelievable influence of an auctioneer who was selling a tentacle which was growing out of superhero in a suit of armor who was planting a flag in my dad's old garage simple as that in twenty four and a half seconds in Israel it's 9:00 p.m. on a Thursday night and ten-year-old musician Ariel Lonnie has a gig at the tender age of seven he branched out onto the jazz scene [Music] this gig is supposed to start at 9:30 which you probably won't so it's that closer to 10:00 it'll probably go until about 11:00 11:30 but Adam is gonna get home it'll be midnight that's obviously not a good thing ready for kids please jazz and if you want seven audience he can't get an audience that's 4 p.m. thank you very much don't go Jones this is all them but can a child of 10 handle the strain of such a late night gig [Music] like Dave Brubeck is a very very good but a child it's just a little boy it means crazy nights and be strange light [Music] it's a playoff between what is this what I'm gonna give to the world as he grows up what is we go to sacrifices with fear as the set continues the late night starts to take its toll [Music] [Applause] [Music] Ariel decides to persevere it's now 10:30 p.m. [Music] how did I play I could do better you know was right we're going out to improve got a crew he's not pleased in exactly six weeks our ill makes his European debut at a Jazz Festival in Italy could it be too much too soon getting the balance right between protecting and encouraging a gifted child is incredibly difficult but in Singapore Valentine Corley is determined that his eight-year-old son Island reaches his full potential the key can be a relatively small molecule circulating in a body fluid whereas the lock is usually a large molecule known as a biological receptor that is often found embedded in a cell membrane the Eynon Cawley's love of science was spotted when he was six years old we discovered that he was interested in chemistry when he was at his aunt's house he found a chemistry book and he was reading it and his aunt saw him eating this and said you seem to understand that and he said I do so she went to and got an exam paper gave it him Oh level example and he answered the questions correctly Aylin told himself chemistry on the internet and at seven past the Oh level exam now his father is battling to fast-track his academic career he hid he Menuhin without a violin is not a violinist he's it could have been and and the same applies to any of these children if they don't get the opportunities they need then all you've done is wasted their life and wasted their contribution they could have made a society tell me why I can't climb wait in the pressure daddy can't climb because he is so heavy if he steps over here he will ruin his feet because his weight except on a small area will cause a lot of pressure he weighs 100 Lemmon kg and the surface area is roughly how much square inch a square in a square inch can you imagine what would have happened if Leonardo da Vinci had never been apprenticed to an artist none of his work may have happened [Music] to put a child like that in an ordinary school there's a kind of abuse from his perspectives school is in which is how he describes school to me one day he said to me the only the only thing I like about school is my friends so he he does have he does have that but the actual lessons don't give him anything at all nothing I cannot although Island must continue attending primary school Valentine has arranged for him H just eight years old to also study chemistry a degree level it's our only the third year students here get to do the experiments because they have gone through first and second years training before Island he just comes in as if he's gone through the first and second year training although he basically knows what to do if I increase the concentration of nitrogen what will happen very good reaction right to reduce the concentration of nitrogen according to the Kshatriyas principle if I increase the concentration of chlorine what's going to happen yeah cool the room will shift to the right there's a mind of an idio but the intelligence which is roughly the same of ours which is a bit stressful you worry Finn subsequently you need to wash it with sodium chlorite now tell me why we need to do this I'll leave it to you to find out okay why do you need to wash with sodium chloride anybody can tell me now the it's near separation yes it it's layers it's very obvious that he's a prodigy and then I think the people here are very welcoming that I had worried they might not be but no person is nowhere he's tall but it would seem I Ninh might not be the only genius in the family his father now a freelance writer originally studied Natural Sciences at Cambridge when I was a child I had many different gifts but I don't think that they were given full opportunities they needed to be expressed to your minds any of islands ability inherited from his parents yeah I would say so the funny thing is that his scientific interests parallel my own age for age as a child he starts expressing interest in chemistry at 6 it's the same age I became interested in chemistry ok so it's it's the same pattern and yet we can guide him in this pattern we just let him be and he chose the same path it's easy for a child in that position to end up frustrated and having you know known that situation myself I don't want to see him frustrated I want to see him develop it at his own pace in the areas of his interest and become the full human being he's intended [Music] are you from I'm from Davenport Iowa and what's here you go there if you're a three it's five six three if you're a seven its 309 prodigious savant can peak is a walking encyclopedia having memorized over 12,000 books when did able to become England it's been that way since 827 under AG Burton and Ethel stand defeated the Danes of Brennan Byrne United the country in 933 but suffering from brain damage since birth Kim is a genius in need of 24-hour care and at 82 his father Fran has his own illnesses to contend with having recently had a melanoma removed from his face I have to brush his teeth and everything is physical we shower together and I have to dress him after he dressed himself I have to redress him just just everything we do together and provisions have to be made for when Fran is no longer here the last place I'd want to go was into a group home er into an institution my other son about six months ago came and told me that he would like to take his wife and move into our home where Kim's environment of book says and he would take care of Kim just like I am and we're gonna have four more great days together but for now Fran is constantly at the side of his genius seller the pathologist says everything's great I just can't wear the bandage until next Monday I have to go back and see him again but everything fine no cancer okay yes dad [Music] before becoming the inspiration for Rain Man Kim had been a recluse unable to even make eye contact with another person but Dustin Hoffman told fran to share him with the world ever since he has done exactly that we've flown a million nine hundred ninety two thousand air miles in 19 years we talked to over 4.4 million people in small groups he's become something that he was never supposed to be Kim and Fran are on tour 20 days out of every month today they've been invited to the University of Wisconsin to meet an audience of over 300 people all eager to witness the genius of Kim peek we'll start with a with an easy one what day of the week was March 20th 1979 a Tuesday okay and I was born on March 12th 1933 what Sunday sometimes people look at savants whether that's a musician or an artist or where memory giant is sort of putting them on display so to speak and you know can you stump the the genius kind of thing and that's not what this is all about it helps them it's a form of therapy if you like a part of that is what we call training the talent and that's really what the treatment of savant syndrome is statistic find the talent and and run with it although Kim is unable to hold a simple conversation he is now interacted with millions of people at events like this all on a non-profit basis what was the best picture in 1961 Westside sorry there's flies when Stein wrote the score in 1957 thank the wind Shakespeare write Rome 1595 but Leonard Bernstein wrote the score in 1957 I'm very familiar with the literature through the last hundred and twenty-five years and there's never been a chem peak and I don't know if there would be another what are you thinking to me that song is called the birch tree [Music] Vicenza Italy and ten-year-old musician Errol Lonnie has been invited to make his European debut at a prestigious Jazz Festival but he's feeling the pressure so big gig okay so right now what matters is to put a smile on your face and I'm not nervous smile this is a real Jazz Festival with big names and his playing alongside known people so he's very very nervous we just hope that he will revive before the concert [Music] later that evening an audience of jazz aficionados gathers to watch aerial and jazz Parnas jean-claude Jones you'll know it's better we practiced with the metronome [Music] we're more together we dropped it together some affinity the present re re l jean-claude Jones [Applause] dad Gabi is in the wings throughout [Music] [Applause] this time Ariel's a success fantastic I never thought that a little child like him uh could do something like that a genius more than a genius I think I was too surprised how do you say in English but goosebumps I had the goose bump of my yard [Applause] how's the professional when the Chopra just stops being a child then the question is is he does he have the wherewithal to be a bona fide artist or not and if he doesn't then he can be a very happy amateur it wasn't for music he'll probably have to follow career and something else that it says it will have to be his decision ultimately it will not be ours [Music] you [Music]

Channel: Real Stories

Views: 4,752,432

Rating: 4.7445807 out of 5

Keywords: Real Stories, BBC 3, Documentary, 2017 documentary, Documentary Movies - Topic, geniuses, Channel 4 documentary, child geniuses, BBC Three documentary, BBC documentary, the real rain man, amazing people, Amazing Documentaries, TV Shows - Topic, savant syndrome, Amazing Stories, rain man, Documentaries, extraordinary people documentary, genius people, interesting documentaries, smartest people in the world, smartest man in the world, kim peek, akiane kramarik, cool painting

Id: xvDuqW9SFT8

Length: 45min 38sec (2738 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 19 2017

Reddit Comments

[u/decadentbeaver]

That guy in the thumbnail was Kim Peek. Exceptional memory. Watched a documentary on him before. Fascinating how he remembered everything he ever read.

[u/[deleted]]

That poor pianist kid at the jazz concert.

Holy crap he was so reasonable with that man saying he couldn't stop playing just because he was tired.

[u/Rawmilkandhoney]

Thanks for sharing! As a mother of a child missing his Corpus Callosum, I would like to point out that 1 in an estimated 4,000 births results in ACC - Agenesis of the Corpus Callosum making it among the most commonly diagnosed brain malformations. But not all people with this condition will manifest like Kim Peek. He is truly an amazing example of the brain rewiring in fascinating ways. 80% of people with this condition will present as typical with mild impact socially and developmentally many with high intelligence. The other 20% will experience moderate to severe disabilities as a result of ACC. It’s also speculated that FG syndrome played a part in Peeks gifts. And while it’s possibly semantics, it bothers me somewhat to hear his condition described as brain damage which implies that an event occurred which damaged existing functional potential, instead of a congenital brain malformation, the result of which is spectacular adaptation that created amazing potential. Anyway, thanks for fascinating documentary and the opportunity to share my thoughts!

[u/RAZR133]

savant syndrome?

[u/Won_and_dun]

Kim peek’s Dad was in the same assisted living center as my Grandma. Kim would “entertain“ everyone with incredible knowledge about essentially anything.

[u/[deleted]]

Anyone got any idea what compound the chemist kid sketches at 36:50?

It seems to be organic but there's a lot of sections that seem to have uncommon arrangements, like the 3 carbons joined triangularly with oxygen branches on the left hand side.

[u/UtCanisACorio]

typical teenager, "God gives me an idea and I make it better." had to laugh at that one.

[u/Bigr789]

That poor piano kid.

[u/NotEvenGoodAtStuff]

That was fucking fascinating! Thanks for sharing!