2008 Woodie Awards
LCCC's Meeting Great Minds
Daniel Tammet speaks about finding himself at home in the real world
Joe Wilbert
Issue date: 11/7/07 Section: News
- Page 1 of 2 next >
An audience of about 200 that attended the "Meeting Great Minds" series Oct. 29 at the Lorain County Community College Beth K. Stocker Center received a thrilling account of Daniel Tammet's unique and very accomplished life as a highly functioning autistic savant.
Famous for memorizing Pi to the 22,514 digit and reciting in just over five hours at a benefit for the National Society for Epilepsy, Tammet spoke more about his mental condition, his struggle for socializing, finding himself and a place in this world he calls home.
Tammet told of being born with synesthesia, a syndrome where a person experiences numbers and words as colors and sensations, relating to why he only interacted with numbers and words in a fantasy world, instead of socializing with other children.
He said he associates the word 'Wednesday' with the color blue, relating to the title of his memoir "Born On A Blue Day," his birthday obviously falling on a Wednesday.
Tammet described how he also associates numbers with colors and sensations.
"The number 9 is tall, 11 is very beautiful, and 6 is sad to me," Tammet said. "Numbers were my friends, and I would play with them."
Tammet said he could understand numbers and words like no other person, but couldn't understand emotions and body language, which resulted in his inability to socialize with other children.
"I couldn't understand expressions like 'feeling under the weather." I thought, 'Aren't we all under the weather?'" Tammet joked.
Unlike average children, Tammet described himself as a scientist studying how children interacted and trying to mimic them, and failing the first couple years at his attempt of socializing. He said he slowly learned how people interact.
Tammet's difficulty resulted in him creating imaginary friends. He was very fond of one friend in particular, Ann. Tammet said he later found out Ann was a personification of his loneliness.
"She [Ann] came to me and said 'I can't see you anymore…because I am dying'" Tammet said as he related his imaginary friend's death, he realized it was time to learn how to socialize.
Famous for memorizing Pi to the 22,514 digit and reciting in just over five hours at a benefit for the National Society for Epilepsy, Tammet spoke more about his mental condition, his struggle for socializing, finding himself and a place in this world he calls home.
Tammet told of being born with synesthesia, a syndrome where a person experiences numbers and words as colors and sensations, relating to why he only interacted with numbers and words in a fantasy world, instead of socializing with other children.
He said he associates the word 'Wednesday' with the color blue, relating to the title of his memoir "Born On A Blue Day," his birthday obviously falling on a Wednesday.
Tammet described how he also associates numbers with colors and sensations.
"The number 9 is tall, 11 is very beautiful, and 6 is sad to me," Tammet said. "Numbers were my friends, and I would play with them."
Tammet said he could understand numbers and words like no other person, but couldn't understand emotions and body language, which resulted in his inability to socialize with other children.
"I couldn't understand expressions like 'feeling under the weather." I thought, 'Aren't we all under the weather?'" Tammet joked.
Unlike average children, Tammet described himself as a scientist studying how children interacted and trying to mimic them, and failing the first couple years at his attempt of socializing. He said he slowly learned how people interact.
Tammet's difficulty resulted in him creating imaginary friends. He was very fond of one friend in particular, Ann. Tammet said he later found out Ann was a personification of his loneliness.
"She [Ann] came to me and said 'I can't see you anymore…because I am dying'" Tammet said as he related his imaginary friend's death, he realized it was time to learn how to socialize.
Be the first to comment on this story