Re: SAVANTS

Dear DR Trefferet

WE haven't been introduced formally but I feel I know you through your book, your SCi Am article and your recent lecture transmitted to CARTA UCSD where I work.

I have had a long-standing interest in Savants - especially those with math skills (eg prime numbers) and visuospatial and our center, in fact, focuses on 'solving' neurological mysteries eg synesthesia, phantom pain, xenomelia (apotemnophilia) Capgras etc.

Bernie Rimland had indicated he would like to collaborate but, alas, passed away.

Would you be so kind as to refer savants with unusual skills in any domain but especially math, music and art to our facility? Needless to say we would invite your participation (assuming you have the time) and coauthorship.

Coincidentally my good friend and colleague Dr Deepak Chopra was visiting our lab a few weeks ago and this matter came up.

There are two classes of phenomena. First, skills that are clearly definable such as prime numbers, drawing, memory size estimation etc which can be replicated under carefully controlled settings;

two- 'superhuman' or even supernatural abilities like telepathy, clairvoyance etc which have long resisted replication.

My focus will be on class 1 - a more detailed understanding of what's going on. Before jumping to imaging there are basic simple tests one can do. But I'm also open to testing the latter.

There's also a vast grey zone between these two classes.

We hope we can interest you in this venture.

VS Ramachandran PhD MD FRCP (Lond) DSc

Professor and Director

Center for Brain and Cognition UCSD

La Jolla CA 92093-0109

VS,

Likewise I feel that I know you through your remarkable work. We toil in the same vineyard of mysterious and (as yet) unexplained exceptional brain performance. I would welcome collaboration.

So much to explore. How do savants "know things they never learned", like the periodic table, prime numbers, solar system or whole globe geography? (my explanation is genetic memory--the genetic transmission of knowledge (nature v. nurture). I have a register of about 300 savants and about the time I think I have heard it all comes another with new unheard of skill or ability, type 1 or 2 as you refer to those skills. I met with GOMA, a celebrated Japanese musician who, after a head injury, is now an accomplished artist as well. An acquired savant with an entirely different skill post injury. Some of these savants have been part of documentaries. The "work-up" was usually imaging studies looking for 'the spot' of savant syndrome. The imaging produces very pretty pictures for TV, but very little illumination of what has happened. Imaging, impressive as it is, just is not sensitive enough (yet), even DTI or DTT, to pinpoint the underlying defects at the synapse level of savant syndrome, creativity and even autism. More productive results will come from carefully designed, intricate, neuropsychological testing. But there is always the rush to imaging.

I have been so consumed with the acquired savant, and hyperlexia (children who read early often mis-diagnosed as being on the spectrum) and paranormal phenomenon in about 1% of savants, my congenital savant registry has not been kept current. I intend to correct that. We have organized an acquired savant registry from unsolicited emails or other sources and will soon publish those preliminary results. We have designed a comprehensive survey instrument to now collect uniform data from those unsolicited, non-uniform emails and will be sending that out soon to the savants and/or families. We have done the same now for 160 hyperlexia patients/families and will be analyzing that data. My exploration of para-normal subjects continues. I intend to renew some effort with the savant registry and that may be where our interests most intersect.

So there may be ways to collaborate. One person I was collaborating with, Oliver Sacks, regrettably passed away. We were exchanging some cases. I have the largest world collection of savant books, theses, professional articles, news articles, videotapes and correspondence on savant syndrome, which has gradually morphed from savant syndrome only to other manifestations of the exceptional brain. It is a gold mine of data. The hospital has been kind enough to provide a building and some staff for the Treffert Center which we intend to put to full use and explore other sources of support and expansion.

So, let me know your thoughts on this somewhat rambling response to your welcome note. Please feel free to share this with Deepak because of his interest in these same 'mysteries'. Let's see if there are ways to work together in this extraordinary vineyard.

Darold A. Treffert, M.D.

Dear Dr Trefferet

I have admired your work for several years. I am particularly fascinated with the following statements you make: "How do savants 'know things they never learned', like the periodic table, prime numbers, solar system or whole globe geography? (my explanation is genetic memory--the genetic transmission of knowledge (nature v. nurture). I have a register of about 300 savants and about the time I think I have heard it all comes another with new unheard of skill or ability, type 1 or 2 as you refer to those skills. I met with GOMA, a celebrated Japanese musician who, after a head injury, is now an accomplished artist as well. An acquired savant with an entirely different skill post injury."

While "genetic memory" is a good hypothesis we must remember that "genes" themselves are human constructs - names we have given to modes of knowing & experience in consciousness, which remains a mystery. Savants who have "know things they never learned" may offer a window to non-local reality.

I have interest from Amazon films on a documentary on consciousness and the universe and will seek your's and Dr Ramachandran's & Diana Powell's participation. Meanwhile meet Ryan and Bill who are in charge of ISHARonline.com.

We would love to document and archive your work for future generations and promote it on social media to increase awareness & expand the conversation so we can all learn more. With great respect & admiration of your work.

deepak

Thanks Bill and Ryan and everyone! Let's start with archiving all the current data on this and then come up with a protocol for a formal study that can be submitted for IRB. All love

Deepak Chopra MD

2013 Costa Del Mar Road

Carlsbad, CA 92009

Chopra Foundation http://www.choprafoundation.org/ Jiyo http://www.jiyo.com/ Chopra Center for Wellbeing http://www.chopra.com/ https://www.discoveringyourcosmicself.com/

Dear all, and especially in this brief note, to Drs Treffert and Ramachandran:

How exciting this project sounds already! Yes, as Deepak mentioned, I am the Director of Research and Academic Liaison for ISHAR (isharonline.org), and thanks to Deepak we recently began to get help from Google for ISHAR's online site. I am also affiliated with MIT as a biophysical and psychological anthropologist. I developed and continue to work on a scientific research model of how advanced meditators (Tibetan and Indian in particular) enter into induced savant-like states to achieve heightened sensory-perceptual access in order to actually be able to observe small scale phenomena among other important features of the sensory environment (there is no parapsychological dimension to this model). I first presented this model at a conference I had with the Dalai Lama, and K Anders Ericsson -- another leader in the field of "expert and exceptional performance," a field that as you know he pioneered with Nobelist Herbert A Simon, along with yourselves, Dr Treffert and Ramachandran. (Ericsson's and my work from this neuroscience conference were published in my volume by the New York Academy of Sciences, and was also presented in 2011 at the Towards of Science of Consciousness conference in Stockholm, and more recently at a physics and consciousness conference at UC Berkeley).

One other matter to only briefly mention here for now, is that I also had the honor to be associated with a book project that both of you were also associated with, Struck By Genius, on the acquired mathematical savant, Jason Padgett. I did work on that book with my close friend and frequent collaborator, Maureen Seaberg, along with Jason, another friend, who is one of several savants I have worked with.

The project described here sounds wonderful! fascinating and compelling, and speaking on behalf of my ISHAR partner, Executive Director Ryan Castle and myself, we will do everything possible to aid, facilitate, and enhance the project in every way we can in line with your direction.

Sincerely,

Brilliant! I'm very excited about the prospect of this collaboration, and I think the synergy behind this team could be very powerful.

This is excellent timing, we're in the midst of designing a new form of large-scale data analysis through custom rubrics and AI. I'll start doing preliminary searches to compile and archive all of the surface level studies I can find on the topic, but at some point I will need to talk to someone about more specific search terms and technical terms so that I can find and collate all the best data.

I'll be ready to share with you the fruits of my 15 years of research in this area Ryan, starting tomorrow! All Best,

Bill

William C Bushell, PhD

Director of Research and Academic Liaison, ISHAR (isharonline.org) Biophysical Anthropology, MIT Department of Religion, Columbia University Senior Fellow, Harvard University, 1993-94

Thanks!

2013 Costa Del Mar Road

Carlsbad, CA 92009

Chopra Foundation http://www.choprafoundation.org Jiyo http://www.jiyo.com Chopra Center for Wellbeing http://www.chopra.com discoveringyourcosmicself.com http://www.discoveringyourcosmicself.com