Meet Kim Peek: The Incredible Case Of The Man Who Could Memorize Everything
On the day of his death, Kim Peek spent the entire morning opening Christmas cards accompanied by Francis, his father, who was also his great friend. Kim did not suffer from any illness, nothing seemed to foreshadow that that day her life would end forever. He had been with his family preparing gifts for such important dates.
That same December 19, a heart attack left Kim collapsing to the ground.
Kim Peek: the case of the savant with a superhuman memory
Thus passed away Kim Peek, a man whose mind had amazed the world whose story motivated a great movie.
His abilities were so absolutely implausible that even NASA, as well as multiple universities in the US, studied in depth where such abilities came from. He had just turned 58 years old.
Birth
He was born in 1951. On the same day of his birth, the doctors who delivered him informed his parents that Kim He suffered from severe mental retardation, which would most certainly not allow him to walk, and they recommended that Kim be admitted to a center where they could care for him. However, Kim’s parents were not happy with that idea.
He was diagnosed with macrocephaly, that is, a skull of abnormally large proportions, and his brain did not have the corpus callosum, the tissue that connects the two hemispheres of the brain and that allows the exchange of information between cells. It is speculated that by lacking a corpus callosum, His neurons were creating their tissues without brakes, uniting with each other and forming a compact mass of connections capable of retaining up to 98% of everything he saw or heard
Francis Peek, her father, used to say that, at the young age of one and a half, Kim was able to memorize every book that was told to her. They moved Kim’s finger over each sentence, while pronouncing the sounds so that Kim could learn them. In this way, they came to notice how Kim could remember a book after having read it only once. When he finished reading a book, Kim would turn it face down, as if that book was no longer needed at all. That habit remained with him throughout his life.
A difficult childhood
At the age of three, Kim asked her mother what the meaning of the word “confidential” was. Her mother, in order to stimulate Kim, replied that she could look it up in the dictionary. From there she learned to locate the words in alphabetical order to later read each of the meanings. During his life he read and memorized a total of nine thousand books It was calculated that she could read two pages in a period of 8 to ten seconds, since she used her left eye to read the left page, while with her right eye she read the right page.
He was unable to walk until he was 4 years old. Even then he was captivated by numbers and arithmetic, he used to read telephone directories and amused himself by adding entire columns of telephone numbers, and he did the same with the digits of car license plates.
Adulthood, work life and fame
Starting in 1969, Kim worked in a special workshop for disabled adults. Simply with her mind, without calculators or computers, she was able to solve all the company’s accounting. However, his motor and coordination difficulties were hindering his life. His father had to help him with everyday tasks such as buttoning his shirt buttons, tying his shoelaces… And although he had the ability to memorize almost with absolute precision any text he read, he could not interpret or draw conclusions from your readings.
In his book “The Real Rain Man,” Francis Peek described his son in these terms: “Kim is not autistic. In fact, his personality is warm and loving. Kim genuinely cares about people and likes to share with them.” his unique abilities. His encyclopedic knowledge includes disciplines such as history, biographies, geography, sports, engineering, cinema… He also knows in depth The Bible, the history of the Mormon Church, the calendar (you can guess dates), literature… “It can identify almost any classical music composition, as well as the dates and place of birth and death of the composer. In addition, it stays informed about current events in the world and in the US.”
Kim Peek, Dustin Hoffman and the unforgettable “Rain Man”
Many people will have seen the movie “Rain Man”, which was released in 1988 with Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise as protagonists. She was awarded four statuettes at the Oscars. However, few people know that the character of Raymond Babbit (Dustin Hoffman) was actually inspired by Kim Peek.
It’s a curious story: the writer Barry Morrow had finished, a few years ago, a script for the movie “Bill”, about a mentally retarded man played by the well-known actor Mickey Rooney. This film showed the human side of people with mental retardation, distancing itself from certain clichés.
For his good work, Morrow was invited in 1984 to a conference of the ACR Communications Committee in the state of Texas. Francis Peek, Kim’s father, was chairman of the Committee. Kim Peek and Morrow met, and spent several hours chatting. Kim blew Morrow away with her deep knowledge of every author and book imaginable, citing numerous sports statistics, and “guessing the day of the week I was born, my birthday, and the day of my 65th birthday,” Morrow recounted. .
They also argued about the Civil War, the American Revolution, the great world wars… Morrow ended up writing a script inspired by Kim Peek, “Rain Man”, which in the end turned out to be a great film.
The legendary film about his life
In preparation for the interpretation of Raymond Babbitt, famous actor Dustin Hoffman met Kim and Francis Peek. They exchanged impressions about the British monarchy, the Bible, sports, dates, geographical points, movies, literature…
Hoffman spoke some unforgettable words when referring to Kim’s talent, saying, “I may be the star, but you, Kim, are the sky.” Upon collecting the statuette for best actor for his performance in “Rain Man,” Hoffman mentioned during his speech: “I especially want to thank Kim Peek for making Rain Man a reality.”
Since the great impact of the film, Kim Peek’s life changed. His figure attracted the attention of journalists and television networks She began holding live conferences in which she interacted with the audience. It is estimated that she met two million people, whom she amazed with his abilities.
His person was the subject of several documentaries and reports for Discovery Channel, CNN, TLC and National Geographic, among others. His father, Francis, said that thanks to all the attention Kim received, he grew as a person, managing to gain confidence in himself. Before public recognition, he rarely looked into the eyes of his interlocutors. But his fame helped him learn to interact and enjoy sharing with other people.
