A Man Gets Hit by Lightning, Gains Real-Life Super Powers After Recovery

Peek was the inspiration for Raymond Babbitt in the multiple Academy Award-winning movie Rain Man.

Babbitt, played by Dustin Hoffman, is what is referred to as an autistic savant, a person with almost superhuman mental capabilities in addition to the symptoms of Autism Spectrum Disorder, or ASD.

Rain Man is not about Peek, since Peek is not on the autism spectrum.

However, Hoffman met with him on multiple occasions to accurately represent savants in the film.

Savants are by no means a modern phenomenon, though.

Benjamin Rush, signer of the United States Declaration of Independence and founder of Dickinson College, wrote in 1789 about a subjugated African man living in Virginia named Thomas Fuller, who could comprehend scarcely anything, either theoretical or practical, more complex than counting.

But if you gave Fuller someone's age and asked him how many seconds they had lived, he could give the correct answer almost instantly and even accounting for leap years.

Peake and Fuller are both examples of people born with savantism.

Daryl A. Treffert, MD, describes that, "...a reasonable estimate might be that approximately 50% of persons with savant syndrome have autistic disorder.

and the other 50% have other forms of developmental disability.

A survey by Timo Solovita, PhD, in 2000 found that for every 1,000 individuals on the autism spectrum, 1.4 of them usually express savant skills.

Despite what the anti-vaxxer movement says, you cannot get autism.

So is there a way for anyone to gain access to their innate savantism? Orlando Sorrell, a 10-year-old boy, was struck on the left side of his head by a pop fly.

He never sought medical attention, but was otherwise perfectly fine.

He had a headache for a few days after, but when it finally subsided, he found that he had the uncanny ability to do calendar calculations.

Similar to Thomas Fuller, if you ask Sorrell for a date, he can tell you instantly what day of the week it was.

But he's not the only one.

Tony Caesarea was making a call at a phone booth when lightning struck the top of the structure, rendering him unconscious.

Lucky for him, there was a nurse nearby who managed to resuscitate him.

After returning from the hospital, he had an uncontrollable desire to play piano, despite never having touched a piano before.

Caesarea got his hands on as much sheet music as he could, and began rehearsing Chopin.

His progress was slow, but he realized that there was music ringing in his head that was obscuring his practice.

Soon, he realized that this music in his head was unique, so he wrote it all down, and released a CD of his own music shortly after.

Unlike Fuller and Peake, Sorel and Caesarea were never diagnosed with any developmental disabilities.

They only suffered head trauma on the left side, which is endemic to nearly all congenital savants.

Peek was the inspiration for Raymond Babbitt in the multiple Academy Award-winning movie Rain Man.

Babbitt, played by Dustin Hoffman, is what is referred to as an autistic savant, a person with almost superhuman mental capabilities in addition to the symptoms of Autism Spectrum Disorder, or ASD.

Rain Man is not about Peek, since Peek is not on the autism spectrum.

However, Hoffman met with him on multiple occasions to accurately represent savants in the film.

Savants are by no means a modern phenomenon, though.

Benjamin Rush, signer of the United States Declaration of Independence and founder of Dickinson College, wrote in 1789 about a subjugated African man living in Virginia named Thomas Fuller, who could comprehend scarcely anything, either theoretical or practical, more complex than counting.

But if you gave Fuller someone's age and asked him how many seconds they had lived, he could give the correct answer almost instantly and even accounting for leap years.

Peake and Fuller are both examples of people born with savantism.

Daryl A. Treffert, MD, describes that, "...a reasonable estimate might be that approximately 50% of persons with savant syndrome have autistic disorder.

and the other 50% have other forms of developmental disability.

A survey by Timo Solovita, PhD, in 2000 found that for every 1,000 individuals on the autism spectrum, 1.4 of them usually express savant skills.

Despite what the anti-vaxxer movement says, you cannot get autism.

So is there a way for anyone to gain access to their innate savantism? Orlando Sorrell, a 10-year-old boy, was struck on the left side of his head by a pop fly.

He never sought medical attention, but was otherwise perfectly fine.

He had a headache for a few days after, but when it finally subsided, he found that he had the uncanny ability to do calendar calculations.

Similar to Thomas Fuller, if you ask Sorrell for a date, he can tell you instantly what day of the week it was.

But he's not the only one.

Tony Caesarea was making a call at a phone booth when lightning struck the top of the structure, rendering him unconscious.

Lucky for him, there was a nurse nearby who managed to resuscitate him.

After returning from the hospital, he had an uncontrollable desire to play piano, despite never having touched a piano before.

Caesarea got his hands on as much sheet music as he could, and began rehearsing Chopin.

His progress was slow, but he realized that there was music ringing in his head that was obscuring his practice.

Soon, he realized that this music in his head was unique, so he wrote it all down, and released a CD of his own music shortly after.

Unlike Fuller and Peake, Sorel and Caesarea were never diagnosed with any developmental disabilities.

They only suffered head trauma on the left side, which is endemic to nearly all congenital savants.