Ten years ago, Jason Padgett was a 31-year-old college dropout whose life revolved around two things: working out at the gym and partying as often as possible. One night after walking out of a Tacoma, Washington karaoke club, Padgett was mugged by a group of thugs who were after his $99 jacket. The thieves kicked him in the head repeatedly with brutal force, and after seeing a bright flash of light, Jason thought he was about to be killed. Jason survived the confrontation, and doctors quickly diagnosed him with a concussion. But within 48 hours, something extraordinary emerged from Jason’s brain that was about to change his life forever. Less than two days after the concussion that bruised his brain, the college dropout who could barely draw a stick figure, became instantly obsessed with drawing intricate diagrams without knowing what exactly he was drawing.
As it turns out, Padgett was representing in graphic form the most complex mathematical formulas in the universe. “I see bits and pieces of the Pythagorean theorem everywhere,” Padgett told ABC NEWS. “Every single little curve, every single spiral, every tree is part of that equation.” Perhaps Jason’s most awe-inspiring work to-date is the pattern that emerges from his mind when he thinks about π (also known as Pi), the mathematical constant that is the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter which contains an infinite string of numbers beginning with 3.14159.
Jason is the only known human being with this superhuman gift. ABC NEWS explains, “To better understand how his brain works, Berit Brogaard, a neuroscientist and philosophy professor at the Center for Neurodynamics at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, and her team flew Padgett to Finland to run a series of tests. A scan of Padgett’s brain showed damage that was forcing his brain to overcompensate in certain areas that most people don’t have access to. The result was Padgett was now an acquired savant, meaning brilliant in a specific area.” ABC’s NIGHTLINE is airing a feature profile of Jason Padgett tonight at 11:35pm EST, and you can learn more about Jason’s story by visiting ABCNEWS.com. To learn more about why π is the backbone of the universe CLICK HERE.
