Blow to the head turns Wash. man into a genius

TACOMA, Wash. -- How about this for a movie script: A man who hates math gets punched in the face and turns into a math savant. It's not Hollywood -- it's real. In fact, experts say it could happen to any of us.

Jason Padgett's amazing story has been turned into a book and could become a movie. But for Jason, what happened 14 years ago has been both a burden and a blessing.

Padgett was mugged as he left a Tacoma Karaoke bar in 2002. Just before midnight, two guys jumped him from behind 10 feet outside the front door.

"I remember getting hit and seeing a bright flash and asking for help," said Padgett. The female friend he was with stood still in shock.

"It's the only time I thought I was dead for sure," Padgett as he reenacted the moment at the same spot on the sidewalk 14 years later.

The thieves stole Padgett's jacket, thinking he had put his wallet inside. It was still in his back pocket.

At the emergency room, doctors would tell Padgett that he had suffered a "severe concussion" and had a bleeding kidney. He was given painkillers and sent on his way.

Almost immediately, Padgett started seeing the world differently, literally. He says his vision became "pixelated." He saw everyday objects as geometric patterns.

"It's like small pictures are laid on top of each other one layer over another," said Padgett. "I began seeing the discreet structure of the universe and how curves do not exist."

Padgett freaked out. He became a recluse, keeping all his curtains closed in his home, rarely venturing out only when necessary to buy groceries.

"For almost three years, I was holed up in my house just trying to deal with this change in reality," he said. "I had depression, I had post-traumatic stress, bad."

"It was scary. It was scary for the whole family," said his stepmother, Helen Padgett.

'That's when it all made sense to me'

One day, while watching TV in his darkened home with his 7-year-old daughter Megan, Padgett was asked a question. He had just tried to explain to Megan why he believes the universe is made up geometric shapes and circles aren't possible, and how a TV picture is made up of nothing by square pixels.

A commercial for Overstock.com can on with a big "O" on the screen. Megan asked, "so why is there an O on the TV screen? That's a circle."

"That's when it all made sense, that's when I clicked for me," said Padgett.

He realized he was seeing circles as nothing more than infinitely small rectangles. He said he then went on a journey of self-discovery and figured out the mathematical concept many learned in school: Pi.

"I was so excited, but then realized Archimedes had discovered pi 2,000 years earlier," he said.

He says he had not learned any high level math in school.

"He wasn't into math at all," said Helen. "He was bright and good looking, a real lady killer."

"All I cared about up until that moment was going out late, partying and chasing girls," Padgett said. "I was one of those kids that said, 'when are you going to use math and how are you going to apply that in the real world?' "

After the mugging, Padgett also had an urge to draw. He began drawing complex, mesmerizing figures using only mechanical pencil, a ruler and what he saw in his mind. He says had no idea what he was drawing.

"I didn't know it was math, I thought it was just beautiful pictures," said Helen.

Padgett was drawing perfectly measured visualizations of Pi without knowing it. His family noticed he was going through a dramatic change.

"Knowing Jason before, and knowing Jason after, it's two different people," said Jason's father, John Padgett. "It's like having two different kids."

Jason would talk incessantly about math, Pi and infinity. He developed OCD tendencies. He would wash his hands, avoid germs at all costs, became very particular and hated confrontation.

While working at the family futon shop, he would engage customers by introducing them to high level math concepts. But there was one person who devoured his love of math, a student from Russia named Elena that would later become his wife.

"When I met him it was nothing like anyone else I ever spoke to because it was all he could talk about," said Elena.

'Sudden Genius'

Word got out about Jason's sudden brilliance when it came to math. He was introduced to specialists, researchers and doctors with an expertise in Savant Syndrome, including one of the foremost authorities in the world, Dr. Darold Treffert.

"In Jason's case it was almost instant, sudden genius," said Dr. Treffert.

The Wisconsin psychiatrist is currently tracking 72 savants around the world, including some for more than 30 years. He says Jason has acquired savant syndrome.

"These are people who are ordinary persons who have a blow to the head, for example, and are suddenly mathematicians or artists or musicians," said Dr. Treffert.

In 2013, Jason underwent tests in Finland to see if scientists could determine the source of his sudden genius. The scientists saw brain activity that was similar to what they saw with other diagnosed with acquired savant syndrome.

Dr. Treffert says studies have shown the brain of a person who has suffered a severe head injury is capable of "recruiting" another part of the brain to compensate the part that has been damaged. In Jason's case, it's believed the portion capable of doing high level math was recruited.

"Whatever dormant potential in the recruited portion is released," said Treffert.

The famous researcher says there may be a "Rainman" and savant potential in all of us.

"My feeling is that we all have that dormant potential in one degree or another, the trick is how can we tap that without getting mugged," he said.

Jason says he doesn't feel like a genius and doesn't consider himself one.

"I don't know if I got smarter or it's something that I always could have done," he said.

Despite his OCD, severe migraine headaches and other health issues, Jason says he doesn't regret getting mugged.

"I wouldn't change it because the good far outweighs the bad," he said. "I hope to teach young kids the excitement of math in the terms of how I see it."

Padgett has co-written a book about his transformation called "Struck by Genius." He is currently attending college to formally learn what he has already figured out. Hollywood producers have also contacted him about making a movie about his life.

So we've come full circle from where this story started: Jason's life becoming a Hollywood script. But as Jason will tell you, there is no such thing as a perfect circle.

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