Daniel is an extremely rare savant gifted with almost unimaginable mental powers, much like the Rain Man (based on the real-life story of Kim Peek, from Salt Lake City, Utah).

But Daniel is different—he leads a fully independent life, his own company, his own book, and maintains his own blog.

What’s cool about Tammet, as Professor Allan Snyder at the Australian National University explains, is “savants can’t usually tell us how they do what they do. It just comes to them. Daniel can. He describes what he sees in his head. That’s why he’s exciting. He could be the Rosetta Stone.”

He claims that in his mind each number, up to 10,000, has its own unique shape and feel, and he can “sense” whether a number is prime or composite and “see” results of calculations as landscapes in his mind. He sees numbers as shapes, colours, and textures and can perform extraordinary mathematics in his head. He can also learn to speak a language fluently from scratch in a week; and currently speaks 10 different languages.

Tammet holds the European record for remembering and recounting pi, recounting it to its 22,514th digit in just over 5 hours. This sponsored charity challenge was held in aid of the National Society for Epilepsy (NSE) on 14 March 2004 (Pi Day) at the Museum of the History of Science, Oxford, UK.

I just received my pre-ordered copy of his book from Amazon.co.uk today, and I look forward to providing a wonderful review!

Isn’t it amazing what the Internet has done for us? Previously, none of us would ever get close to a man as brilliant and gifted and unique as Daniel. Now, we can communicate with him instantly and directly via the web (and his blog). I love it. Many of the things he says jives with the things I have noticed about my own mind, and I find it very insightful and inspiring almost at a religious level.

Thus, I highly recommend investigating his works for yourself, if you are at all curious.

UPDATE: I read his book. It was fascinating. If you are into psychology you will love following along with his thought processes. He is truly gifted. Amazing.

Just recently he wrote another book. He’s also got some artwork selling and some other stuff. What a guy. What a way to take a weakness and turn it into a strength. I applaud him and encourage everyone to check out his stuff.