We all have heard that some people claim to be telepathic or clairvoyant, but it is really difficult to prove that the abilities of these people are real. At the same time, people can really have “superpowers” that are caused by some unusual features of their brain structure or physiology.

Here are some of these superpowers.

1. Eidetic memory

Some people remember with absolute accuracy everything they have ever seen or heard. For example, an American woman could remember any date of her life since 1974, name the exact day of the week and describe in detail what events occurred on that day.

Russian journalist Solomon Shereshevsky could easily memorize rows of 100 and more numbers and keep in his memory long series of words (even in foreign languages)… Japanese engineer Akira Haraguchi could name by heart the first 100,000 digits of pi…

People who suffer from autism often have an eidetic memory. Thus, Raymond Babbitt, the main character of the movie Rain Man, could recite the content of about 12 thousand books…

2. Absolute pitch

If a person with absolute pitch hears a sound, they can easily and exactly play or sing it. Scientists believe that such people first classify sounds and memorize the categories, and then find out which category a given sound belongs to. They identify the sound frequency, which allows them to easily play or sing any note or chord of a song they have heard only once.

3. Expanded color vision

Ordinary people recognize light only in the red, green, and blue spectrum and distinguish about 100 shades in each of the ranges. People with advanced color vision can also perceive the ultraviolet range and thus distinguish up to 100 million colors. Scientists claim that, unlike the color-blindness, it is more common in women than in men.

4. Echolocation

This ability is well developed in bats. These animals emit a sound and then find the location of an object by the echo. Rarely, this ability is found in humans, most often in blind people, who are compelled to navigate in space without the help of vision.

5. Supersense of taste

These people can feel and distinguish really subtle shades of taste. This ability has to do with the fact that some people have a fungus on their tongue, which has additional taste buds. Thus, the reaction to the taste is more prominent than in other people. Such people often become professional tasters.

6. Supersense of smell

They distinguish the slightest smells and their shades. Do you remember the protagonist of Patrick Suskind’s novel Perfume?

Actually, such people’s life is not easy, since they suffer from bad smells everywhere and all the time. But on the other hand, they can enjoy an exquisite bouquet of aromas inaccessible for other people… Such people are perfect in the profession of perfumer or smell taster.

7. Genetic chimerism

The name to this phenomenon was given by Homer who described in the Iliad the chimera, a being whose parts of the body belong to different animals. In science, chimerism is also called tetragametism.

Sometimes in the early stages of pregnancy, it may happen that two fertilized eggs or embryos are merged and, as a result, the born person carries two sets of genes instead of one. In some cases, it may affect the appearance or the physical condition of a person, and in other cases, it can be revealed only in the DNA analysis.

Medical science knows about a hundred cases of genetic chimerism. It is believed that it may be the result of taking medications for infertility.

At first, all of these superpowers may seem unbelievable miracles. However, each of them has its own scientific explanation, and most of them have genetic origins.


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This Post Has One Comment

  1. Youngjoon Kim

    Oh how I wish I had absolute pitch… That would make my life easier 🙂

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