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Subscribe to RSSFrank Healy remembers almost every day he's been alive. WCAU's Renee Chenault-Fattah reports.
You don't want to get into a facts-based argument with Frank Healy. He will always, always win. Healy says he can remember every day of his life since he was about 6 years old.
"I remember every day of my life," Healy, who lives in Pennsylvania, tells NBC affiliate WCAU. "The day of the week it was, personal, and the weather, and if there were any significant news events that day."
His incredible skill is called highly superior autobiographical memory. He's been studied by doctors at the University of California, Irvine, who say they've seen only 12 others who can demonstrate the same level of recall. (Actually, Marilu Henner is one of the few who shares this trait.)
Healy says it all began when he was 5 1/2 years old, home sick from school and bored silly. So bored, in fact, that he memorized the entire 1966 calendar. Now, he says, "I remember the day of the week every date fell on since 1752."
The key is looking for patterns and associations in dates. "I think I also hold onto the thought maybe a few seconds longer than most people would and that helps it stick," Healy explains.
How are you at remembering details? Is your mind a steel trap, or perhaps more akin to, say, a piece of Swiss cheese?
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Leave a Comment:
"....Charlie....Charlie Babbitt..."
Dumb
Really stupid
how unsmart...
I would hate this unique ability to recall all my mistakes so I torture myself asking why, why are you such a fool.
If they've only met twelve, I must be thirteenth. Except, I can go back to about 3!
Yeah, right.
I can remember...wait, what're we talkin about??
we have a guy in our town like this too. Brad Williams.
Brad Williams is incredible!
There's only one way to prove that this is true. Have him recite every event of every moment of his life. Of course, it would take the rest of his life to do so.
I thought everyone could do this.
Is that a gift or a curse? I am thinking the latter...
Yeah, right. How could he ever be proven wrong. This is a money making ruse for some show like the long forgotten Oprah show.
Remove the tinfoil hat and go outside.
leave the tin foil hat on...they are a true fashion statement...
I lost that ability around the age of 28. The funny thing is I can still recall everything that happened to me ages 6-28 and I also have some good memories from abouth the age of 3. Everything that happened after the age of 28 is kind of a blurr... I can recall things like a normal person, but no continuous, clear image of the past.
In any case such memory is not really that great. I feels like everything in your life happened yeasterday. It sure makes for an impression of an incredibly rich life, but on the other hand I still feel guilty about dropping my sister when I was 5 and she was like 6 months old (not that I obsess about it - it is simply there with everything else - plenty of other stupid mistkes done as a kid).
In any case - so much information available now in the age of Internet that memory gets clogged very fast.
Be happy that the "stupid mistakes" you remember were all when you were a kid. Wish that we could all say that.
i have a friend who was left in a trash can when born & he swears he remembers racoons keeping him warm. amazing. i believe him-just the way he tells it-youd have to hear it-iits incredibly convincing!(he also has amazing recall of most of his early childhood & ive heard confirmation from his adoptive mother)
In answer to the question at the end of the article, I struggle to clearly remember what happened yesterday. It's like the events of yesterday happened a year ago in my memory...very strange. So, guess my memory is a little like swiss cheese!
Oh, and just for people who wonder after reading this (because I would) I am only 21, not a heavy drinker, no drugs, no memory problems run in the family, etc, etc.
i can't remember...my wife get's a little angry with me...then i play this she's happy again...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUROKcDOvvk
i cant remember every event but i hold memories from the house in edgerton, wisconsin when i was 3 mths. old. just snapshots really, but i knew they were actual memories when i revisited this home 3 years ago. one such memory is when we moved when i was 4 mths, and i remember my sis holding me on her hip next to the well pump while everyone was packing and loading.hundreds of other memories from years leading up to pre-school when everyone i know can maybe start to remember their experiences... i don't think its rare, just under researched!!!!!
I am 55 years old and I can remember alot of details of my life including the room and the crib I was in as a baby. Funny I can't ever seem to remember where I put my reading glasses a few minutes ago.
why this made "headline" news is beyond me. i highly doubt this is all they had to write about. i guess me commenting on it is just as bad. huh???
bye, bye
I can't remember almost none of my life. I was raised very badly and when I remember it scares the heck out of me. I wish I could remember more of my childrens lifes. Oh and I don't drink or do drugs either.
I play golf as much as I can and there is no way that I would like to have the recall this guy has and have ALL those disastrous shots replaying in my head over and over ;-) Yes, I do have some very nice shots, however, as a HappyHacker there are more nightmare shots than memorable ones.......GOLF: Where one shot is a dream and the next is a nightmare!
I remember my 1st birthday party vividly. The neighborhood women who attended, the exact appearance of our house, the cake, everything.
It's all the stuff that happened in the 60's that I don't remember too well.
lol...........had a young person ask me here on the Vine one day.....said people had told him if you remember the sixties, you weren't really living the sixties. Enough said....
Have a good day, everyone.
I have trouble remembering most of my childhood from before 13/14 years of age. :(
Really, lulu? Many people don't remember. Trauma? My 2 children lost their daddy at ages 9 and 3. The nine-year-old was so traumatized he has no memories of his father. My youngest has memories of him. Me? I can remember back to age 3, isolated flashes, like photos, back to age 2. Some of it I wish I didn't remember. Have a good day, lu. :)
I'm not sure why I dont remember, imatthebeach. I do remember little details of what schools I went to, the differences in each one of them and very small details... what i mostly DONT remember is the people I interacted with, what I did with them or what I did... I do remember a few people but I dont remember what I did with them exactly.
Hmm...........Well, I hope it wasn't anything traumatic, dear.