Lizzie Velásquez Is An Inspirational Speaker
Last month, a National Geographic Channel documentary brought public awareness of conjoined twins Tatiana and Krista Hogan, who were born in October 2006 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The documentary reported that the twins share a brain thalamus. An article about the twins was published in the June 19 edition of the UK Daily Mail.
Earlier this year, Prahlad Jani (see my previous blog post and this May 8 UK Daily Mail article) was reported as being monitored in a hospital in India for 15 days. During this period he was observed to abstain from consuming any food or water with no adverse consequences. Last week brought another surprising report as newspaper articles brought to public awareness a 21-year-old Texas State University student who must eat incessantly due to an undiagnosed syndrome.
The UK newspaper Daily Telegraph published an article on June 28 about Lizzie Velásquez, who has “a rare condition which prevents her from gaining weight even though she eats up to 60 small meals a day.” Abhimanyu Garg, M.D. was quoted: “We will continue to study her case and learn from her.” Another article about Lizzie was published in the UK Daily Mail. There is also a website About Lizzie and an autobiographical book co-written by Lizzie will soon be available.
In a January blog post, Lizzie wrote:
I’ve just read a short book about a professional ‘mentalist.’ Jim Karol is a nationally known entertainer who correctly predicted the number sequence 2-2-2 for the Pennsylvania Daily Lottery of December 22, 1990. The numbers were from a dream that he’d experienced the previous month. The day after the remarkable lottery results, the incident was reported in an article in the newspaper The Morning Call and brought him the nickname “Psychic Madman,” which has now been used as the title for the brief autobiographical book that Jim wrote with Lu Ann Brobst Staheli.
He performed card tricks for Allentown steel mill co-workers prior to becoming a professional magician at age 29. After performing for two decades, Jim’s act evolved after he helped his 16-year-old daughter study the Periodic Table of Elements for school. The next morning, he discovered that he’d memorized every element. He began using his “sudden super memory” in his show and has memorized such information as the names of every country and capital, thousands of digits of pi, sports statistics, the Scrabble dictionary, and the day of the week for any date.
Jim mentioned in his book that his show includes “dangerous yet well-thought-out stunts” and affirmed, “But most of my show is based on memory effects, scientific trickery, and intuition.” For anyone interested in memory training, Jim recommended the books of Harry Lorayne.
Jim wrote, “Most of my memorization has been accomplished by associating one list of things to another.” He mentioned “Celebrity Name Association” as a technique that he successfully used. For example, the number one was linked with Michael Jordan and the country of Jordan. If you think a preponderance of such associations would seem more difficult for him to remember than if he used ordinary rote memorization, your reaction is the same as mine. I’m not sure that I could even come up with a list of associations in an order that could easily be recalled.
In his book, Jim attempted to place his lottery dream in perspective —
Regarding the topics of the brain and documented cases of unusual mentalities, I also encourage readers to investigate Brazilian healer John of God. Several informative books and DVDs are available about him and here is a link to one Internet page with some background information.
Earlier this year, Prahlad Jani (see my previous blog post and this May 8 UK Daily Mail article) was reported as being monitored in a hospital in India for 15 days. During this period he was observed to abstain from consuming any food or water with no adverse consequences. Last week brought another surprising report as newspaper articles brought to public awareness a 21-year-old Texas State University student who must eat incessantly due to an undiagnosed syndrome.
The UK newspaper Daily Telegraph published an article on June 28 about Lizzie Velásquez, who has “a rare condition which prevents her from gaining weight even though she eats up to 60 small meals a day.” Abhimanyu Garg, M.D. was quoted: “We will continue to study her case and learn from her.” Another article about Lizzie was published in the UK Daily Mail. There is also a website About Lizzie and an autobiographical book co-written by Lizzie will soon be available.
In a January blog post, Lizzie wrote:
Every day when I wake up I try to think of all the positive things that day has to bring me . . . But despite all the hard days, I am beyond blessed. I have a family that loves me, friends who accept me for me, and my faith that pulls me through the days I don't want to get out of bed.
I’ve just read a short book about a professional ‘mentalist.’ Jim Karol is a nationally known entertainer who correctly predicted the number sequence 2-2-2 for the Pennsylvania Daily Lottery of December 22, 1990. The numbers were from a dream that he’d experienced the previous month. The day after the remarkable lottery results, the incident was reported in an article in the newspaper The Morning Call and brought him the nickname “Psychic Madman,” which has now been used as the title for the brief autobiographical book that Jim wrote with Lu Ann Brobst Staheli.
He performed card tricks for Allentown steel mill co-workers prior to becoming a professional magician at age 29. After performing for two decades, Jim’s act evolved after he helped his 16-year-old daughter study the Periodic Table of Elements for school. The next morning, he discovered that he’d memorized every element. He began using his “sudden super memory” in his show and has memorized such information as the names of every country and capital, thousands of digits of pi, sports statistics, the Scrabble dictionary, and the day of the week for any date.
Jim mentioned in his book that his show includes “dangerous yet well-thought-out stunts” and affirmed, “But most of my show is based on memory effects, scientific trickery, and intuition.” For anyone interested in memory training, Jim recommended the books of Harry Lorayne.
Jim wrote, “Most of my memorization has been accomplished by associating one list of things to another.” He mentioned “Celebrity Name Association” as a technique that he successfully used. For example, the number one was linked with Michael Jordan and the country of Jordan. If you think a preponderance of such associations would seem more difficult for him to remember than if he used ordinary rote memorization, your reaction is the same as mine. I’m not sure that I could even come up with a list of associations in an order that could easily be recalled.
In his book, Jim attempted to place his lottery dream in perspective —
I believe the lotto dream came to me to help spread awareness about the universal mind, the sixth sense, and the mind’s true power.
Regarding the topics of the brain and documented cases of unusual mentalities, I also encourage readers to investigate Brazilian healer John of God. Several informative books and DVDs are available about him and here is a link to one Internet page with some background information.
Thanks for the mention of Psychic Madman. You might also find When Hearts Conjoin, the true story of conjoined twins, Kendra & Maliyah Herrin interesting. I was the co-author of both books.
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