How do they do that? -Autistic Savant explains

I'm fascinated by mental abilities and disabilities. A lot of it is about insights into how the mind does and does not work. So this artcle was bound to get my attention, especially for the fascinating insight into 'instant calculation'. What I want to know is what is the mechansism underlying the mental experience? Anywya read this:
"Tammet is calculating 377 multiplied by 795. Actually, he isn't 'calculating': there is nothing conscious about what he is doing. He arrives at the answer instantly. Since his epileptic fit, he has been able to see numbers as shapes, colours and textures. The number two, for instance, is a motion, and five is a clap of thunder. 'When I multiply numbers together, I see two shapes. The image starts to change and evolve, and a third shape emerges. That's the answer. It's mental imagery. It's like maths without having to think.'"

Like some of the scientists studying the phenomena, I can't help but feel "that we all possess the savant's extraordinary abilities - it is just a question of us learning how to access them." One of the reasons things like life coaching and NLP fascinate me. As a child I was always finding little learning tricks and mind games to help me perform better mentally and find myself always somewhat surprised to discover most other people didn't and don't; part of the 'fun' of coaching, for me, is helping people to access stuff that's there but simply they haven't 'wired' themselves to access. So this bit is interesting: "Tammet broke the European record for recalling pi, the mathematical constant, to the furthest decimal point. He found it easy, he says, because he didn't even have to "think". To him, pi isn't an abstract set of digits; it's a visual story, a film projected in front of his eyes." doubly so because it echoes a technique taught by a lot of memory prodigies such as imagining yourself walking through a house and placing objects you want to remember in certain places as you go through. I have also seen logical/mathematical problems reframed as interpersonal relationship which made them instantly soluble whereas the original problem was often quite obscure. We are wired for narrative, and moving through space is clearly part of our lives for millenia of milennia ... Hence the interest to me of the book 'Philosophy in the Flesh' Where the point is that we are embodied beings and our mind emerges fromour bodiliness, hence most of our thinking is actual metaphorical and the metaphors are based in our bodily experience and structure

Some of you may be interested also in this: ""With all those aphorisms," he says, "Chesterton was the Groucho Marx of his day." Tammet is also a Christian, and likes the fact that Chesterton addressed some complex religious ideas. "The other thing I like is that, judging by the descriptions of his home life, I reckon Chesterton was a savant. He couldn't dress himself, and would always forget where he was going. His poor wife." "
.Guardian Unlimited | The Guardian | A genius explains: