“I woke up at 6:32 A.M. on a bright and cloudless Sunday morning on April 12 approximately 8 years ago…”

This is a typical thought experienced by a person who has highly superior autobiographical memory (HSAM), an extremely rare condition. HSAM is so rare that only 62 people around the world have it–62 individuals out of 8 billion people worldwide! HSAM is a curse in disguise, where those affected remember every single event that happened throughout their lives in perfectly vivid detail. The reason behind this mysterious condition is unknown to scientists around the world. However, some have predicted that HSAM may have genetic or biological roots. 

This mystifying condition can be best identified by limited tools, such as brain imaging tests like MRIs and electroencephalograms. The most common test taken to identify HSAM is the autobiographical memory test, where the patients view cue cards containing different emotions and are then asked to connect the emotion to memory. 

It is unclear how far memories go back for people with this condition. Some remember their earliest days on Earth; imagine remembering your life vividly when you were only twelve days old! Others remember their early childhood, from about when they were toddlers. After ages 10-12, people with HSAM can remember each of their life events more clearly and vividly. These people are 97% correct when describing their earliest memories, so if you have wronged them in the past, you might want to consider being really nice to them to make up for it! 

However, people with HSAM can experience memories at any time of the day during any given moment. When they are in a distressing position, bad memories might rush to them unexpectedly. Even when they are in a calm state, unpleasant experiences can once again find their way back into the minds of HSAM patients. These memories are unpredictable and make it impossible for a person to forget a bad memory; they are stuck with the memory forever. 

Fortunately, this has the potential to be a beneficial condition since the few people who have HSAM can recollect positive and gleeful memories in times of gloom, therefore escaping from reality to enjoy past experiences. These patients may also use their condition to their benefit and exceed their academic expectations; their superficial memory can be used to remember any information in perfect detail, and they can recollect information easily during an exam, therefore giving them an advantage. Their remarkable memory might be used to the benefit of others, such as remembering past events and recalling information to the exact point. 

Nevertheless, HSAM provides a stepping stone for future generations to learn more about the incredible wonders of the world and the fascinating psychology of humans. It is an incredibly alluring condition that even the greatest minds of the world do not know the answer to. It is one of life’s greatest mysteries. How would you react if you had this incredible superpower—to live life knowing all of your past experiences in great detail?