Marilu Henner, a 58-year-old actress known for starring in the series Taxi, explained on CBS’s The Early Show on Monday what life is like being able to remember every single day of her life, after Henner and others with the same ability appeared on Sunday’s CBS program 60 Minutes.
“People talk about this, how people visualize it sort of in a calendar way like calendar pages,” she said on The Early Show. “For me, the closest thing to it is kind of like selected scenes on a DVD. You know when you see that? OK, so if you name the year, all of a sudden the entire year sort of like lays itself out in chronological order and each day is a different selected scene and some of them are more vivid than others, but I can go to each day and it sort of comes up.”
Henner said that having superior autobiographical memory is like having the ability to time travel to whenever she wants.
“I’m back looking through my eyes,” she said. “Like I see what I was wearing the date of that first date that I randomly pulled out ... But I pulled it out and I know exactly what I was wearing and where we went to dinner and, you know, people would say, ‘Well, sounds like you’ve had a very exciting life.’ Even the most mundane things I remember. So, it just kind of lines up that way.”
Early Show co-anchor Rebecca Jarvis gave Henner an opportunity to show her ability by asking her to recall the year 1975. Within seconds, Henner recalled the correct days of the week for holidays of that year.
Henner said her good memory is a “real combination of nature and nurture.” She added that although she has a talent, she also likes to develop her good memory like exercising a muscle.
Henner, who is one of seven people set to judge the 2011 Miss America pageant, will release a book called An Unforgettable Life—Yours: Lessons Learned from an Autobiographical Memory in the coming spring.
Henner is one of six people in the world who is recognized as having superior autobiographical memory.
“People talk about this, how people visualize it sort of in a calendar way like calendar pages,” she said on The Early Show. “For me, the closest thing to it is kind of like selected scenes on a DVD. You know when you see that? OK, so if you name the year, all of a sudden the entire year sort of like lays itself out in chronological order and each day is a different selected scene and some of them are more vivid than others, but I can go to each day and it sort of comes up.”
Henner said that having superior autobiographical memory is like having the ability to time travel to whenever she wants.
“I’m back looking through my eyes,” she said. “Like I see what I was wearing the date of that first date that I randomly pulled out ... But I pulled it out and I know exactly what I was wearing and where we went to dinner and, you know, people would say, ‘Well, sounds like you’ve had a very exciting life.’ Even the most mundane things I remember. So, it just kind of lines up that way.”
Early Show co-anchor Rebecca Jarvis gave Henner an opportunity to show her ability by asking her to recall the year 1975. Within seconds, Henner recalled the correct days of the week for holidays of that year.
Henner said her good memory is a “real combination of nature and nurture.” She added that although she has a talent, she also likes to develop her good memory like exercising a muscle.
Henner, who is one of seven people set to judge the 2011 Miss America pageant, will release a book called An Unforgettable Life—Yours: Lessons Learned from an Autobiographical Memory in the coming spring.
Henner is one of six people in the world who is recognized as having superior autobiographical memory.
