We Only Use 10% Of Our Brains

**Kaniaz** · 10-15-2004 05:28 PM

This is just a little topic to sort out this myth once and for all. Perhaps it could be stickied or placed somewhere easy to link to and permenant(sp), it would be nice.

Anyway, to summarize, we don't use only 10% of our brains. That's wrong. We use it all, perhaps not all at once, but we do get round to using it all.

Claim: We use only ten percent of our brains.

Status: False.

Origins: Someone
has taken most of your brain away and you probably didn't even know it. Well, not taken your brain away, exactly, but decided that you don't use it. It's the old myth heard time and again about how people use only ten percent of their brains. While for the people who repeat that myth, it's probably true, the rest of us happily use all of our brains.

The Myth and the Media

That tired Ten-Percent claim pops up all the time. In 1998, national magazine ads for U.S. Satellite Broadcasting showed a drawing of a brain. Under it was the caption, \"You only use 11 percent of its potential.\" Well, they're a little closer than the ten-percent figure, but still off by about 89 percent. In July 1998, ABC television ran promotional spots for The Secret Lives of Men, one of their offerings for the fall season's lineup. The spot featured a full-screen blurb that read, \"Men only use ten percent of their brains.\"

One reason this myth has endured is that it has been adopted by psychics and other paranormal pushers to explain psychic powers. On more than one occasion I've heard psychics tell their audiences, \"We only use ten percent of our minds. If scientists don't know what we do with the other ninety percent, it must be used for psychic powers!\" In Reason To Believe: A Practical Guide to Psychic Phenomena, author Michael Clark mentions a man named Craig Karges. Karges charges a lot of money for his \"Intuitive Edge\" program, designed to develop natural psychic abilities. Clark quotes Karges as saying: \"We normally use only 10 to 20 percent of our minds. Think how different your life would be if you could utilize that other 80 to 90 percent known as the subconscious mind.\"

This was also the reason that Caroline Myss gave for her alleged intuitive powers on a segment of Eye to Eye with Bryant Gumbel, which aired in July of 1998. Myss, who has written books on unleashing \"intuitive powers,\" said that everyone has intuitive gifts, and lamented that we use so little of the mind's potential. To make matters worse, just the week before, on the very same program, correct information was presented about the myth. In a bumper spot between the program and commercials, a quick quiz flashed onscreen: What percentage of the brain is used? The multiple-choice answers ranged from 10 percent to 100 percent. The correct answer appeared, which I was glad to see. But if the producers knew that what one of their interviewees said is clearly and demonstrably inaccurate, why did they let it air? Does the right brain not know what the left brain is doing? Perhaps the Myss interview was a repeat, in which case the producers presumably checked her facts after it aired and felt some responsibility to correct the error in the following week's broadcast. Or possibly the broadcasts aired in sequence and the producers simply did not care and broadcast Myss and her misinformation anyway.

Even Uri Geller, who has made a career out of trying to convince people he can bend metal with his mind, trots out this little gem. This claim appears in his book Uri Geller's Mind-Power Book in the introduction: \"Our minds are capable of remarkable, incredible feats, yet we don't use them to their full capacity. In fact, most of us only use about 10 per cent of our brains, if that. The other 90 per cent is full of untapped potential and undiscovered abilities, which means our minds are only operating in a very limited way instead of at full stretch. I believe that we once had full power over our minds. We had to, in order to survive, but as our world has become more sophisticated and complex we have forgotten many of the abilities we once had\" (italicized phrases emphasized in original).

Evidence Against the Ten-Percent Myth

The argument that psychic powers come from the unused majority of the brain is based on the logical fallacy of the argument from ignorance. In this fallacy, lack of proof for a position (or simply lack of information) is used to try to support a particular claim. Even if it were true that the vast majority of the human mind is unused (which it clearly is not), that fact in no way implies that any extra capacity could somehow give people paranormal powers. This fallacy pops up all the time in paranormal claims, and is especially prevalent among UFO proponents. For example: Two people see a strange light in the sky. The first, a UFO believer, says, \"See there! Can you explain that?\" The skeptic replies that no, he can't. The UFO believer is gleeful. \"Ha! You don't know what it is, so it must be aliens!\" he says, arguing from ignorance.

What follows are two of the reasons that the Ten-Percent story is suspect. (For a much more thorough and detailed analysis of the subject, see Barry Beyerstein's chapter in the 1999 book Mind Myths: Exploring Everyday Mysteries of the Mind.)

1) Brain imaging research techniques such as PET scans (positron emission tomography) and fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) clearly show that the vast majority of the brain does not lie fallow. Indeed, although certain minor functions may use only a small part of the brain at one time, any sufficiently complex set of activities or thought patterns will indeed use many parts of the brain. Just as people don't use all of their muscle groups at one time, they also don't use all of their brain at once. For any given activity, such as eating, watching television, making love, or reading, you may use a few specific parts of your brain. Over the course of a whole day, however, just about all of the brain is used at one time or another.

2) The myth presupposes an extreme localization of functions in the brain. If the \"used\" or \"necessary\" parts of the brain were scattered all around the organ, that would imply that much of the brain is in fact necessary. But the myth implies that the \"used\" part of the brain is a discrete area, and the \"unused\" part is like an appendix or tonsil, taking up space but essentially unnecessary. But if all those parts of the brain are unused, removal or damage to the \"unused\" part of the brain should be minor or unnoticed. Yet people who have suffered head trauma, a stroke, or other brain injury are frequently severely impaired. Have you ever heard a doctor say, \". . . But luckily when that bullet entered his skull, it only damaged the 90 percent of his brain he didn't use\"? Of course not.

Variants of the Ten-Percent Myth

The myth is not simply a static, misunderstood factoid. It has several forms, and this adaptability gives it a shelf life longer than lacquered Spam. In the basic form, the myth claims that years ago a scientist discovered that we indeed did use only ten percent of our brains. Another variant is that only ten percent of the brain had been mapped, and this in turn became misunderstood as ten percent used. A third variant was described earlier by Craig Karges. This view is that the brain is somehow divided neatly into two parts: the conscious mind which is used ten to twenty percent of the time (presumably at capacity); and the subconscious mind, where the remaining eighty to ninety percent of the brain is unused. This description betrays a profound misunderstanding of brain function research.

Part of the reason for the long life of the myth is that if one variant can be proven incorrect, the person who held the belief can simply shift the reason for his belief to another basis, while the belief itself stays intact. So, for example, if a person is shown that PET scans depict activity throughout the entire brain, he can still claim that, well, the ninety percent figure really referred to the subconscious mind, and therefore the Ten-Percent figure is still basically correct.

Regardless of the exact version heard, the myth is spread and repeated, by both the well-meaning and the deliberately deceptive. The belief that remains, then, is what Robert J. Samuelson termed a \"psycho-fact, [a] belief that, though not supported by hard evidence, is taken as real because its constant repetition changes the way we experience life.\" People who don't know any better will repeat it over and over, until, like the admonition against swimming right after you eat, the claim is widely believed. (\"Triumph of the Psycho-Fact,\" Newsweek, 9 May 1994.)

The origins of the myth are not at all clear. Beyerstein, of the Brain Behaviour Laboratory at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, has traced it back to at least the early part of the century. A 1998 column in New Scientist magazine also suggested various roots, including Albert Einstein and Dale Carnegie (\"Brain Drain\"). It likely has a number of sources, principally misunderstood or misinterpreted legitimate scientific findings as well as self-help gurus.

The most powerful lure of the myth is probably the idea that we might develop psychic abilities, or at least gain a leg up on the competition by improving our memory or concentration. All this is available for the asking, the ads say, if we just tapped into our most incredible of organs, the brain. It is past time to put this myth to rest, although if it has survived at least a century so far, it will surely live on into the new millennium. Perhaps the best way to combat this chestnut is to reply to the speaker, when the myth is mentioned, \"Oh? What part don't you use?\" [/b]

(from snopes.com)

**LucidApple** · 10-15-2004 05:34 PM

The real question should be...how much do we use with our conscious from that all!
So the conscious part, in percentage how much is that of the 100%.

**docKnubis** · 10-15-2004 05:48 PM

what i think people mean by "we only use 10% of our brains" is we(our conscious selfs) can only control around 10% of our brain power. because if we (our conscious selfs) had 100% control of our brain power that means we would have to be controling our;

Major systems of the human body

* Cardiovascular system: blood circulations with heart and blood vessels
* Digestive system: processing food with mouth, stomach and intestines
* Endocrine system: communicating within the body using hormones
* Excretory system: eliminating wastes from the body
* Immune system: defending against disease-causing agents
* Integumentary system: skin, hair and nails
* Muscular system: moving the body
* Nervous system: collecting, transferring and processing information with brain and nerves
* Reproductive system: the sex organs
* Respiratory system: the organs used for breathing, the lungs
* Skeletal system: structural support and protection through bones

External Features

Common names of well known parts of the human body, from top to bottom :

Skin
Head -- Forehead -- Eye -- Ear -- Nose -- Mouth -- Tongue -- Teeth -- Mandible -- Face -- Cheek -- Chin
Neck -- Throat -- Adam's apple -- Shoulders
Arm -- Elbow -- Wrist -- Hand -- Fingers -- Thumb
Spine -- Chest -- Breast -- Ribcage
Abdomen -- Sex organs (Penis/Scrotum or Vagina) -- Rectum -- Anus
Hip -- Buttocks -- Leg -- Thigh -- Calf -- Knee -- Heel -- Ankle -- Foot -- Toes

Internal organs

Common names of internal organs (in alphabetical order) :

Adrenal glands -- Appendix -- Bladder -- Brain -- Duodenum -- Gall bladder -- Heart -- Intestines -- Kidney --Liver-- Lungs -- Ovaries -- Pancreas -- Parathyroid gland -- Pituitary gland -- Prostate gland -- Spleen -- Stomach -- Thymus gland -- Thyroid gland -- Testicles -- Womb

Brain anatomy terms

Amygdala -- Brainstem -- Cerebellum -- Cerebral cortex -- Hypothalamus -- Limbic system -- medulla-- midbrain -- Pituitary gland -- pons
See also: Human brain, List of regions in the human brain [/b]

quote from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_body

i don't know about you but having to think about controling all of those things all at once would be very hard to do. most people can do like 2 to 4 things at once.

and if we could control and access 100% of our brain power that means we could remember every thing we ever did.

so in conclusion we use all our brain but cant and will (i hope) never control 100%

now bow down to my wisdom

**LucidApple** · 10-15-2004 05:58 PM

Yes that i ment more or less docthory.

Then we also wouldnt need sleep,
and we always would be lucid through all sleep if we would want that.

**docKnubis** · 10-15-2004 06:17 PM

Originally posted by LucidApple
Yes that i ment more or less docthory.

Then we also wouldnt need sleep,
and we always would be lucid through all sleep if we would want that.

ssssshhhhhh not while i'm Digesting (just ate some pizza)

**LucidApple** · 10-15-2004 06:24 PM

Lol doc

**Placebo** · 10-16-2004 04:02 AM

Regarding 'percentage of brain = conscious?'...
The conscious, reasoning, self aware are of our brains is the cortex - the big folded bit on top
The other bits below it are connected far more loosely, and are not as easily controlled (eg they include automatic behaviours - adrenaline, heartbeat, hormonal releases and control of glandular functions)

So its likely that 95% of the 'subconscious' is not part of your cortex area anyway
And that means that the percentage of the brain that is the cortex, is more or less what constitutes the conscious brain

Just a thought, maybe I'm wrong?

**Kaniaz** · 10-16-2004 05:06 AM

I'm no doctor, but all that article tries to say is that "You use all your brain". But obviously, you don't use it all at once. You'd have to be like, sexually excited, in deep thought, daydreaming, listening to music and doing alsorts of other things all at the same time.

Oh, and docthory, I do know that the brain "autopilots" your immune system, breathing, digesting and nervous system, so that's a certain percentage being used constantly (have you ever thought "Hmm. I think I'll turn my immune system on for now")

**Human** · 10-16-2004 05:41 AM

I heard about this 10 % brain usage myth a long time ago, and I agree that it's only a myth, not a factum. Anyway, if it had been true that we only use 10 % of the brain at once, I don't see that this need to be because of something paranormal.?

The way I see it, to use excact the centres in the brain to do a specific task, is a good thing. Because the brain is used more rational and effective. So I think people like elite chess-players use little of their brain while they play chess. And hence, they see solutions long before what's normal to do, because they only use the parts of the brain that is important to play chess, they don't use the whole brain at once.

Anyway, my point is that I don't understand if it would have been because of anything paranormal if the 10 % brain usage was true. I don't get it.

Anyway, just my point of view.

**ThomasELEN** · 10-19-2004 11:25 AM

If there is any truth to the 10% myth at all, I think it refers to the brain during the waking hours. If a person is using +- 10% while awake, that could be a measure of efficiency and not a bad thing. We can do the normal tasks we need to do while awake and only use 10%.

Personally, I believe that 100% of our brain, every single part, has been used at least once in our lives.

**Aneas** · 10-19-2004 07:26 PM

I normally use 10 and 3/4.

**Death-Wuad** · 10-21-2004 07:34 PM

I asked my science teacher about this, he claimed we use %10 of our brains (this is one reason) as a self-defense mechanism. For instance, everytime you get hit in the head with a hammer, like me, that part of your brain gets partially damaged and brain cells die. Some of the %90 'untapped' brain tissue is used to compensate for the lossed brain tissue, or while the damaged spot is ¿healed? or while blood flow is returning to normal.

**Howie** · 10-21-2004 08:30 PM

Associated posts:
10% of your brain
http://www.dreamviews.com/forum/viewtopic....hlight=10+brain

Stupid 10% of your brain crap ends here
http://www.dreamviews.com/forum/viewtopic....hlight=10+brain

**Kaniaz** · 10-22-2004 03:55 AM

Originally posted by Death-Wuad
I asked my science teacher about this, he claimed we use %10 of our brains (this is one reason) as a self-defense mechanism.

I think your science teacher needs to be fired.

**UMJ** · 10-22-2004 08:08 PM

Absolutely true. And of that 10% we are currently only using 4% consciously.

Try this. Put your foot on the floor. Now look at the small are it incompasses. Now look around at all the area around it. The area you foot takes up is your conscious mind and the area around it is your subconscious.

Becoming a genius incases using more of your dorment side of your brain and using subconscious processes on the daily by strengthing your left right brain connection and increasing the information stream for your conscious to your subconscious. If your interested in using more head on over to
www.learningstrategies.com and check out their genius code program. If you have high speed internet you can find it on kazaa or google if you don't want to buy it.

**Death-Wuad** · 10-22-2004 09:39 PM

Fun trick to prove your brain isn't all that powerful: Put your foot out, spin it clock-wise. Now put your arm out, and spin it counter clock-wise. Magic

**Kaniaz** · 10-23-2004 06:24 AM

Originally posted by UMJ
Absolutely true. And of that 10% we are currently only using 4% consciously.

Try this. Put your foot on the floor. Now look at the small are it incompasses. Now look around at all the area around it. The area you foot takes up is your conscious mind and the area around it is your subconscious.

Becoming a genius incases using more of your dorment side of your brain and using subconscious processes on the daily by strengthing your left right brain connection and increasing the information stream for your conscious to your subconscious. If your interested in using more head on over to
www.learningstrategies.com and check out their genius code program. If you have high speed internet you can find it on kazaa or google if you don't want to buy it.

Er. Your foot does not emulate the size of your brain. That's just absurd. Your brain dosen't have dormant parts. Read this.

**Howie** · 10-23-2004 05:14 PM

I feel that it is rather presumptuous of us to claim anything as fact at this point. It is like space. Everytime scientists think they know somthing ( which becomes the layman's fact) somthing new comes up and throws everything of. For example scientists just realized that we do not have any more genes than a ragweed plant. some 2500, when thay previously thought we had millions.
And as far as learning stradegies, altough a very informative site be advised that if you give them your e-mail you will get a butt load of advertisments from them.

**NobleGaz** · 10-24-2004 09:56 AM

In response to the above about using ten percent of the brain, concerning the physical organ that may be true. However it is also true for example that comatose patients who have recovered have reported being able to hear what is going on around them from time to time, while the Encephalagram was reading nill. As well today since the onset of modern resucitation techniques around mid last century, we have heard more and more about the Near Death Experience. Most people, including christians aren't aware of St. Pauls nde event, and the account of it in the bible occurring nearly two thousand years ago. I don't think we need to talk about it in respect to Far Eastern Practice and teaching. "Conciousness is not only a subtler form of matter, but also a more fundamental (basic)form."(From the book The Holographic Universe, by Michael Talbot.) In this book we read about Dr. Karl Pribram, who's mentor repeatedly removed more and more brain matter from mice. After their recovery they went on to return to full function even after there was but tiny percentage of brain matter left within them. After decades of research, neurophysiologist Dr. Karl Pribram concludes that conciousness is not strictly located in the physical brain, and What we consider reality, is but a frequency domain; a symphony of waveform interpreted by the brain into what we see, hear, smell, touch, taste. So, what is "reality" then? 8)

**bradybaker** · 11-17-2004 04:36 AM

The myth that humans only use 10% of their brain arises from this fact:

If you calculate all the possible neural connections that our brain is capable of making (ie. each single neuron connecting to every other single neuron in every possible way) we only actually have about 10-15% of those connections actually taking place. This is mostly for the purpose of efficiency and cognitive maintenance and the fact that we just don't need all of those connections.

Take an Intro Psych course, this isn't very complicated stuff.

**CapeCodder** · 11-17-2004 07:24 AM

I do believe in the view that we do use all our brain, just not all at once. Imagine if we used any other part of our body, be it muscle or organ, to its full potential ALL the time. We'd have some pretty exhausted body parts- So for efficiency and longevity sake, I guess we do use far less of our full potential than we may have. -- Although I'm sure there must be times when we are required to use far more than 10% of our ability, be it physical strength, cognitive reasoning, or any other ability that makes us who we are. That said, I can easily see why many of us might think there are vast untapped portions of our brains. We are all here, right here at this website because of our interest in dreams. How often does this happen in a dream: A character is speaking with a far greater eloquency than I ever could in waking life; A song is played... perhaps I'm even playing it on guitar without missing a single note, even though I can barely put three chords together; A face or a place long clouded, or even forgotten in my conscious waking life becomes crystal clear - while I'm dreaming. I think this strange ability of our minds, an ability that we have little control over (though here in Lucid Dreaming we're trying to get some handle on it), THIS perception is one thing that may convince many people that we are using only a very small portion of our brain. How is it, some might say, that in dreams we have FAR superior recall, vocabulary, and even apparent abilities that we've only briefly observed while awake? Sure, part of the explanation is that parts of our brain are not being used while sleeping, so more 'brain power' can be used doing other things, without all those distractions. But still, it's almost frustrating to wake up and think "Man! -that was wild! I didn't think I remembered that!" So, even though I guess it's not the case, even after we dream it must often APPEAR that we normally use only a fraction of our brain's ability.

**yayotters** · 11-23-2004 05:24 PM

i think i used more than 10% trieing to understand that last post o.o(just kidding) anyways i believe one theory is that if we were able to use 100% of our brain we would have more abilities like telekenisis or something, the theory was something like that.

**Placebo** · 11-24-2004 02:18 AM

Originally posted by yayotters
i think i used more than 10% trieing to understand that last post o.o(just kidding) anyways i believe one theory is that if we were able to use 100% of our brain we would have more abilities like telekenisis or something, the theory was something like that.

Yes, and the theory is complete rubbish

**Shockwaver** · 11-25-2004 06:36 PM

Personally i do not believe that any post on such a subject will ever end the never-ending questions! If the brain in a vat theory is true then all this would be questions directly asking 'myself', then I would at least know that i am a brain capable of feeling into the real reality. Even though I cannot 'unplug' myself directly from here.

Capability suggests on a large scale that I can understand my conciousness, and from here i can understand that if I were to use the whole of my brain I can surely change my vision... my feelings/moods... etc to my experience of life including physical awareness and effectiveness.
And since we can change a fraction of these for fractions of time than what the other person said before about at least going though the whole brain may be true.

>>But brain in a vat suggests a different control keeping me plugged in: so If one day I use the whole of my brain I may be able to wake up into the real reality and know that my brain in this world is too complex to be kept plugged into here... and so my brain will be sitting there waiting for an update which will plug me into a reality which is a lot more ?addictive? in a way...

If my brain is that capable if realising and arguing to different realities for itsels conciousness then surely that would have to overthrow the 'stupid' 10% theory because that would be a design for wild animals. I do think maybe the brain so complex that it could include and disclude everything said on this post because maybe people like smoker and alcoholics who keep destroying brain cells are nearly the usual clever, maybe backup cells are there...
except for memory though backups would not include memories otherwise then we wouldnt forget.

For the psychic stuff that for me goes into Quantum physics (not being ignorant), I mean brain power is definatley there since I experience it sometimes. Feelings and emotions also go into the quantum since I can at my girlfriend and make her feel to look back into my eyes

... just a thought but works everytime.
I believe that as technology and the lifestyle of the planet is going ahead 3 steps at a time in an unpatient way we really are also advancing in fractions! I mean our brains and the brains of our children and theirs...
I realise that the einsteins today are not so einstein for the new generations because they have a more widespread understanding and will be more able. I guess this may not apply to everyone but people like the beatles who have influenced many are less being needed since people are starting to use more and more of their natural resources>> the brain.
Maybe its what i designed. peace out.

**Shockwaver** · 11-25-2004 06:47 PM

Just came to me that what if we all had two minds??? what if a process of the brain was constantly monitoring to not let us understand the real capabilities of the brain eventually including the mind and thus limit us.
What if everytime we became more capable of using more potential of our brain, the mind mechanism was covering up the rest of what we are still to discover??

What if Eistein eventually found a way to two rope-a-dope this mechanism and open himself to a more complex world. Then maybe thats why he left himself out from the really basic operations of life like walking in a park and stay at home to work on black holes and have his hair messed up in photo shoots to let us one day know that he's found something more worth considering.

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We Only Use 10% Of Our Brains

Brain, Mind,and "Reality"

appears to be untapped potential

Maybe a little off topic :P

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