The 10% myth? Pls help

I was having a friendly heated conversation with the editor of a "skeptic" site.

Our arguement is regarding the "we only use 10% of our brains" statement.

The only proof I have of this being true is what I was taught in school. Teachers have been wrong.

I am quite impressed with the findings that have come up by people here on this site, so I thought I would turn to someone more proffessional than an angry guy sending me crappy links, that don't really back up his statement of it being hearsay.

My idea was, that if we only use a small percentage of our full mental capacity, perhaps this would explain telekinesis, clairvoyance, etc....

And if anyone knows if there have ever been any cases of this being hypothesized along side such "super-abilities"

Thanx

Neuroscience for Kids - 10% of the Brain Myth

In other words, the statement, "We use only 10% of our brains" is false; it's a myth. We use all of our brain. Let's look at the possible origins of this myth and the evidence that we use all of our brain.

...snip...

So next time you hear someone say that they only use 10% of their brain, you can set them straight. Tell them,

"NOT TRUE; We use 100% of our brains."

I thought this was widely accepted as myth nowadays. That link (btw i meant you no offense by the "for kids" in the title) covers all the angles, do you still disagree?

I always thought we used 100% of our brain at 10% capacity/capability.

Or maybe it's just me

Allot of times, when you have questions like this you can get the answers at Snopes. Here's a link and sorry, but the news doesn't look good for your argument.

10% of brain

Hope it helps,

Wupy

The snopes debunker states that the myth is suspect.

I'm not saying that it is wrong, just wondering why they used the word suspect instead of false. But you're correct, it doesn't look to good.

There also was a thing on the bbc website that scientists give PROOF our brains are still evolving....

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4222460.stm

idk about humans in general but as for americans, id say most of em arent even using half their brain. just watch them and their actions, its proof enough. (and yes i do live in america, but i disclude myself from them)

id imagine we use 100% of what we comprehend is available to use.

As long as i see it, we use the 100% of our brain, but only a small percentage of our mind

Originally posted by atomica_26
My idea was, that if we only use a small percentage of our full mental capacity, perhaps this would explain telekinesis, clairvoyance, etc....

And if anyone knows if there have ever been any cases of this being hypothesized along side such "super-abilities"

IMHO the brain doesn't have much or anything to do with psi-abilities. Those are all capabilities of your mind, which IMO is actually seperate from the brain.

I don't think brain usage is a paranormal topic.
It is interesting how many of us were told that 10% thing and believe it.

Perhaps a move to the Education & Media forum can bring even more opinions to thsi subject.

Here is a bit of scientific research we conducted at the ATS brain research and lunch making facility in Carlsbad. It proves it is probably true for some people! Let this be a lesson to all....think about gigabytes, processors, servers and conspiracies and you will use a lot more of your brain!












- One Man Short

Its a myth that we dont use 100% of our brains. What we can't do is use 100% of our brain at any one time. But over the course of say a day we use all of our brain.

If it is true that we humans only use 10% of our brains, I doubt that we would have made it out of our collective gene pool. Just my .2 cents

i found this at Wikipedia:

Myth: Humans use only 10% or 1% of their brain. Though the brain still holds mysteries that are being studied, every part of the brain is known to have a function. A possible origin of this myth is the fact that only about 10% of the neurons in the brain are firing at any given time. However, if all of your neurons began firing at once, you would not become smarter, but instead suffer an epileptic seizure. In fact studies have shown that the brains of more intelligent people are less active than the brains of less intelligent people, when working on the same problems.

[edit on 14-11-2005 by XyZeR]

I believed that 10% for the longest time for some reason. I eventually came across some obvious evidence to the contrary (cat scans etc) that disprove this. Also when you get brain damage it can significantly reduce your IQ etc.

Originally posted by XyZeR
i found this at Wikipedia:

Myth: Humans use only 10% or 1% of their brain. Though the brain still holds mysteries that are being studied, every part of the brain is known to have a function. A possible origin of this myth is the fact that only about 10% of the neurons in the brain are firing at any given time. However, if all of your neurons began firing at once, you would not become smarter, but instead suffer an epileptic seizure. In fact studies have shown that the brains of more intelligent people are less active than the brains of less intelligent people, when working on the same problems.

Yep, that's true.

And it's because the neuron pathways in the brain are thicker (think: the bus has more width, instead of 32bit computing, you have 64 bit computing).

And when you have a concussion, these pathways are completely screwed, and it takes many weeks for them to recover.

Hint: Don't take any tests after a concussion.

Originally posted by atomica_26
I was having a friendly heated conversation with the editor of a "skeptic" site.

Our arguement is regarding the "we only use 10% of our brains" statement.

The only proof I have of this being true is what I was taught in school. Teachers have been wrong.

I am quite impressed with the findings that have come up by people here on this site, so I thought I would turn to someone more proffessional than an angry guy sending me crappy links, that don't really back up his statement of it being hearsay.

My idea was, that if we only use a small percentage of our full mental capacity, perhaps this would explain telekinesis, clairvoyance, etc....

And if anyone knows if there have ever been any cases of this being hypothesized along side such "super-abilities"

Thanx

Well, that explains why my head hurts after I think.lol
My teachers in elementry were naive and guallible to say the least or forced to go with the system and deal with my a hyper active inquizative short person. I hate hearing that too. And now in Time magaizine, they have this BS about ambition, that's suppose the white collars why their "better" and the blue collars aren't. I say "F-U, You so haven't met me time magazine, Bad, Time Magazine, Bad!"

Bad science=bad students
bad teaching methods=bad students
bad curiculim material=bad/dumb students and teachers
bad govt. control=NWO controlled students, parents, schools, and teachers.

I think this is equivocation. It depends on what is meant by "use."

Sure, we all use 100%, but not at the same time.....even snopes said that. How much we use at a time? Maybe we do use 10%.

If so, I don't think it has anything to do with psychic ability.

From Wikipedia.
In fact studies have shown that the brains of more intelligent people are less active than the brains of less intelligent people, when working on the same problems.
That's irrelevant. Psychologist and doctors don't know everything about intelligence, but it has more to with a more efficient use of pathways and connections in the brain than activity. Brain damage causing IQ drops ? It can and does, but that doesn't disprove the 10% thing.

Mind Hack By Tom Stafford and Matt Webb has a section on the myth(hack #6). They present four basic arguments:
1. Losing any part of the brain impairs functionality
2. Brain imaging shows all parts of the brain
3. Evolution wouldn't evolve useless brain tissue
4. "developmental studies indicate that neurons that are not employed early in life are likely never to recover"

Further, they claim the statistic comes as a selling point from the self-help industry. However, I don't see how any of this precludes improving your IQ, or other such things.

I think we use only 10-30% of our brain at any one time.
But we use diferant parts of the brain for diferant tasks.

Oblviously, its impossible to use all of our brain at the same time.
To do that we would have to move every single muscles at the same time, plus draw, read and right at the same time.

On a side note: I think New World Order is a great thing.
Considering how messed up the world is now.

cya