What Can We Do With The Other 90% Of Our Brain? Any Real Facts Or Good Theories??

I would like to know if any respectable scientist, or neurologist have ever came up with theories? Telepathy? Self healing? Massive data storage, like photo graphic memory, or complete visual memory that you can recall your todler years like a movie?(that'll be sweet! )

Can anyone provide with links (preferably video links) on theories on this topic, or do YOU have any interesting idea's of what can we do with the other 90% of our brain that we supposedly "don't use"?

[edit on 21-12-2009 by king Pop!p]

What other 90% of the brain are you talking about? We use the whole brain but on average only 10% of it is fired up because thats all there is needed. However, I´m sure there are situations where you need to use more where the brain goes on overload, like in do or die situations where quick thinking is essential.
People that have been in life or death situations feel as time slows down by a whole lot, seconds can feel like minutes. This I´m sure is because of hyper brain activity. The system is on overload because that is needed. I wouldnt be surprised if we used 200% of the brain in situations like that.

well most of that 90% regulates body temperature and the heart and liver function and all that jazz that keeps you alive and working.

I agree with the above poster. The 90% isn't "not in use", it's just not being noticed. In other words, our logic and reason and abilities like that come within that 10% parameter. Breathing, muscle contractions, and innate abilities like those, come within the 90% parameter.

Ugh, not this crap.

We use 100% of our brain. All the damn time. That's why it's there. If we only used 10% of our brain, it would be 90% smaller.

As has already been said, we do use all of our brain, just not at the same time. One part of your brain may be related to moving your left big-toe, while another part of your brain may be related to memory functions.

In saying that, I know a few people who I'm sure use less than 10% of their brain

Originally posted by TheWalkingFox
If we only used 10% of our brain, it would be 90% smaller.

LOL, or we could remove 90% of it without consequence?

We'd die.

If we assume that we only use 10% of our brain capacity, then at 50% operating capacity your brain would be using up 100% of your bodies daily caloric intake. Your brain already accounts for about 1/5th of the energy consumption of your entire body in a day.

The truth of the matter is that our brains are already functioning at full capacity around the clock. There are over 400 (IIRC) unique and specialized brain regions which have been mapped and studied. They're just not all being stimulated at the same time, but they are all always working. For instance, blind people still use their visual cortex to read braille.

I'll try to find some good videos on Neuroscience and Cognitive Psychology if you want.

[edit on 21-12-2009 by Lasheic]

reply to post by king Pop!p


There are many credible sources saying, that we do infact use more than 10% of our brains. The neuropsychology has demonstrated this with their brain scanning technologies.

Whenever I venture out of the Ivory Tower to deliver public lectures about the brain, by far the most likely question I can expect as the talk winds up is, "Do we really only use 10 percent of our brains?" The look of disappointment that usually follows when I say it isn't so strongly suggests that the 10-percent myth is one of those hopeful shibboleths that refuses to die simply because it would be so darn nice if it were true.

Read more...

-v

Derren Brown has some ideas:

I know it looks like we use only ten percent, but the doleful truth is that's all there is.

Homo Sapiens: 90 percent stupider than we think we are.

All of the brain is active you are confusing activity/inactivity with conscious/subconscious brain usage


through meditation/hypnosis more of the subconscious mind can be accessed.
For examples see some of the interesting things Tibetan monks can do.
(Changing body temp, Withstanding great force/weight, et cetera)

More definitely is possible but we must step outside the realm of conventional science and begin to improve on this 'new wing' of learning.
Over seeking this will cause failure. This conquest is one that is difficult to get a grip on through our senses. In a way what we think we are, and what we perceive, are bound. A new lateral learning approach as opposed to directional learning is the approach I'm going with.

[edit on 21-12-2009 by '___'omino]

reply to post by king Pop!p


Don't feel bad I was in the same camp as you until I read through all the above posts. I was even ready to spout out a theory or two and thought I'd skim the replies to see if anyone had touched on them and, well what do you know, learn something new everyday.

The 10% of the brain that can be "active" is made up of neurons. We don't use the whole 10% at one time either. The other parts of our brain are used too, but are made up of glial cells.

I do wonder if there if there is a part of the brain that we don't use however. Or possibly that we don't know the use of? Kind of like the brains version of the tonsils.

WRONG.

We use more that 90% or our brain !

Really : you use 90% brain when driving etc...

Just some scientist really don't understand the brain, and what is a system : and they spoke loodly : the mass media love that: stupidity : and illusions.

The only barrier you can reach is in your vision of the reality. So be more open, skeptical : think that there is not one answer but many answers : think COMPLEXITY : and you will reach the next step of evolution.

IQ , "intelligence" : it is just training : ( ie : self experience ).

We see this same Q: posed here on ATS about once a month. The answer today is the same one you would get if you had looked at past threads.

We use 100% of our brains. However, we only use ~10% at any one time, as various parts of the brain operate different tasks at different times.

reply to post by king Pop!p


I don't know any "proof" in regards to these things exept for some assumptions.

Let's start with synthenesia. The ability to cross senses with one another. Some people who suffer brain damage end up being able to tase sounds, or smell colors that sort of thing.

With that in mind we have to look at what we actually process as humans.

The human brain processes aprox 200 trillion bits of information per second, you are only conciously aware of about 200 thousand of those, or 2 percent.

Some use more but the average is that if I am not mistaken. Einstein was said to use as much as 10%.

Now we are processing the information ,but our brain isn't doing anything with it other than using it to regulate our body functions.

If we could use the 100% there would be so many possibilies to fathom it's almost impossible to name them all.

Telekenesis, telepathy, super strenght all the things super heroes have.

X ray vision for one if we were able to see the full spectrum of light. Super sight, super hearing etc..

~Keeper

Whenever someone talks about the 10-90 brain percentage theory, I always think of chess. I play chess often, and I can view the brain's functions as kind of like a computer chess program. You see, when the game first starts, there are a lot of possibilities, but only a few really good possibilities. As the game progresses, the possibilities become larger or smaller, but oftentimes there is really only a few really good moves each time. After the "opening" when both sides have many pieces played out, there are a lot of possibilities for the "middle game" but when the game comes to the "end game" when there are just a few pawns, maybe a rook or two, and the kings, the possibilities are extremely limited, or rather, the good moves are extremely limited. What I'm getting at is, that if the brain supposedly only uses 10 percent of its functioning, maybe this is due to the fact that we know that the "good moves" are limited, while the possibilities are great, many of these possibilities are not worth looking into. For instance, when the chess game begins, it is foolish to think of moving the pawns in front of the rooks, because bringing the rook out so early in the game is not a wise move. Although the queen can be moved out early on, and a lot of possibilities arising from this, there are not a lot of good moves to do, and a lot of ways to defend it. For this reason, I find it amusing when new players try to bring the queen out too early, because oftentimes the defense against the queen is easy, and many of those defenses also threaten the queen. So if the brain uses 10 percent of its operating functions, perhaps this is because the spirit/consciousness limits the amount of possibilities.

The other 90 percent could be similar to the stored knowledge that is left unused. For example, an encyclopedia or dictionary has a lot of entries, but you only use a certain entry at a time. In the same way, if our brain is 100 percent knowledge, but we only use 10 percent at a time, perhaps it means we are only using the 10 percent that is necessary. I would think that motor skills do not use too much of the brain since they are so automatic, whereas critical thinking skills requires more. Playing a game like chess or reading a book would increase brain activity.

So maybe the secret to using more of your brain is to think about the "good moves" as opposed to the limitless possibility of bad moves.

As for the psychic powers, I think the mystery involves doing things with the mind. This is a separate issue, but I'll talk briefly about that.

It is not considered a psychic power unless we use the mind only. For instance, if someone claims to be levitating, but then they are really just using a plank or a lever, this is a "fraud" because it was not used by the mind only. This is an impossible request, of course, because how can action be performed only with the mind and not body? Even if the mind was going to make the body levitate, the body would also have to be involved. Would someone ask to see a body levitate, without the body involved? That would simply be the imagination, viewable only within your own mind, not another. So I think psychic powers are impossible because it is impossible to do things only with the mind and not body. With that said, the imagination does operate within the mind and not the physical world, so imagination is the only real psychic power. These powers become practical when you use imagination in a creative way to come up with some type of invention or method.

To men, the other 90% are required to understand women.

To women, the other 90% are required to open the pickles jar.



EDIT: Ok, let me contribuinte with something more than just a joke. =)

One, if ot the main obstacle for the development of Artificial intelligence is to try to recreate the way the brain works.

The comparisson of our brain with the chip processors of a computer is nothing new. Let me borrow that analogy to explain ONE way to see why we don't use most of our brain capacity.

Remember the feeling you got when you bought your new computer? You timed how long it took to reboot and enter Windows. How fast you could play the latest games without lagging and so on. Then time goes by, you install new softwares, surf the web, visit pr0n sites and soon enough your computer is a piece of garbage again.

Fact: most people don't use the full processing capacity of their computers. Hech, when you first use your new computer it is already configured in not to use its full capacity. You have to tweak it.

So, our default configuration could be seen as the way we are brought up to see the world and to percieve reality.

Then we grow up adding a lot of garbage information into our brains. The school environment, for most part, is not that challenging to our brain. You mostly sit at your uncomfortable chair and listen to the boring teacher and repeat that process over the years.

Then you get a job and sit at your desk doing things that dont challenge you. I know that's not everyone's reality. But I cant describe everyone´s life here so bear with me.

In your free time you play videogames, watch movies or get into any other form of escapism.

And adding up to that the world is full of diseases, pollution, and the food we eat is mostly poison.

So, are we brought up to USE the full capacity of our brain? The bad food, the unhealthy life, the boring hours at school or at work and the waste of our free time in frivolities. Where exactly are we exercising our brain so much?

So, my point is, it's not just about the brain. It's probably also about how we live our lives.

[edit on 22-12-2009 by henriquefd]

Now, if we are using only 10% of our capacity, that means we can do MORE. Maybe we can just do what we already do, but faster. Or we can do NEW things.

If there are not already people using more than 10% of their brain, the first ones to do it will be a minority few.

So, when can we expect the regular Joe to use more than 10% of his brain? I see that scenario happening together with the use of technology.

We are already using chips in our brains to operate computers. So, who knows how much interaction our brains will have the technology in the future. If telepathy is not possible with just our brain, imagine every single human in the planet with a nano-computer in their brains. all those computers connected in one network. the BrainNet. We could talk to people, surf the BrainNetWeb, order pizza, control the electronic equipments in our house, anything, with nothing but the use of our brains.