Why I think our brains are so powerful

The brain is an incredible thing, I think everybody agrees. The most fascinating part to me is how we are able to do complex tasks 100.0000% correctly in times of sudden danger with absolutely no time to prepare.

I started longboarding just over a year ago. I'm pretty good at it, but I can't do anything crazy. When I'm about to fall, however I can do the craziest shit ever. It's like I wouldn't have thought in my wildest dreams that I could do the things that I do.

Ex. I'm going down carving a hill when my rear wheels slip. So my board is suddenly perpendicular to the way I'm going, and I'm going fast. I actually rode the board standing on it while sliding all the way until I slowed down enough to simply jump off. For the record, I can't even slide my board even a bit normally.

Also, when I fall I coordinate every single part of my body so perfectly that it amazes me. Every time I get out of a fall that could have easily broken bones without even a scratch. I do not know when I could have possibly learned to do this.


Is this simply an example of our brains' huge power? Maybe, but I think there's more to it. First, I strongly believe that our brain is a quantum computer. That would explain our brains' huge power. But let's think bigger. A property of quantum mechanics is that if two particles were once connected, after that if you act on one particle, you act on its pair instantly even if it is across the universe. This would explain telepathy. Maybe when I was about to fall on my board, my brain telepathically communicated with all my friends who longboard, and this allowed me to do stuff I normally wouldn't.

Also, a lot of people have the "start singing a song randomly, turn the radio on and there it is." I think it could easily be telepathy, one of your friends must've been listening to the same station.

Maybe we are telepathically communicating with our friends all the time, we just don't know it. If telepathy is real, this would make sense evolutionarily. One person possessing a whole group of peoples' knowledge in times of danger is a huge evolutionary advantage. Actually let me rephrase it. If telepathy is real, and evolution is real too, it would be plain stupid if we didn't use telepathy a lot.


What do you guys think about all of this? Does anyone have some cool thoughts to expand upon this topic?

hey man i think u have been smoking a little too much...

JK JK!! its NEVER too much to stop.

i know what u mean that some how we can communicate with other without even know it.
like for example some times me and my dad work together nd when we are on the freeway and he is about to start a subject to talk about i had already thought about the same exact thing like 5 minutes before. and viseversa.

its sum crazy shit.
oh like when u are about to call someone randomly and right before u press dial either they txt u or are calling u at the sme time.
i get that a lot!

quick fact. did you know that the average human only uses about 15 % of their brain??!!!??!!!!! meaning we still have another huge 85% to explore.

I sometimes sit and ponder the actual idea of ones mind. It's hard to wrap your head around how complexy the himan mind is. I'm taking a Psychology class for college and I love it.

BTW Kotton, your wrong. You use your whole brain. Thats jst a myth that you only use part of it. :)

Urban Legends Reference Pages: Ten Percent of our Brains

Our brains are very powerful. I mean it's so precious. That's why I try to keep it away from harmful substances but still expand my mind at the same time with the good :). But yeah the brain has infinite capabilities. It's amazing, some of the individuals we have living and their mental abilities.

Since the brain has different sections to it to achieve different tasks, surely that means that we do infact only use a small percent of the brain for thought processing. However, that's not to say the rest isn't in use, it's just being used for other things like bodily functions. Is that right?

Our brains have to be powerful to make up for our weak furless, clawless, scaleless, unarmored, venomless, hornless, non-winged, fangless, non-fire-breathing bodies... :D

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Originally Posted by Kottonmouth_Dude

quick fact. did you know that the average human only uses about 15 % of their brain??!!!??!!!!! meaning we still have another huge 85% to explore.

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That's a false fact... it's actually about the other way around, we use most of our brains, and there is still some left unexplained and unexplored but it's far less than the amount we actually use.

Just imagine everything that has been created by the human brain.

Your brain needs plenty of water.

Well... while the scientists may have proven that we use our entire brain (what i doubt VERY much), still remains the fact that we only use a very small range of all our mind possibilities. Most people dont live a brain-challenging life... in fact, most people lives a very routine life, doing the same things the same way... and while the entire brain may be used for doing this simple tasks, surely the brain is not being used at its full capacity... i would say everyday tasks uses about 1% (or less) or our total processing capacity... its like someone who has the newest computer but uses it only to play mp3... while this same computer could be used to heavy math simulations, extremly detailed graphics games, etc, and all it at the same time...
Or... we use our entire body to walk... but it doesnt mean that we are using all our body capacity when walking... we can also jog, or run... which also uses the entire body, but it uses more of our body capacity.


To the OP... i think when we are in sudden danger we are far more skillful because we are very concentrated in what were doing. When youre almost falling from your board, the only thing you want is not to fall. You dont think about anything else... so all your mind in concentrated in not falling, and thus you do what seems to be incredible feats... but they are simply the result of extreme concentration in what youre doing.
In fact we people can do things far beyond we believe. But what lack us is concentration. Our minds are like "drunk and horny monkeys, jumping from branch to branch"... we cant sustain any thought much longer than some seconds... soon, very soon other thoughts appears to compete with it, and soon our mind was taken away by other thougts... and thats why usually we are just "average" in the things we do... cause we are not concentrating enough in it.
Concentration is the key for everything. All the things called "psychic powers" are just result of great concentration, of thinking only one thought during a long time, without allowing any interference.
There is a lot more to be said in this subject... but i think is already long enough. Maybe later... :stoned:

your brain is useless if you cant smell, hear, see, taste or feel. Imagine if you were born with no senses what so ever, then you wouldnt even have a concouis or anything because your concouis is the brains interpetation of sensories. Just need to get that approved to take a baby and tear its eyes out and rip out its tung, cut the nose off and give it pain killers. Then we can really find out what happens when a human does not even have any senses at all

mind over matters what matters........:stoned:

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Originally Posted by Kottonmouth_Dude

quick fact. did you know that the average human only uses about 15 % of their brain??!!!??!!!!! meaning we still have another huge 85% to explore.

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As other members have pointed out, this is not completely true. We always use 100% of our brain. During everyday activities, we use about 15% of our brain power to perform those everyday functions, all of the remianing 85% is put to use thinking about sex.

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Originally Posted by Alexico

your brain is useless if you cant smell, hear, see, taste or feel. Imagine if you were born with no senses what so ever, then you wouldnt even have a concouis or anything because your concouis is the brains interpetation of sensories. Just need to get that approved to take a baby and tear its eyes out and rip out its tung, cut the nose off and give it pain killers. Then we can really find out what happens when a human does not even have any senses at all

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ya or what if just put it in one of those sensory deprivation chambers and fed it through tubes and shit.......haha it would probly look fucked up when you took it out

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Originally Posted by Alexico

your brain is useless if you cant smell, hear, see, taste or feel. Imagine if you were born with no senses what so ever, then you wouldnt even have a concouis or anything because your concouis is the brains interpetation of sensories. Just need to get that approved to take a baby and tear its eyes out and rip out its tung, cut the nose off and give it pain killers. Then we can really find out what happens when a human does not even have any senses at all

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Originally Posted by affasd

ya or what if just put it in one of those sensory deprivation chambers and fed it through tubes and shit.......haha it would probly look fucked up when you took it out

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You two should start a mad scientist club.

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Originally Posted by dragonrider

During everyday activities, we use about 15% of our brain power to perform those everyday functions, all of the remianing 85% is put to use thinking about sex.

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Well... i think its actually true for we men... but i dont know if its also true for women... unfortunately. :p

Did you know that your brain goes through 7 different process steps when making a decision? Even a simple questions posed to you, like, do you like pizza?..your brain goes through 7 steps and then you have your answer. I remember that from Gr. 11 psych...trippy eh?

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Also, when I fall I coordinate every single part of my body so perfectly that it amazes me. Every time I get out of a fall that could have easily broken bones without even a scratch. I do not know when I could have possibly learned to do this.

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I don't think your mind telepathically uses all your friends information to not fall :stoned:

BUT, I do think we have databases of stuff we didn't create or learned, maybe they come pre-installed in our minds from the collective unconscious of all beings :)

Hey, this is actually a subject I'm very interested in. If you didn't see my post, I'm going to grad. school for neuroscience. Now I don't want to put down anyone's beliefs, but I'll lay down some cool things I've learned.

As far as our brain's being quantum computers, you're pretty close to what our brains are really like. Although we don't calculate things at an atomic level, like a quantum computer, our brains work in a parallel processing manner (with some tasks serial). I mean we have dozens of processes going on at the same time in perfect concert to create the illusion of consciousness. This is a hotly debated topic, but I believe the syncing up of all our incoming sensory information and planning for the future at the same time is what we call consciousness.

One interesting thing about consciousness, that supports my former belief, is that there is no center in the brain to which all information goes to. There is really no start or end in the connections of all the cells in the brain, it makes a kind of neural net.

Each cell can make up to around 8,000 connections. You start with supposedly (no one has really counted) 100 billion neurons at the height of puberty. You can imagine how big the number of potential connections there are in the brain.

Each second (after puberty) you lose an average of 5,000 neurons to automatic cell death processes (to prune unnecessary connections/neurons).

The brain can use up all of its "resources" and be around 100% processing load at least for some specific tasks. For example, try reading and talking about a different subject. Its basically impossible because you only have a limited capacity for your "inner monologue" (I forget what its called).

Can't think of any more at the moment...

Your brain can actually slow relative time in tense situations. They did a test with a digital number board, in which the numbers were flicking by too fast too see under normal conditions, but for the first time bungie jumper it was easy to distingish the sequence. What is actually happening it you are seeing faster then normal, kind of like a video card, normally you get 32frames per second, but overclocked you get 60fps. This is also why people in tense situations report it feeling like it took place longer then it actually did. Time is just a chemical reaction within the brain anyway.

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Originally Posted by Alexico

your brain is useless if you cant smell, hear, see, taste or feel. Imagine if you were born with no senses what so ever, then you wouldnt even have a concouis or anything because your concouis is the brains interpetation of sensories.

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What if....by not having those senses...you would see life as it really is? Without filters...

Or what if, your brain took over and created false information to compensate for the senses. Now that could be wild too :jointsmile:

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Originally Posted by SantaClawz

Your brain can actually slow relative time in tense situations. They did a test with a digital number board, in which the numbers were flicking by too fast too see under normal conditions, but for the first time bungie jumper it was easy to distingish the sequence. What is actually happening it you are seeing faster then normal, kind of like a video card, normally you get 32frames per second, but overclocked you get 60fps. This is also why people in tense situations report it feeling like it took place longer then it actually did. Time is just a chemical reaction within the brain anyway.

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I think its the same thing that happens when we smoke and the time seems to slow down... :stoned:

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Originally Posted by CanaDanKs Inc.

What if....by not having those senses...you would see life as it really is? Without filters...

Or what if, your brain took over and created false information to compensate for the senses. Now that could be wild too :jointsmile:

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Man... thats deep... :stoned: and the worst part is that i understand what you mean... :stoned:

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Originally Posted by CanaDanKs Inc.

Or what if, your brain took over and created false information to compensate for the senses. Now that could be wild too :jointsmile:

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Google "isolation tank" :)

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Originally Posted by partcleguy

This is a hotly debated topic, but I believe the syncing up of all our incoming sensory information and planning for the future at the same time is what we call consciousness.

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That certainly is part, if not all, of consciousness. Very interesting... :jointsmile:

Sometimes you can actually feel how large our planet is.

Sometimes you can actually feel how stoned other people are^^^^

Haha good stuff :thumbsup:

The other dat I was reading about The strain Great White Shark,
and thought to myself,"wouldn't it be sweet if my club got that?"
The Next Day as I went to make a Purchase,They had Great White Shark!
odd.....:thumbsup:

you guys should watch that movie the secret itll trip you out

Yes, the human mind is an incredible thing.

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Originally Posted by OntarioToker69

The other dat I was reading about The strain Great White Shark,
and thought to myself,"wouldn't it be sweet if my club got that?"
The Next Day as I went to make a Purchase,They had Great White Shark!
odd.....:thumbsup:

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Your superpowers are truly amazing...

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Originally Posted by dragonrider

Your superpowers are truly amazing...

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Sorry for being off-topic here,

but hey there dragonrider! haven't been on in a while...good to see you are still here. So, whereabouts in Ca are you, by the way?

And about the quote...Now that I think of it, OT69, may I have your autograph, man?

Hey CanaDanks!

I am in northern CA, around the Bay Area. I grew up in San Diego, so I know some of the areas where you have done your adventuring, but I don't get down there much, except maybe once a year to visit family.

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Originally Posted by rebgirl420

BTW Kotton, your wrong. You use your whole brain. Thats jst a myth that you only use part of it. :)

Urban Legends Reference Pages: Ten Percent of our Brains

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The myth originated from a study that concluded that the average human uses 10 - 15% of their brains at any given time. Now, if we were constantly using the full 100% of our brains at once... well things would happen.

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Originally Posted by couch-potato

The myth originated from a study that concluded that the average human uses 10 - 15% of their brains at any given time. Now, if we were constantly using the full 100% of our brains at once... well things would happen.

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I believe that human brains are quantum devices, able to tap into the energy around them. The average human uses 10 - 15% of their brain, and I feel they use the same amount of their perceptions, and are only aware of 10 - 15% of what's going on. At 100 percent at all times, a human could and probably would learn quite a bit, and would be able to perceive every viewpoint and outcome.

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Originally Posted by maxsuperdanks

I believe that human brains are quantum devices, able to tap into the energy around them. The average human uses 10 - 15% of their brain, and I feel they use the same amount of their perceptions, and are only aware of 10 - 15% of what's going on. At 100 percent at all times, a human could and probably would learn quite a bit, and would be able to perceive every viewpoint and outcome.

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sorry dude, but the truth is humans use about 85-100% of their brain. (depending on the situation)

it may not be noticeable but the next time you sweat, get thirsty, get hungry, feel pain, feel any sensation at all, that your brain had to go and find the memory of those things by itself without being asked, just doing it, and giving it to your body in a matter of milli-seconds.

your brain has the ability to delay certain sensations, such as pain, but only when absolutely necessary will it do this.

your brain is constantly doing minor and major adjustments to your body, keeping you alive, so if im using 10%, how do i survive doing math problems?

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Originally Posted by marijuanavillebilly

sorry dude, but the truth is humans use about 85-100% of their brain. (depending on the situation)

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Well... even if we use our whole brain (what i doubt very much), it does not mean that we are using it at its full capacity.
It may be like a factory with with lots of workers and very few work to do. Everybody may be working, but each worker can be working very slowly, chatting a bit, having a coffee, smoking a joint...

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Originally Posted by marijuanavillebilly

it may not be noticeable but the next time you sweat, get thirsty, get hungry, feel pain, feel any sensation at all, that your brain had to go and find the memory of those things by itself without being asked, just doing it, and giving it to your body in a matter of milli-seconds.

your brain has the ability to delay certain sensations, such as pain, but only when absolutely necessary will it do this.

your brain is constantly doing minor and major adjustments to your body, keeping you alive, so if im using 10%, how do i survive doing math problems?

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Well... while it is indeed an amazing work our brain does, still it is not everything that our brains can do. It is only a very small part of all our possibilities. Most of our brain skills we dont even know we have.
When we are babies, our brains have its full potential. Then, during our growth and learning, we start to use some areas of it, which are related to the things we learn to do, and stop to use other areas of it, which are not related to the things we learn to do. So, what we learn when were childs is what defines which areas of our brain we will keep using, and which areas will be "turned off" due lack of use.
So, when we are adults we are masters of using only the parts of the brain we learned to use, and think its all our brains can do.

If we didn't use most of our brain, we wouldn't have it. It is a very expensive organ in terms of it's energy use, nutrition needs, and the many years it adds to our maturing to devlop it. If we didn't need it, evolution would have got rid of it.

I think it is sort of like the engine of your car. You don't drive around at flat-out, maximum power, with your engine redlined all the time. But if your car didn't need the extra power that it takes to accellerate and to drive fast when necessary, the engineers would not put it in. Why pay for the extra power and fuel consumption if it's not needed?

Also, like an engine, your brain is not capable of maintaining its maximum capacity all the time. Have you ever had to do long stretches of intense brain wrok? It is exhausting.

And I'd like to know how these scientists come up with the idea that you only use some small percentage of your brain. Do they mean you only use that much for conscious thought? Do they mean when you are just sitting around doing nothing except breathing and digesting or when you are doing calculus? How do they determine what the maximum capacity is, and how do they determine how much you are using? Say I am doing something that uses all the brain power I am able to muster, like an intense calculation of some kind, is that what they call the maximum? Or do they still call that only 15% because not every single neuron lights up on the CAT scan?

I have a feeling this statistic is something that a scientist used to describe one specific kind of measurable brain phenomenon, and people have taken it out of context to suggest that we aren't developing our minds the way we should.

The brain is a fascinating organ. Everything from split-second reaction times to fight-or-flight instincts are hardwired, and even if you've never been confronted with a fight-or-flight scenario, your brain will instinctively know what to do should the need ever arise.

I ride motorcycles, and anyone who's a fellow rider knows that things can happen in a fraction of a second that could mean the difference between life and death. I've had idiot drivers swerve across FOUR lanes of interstate traffic in apparent attempts to knock me off my bike, yet in less than a second, I instinctively knew to jam the brakes or punch the throttle just in time to avoid a collision. Same story with animals running crossing my path, elderly drivers pulling right out in front of me, potholes, etcetera. When I see these things, my initial reaction is to panic and freeze up, but then my brain takes over and makes me lean the bike to one side or the other, and narrowly escape disaster. Been riding some sort of motorized bike since I was 10 years old, and been riding sportbikes for nearly 10 years now. Only one wreck to date, which was my fault, and a gazillion close calls/near misses... and counting.

Cool thread, by the way.

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Originally Posted by Mr. Clandestine

The brain is a fascinating organ. Everything from split-second reaction times to fight-or-flight instincts are hardwired, and even if you've never been confronted with a fight-or-flight scenario, your brain will instinctively know what to do should the need ever arise.

I ride motorcycles, and anyone who's a fellow rider knows that things can happen in a fraction of a second that could mean the difference between life and death. I've had idiot drivers swerve across FOUR lanes of interstate traffic in apparent attempts to knock me off my bike, yet in less than a second, I instinctively knew to jam the brakes or punch the throttle just in time to avoid a collision. Same story with animals running crossing my path, elderly drivers pulling right out in front of me, potholes, etcetera. When I see these things, my initial reaction is to panic and freeze up, but then my brain takes over and makes me lean the bike to one side or the other, and narrowly escape disaster. Been riding some sort of motorized bike since I was 10 years old, and been riding sportbikes for nearly 10 years now. Only one wreck to date, which was my fault, and a gazillion close calls/near misses... and counting.

Cool thread, by the way.

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Be sure to wear a helmet, otherwise if you get in another accident, you may only end up being left with 10% to 15% of your brain (which is apparently enough by some estimates).

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Originally Posted by dragonrider

Be sure to wear a helmet, otherwise if you get in another accident, you may only end up being left with 10% to 15% of your brain (which is apparently enough by some estimates).

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LMAO! Helmet laws are mandatory in my state, and even if they weren't, I'd still wear my full-face helm and riding jacket (which resembles blue anatomical body armor) everywhere I go. After living in Florida for several years, where there are no helmet laws, I've seen what happens to human skulls that smash into the pavement going 70+ mph... as you can probably imagine, it ain't pretty. I think any biker who doesn't adorn a helmet before he rides is only using 10%-15% of his brain, anyway.

anybody interested in this thread should pick up a copy of "The Accidental Mind", it's an amazing book about why the impressive concepts of the brain are nothing more than evolutionary ice-cream scoops, just building up on past developments.

Like intuition... if you close your eyes and someone holds something out in front of you, there is a high percentage that you will find it with your hand on the first try. This is an archaic type of "sight" that our early early early ancestors had, I'm talking swimming boogers ancestors.

It's really quite an amazing book.

and ps...on the whole "we don't use more than 10-15% of our brain", as far as I've understood it that's only slightly true... we utilize all of our brain, but we don't use more than 10-15% of it at a given time.

Apparantly if we used all of the parts in our brain simultaneously, the firing synapses would send us into seizures. We've been set up with a brain that we are physically incapable of utilizing to it's full potential. Funny. :)

Well... for example: some people know how to play a musical instrument, or juggle things, or speak another language, or do math, and some people dont. Everybody (presumably) can learn to do this things, which are controled by different parts of the brain.
This parts are there in everybodys brains. The difference is the ones who knows how to do this things are using this parts of the brain, while the ones who dont know are not.
I had some teachers that used to say that the brain is much like a muscle... if you exercise it, it becomes stronger and you can use it even more. But if you dont exercise it, it becomes weak and easily tired.
Being high is another example. Im sure when were high our brain is using different parts of it, parts that are not usually active when were sober, and thats why when were high we notice several things, we realize things, which we would never do if we were sober.
Also there are several people who has "psychic" abilities... and much of them were normal people who learned it, (there is courses of it), what shows that the ability to do it was already into their (and presumably everybodys) brains, just waiting to be used.
So, i think when they say we only use 15% of our brain they mean we only use 15% of our total possibilities, 15% of everything we would learn to do with our brains.
And if it were what they mean, i would think its a very high estimate... im sure our brains are FAR more powerful than that. Maybe this 15% refers only to the abilities they know, instead of all total possibilities...