The 10% Brain Myth - Sorry world, we got it wrong, it's true
The discovery of a dormant DNA-based latent mental ability system reveals the greatest myth of all time is true.
by Douglas Swallow on January 22, 2021
The greatest myth of all time is considered by many to be the 10% brain myth. That human beings are only using 10% of their brain. The myth began in 1937 and continues to this day despite a plethora of evidence by the neurological community to the contrary. However, the discovery of a dormant DNA-based system in the insular cortex of the human brain, which is not activated in nearly all of us, supports the idea that we are using a fraction of our latent mental abilities.
The working name of the system is The Natural Performance System, or NPS. When activated, the system enables people to display knowledge in a subject and or perform a task at a startlingly high level with no education or training in either the subject or the task.
The system was first identified in 1998. After 22 years of trials, the research has concluded less than 12% of employees’ systems are partially activated, and fewer than 3% are fully activated. In conclusion, human beings are only using a fraction of their latent mental abilities, pending further independent analysis. Those that do tend to produce results 2.24 times their average performing colleagues.
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“I noticed that the dynamic range between what an average person could accomplish
and what the best person could accomplish was 50 or 100 to 1.”
– Steve Jobs (1998)
The idea we are only using 10% of our brains is false. But the idea we are using less than 10% of our latent mental abilities is true. More importantly, we now have the knowledge and tools to allow people to access most, if not all, of their latent mental abilities.
The 10% Myth
For over 2,300 years, the world has sought to identify what enables people to display knowledge in subjects or perform tasks at a startlingly high level with no education or training in either the subject or the task. In 385 BC, Plato published a paper on the topic entitled Meno. In it, he recounts a story he was told by his mentor, the Greek philosopher, Socrates. The story was about a slave boy who expressed an in-depth knowledge of mathematics, with no education or training in the subject.
One hundred and twenty-four years ago, the father of American psychology and Harvard University professor, William James, gave a speech to the American Philosophical Association at Columbia University in downtown New York City. In that speech, he said something that stunned his audience and the psychological community around the world. Building on the quest to unravel one of the great mysteries of all time, he said, “as a rule, men habitually use only a small part of the powers which they actually possess and which they might under appropriate conditions.”
MS Am 1092 (1185), Houghton Library, Harvard University
Professor James was the first to theorize about the existence of a latent mental ability system within the human brain. Unfortunately, he could not prove his theory before his untimely death in 1910 at the age of sixty-eight.
Although professor James launched his theory in 1906, it would be another thirty-one years before reaching the shores of the American consciousness. In 1937, radio personality, journalist, and author Lowell Thomas shared with the world professor James’ theory in the forward to one of the most famous and widely read self-help books of all time, Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People. A book considered by the Library of Congress to be the seventh most influential book in American history, with over 30 million sales.
By source, Amazon
Lowell Thomas, at the request of Simon & Schuster, wrote the forward to the book. At the end of the forward, he wrote: “Professor William James of Harvard used to say; the average person develops only 10% of their latent mental ability.” This reference launched the idea that we only use 10% of our brains’ into the public consciousness that remains to this day.
By all accounts, the forward was a just sales pitch for Dale Carnegie’s book. There is no evidence that Professor James ever said what Thomas attributed to him. Lowell Thomas’ reference and insertion of 10% appear to be nothing more than a little literary embellishment for the sake of a sales pitch. Or was it?
The idea that we only use 10% of our brain grew and grew and continues to grow today, despite quantitative evidence to the contrary, by numerous sources within the neurological community. In Sergio Della Sala’s Mind Myths: Exploring popular assumptions about the mind and the brain, he cites the work of neuroscientist Dr. Barry L. Bernstein. Dr. Bernstein clearly and concisely presents seven scientifically valid and reliable facts that refute the idea that we are only using 10% of our brain’s functional capacity. They were brain damage, brain scans, natural selection, brain imaging, function localization, microstructure analysis, and synaptic pruning. Suggesting “if we, human beings, were only using 10% of the functional capacity of our brains, it would show up in one or more of these areas, and it does not.”
In the face of irrefutable scientific evidence, which proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that human beings use 100% of their brain’s functional capacity, the idea that we use only 10% appeared to be nothing more than a myth. But despite the plethora of evidence, in 2013, a survey by the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research found 65% of Americans still believe we only use less than 10% of our brains.” Why?
Why do nearly two-thirds of Americans believe we are using less than 10% of our brain’s? Is it because they haven’t heard it is one of the biggest myths of all time, or could it be something else? Could it be the neuroscientific community and those who believe we are only accessing 10% of our brain’s performance potential are on different pages?
The neurological community is correct in its conclusion; we are all using 100% of our brains’ functional capacity. But incorrect in its belief, Professor James was talking about functional capacity; he wasn’t. He was not talking about the functional capacity of the brain or its components. He was talking about what’s inside of it and the visible energy the system omits when activated. The myth that most of us are only using 10% of our body’s latent mental abilities is true.
To frame this discussion differently, think about the human mind as an automobile, a car, its engine, and what happens when you put the key in the ignition and turn the engine on – the motor turns on, all the components are working, but it is still in “park.” The same is true of the human brain; only you don’t have to turn it on.
Everyone’s brain is on, and all the components are working. However, most (actually nearly all) of us are using less than ten percent of our brain’s latent mental abilities. Most brains are in “park” or, at best first gear. What if they, or more importantly, you, could get your mind out of first gear and access more than 10% of your latent mental abilities? What if you could get your brain out of first gear into second, third, or even fourth gear, and what if there was a nitrous oxide booster switch that allowed it to go even faster once it got into fourth gear? How extraordinary could you be if you had access to 100% of your brain’s latent mental abilities?
The human body’s natural performance system
Like many systems in the human body the Natural Performance System is dormant until activated by an external stimulus, as is the case with hypothermia. In the human body, there is a DNA-based hypothermic system. In the event of a sudden loss in body temperature, wherein the body loses heat faster than it can produce it, the system is activated. When activated, the system causes the body to shiver to warm itself up. If this fails, it decreases the flow of blood to the extremities. If this fails, the system slows the body’s respiratory rate from twelve times per minute to one or two times per minute to sustain life as long as it can.
The human body’s NPS is comprised of what has long been held to be random characteristics of our species. They include our autonomic personality type, intellectual profile (level of IQ, memory, and comprehension), dominant communication channel (auditory, visual, or kinesthetic), and some number of innate skills or talents, which after 22-years of observational trials, has consistently found the number to be the same – seven. It turns out that these characteristics are not random, but rather part of one of the body’s most essential systems and oriented to executing a specific external task.
These bodily characteristics are not new. They have all been known for many years. In the case of personality types, they have been known about for thousands of years. But what is new is the understanding that there are two types of personality profiles. The first is the one we are born with, and the second is the one we develop to survive and thrive in the environments in which we live, work, and play.
The fact that all human beings are born with these attributes, characteristics, and capabilities in and of itself does not make them a bodily system. What does is their relationship with the release of one of the human body’s most critical neurochemical cocktails, and the vital role this cocktail plays in the proper functioning of several organ systems within the human body and sustaining life.
This cocktail is very much like water is to a plant or oil is to a car. With it, the plant thrives, and the car works great; without it, not so much. The absence of the neurochemical cocktail release in sufficient quantities causes human performance to diminish resulting in illness, disease, organ malfunction, diminished capacity, and ultimately death. Conversely, in the abundance of the release of this cocktail, virtually all bodily functions increase. You know the cocktail as joy.
The system can be activated or not activated, developed, or not developed. Despite decades of attempts, none of the elements, can be changed, altered, or engineered pre- or post-birth.
The system is activated under three conditions.
1. The first condition is when an individual performs an activity or task that requires precisely the same NPS profile.
2. The second is when they are developing their ability to perform the task or tasks aligned with their profile.
3. The third is when they are talking about the primary subject matter that is aligned with their profile.
Where does it come from?
According to the scientific community, there are eight possibilities of origin: random genetic formation, heredity, evolutionary, environmental, geographic, socioeconomic, child-rearing, and demographic, i.e., race, sex, religion, culture, or sexual orientation. Unfortunately, over the past two decades, each has been eliminated as a possible source of origin. At this time, the only other option is the configuration of each of our natural performance systems is spiritual in origin.
Useless to useful
In 1979, as an intern in my senior year in college, I was charged with the task of identifying what enables some people, with no education or training in a subject matter, to produce results over two times their educated, trained, and experienced counterparts. After five years of turning over every stone in academia, corporate America, and the consulting community and unable to find the answer, the idea that it might be innate first emerged.
Thirteen years later, in 1996, I identified what just might be the answer in a previously unidentified system in the human brain. That year, I completed the development of the natural performance system inventory prototype based on the leading tests of the day for each element. That year I began trials. Two years later, in 1998, I completed the development of The DES Natural Performance System Inventory.
Over the years that followed, the experiments confirmed the existence of a DNA-based bodily system and that it played the dominant role in what enables top performers in the workplace to produce the results they do. But there was one little problem. Most trial participants were unable to achieve sustained NPS activation, which made the discovery interesting but useless until the sustained activation issue could be achieved. Thus, the decision was made not to publish until this issue could be resolved.
It would take another 18 years, but in 2014, by identifying the primary causes of NPS deactivation and a chance study of the origin of the title of CEO, the solution would be identified. The answer to achieving sustained NPS activation was found in the uncovering of antiquity’s greatest secret – the code that unlocks the human brain in its leadership structure and human development platform.
Where do we go from here?
A study of our most ancient civilizations leadership structure revealed it was a leadership trilogy – a system comprised of a Wiseman, Great Hunter, and Tribal Leader. Further study on the Wiseman’s role revealed the civilizations that existed over 7,000 years ago knew about the body’s latent mental ability system and had developed their leadership and human development platforms around it. The platforms ensured everyone’s NPS was in a near-constant state of activation. However, around the formation of the first cities, for reasons that remain a mystery, this leadership structure and human development platform were abandoned for the two we have operated on ever since.
In 2017, the ten-part code that makes up our oldest civilizations’ human development platform was re-sequenced, which leads us to a fascinating question – where do we go from here? The knowledge and tools to unlock the latent mental abilities within you, your children, and the human race now exist. What will you do? What will we do?
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Douglas Swallow is an innovator, intellectual property developer, author, and speaker on CEO and enterprise performance optimization. For 40 years, he has been unraveling the mystery of what enables top-performing CEOs, managers, and employees to deliver results 1.3 to over five times their equally profiled colleagues. His work has led to the solution to this mystery. But more importantly, to the development of a body of knowledge and collection of technologies that equip enterprises with the ability to increase their net income percentages to 30% above their industry and size of company average. Cut their employee problems in half. Increase their percentage of top-performing managers and employees to over 60%, shattering today’s 16% ceiling. And maybe, most importantly, ensure they have a top-performing CEO today and tomorrow.