On Using, "Only Ten Percent of Our Abilities"

In today's blog I am going back to the question, What are our responsibilities to ourselves?

Back in the mid-70's, when I first began putting down my thoughts regarding the human condition, I was deeply immersed in driving myself crazy with the question, "Why are humans so 'crazy'"? It was the time of the war in Vietnam, the Peace Movement, the Civil Rights Movement, and Women's Liberation Movement.

Those of you, who may now be reaching "middle age," have no personal recollection of those times, but what is now taken for granted grew out of those violent social times. One of those changes has been the, "Human Potential Movement."

A phrase that was being used back at the beginning of this particular Movement, was that, "We use only, approximately, ten percent of our abilities." This idea was attributed to William James. While William James, the older brother of Henry James the writer, is considered, by some, to be the father of American Philosophy, he has been, for all practical purposes, ignored. This is, of course, because his ideas are counter to what we are supposed to believe about ourselves and our abilities.

I decided to try to find the source of this saying, in his writings, which was said to be in his Letters. I did find it in the two-volume collection of his letters, however, what he actually wrote was: Humans use only a fraction of their potential; it is, in effect, out of their whole bodies, they were only using one of their little fingers, (paraphrased). As, is obvious, this is much less than ten percent!

William James arrived at his ideas through reflections on his education, and subsequent life experiences. He had a medical degree as well as educated in the fields of physiology, psychology and philosophy, (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy). He did not begin writing until he was 36, and teaching. He published his initial, major, work when he was 48. It was only in the last ten years of his life that he put in writing some of his most important ideas. (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)

I have read relatively little of his work; other than parts of the two volumes of his Letters, I also read The Varieties of Religious Experience, having to do, actually, with extraordinary human experiences, which he published in 1902.

Now, as I research him today, I realize one could say, from what I write, that he was a great influence on me. I, however, have arrived at my ideas independently of older philosophers; those writings I have read, I have found most to be wanting of any real value. They have, however, played a major role in shaping the Belief Systems of many educated individuals. Two of the most important of these have been, in my opinion, Aristotle and the philosophers of "Logic."

What does this have to do with our responsibilities to ourselves? In my last blog I mentioned the psychological violence we do to ourselves; one common form, I call it, "Hitting ourselves over the head," (bang, bang, bang), whenever we do something that we consider evidence of our stupidity; actually errors in judgment, and/or mistakes. I am sorry to say, that I cannot exempt myself from this activity. We are all our own worst critics/judges.

I have written some about human "Super Powers." We all have abilities, and Super Powers; by learning about them, and tapping into them by practicing them, we can begin to appreciate ourselves for who and what we are as humans. Unfortunately, individuals who have such abilities/talents/awarenesses, from a young age, have come to think of themselves as strange/different/weird, not extraordinary. As a result they have been denied and/or forgotten. This is all deliberate limiting programing.

A recent newspaper article I read encouraged parents to be alert for the special abilities that their young children may be expressing every day, and to support those interests/abilities, so they aren't lost. Unfortunately, for us grownups, many of us have experienced reinforcement/development of our negative self-images, and our special talents, interests and abilities disparaged.

For many of us more-mature individuals, this was a by-product of cultural conditioning, as a result of being raised in a male-dominated system, which had strong/rigid role expectations.

For younger people today, growing up in child-dominated family systems, has not improved the encouragement of budding talents and awareness' of the non-physical reality we all live in. The entirely new phenomenon of children committing extreme acts of violence against others of their age, as well as adults, bears witness to the fact that much is wrong with the way children are currently being raised in this society.

To digress; one only needs to examine the very high use of Ritalin currently, in tamping down young people in schools. The deliberately-caused Ritalin addictions, which result, is then carried into adulthood. The current use of so-called "legal" drugs has been promoted by Big Pharma and the "Authorities" to everyone's detriment. This, while, at the same time, carrying on a futile war on those drugs labeled "illegal." Examining the number and kinds of drugs you, personally, ingest is imperative.

Those individuals in-between these two ages have been heavily programmed through television and books, promoting the latest Sociologist/Psychological "discoveries," and methods. A major indication that the child-rearing theories they learned, and practiced, need to be reexamined is the fact that many younger parents have abandoned their children to the care of the grandparents. Additionally, the news stories about cases of extreme child abuse and neglect on the part of some of those young parents are shocking in all respects.

Most of us have had to, as I did, flounder through at least a third of out lives, before we begin to question those lives and what we have become.

I am encouraging you to examine how you were programmed to believe in your limitations, rather than your unlimited potential to become and be something else.

I leave you there for today.

Shirley Gallup