Free will or not?
The mystery of free will and free thought
We invite you to place your attention on anything — this text, your breathing, the feeling of your body resting against your chair — for a mere 30 seconds without getting distracted by your flow of thoughts. Sounds simple? Just try.
Most people will find this impossible. Linguistic thought is indispensable, because it is the basis for planning, learning, reasoning, and other skills. Thinking is the substance of social relationships as well as the foundation of science.
But isn’t our failure to recognize thoughts as transient appearances in consciousness a primary source of daily human suffering and confusion?
When we see someone talking to himself, don’t we assume that he is mentally ill? But we all talk to ourselves, all the time, only with our mouths shut. In thought, we say to ourselves what just happened, or almost happened, or should have happened, or might yet happen.
Rather than simply existing, we seem be in a relationship with ourselves. It seems like you’re conversing with an imaginary friend with infinite patience. Who are you talking to?
Although science has not yet found a brain region or neural circuit that occupies a privileged position with respect to our selves or persons, nor an unchanging "center of narrative gravity", most of us notice one most of the time.
Contemplative traditions suggest that we live in the grip of a cognitive illusion. The alternative to this captivity is a profound sense of clarity, peace & grace, that comes after a full day of meditation, reciting a certain prayer, singing devotional songs, sacred dancing, or whirling in circles, etc.
This shows that not one religion or doctrine can claim to be the exclusive path to such an experience. Is it then a surprise that scientists and nonbelievers tend to view these reports as products of confused minds, or as exaggerated accounts of awe, aesthetic enjoyment, or artistic inspiration?
If you really want to ‘get’ the mind, and overcome the most dangerous and enduring source of most conflicts, should you think about the full spectrum of human experiences in the context of science? But how is the scientific narrative any different from any other narrative or doctrine?
We need scientific research to get an objective view of the mechanics of how we function as human bodies and brains at the physiological, molecular, and sub-atomic levels. But don’t we also need to understand and fully accept that most of us are completely engulfed within endless waves of thoughts?
After decades of observing, we concluded that the quickest way to overcome this dilemma is to practice our 3DSA once, all day long for 1-3 days. Not for years like meditating, etc! It felt like a switch (gene?) was flipped deep inside!!
So, what does this say about free will?
Free will seems to rest on 2 assumptions:
- that we could have behaved differently than we did,
- that we are the conscious source of our current thoughts and actions
Apparent acts of free will arise spontaneously, and cannot be traced to a point of origin in our conscious minds. A quick reflection shows that you no more decide the next thought you think than the next move any body part makes.
It’s not for nothing that most inner body activities are under the control of our ANS. Not our conscious will.
We feel we are the creators of our own thoughts & actions, but their spontaneous nature shows us this is not true.
Do we feel as free as we think we do? Do you pay close attention to what it feels like to be you? If you do, can you find free will? Do most of your experiences confirm that?
Thoughts and intentions seem to simply enter into mind. By what other mechanism can they spontaneously arise?
Does free will make sense objectively? Is the illusion of free will and free thought then an illusion within an illusion? How about 9/11/89 and 9/11/02 as a reality and 9/11/01 as an illusion or something else?
Since we are first and foremost spiritual beings, perhaps we wrote in that harmonious state of being, prior to incarnating into this particular body, a detailed script of what we want to experience in this life. If this is true then:
- First there was the script,
- then there was the life experience,
- then came the subsequent beliefs about life.
If we surrender to this perspective on a daily basis, then we can live life full of bewonderment for what we wrote!!
Are we then the conductor, who literally interpretes his/her own score and libretto as composer? Are we living in a simulated reality?
Using Quantum conditioning to remove any thoughts/feelings that resist that perspective will help in fully accepting and feeling your SELF-created "Force of Destiny".
If Physicists are correct that Past, Present, and Future exist simultaneously, then all future events are already determined, leaving no space and/or time for free will !
Russian scientists can predict mathematically where every photon was, is, or will be. This means that every thought, feeling, and event is already predetermined. This is now scientifically proven.
"Can we at least choose our perspective?"