What do we mean by free will

A Releasing Your Unlimited Creativity discussion topic

Copyright 2005 by K. Ferlic,   All Rights Reserved

What do we mean by free will

Do we or don't we have free will?

Free will and programming

Freedom is the ability to say yes or no. Free will is the ability to do so. Free will is the exercise of freedom. Free will is having the power of personal self-determination. Free will means that our ability to choose between alternatives and/or alternative courses of action is not completely determined by external circumstances. That is, we have a choice to believe or not to believe, to act or not act. Free will allows something to be made, done, or given based on our own free choice. When we exercise our free will what we do is voluntary on our part and we are not forced to act in any way.

Do we or don’t we have free will? (TOP)

If you don’t believe you have a free will, consider the following. There is nothing which can be said to you, or done to you, or examples given to you that will force you to believe one way or another about anything. You ultimately determine what you believe.

You may have been conditioned or programmed to believe or act in certain ways, but you are free to choose to change what you were conditioned or programmed to believe. The ability to choose what you believe is what free will is really all about. For what you believe, determines how you act. For you to realize you are free to choose what you believe, is, in itself is the most important realization for it is your own acknowledgment that you have a free will. On this point, you are free to choose what you believe about your own free will.

It needs to be noted, if I challenge you as to what you believe, you can probably give me many reasons why you believe what you do. But those reasons don’t matter for you are free to change your reasons. Whether you realize it or not, you are free to choose what you think and believe about anything in the twinkling of an eye. The question is whether or not you have the awareness to realize what you believe and why. Then comes the awareness to know if what you believe serves or doesn’t serve you and why.

Assuming you accept that you are free to choose what you think and believe, it is probably safe to assume that you realize no one can force you to believe anything you do not want to believe. You probably realize you are free to lie and present yourself to another as believing something another want you to believe. You are even able to suppress what you truly believe if you think something else is a more powerful belief and you need to accept that more powerful believe. However, only you know what you truly believe and you probably believe that you never have to reveal what you truly believe, but you do. The life you experience is the composite of all that you think and believe. If you want to know what you truly believe, look at your life. Look at what is in your life and where you put your time and energy. Look at how you respond to life as it presents itself both initially and after the fact. On this point, if your beliefs are in conflict, you will have pain and/or discomfort somewhere within your being.

Free will and programming (TOP)

Are you free or are you programmed? As said above, freedom is the ability to say yes or no. Free will is the ability to do so. However, our first response in any situation is most often is a response based on the past conditioning and not necessarily the response that we really desire to make. When we are aware and know we have been programmed, we have to allow ourselves to explore the depth and breath of our own being. We must explore to find out what is in our best interest at our deepest levels, not our mind and what we think. We need to change the programming of the past. Our Freedom has been taken away from us for we have not be taught how to freely say yes and no. Rather, much of our programming creates internal influences which do not allow us the freedom to choose. We are slaves to the way we have been taught to respond to life . It is only when someone creates the space and allows to freely explore both yes and no do we come to understand free will. In exploring yes and no, we learn both its power and its consequences. Until we have such a space and experience that freedom, we are a slave to the conditioning and programming that we have been given. Until then, we do not have freedom and have free will except in concept but not in application.

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