How Free Is Your Will?

https://www.scientificamerican.com/a...ill&print=true

Wow Byz, that is a good question. We often move in our sleep without consciously knowing it.

Personally I dont think that other than sleep we move unconsciously.

But I do feel that many thoughts and reactions are imbedded in us by those who raise us. And often people are not really aware of how some of their emotions come from learned or unlearn behaviors.

I also know that often many people form opinions and reactions to what they percieve a normal lifestyle should be according to television. I think that standards are just lived out without truely wondering if the standards are actually good for us or feasable.

I can't help but remember my old neighborhood where people were so dam worried about if they had the appropriate car?

Hey, my husband told me that he watched a show that talked about how to look this summer. Wrinkled shirts and shorts, no socks, no underwear was in. LOL, my husband has waited all this time to be in. LOL

Quiet frankly I don't mind if I ever iron again. Who invented the iron anyway? What drudgery is that?

Well, it was an interesting thing to think about Byz.

Open Eyes

Very Interesting article! (Iv'e noticed you seem to come up with alot of them Byzantine)
We know that some things/actions are "hard-wired" into the brain. They have pathways inbedded with time and repetition. so is that why we make choices to act incertain ways-kind of like stimulus/responce? So are they saying the stimulus starts in the brain then the responce -thought of action -then action? SO what is the genesis of the thought? (the sixty-four thousand dollar question) Does seing the TV makes some nerve pathways fire that tell us certain actions (sit down, turn on chanel, etc) then we make concious decision/choice? Or was it what we ate at dinner actually what stimualted our brain to think TV/channel beacuse that has been something we have done for years and it is "automatic" or "hard-wired" into our head? I don't know.
And is our"reptilian" brain factor into this somehow? brain tells lungs to breath-we don't "think" about that action, it is an autonomic reflex which is a different pathway, but makes ya wonder. Are we actually working off a different part of the brain that starts this stimulus, then goes to another part that stimulates us then we conciously make choice then action? We can "think" and speed up or slow down our breathing just because we choose to, not because it is a next action we need to take (i. turn on tv, press channel). So does our brain "control us? Boy I wish I remebered more about brain pathopysiology than I do-which is about nil. Wish I was smart about these things too, which I am not. What I do know is we know maybe a tenth of what our brain is capable of. So more will definetly be revealed. I will revisit that article. It offers very preliminary information and thought. And a very small study. But again, very interesting. Thanks!
noneedtoknow

fascinating question! i come at it from the traumatized brain perspective. the idea from dan siegel as i understand it is that a child's brain that develops with secure attachment is very different from the brain of a child neglected and abused. but the traumatized brain, with diligent use of mindfulness meditation, comes to share many of the neural pathways associated with positive psychology. so if we can "choose" to change our brains, and "decide" to follow new paths, and "discipline" more healthy response patterns--are we thus exercising free will?

So if we're not pulling the strings consciously...who is? The unconscious mind I suppose

i tend to go along with the last part of the article-vetoing before we act.
fascinating article, byz. future studies may identify whether it's our brain or free will that causes a decision. one thing i noted was only 25% in current studies support the hypotheses that neurons cause our choices/actions.

In my mind this is a non-issue. The brain is constantly processing our environment without us being conciously aware of it. It can absorb, integrate and respond to a stimulus long before we even know it is there.

The pre-cognitive initiating signal to move, eat, speak, etc.. is sent prior to the cognitve recognition of such movement.

We physiological prepare for fight or flight before we actually choose to act. What we perceive as instantaneous is not, but, to me that doesn't imply that there is no free will. Just a lag time between inititation and action.

What I heard is that we make decisions based on needs, and that sometimes those needs conflict which is why sometimes we can't explain our own action.

One of the biggest needs is the need to be taken seriously.

I do believe we have control over ourselves and our destinies... To think otherwise is mighty depressive... because it gives a way to "why try?"

And Venus is child of deities... not a bundle of atoms and chemicals.

I think we really dont have much choice. We may have choices in our small everyday decisions but if I look back over my life, I think I would have choose differently if I have the where with all to do so.

Dang it,
I caught myself a few times all of a sudden thinking, "is this free will this action that I am taking or my mind (Neurons) doing it to me" Oh well, I guess it is good to wonder......

Interesting. A new angle on the "is prescience the same as predestination" angle. No, I am mre of a free choice person, however narrowed by other facotrs that choice might be. Huggs.