My will triumphed tonight

              

           

               Lets consider the question -  do human beings pose any control over the conditions of their birth? Conditions like geographical location, which family to be born in , with what set of chromosomes ? Regardless of what most people might say , Let's get this straight . It is a common occurrence to find a person wondering about the fact that they were luckily or unluckily born in their family . Some people marvel at the fact of being born healthy in a nice rich household in the ‘modern times’ where the world is relatively peaceful with high implausibility of huge disasters and war . Whereas some blame God and turn nihilistic and bitter for being given a bad set of bad genetics , poor parents and bad social conditions. This kind of thinking is primitive , archaic and insufficient at best . It is looking at the problem backwards ! You weren't born into your particular household , The child born into your particular household was you .  

                                 

                Now that we have that question sorted out and have realized that most probably, no human or animal ever had  control over the conditions of its birth, whether it was by floating into a pregnant belly of its choice while in its pre-baby spirit form or by securing a brighter future life by ethical and moral actions in a past one ; we can proceed to consider the problem of the accident of birth and how that relates to our problem of the free will . 

                Now, all of the science points to the brain being the primary organ for consciousness . Brain states as studied in MRIs are invariably linked to mental states . Different moods , thoughts , feelings all relate to activity in the brain . Even if you are inclined to believe in spirits or non physical explanations for consciousness ( As a result of your nature and nurture ), you cannot dispense away with the theory that the brain is essential or at least linked to one’s sentient nature . Now, the brain works primary based on physical biomolecules called neurotransmitters . These neurotransmitters allow for electrical signals to pass between the neurons in the brain . The number or quantity of a certain neurotransmitter in a person’s brain completely and absolutely determines a person’s behavior , mood and hence actions . This theory can be easily justified with the example of antidepressants . Most antidepressants work by increasing the quantity of the neurotransmitter serotonin in the brain , making the person less depressed and happier which influences his/her actions towards that direction. 

                              

                The example of antidepressants shows that every person’s beliefs , desires, and actions are predicated on their neurobiology at the moment which in turn are influenced almost completely by their genetics and physical environment both of which the individual did not construct. The argument of antidepressants can be extended to any psychedelic drug on the planet. For example, a person who takes a hallucinogen like psilocybin ( which also works by mimicking the neurotransmitter serotonin btw ), cannot simply choose not to see, believe or act in accordance to the hallucinated dragon in the room. That is, until the effects of the drug wear off . This could also be said for people with neurological disorders like schizophrenia, OCD or Alzheimer to name a few. People and their actions are always constrained or imprisoned to the jail ‘cells’ of their neurons and the brain chemistry at any given moment. They are not free to choose otherwise. And it is important to note that their Brain chemistry is something that they did not themselves author .

                This reasoning only goes so far to promote the idea that actions and choices are invariably linked to one’s biology or brain chemistry at that particular moment. However, you can still say that maybe the decisions are still be being made consciously under the confines of the preexisting conditions. You can argue that this only shows, that biology ultimately does infringe upon the freedom of will but still leaving the possibility of the final decision being a conscious and independent one. But alas! as it turns out, biology has some more tricks up its sleeve, Some might even call them illusions.

               The Libet experiment in the year 1985 was the most influential and revolutionary science experiment ran on humans about this subject. It was a simple experiment where participants were asked to make a simple choice like choosing between raising their left or right hand. They had to track the exact time they believed they made their ‘free choice ‘ by looking at a very accurate clock ; all this while inside an MRI machine where scientists studied the events occurring inside their brains. To most people’s surprise, the experiments showed that the changes in neural activity associated with their 'conscious' decision of raising either the left or the right hand occurred before they subjectively felt or realized to have had made that choice. The time difference by which the researchers looking at the MRI readings could tell if the decision was made versus the participant themselves was reliably around 500 milliseconds . More recent replications of the Libet experiments with better techniques show that the time difference could be as big as a few seconds. There is also minimal doubt that with better and more accurate techniques and a better understanding of neurology, the time difference with which the scientist looking at the brain scan knows that an unchangeable decision is made before the subject could be even longer. 

               The experiments concluded a revolutionary discovery: The decisions are made before people think they have made the decisions. During the experiments, even if people thought that they could have changed their decision in the end by the magic hand of free will, the reality is that the decision was always already made unconsciously prior to the conscious realization and they could never have chosen otherwise. This discovery applies to every single human decision ever made. Turns out, the experience of making the ‘final decision’ might just be an illusion after all. 

               We do not always need billion-dollar research funds and a team of PhD scientists to study consciousness, something that we all commonly possess . Strong introspection and meditation can get the job done. Mindfulness meditation is a technique developed by Buddhist monk which involves simply watching one’s thoughts feelings and sensations as they arise and retire. Serious and dedicated practice of this simple meditative technique make people subjectively aware of the nature of their thoughts . Thoughts seem to appear almost involuntary. There is never a conscious precursor to a thought, It just appears out of nowhere. Repeated practice of meditation shows people how they are not the thinker of their thoughts rather, just the experiencer. 

      

             The body is not separate from the universe, it's a part of the cosmos. Hence there is no separation between the subjective ‘I’ and the infinity. There is no person or ‘I’ that operates separately; free from the universe. It's all one system of physical particles and functions as one homogeneous system. The sense of separation between the I and the universe is the false illusion of free will.

               If this got all too hippy for you, don't cringe. Buddhist wisdom aside , the study of the physical environment and then biology seem to  constrain the domain of free will quite spectacularly. In the next blog we will invoke the hardest of sciences , physics , and see if The freedom of free will is impinged upon by the rules governing the behavior of atoms and reality itself  .