Free Willy: Introduction to free will, choice and knowledge

Every single day we make choices. Our choices are generally the result of information we encounter regarding a particular subject and how we feel or process that information. These choices can range from minor decisions such as where and when to eat lunch, or major decisions, such as whether or not to remortgage the house, get a divorce or cash in your 401K. Choices large or small are important because they involve the three aspects of our being which are intellect, emotion and will. True choice is also dependent upon the objective observation of the particular set of circumstances or situations we find ourselves immersed in. In reality though, our decisions tend to not be so thought out and balanced, but are the result of “programmed” emotions or feelings

By letting emotions rule our lives we become mechanical, predictable, reactive and easily manipulated. Robotic. These emotions or feelings that command us are part of a mind programming strategy directed at us from the time we first become aware of the world around us as children. All of our beliefs, ideologies and values are instilled within us by our parents initially and then later on by various social, governmental, corporate and religious institutions. Our parents in turn were also at the mercy of these very same social structures.

Specifically, by adopting any belief structure as our own we begin to identify with it. We become emotionally entangled and attached to it. Next, we, or at least our ego, will feel the need to defend a false personality identity from others who don’t believe our particular point of view or dogma. The problem is we’re no longer thinking, we’re just feeling and reacting. We’re not questioning the validity of the beliefs in the first place, and whether or not they really serve us or humanity, or actually are just put in place to vector us into an ego box. Now, layer ourselves over with multitudes of false personalities such as I’m a New Age, Wicca, BMW driving, vegetarian, libertarian, non-smoker etc. and we’re no longer thinking at all but simply acting out beliefs programmed into us by an elite group of individuals, corporations and advertising companies.

Adopting all of these various beliefs as we move through life is how we construct the ego or false personality. It is the ego, or new version of us, which has been formed by all these various small identities which we mistake for who we are. In the process of constructing the ego we lose our connection to free will, free will choices and creativity. We have subtly turned our decisions over to programmed group thinking, feeling and behaving. By saying we are this or that we are in essence defining ourselves by what we’re not. If I’m a Republican then I’m not a Democrat or if I’m a dog-lover then I’m not a cat-lover and so on. What we are doing is shutting out reality. We are not viewing reality as it is but how we want it to be. The implications of this behavior become enormous when we apply it to our to decision making. In every arena of our lives we become reactive because of our emotional attachment to ego formed identities.

One also can't help but notice the downward cultural direction our society is choosing. This dehumanizing culture we live in shrinks our ability to process higher emotions through our limbic system in our brains. Because of our cultural leanings we are being effectively reduced to operating emotionally and nearly solely from our hypothalamus. The hypothalamus is where our most basic of emotions originate and is responsible for such things as drive and desire for food, water, sex, aggression or fleeing from trouble. I theorize that the hypothalamus is where the ego or false personality has its headquarters. In my reading on the hypothalamus I understand that events which generate anger can have long lasting repercussions such as causing damage to the functioning of your higher emotional organs and creating toxic memories which are stored and consolidated into your reality via REM sleep and the hippocampus. In other words the ego takes over by consolidating its power via acquiring false personality identities which are far removed from higher emotional functioning.

THE NEW AGE OR IS IT THE OLD ONE REPACKAGED?

In any kind of healing or spiritual work self-observation is critical. We need to understand that just because we may have shunned traditional religions and embraced new age ones doesn’t mean that they are SUBSTANTIVELY different from our former beliefs and practices. They also are ego based. New age ideologies and gurus constantly promise much more than they deliver and are designed to get us all feeling good and embracing love, light, peace and meditation. I don't know how many drumming circles, guided meditations or crystal healings I've been to or witnessed, but I do know at the end of the day these rituals are designed to get you spiritually high and dissociated rather than consciously aware. Also, everyone who seems to be an expert in their New Age field somehow becomes one without studying several scientific disciplines. Now how is that? God save us from those who are well-intentioned but ill-informed. Isn't the road to hell paved with all those feel good intentions?

This feel good state which the New Age promises us we can acquire seems to require no work whatsoever beyond just affirming that it is so. This positive blissful existence gives one the illusion that they are working to change themselves and the world but an honest self-observation of one’s life and the state of the world should shatter that conclusion. The ego, however, steps in and tells us we are evolving and growing as human beings so we just end up discarding any information to the contrary. When we discard or ignore relevant information we are in a state of cognitive dissonance and in denial about the totality of our environment and reality.

Cognitive dissonance is an emotional reaction that occurs when we are reading books, newspapers or the internet, conversing with or listening to other people or watching television and something is said or done that doesn’t fit into our world view. We react with anger at what is being said or read which is the ego’s way of not allowing information in that may contradict what we currently believe. Most of us react in a cognitively dissonant manner as we move through our respective days. The trick is to know when we’re engaged in cognitive dissonance behavior and how to correct it.

Self observation and understanding is required to know when we’re experiencing cognitive dissonance. The presence of anger in regards to information is the best indicator of cognitive dissonance. Information shouldn’t carry such emotional weight but it does because the ego gives it emotional importance. Importance of the information we possess or the identities we embrace is, well, important. The ego or false personality has to be right and the things it says and does have to be right or the best way to be. All other egos are wrong, only our ego has the answers.

By asserting that we should consider as much information as possible I’m not saying believe it all. To the contrary, I’m saying overcoming cognitive dissonance with regard to new sources of information should lead to acquiring knowledge not lies and misinformation. Belief itself is not what’s important but learning discernment, how to scrutinize information and who’s disseminating it and how to acquire true knowledge is what’s necessary in regards to our emotional and mental health. The answers to all our questions become insignificant compared to the process of seeing the totality of reality, how it and we are being influenced and learning how to act and think in a critical manner.