Freewill's destiny

This seems to be a perennial topic that they creeps up from time to time, and indeed often serves to divide the pragmatist self-determinists from the etheral-fated souls at times when people gather. Indeed there exists excellent and rather persuasive rhetoric in both camps, but a final outcome seems elusive as opposing sides agree to disagree. And often times individuals find theselves being persuading back and forth from one view to the other as arguments and experiences validate and undermine both beliefs from time to time. All in all it is seems to be an entertaining but something of pointless topic of discussion which can be reverted to when the conversation seems to run out of places to go and/or when the chips are down (or up). But what value can it offer us as a means to help us make sense of this existance as is perhaps the essential underlying principle of this subject.

Someone I met recently mentioned something which triggered a phase shift in my perspective of the argument. The person said in passing on in regrards to a different subject "...that, i don’t think of it as destiny, but we all have a program..." It was this short fragment of a sentence, spoken in relation to a trivial topic which cleared the fog for me, as it brought together some of the ideas which I was already familiar with into a new and sharper relief.

What I saw in this phrase was that, yes we do all have programs, this is indeed a recognized notion that from birth we are programmed to behave, perceive and think in particular ways. Think for example of the classic example of a child who watches fire for the first time, how fascinating and delightful seem the flames, but as the child reaches out for the fire one of two things are likely to happen. Either they feel the stinging reprimand of their parent as they slap their childs hand away to protect it from the fire or they feel the sting of the of the flames. One way or the other the lesson is learned and the association has been changed. Fire the enchanting plaything is now a bringer of pain (whether physical or emotional) – nothing new here, psychology has called this imprinting and the less permanent associations which are created classical conditioning. There are thousands even millions of such programs which exist in all of us with out our being aware of them. Racism is one such program, so too is fear of new technology, a love for the mountains as opposed to the sea, hating to fly and what we choose to eat. As our collection of programs become greater and more dominant we can then see them being expressed through what we call character and personality traits, he is a vegetarian, she never leaves the house without full make-up, and she is a risk taker; he always plays the fool. And it is through examining these so called expressions of the self more closely that we can begin to become aware of where the nature of ourselves, the choices we make and the actions that we take stem from, and in this state of potential tranparency we see that maybe what we thought was an expression of our free will was not quite what we imagined it to be.

At the sophisticated end of the programming matrix you have of course language. Language is wonderful as it provides us with the ability to communicate our inner reality with others, all acheived with a fairly large degree of success. One other thing that it does is to provide us with a frame work with which to structure our thoughts – it is the means through which we create mental formula which can then be translated in to actuality. From, “Maybe I will wear my red pants today“ to “I think that we should incorporate lime-crete in the design of this school building.“ it is through our programming language that we structure and realise our intentions, but language also plays an intricate part in the structuring of our reality.

“I can’t go out like this, everyone else will be all dressed up"

“I can’t live without (insert your vice of choice)“ or

“I always get lost in this part of town“,

These are all trivial examples, yet everytime these phrases course through the brain they strengthen a neural pathway which reaffirms the expressed notion and the stronger the particular neural pathway becomes the more this thought becomes expressed in reality. What we think and more importantly what we verbalise have potentially massive implications on our true freedom – in using the phrase "true freedom" I aim to differentiate it from what might be called perceived freedom. For example, the perceived freedom to choose between pizza, fried kitchen and a burger is not necessarily exercising true freedom of choice as one is still captured within a limited framework of choices of fast-foods as limited by your particular collection of programs which dictate how we veiw the acquisition of nurishment.

In essence then it is the sum of our programs which results in a reality arc of potential outcomes which are prodominantly within our field of expectations whether these expectations be couscious or sub-conscious. So as a result when certain events (or eventualities) come to pass they seem to possess a strong sense of synergy to us (i.e. to our programming) in such a way as to make it seem as though the event was something that was destined to happen.

"I knew that I was meant to get that job."

"Who would have though I would have met that person at that club on that night."

"I knew I would get caught drink driving.

Okay, in an infinite universe there are an infinite possible outcomes, but save force majeure (the unforseeable acts of God) this infinite number of possiblities is limited to a much smaller range of possiblities by our collection of programs. Think for example of what you expect of your life and future. Is it to settle down, buy a house, raise a family? Is this your idea or something that has been implanted along the way? Think then of how this program is expressed in your everyday life, this might include the type of job you currently have or hope to get, the types of leisure activies you engage in (clubs you go to), the types of purchases you make (music, clothes, electronics). I am not making a qualitive judge here on this program, but I cite it as a means to illustrate to what extent we are programmed, how ingrained the programming is as to render it invisible to the conscious mind.

Well, it looks like there goes freewill, destiny seems to rein but has lost most of its charm in this treatment and doesn’t seem like a much better outcome.

Well that is not quite the case. The brain is capable of great mutablity as it is constantly processing new data, however we as the users of the brain can become stagnant in our thinking and as such utilize only a small portion of our total network potential, it is like having a computer system loaded with every software application program available and only using Notepad. Once an individual examines their psyche and starts to become aware of their programming then they suddenly find that they have the power to start re-programming their mind. You can now examine your mind and decide what works best, and maybe develop these programs further thus making them more efficient. Eliminating unwanted program; this is essentially what happens when people give up smoking or become vegatarian, however being aware of what is going on at the deeper level can greatly advance the process and potentially render it more successful. And develop new programs for anything else that you care to focus your will towards. Meta-programming is not necessarily something new to us as a species, how ever with the advent of the computer it has allowed the notion to be placed with in a new analogical framework which perhaps makes the concepts easier to grasp. You will find references to such notions in oriental and occidental esoterics writings like Buddhism, Taoism and Hinduism, Druidism, Gnosticism and Alchemy, and that possibly most ancient expression of meta-programming, Shamanism.


These ramblings have been inspired by conversations had, articles read, strange encounters and the episode of Futurama.

I guess reality is what you make of it.

Futurama episode from season 4 titled Obsoletely Fabulous
July 27, 2003

For more on the topic check out:

Look up the articleCulture and the Individual by Aldous Huxley

John C Lilly

The works of Robert Anton WIlson

Buddhism and the Concept of Maya

Phillip K Dick - Valis

Transmigration

Gnosticism

Meta-Programming

Godel, Escher and Bach

Mindfullness