This is almost a question like To be or not to be or What was first, the egg or the hen.
Recently I have been discussing this with a friend riding on a long bus trip. Fritz told me he wants to write a book about it. Not a philosophical one but strictly from a proven scientific viewpoint. He is currently gathering information about this topic.
Today I read an article about exactly this question in Switzerland’s most renowned newspaper, the Neue Zürcher Zeitung, short NZZ. It is said, that from the philosophical aspect, some people are pro and con and science does also not have unequivocal answers either. Although, studies by the American physiologist Benjamin Libet, 1979, have proven, that before we consciously decide to move our body our nerves have already started to act.
I have thought about this question many times as well. Sometimes I believed, surely, we have free will and other times my opinion was different. What do YOU think?
As with so many arguments I suppose, it is from what standpoint you look at the question. I look at it more in a philosophical way. I believe I have a free will in how I want to react in a certain situation. Do I get angry or do I keep calm when someone is impolite to me. This means, how well have I trained my emotions, according to my former Tibetan Lama, who is the founder of the program Tools for Peace (www.toolsforpeace.org), whose slogan is Stop, Breath, and Think. In this respect, it is the mastery of my mind, of my thoughts. I can learn to control them with meditation. In meditation, I start to look and listen inwardly. So, who is it then that decides, who is it then, that makes me react like I do or say what I say?
Here, I think, it comes to the question to whom I listen to: my head or my heart. If I listen to my head, I would say, then I have a free will. I can decide to think and act like this or that. I can choose to react friendly or angry. However, if I listen to my heart, I believe, I don’t really have much choice. Intuitively I know what to say or do. Often times I wondered what made me say or do this since I hadn’t thought about it. It just did it or said it, for that matter. Therefore in this respect, I believe, we do not have a free will. We are actually guided by our inner voice, by our heart, or whatever you want to call it.
I believe the free will is that I can choose to listen to this voice or not. But once I have chosen to follow my heart, there is no true choice anymore, then MY will becomes YOUR will.
It might get difficult to prove this scientifically. For me, it is enough to know it for myself.
Nevertheless, I am excited about what my friend Fritz will one day find out.