Artex
Jedi
Hi. I'm new-ish to the forums, but I've been following the Cassiopaeans and sott.net since about 2008 or so (could be off by a year or two). I apply the scientific method to what I read in much the same manner as the group does. I'm a big fan of reductio ad absurdum. Though what is absurd to others is often not quite as absurd to me.
Recently I decided to take my meditation practice more seriously, as in, really develop a daily practice. To do this, I am using Sam Harris's Waking Up app. This has really helped me a lot. And part of the app contains little lectures. Now, I've been red-pilled on free will. I've read Harris's book/essay, and yesterday, was subjected to the thought experiment demonstrating that we do not consciously choose our next thoughts.
Since some of my subjective world-view is predicated on the evidence and ideas presented by the Cs, I'd like to compare notes. I remembered that the Cs talk about how important free will is. But at the same time, I can find no conscious evidence that I have free will. Each action and thought is a reaction to past events that I have experienced, so far as I can tell.
Now, I'm still learning meditation. I'm not particularly good at it, but I'm getting better. I suspect that at some point I will "break through" as it were and communicate with my higher self. In the meantime, I've been searching these forums and the other sites because I can't recall an in depth discussion of free will with the Cs. It doesn't seem to me that the conclusions Sam Harris and others have come to regarding free will not existing, and the what the Cs say about free will are incompatible, if we accept that we don't have free will on the conscious level. But if the Cs state that we do have free will on the conscious level, then I'd like to understand it better, because the two views aren't then compatible. Or perhaps they are compatible if we assume that free will is something we learn to experience, that we can choose our next thought when we have properly acquired the ability to live in the present.
What say the Cs on this matter? I'd be absolutely delighted to read again what the Cs have already said about it, but I'm having trouble finding those conversations.
Recently I decided to take my meditation practice more seriously, as in, really develop a daily practice. To do this, I am using Sam Harris's Waking Up app. This has really helped me a lot. And part of the app contains little lectures. Now, I've been red-pilled on free will. I've read Harris's book/essay, and yesterday, was subjected to the thought experiment demonstrating that we do not consciously choose our next thoughts.
Since some of my subjective world-view is predicated on the evidence and ideas presented by the Cs, I'd like to compare notes. I remembered that the Cs talk about how important free will is. But at the same time, I can find no conscious evidence that I have free will. Each action and thought is a reaction to past events that I have experienced, so far as I can tell.
Now, I'm still learning meditation. I'm not particularly good at it, but I'm getting better. I suspect that at some point I will "break through" as it were and communicate with my higher self. In the meantime, I've been searching these forums and the other sites because I can't recall an in depth discussion of free will with the Cs. It doesn't seem to me that the conclusions Sam Harris and others have come to regarding free will not existing, and the what the Cs say about free will are incompatible, if we accept that we don't have free will on the conscious level. But if the Cs state that we do have free will on the conscious level, then I'd like to understand it better, because the two views aren't then compatible. Or perhaps they are compatible if we assume that free will is something we learn to experience, that we can choose our next thought when we have properly acquired the ability to live in the present.
What say the Cs on this matter? I'd be absolutely delighted to read again what the Cs have already said about it, but I'm having trouble finding those conversations.
.
