Spontaneous Free Will Exists!!
The notion
that there is no such phenomenon as spontaneous free will is false. It is false
according to the deepest wisdoms of experimental contemplation that has been
practiced by elite non-dualistic schools of enacting existence for millennia.
[1] These wisdoms arise in a synthesis of profound experience and profound
philosophical reflection. It is not a chance that Vasily Nalimov, a genius
Russian mathematician and transpersonal philosopher, one of the most advanced
minds of 20th-century humanity, argued that spontaneity is at the heart of consciousness. [2]
However, even
if this claim that there is no free will were true in a sense of its being an
objective truth (which it is not—and you will come to know this upon a seriously
penetrating and embodied contemplative philosophical reflection), as a cultural
belief that would guide and influence your interior and exterior life it is
wrong and should not be practiced. For if you really weren’t a sentient being
with at least certain degrees of free will and were predestined to just be a
robot, some kind of mechanism that acts as a slave to cause and effect, the
fact that you believe in your not having free will would depress and disempower
you. And this is what happens: we are disempowering ourselves in our society
and existence by letting our self-appointed tyrants (mind parasites) to trick us into hypnotizing ourselves into seriously
believing that we don’t have access to spontaneous free will. Needless to say
that treating others as merely robots is not only socially destructive but also
mean and sociopathic.
Fortunately,
we are free to be willing to let go of this artificial, boring and pessimistic
belief system (BS) and choose to enact the philosophy of optimism and free will
instead. Even if there is no such phenomenon as free will (which was not and
cannot be proven and in fact is a sloppy statement fabricated by boring individuals),
your personal choice of acting as if you were a creature capable of free will
and spontaneity not only would not shake the very
foundations of the physical universe, produce a black hole in your bathroom and
an anomaly zone of time-space continuum paradoxes (wow, wouldn’t that be cool!?) but also would likely
open you to being a cheerful and courageous person.
If you are
persistent and skillful enough, this cheerfulness will be imprinted and
reinforced in your brain through its wonderfully dynamic adaptive capacity
called neuroplasticity. You see, often the very scientists
who invented the belief in the absence of free will also were quite confident
that the brain is not plastic (so if you have some brain damage there is often
nothing to do about it). Despite of the accumulated evidence so far many average-minded
clinical scientists and medical practitioners still believe in old-fashioned
notions and apply them in medicine, thus mistreating themselves and their
patients. They enjoy their salaries and power positions in sometimes
prestigious facilities, and sell for a buck their soul and the souls of their
children. Such a shame.
The beliefs
that you enact habitually (under an influence of your intentionality as well as
that of others and cultural artifacts such as books and mass media) wire your
brain in a particular way. For the sake of simplicity let’s just say that,
basically, if you hold and reinforce a pessimistic attitude towards life and
existence it means that you choose to wire your brain in that particular way.
The opposite is also true: if you overcome the pessimistic habit and tap into
the hidden (actually, not so hidden) reserves of your brain and destiny, you
would gradually be able to reach the levels of higher vitality. Doesn’t mean you
have to join the superficial positive thinking subculture and avoid your
shadows and demons (thus putting a makeup in an attempt to cover a profound
fear of existence). Being real and genuinely optimistic while confronting and re-owning
angels and demons—that’s what I am talking about.
Colin Wilson is THE contemporary philosopher who
understands this and with whom you would want to consult on the philosophy of
optimism and free will. His phenomenological existentialism is a first-person
methodology which requires serious attention and adoption from a contemporary
innovative scholar-activist who really wants to break through existential
ceiling and commit something extraordinary with his or her life. Even if you do
not consider yourself a scholar or an activist you still have everything to do
with the body of life you got and dynamic free will you are. I suggest: ignite it!
This is how
I want to introduce this fascinating interview with Colin Wilson to you. So far
it has only around 650 YouTube views, and this is for the entire Anglophonic
world! I am fascinated how come one of our most important and immediate
contemporaries is carefully ignored by so-called intellectual avant-garde. The
body of his cheerful yet balanced works (which includes more than 150 books!)
is a treasure chest of unlimited depth. Howay the lads! Howay kosmic
thrill-seekers! [3]
Notes
1. One of such extraordinary schools of non-dualistic wisdom is Kashmir Shaivism. Rabindranath Tagore, the Nobel Laureate in Literature (1913), characterized it as follows: “Kashmir Shaivism has penetrated to that depth of living thought where diverse currents of human wisdom unite in a luminous synthesis.” This kind of appreciation is something that shouldn’t leave us indifferent to the enormous depths of their philosophies.
2. Vasily Nalimov was published in English extensively. You can download free electronic copies of his books at Dr. Eugene Garfield’s website. Nalimov’s magnum opus is Spontaneity of Consciousness. It was published in Russian and German. An authorized English translation of this book exists but it was never published and still awaits its hour.
3. More on
the significance of Colin Wilson’s works can be read in my essay “A Giggle of the Kosmic Outsider.” Make sure to check out the fruitful
discussion in the comments section there.
Eugene Pustoshkin
St. Petersburg, Russia
May 2012
St. Petersburg, Russia
May 2012
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