Why there is no free will

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Hi friends,

 

There will follow an article why there is no free will and free decision. If you want to read more then go there:

 

http://faculty.virginia.edu/consciousness/new_page_8.htm

 

If you are interested in the whole material about consciousness and awareness then just go there:

 

http://faculty.virginia.edu/consciousness/

 

These texts are, as I think, a MUST for everyone interested in the matter of consciousness and spirituality.

 

Werner

 

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5.9. The experiments of Libet, et al., and their implications for free will

In a ground-breaking series of experiments first reported in 1973 (see Benjamin Libet, Unconscious cerebral initiative and the role of conscious will in voluntary action, The Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 1985, 529-566), Benjamin Libet, et al., showed that the earliest experiential awareness of a sensory stimulus occurs about 500 msec (0.5 sec) after the stimulus itself. This demonstrates that none of our experiences of perception are in real time, but in fact are delayed by about one-half second after the actual events. This delay is the time required for neurological electrical potentials (the readiness potential RP, which was measured by using electrodes surgically implanted in the brain) to rise to the level necessary for experiential awareness. This means that it is impossible to respond volitionally in less than 500 msec to any stimulus since our experience is always delayed by that much. However, Libet showed that meaningful unconscious behavioral responses can occur in as little as 100 msec after a stimulus, showing that meaningful behavior need not be conscious behavior.

 

In 1983, Libet, et al., reported an even more profound set of experiences in which the subjects, rather than responding to sensory stimuli, were "volitionally" initiating muscular acts. The experiments showed that the readiness potential RP began 550 to 1050 msec before the muscular response, but the experiential awareness of the willingness to perform the action followed the onset of the RP by about 350 msec. (This awareness could not be signaled by the subject pushing a button because that would require another decision for muscular action. It was measured by having the subject associate his reading of an electronic clock with the onset of his awareness of the decision.) Thus, the decision to perform a muscular act is made prior to the awareness of the decision. In other words, we become aware of a decision only after the decision has already been made. Libet speculates that it may be possible to consciously veto such an unconscious decision if it is done within the last 100 - 200 msec before the action is to occur. If such a veto decision is preceded by a RP, it would be very difficult to measure it in the presence of the original RP, so experimental verification of conscious veto decisions is not presently possible. However, the possibility of volitional veto decisions is negated by the considerations in the following paragraph, and by those in Sections 5.10 and 5.12.

 

Libet’s experiments point to a general concept which a little thought shows must always be valid. This is that everything that happens must happen before we can become aware of it. There is always a time lag between any neurological or sensory process and our awareness of the thought, feeling, sensation, or action which represents it. In Libet’s experiments, this gap ranged between 350 msec and 500 msec, but the exact value is unimportant. So long as this gap exists, no matter how large or small, whether it is one hour or one microsecond, our experience of the objective present must always come in the objective past (the subjective present) as measured by a clock or other instrument. In other words, the subjective present always lags the objective present.

 

The consequences of this insight are extraordinary, revolutionary, and far-ranging. It means that any thought, feeling, sensation, or action always occurs objectively before we become aware of it subjectively and hence there is no possibility that we can avoid it. This includes any choices or decisions that are made. We inescapably live in the objective past so that the objective present and future are completely beyond our control.