Is free will an illusion?
You may think you chose to read this newsletter but your brain decided this a while before you knew it. Don't believe me? Read on...
The Libet Experiment: Brain Decides Before You Do
One of the most fascinating experiments of all time has been the Libet Experiment of 1983, in which neuroscientist Benjamin Libet went to test what comes first - your brain activity or your conscious decisions.
Experiment participants were asked to move their wrists when they felt like it and to document the exact time they decided to take action. All this time, their brain activity was being monitored.
The findings revealed that the brain activity came about half a second before the participants consciously decided to move their wrists.
That’s wild.
In fact, a study in 2008 by Haynes et al. further showed using a functional MRI that your brain actually starts working about 7 seconds before you are consciously aware that you’re making the decision. Haynes goes on to say:
Your decisions are strongly prepared by brain activity. By the time consciousness kicks in, most of the work has already been done
I think the implications of this are mind-boggling.
Are we under the illusion that we have free will?
Is everything pre-destined?
From the family you’re born into to your eating habits to whom you choose to marry…is this all a video game being controlled by someone else?
I think what’s to come will wildly surprise you.
Maybe your consciousness kicks in later but your subconscious is in full control…
Your subconscious mind and how it connects to the brain
Think of your brain as the hardware and your mind as the software that runs your life. Your conscious mind is when you are in control while your subconscious mind is when you are on autopilot.
What is shocking is that our subconscious mind (the one beyond our conscious control) is in charge of 95% of your daily actions.
Your subconscious is in charge of 95% of your daily actions.
That’s a huge amount!
Imagine that for the majority of your day, every day, your subconscious is running the show giving you an illusion of control.
In reality, most your decisions are pre-made.
Your karmic software
You may have heard of karma.
Sadhguru, a spiritual teacher, yogi, and founder of the Isha Foundation, says that karma is stored action.
Karma is the software your mind has been writing over the years and now it is running the show.
Your subconscious is conditioned from years how you’ve reacted to different stimuli. It gets stronger with repetition and often gives preference to short term wins vs. long term goals.
If you've always reacted with anger in conflicts, your karmic software will trigger anger automatically. You’re not choosing anger; your stored karma (past reactions) is making the choice for you.
What we call our “tendencies” or “personality” is actually our karmic software.
And this is not a choice…we are in shackles. Our “personality” has been making our decisions without conscious control.
If karma is confusing, another way to think about subconscious programming is to think about your habits.
Your are your habits
James Clear, the best-selling author of Atomic Habits, describes habit formation in four steps.
1️⃣ Cue – A trigger that initiates the habit
Example: Seeing your phone lights up (cue for checking messages).
2️⃣ Craving – The motivation to act
Example: Feeling curiosity or boredom leads you to check notifications.
3️⃣ Response – The actual habit/action
Example: You pick up your phone and scroll.
4️⃣ Reward – The benefit that reinforces the habit
Example: You feel entertained, so your brain reinforces the habit loop.
So the first time you respond to a stimulus, it happens consciously.
The next time you respond, your brain remembers and you respond the same way.
Over time, your neural connections get stronger and stronger and you do this on autopilot or subconsciously.
Finally, this becomes who you are.
We are in shackles that we created
As Isaac Bashevis Singer once said…
You have to believe in free will. You have no choice.
It is alarming that we spend most of our lives on autopilot with the illusion that we’re making choices. No wonder we get frustrated when the outcomes don’t line up with our intentions.
Intent isn’t enough. The actions that follow are often programmed and not in conscious control.
This brings us to two questions:
Can we change our autopilot behavior and choose a different destiny?
How much of our destiny can we actually change?
You can break free from your shackles
It is possible to break free from your tendencies or karmic software. The most common way to do so is bringing awareness to your subconscious patterns.
Bringing awareness into play
James Clear, the author of the bestselling book Atomic Habits, says that bringing awareness to your daily habits and choosing which ones you want to reinforce can help you set up systems of success.
He goes on to give us practical tips and tools for breaking unwanted habits and reinforcing habits you want.
Over time, the neural connections that made the old habits automatically weaken and the new connections strengthen.
You then reprogram or rewire your brain in a way that sets you up for the life you want. If you haven’t read this book, I highly recommend it. In particular, setting focus on tiny habits and systems and the compounding effect it can have on our lives (clearly) is monumental and very underrated.
Meditation and creating space
Meditation is another way for increasing awareness of our tendencies. Observing our thoughts, emotions, and bodily sensations as if we are a 3rd party helps in identifying patterns that we can break.
As Sadhguru says - meditation helps create space between you, your mind, and your body. That’s when you can bring your subconscious behavior into your consciousness and change it.
Personally for me - the realization that I am not my body or mind was life changing. The other big thing for me is that our minds are like machines - logical, repetitive, and often skeptical - great for helping us survive.
When we look at them as machines with a specific function, what they let out doesn’t bother us as much. This means that we don’t have to believe every single thought we have.
How much of our destiny can we actually change
While this deserves a whole other post on its own, I’ll attempt to share what I’ve learned so far. Let’s look at it from what science says and from what spirituality offers as both differ widely.
Science says you can control your destiny in limits
Going back to Libet’s and Haynes’ experiments we started with… we’ve learned that your subconscious mind makes a decision before your conscious mind decides to.
But interestingly, subsequent studies have shown that you can veto a subconscious decision before it takes place. Perhaps this isn’t free will but rather free won’t.
This ties back to the discussion on habits and mindset earlier. If you bring your subconscious actions into your awareness. You can stop them from happening and rewire your brain to act differently.
That being said, how much of your destiny can you control:
You don’t control your starting point. Science says that our genes, birthplace, and even early environment are factors out of your conscious control.
You can influence your trajectory as we discussed above through learning, habits, and mindset. Rewiring your habits and programming can change your automatic behavior.
Randomness and external factors still play a role, meaning no one has full control over their fate.
What is also very interesting is how classical physics (which says that everything works on cause and effect) differs vastly from quantum physics (the smallest particles that make all of us up).
Quantum physics says that everything does not work on cause and effect but rather on randomness and probabilities.
This warrants a different post and we’ll certainly be getting into that over time.
Spirituality says you can control 100% of your destiny
Sadhguru -modern spiritual leader, yogi, and founder of the Isha Foundation, says that if you control your life energies, you can control 100% of your destiny.
In fact, he goes on to say that depending on your level of awareness at death, you can choose the next womb you wish to be born in.
His view is that destiny is not fixed—it is shaped by the level of consciousness you bring to your life. When you take charge of your energy system, you stop operating on old karmic scripts and gain 100% control over what happens next.
So what is this magical energy system?
In yoga, energy or prana is the fundamental force that powers the body and mind.
(What is fascinating is that quantum physics suggests that at the most fundamental level, everything is energy. Whether these energies are the same or represent different layers of reality is something to explore in a future post.)
Coming back to the point… your energy controls your emotions, thoughts, and actions. For instance:
Low energy = confusion, compulsiveness, and suffering (most people).
Balanced energy = clarity, joy, and conscious living.
Mastered energy = full liberation (moksha), no karma binding you.
How do you control your life energies
Sadhguru says that you get in control of your life energies by clearing your karmic footprints. If you are led by your past reactions and conditioning, you are not in control.
Yoga
Yoga in Sanskrit means union - union of the individual self (Atman) with the universal consciousness (Brahman).
Asanas, breathwork, and meditation can help in achieving this union. For clearing your karmic imprint and getting in control of your life energies, Sadhguru advises on yogic practices like Hatha Yoga and Kriya Yoga.
Meditation and Awareness
Like we discussed above, bringing your autopilot behavior into conscious observation can help you change it and rewire your brain.
Grow your awareness, grow your control over destiny
One way to think about this is:
You are currently limited to you conscious mind
But you are led by your subconscious mind, which is outside your current awareness
To be in charge of your destiny, you need access to your subconscious mind
If you increase your awareness to your subconscious mind, you have control over your destiny
So the key is that we do have free will (to a large extent) but we need to learn how to access it.
Spiritual leaders like Buddha not only accessed their subconscious but they transcended it.
If we know that we are running on autopilot 95% of the day…
…why isn’t mastering the subconscious the most important thing we are taught?
Explained the scientific and spiritual aspects very well! As you mentioned yoga and meditation help us grow our awareness, and I also believe we can change our destiny based on our thinking and actions to a great degree. Mastering our subconscious mind is the most important yet difficult thing. Looking forward to read your next article!