The Actual Truth Of Free Will

Free will has been discussed for literally thousands of years. Immense volumes and lengthy diatribes have been penned on what, exactly, is free will—and—do we even have it.

Well, let me clear this all up for all humanity: yes… sort-of. There. You’re welcome.

I’ve come to the conclusion, in all my earthly wisdom, that our free will dictates that we can either act in accordance with our true nature, or not.

Most of us are in the or not camp. At least some of the time. Likely most of the time. What does the or not camp entail? Acting from our conditioned self. Our ego self. Our lower case “s” self. You know, our false self.

Basically the “self” that is not our capital “S” Self. Which would be our authentic Self. True Self. Maybe even “higher” Self.

With so many ways to refer to our “self” you can see why there’s so many self-help books. Har har har.

But seriously. There’s your conditioned self and your authentic self. And your free will is the choice to dig through your conditioned self in order to uncover, reveal and remember your true self.

This might be upsetting to some. Some of you might say “I can do whatever I want and be whomever I want!” No, Sally, you can’t. You can just be conditioned Sally or true Sally. That's it. That’s your choice.

Honestly, that should be enough. Digging through one’s conditioned self is a lifetime of work. CG Jung remarked that the process of individuation was one’s magnum opus—the work of their lifetime. I mean, if it takes a lifetime, do you really have time for anything else anyway?

You see, it is part of the human condition to be conditioned. That’s why it’s called: “the human condition!” Obvious, right? There’s just no avoiding it. It’s just how our brains work. It’s how we develop.

No matter how “perfect” your upbringing—even with no significant trauma—your child mind is designed to be molded¹. We have evolved to adapt to our “tribe” so that we survive. In the past not being accepted by one’s tribe was literally life and death. The potential to make it alone in the wild was next to none. Food, shelter, companionship and of course, not being eaten by a lion were all fulfilled by the tribe.

So, we evolved to adapt our behaviour. To take on the beliefs, patterns and behaviors of our caregivers. While it’s highly beneficial during our early years, in our modern era, once we grow old enough to strike it on our own, we bring all of that conditioning and adaptation with us.

And, while that conditioning may have served us in development so that we fit in with our tribe and ensured survival, there’s no guarantee those beliefs and behaviours will serve us in adulthood. Indeed, they’ll likely hinder us and show up in troubling ways because our true self wants to be freed to express itself!

So, how do you free your true self, you ask? Well, let me clear this one up for humanity as well: you just… ugh… do it. Yup.

Really, the first step is to at least have the intention to do it. The intention to honestly and compassionately look at your own self. To bring awareness to your own actions and reactions. And then—really important here—take full responsibility.

There’s no freedom in blaming others or circumstance. The only freedom is constantly prying away the layers of your own conditioning and taking ownership of it.

You might notice that this is all quite simple. And that’s because it is. But simple is not always easy. It’s much easier to blame. Easier to protect oneself. Easier to maintain status quo, to maintain your current patterns and behaviours.

But, that’s it. That’s free will. Act out your programming or act out your authentic self. Wait… but what the heck is an authentic self?

Ha, this is the crux of it all. The cosmic joke really. Once we find aspects of our “true” Self, there’s really nothing to be done about it! It’s just… who we are. Once you get past the conditioned, reactive behaviour and adopted beliefs you arrive at your predilections—or, your patterns, behaviours and general perspective that is essentially unchangeable.

Yup. There’s a part of you that’s just you, uniquely you unlike anyone else. And it’s a beautiful thing when someone acts from that center, from that authentic self. It’s where real creativity and expression come from. Ahh, makes me smile just thinking about it!

The other funny thing is: I can’t prove this to you. The only way to know for sure is to give it a go yourself. But again, this is the crux of our free will. I can’t do this for you. No one can. We can only choose to do it for ourselves.

But, while each of us must walk this path of self-discovery alone, we can still find pointers and sign posts and guidance from others. And—surprise, surprise!—my partner and I started a company to help guide people on their own journeys of self-discovery.

No matter how you go about it, your free will is simply the choice to act out of conditioning or act from your true, utterly unique authentic Self. That's it.

“Enlightenment is a destructive process. It has nothing to do with becoming better or being happier. Enlightenment is the crumbling away of untruth. It's seeing through the facade of pretence. It's the complete eradication of everything we imagined to be true.” ―Adyashanti

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So, whaddya think? Do you think humanity has more free will? Less?! Let me know.