We were taught cause and effect from birth. We search unendingly, and we find reasons and causes for just about everything. Great individuals through time have believed in determinism and that free-will was an illusion. Classical physics rests upon these principles. The universe is a great mechanism that operates outside our opinions of it. Within this view, we are mere passive observers, likened to being cogs in the machine.
On the other hand, we have the "new" science of quantum physics. We have concepts such as the
uncertainty principle and
complementarity which indicate that at a fundamental level of physical reality, sub-atomically, consciousness affects physical matter. This is shown through wave/particle duality. The outcome of such experimentation in the quantum world is inextricably tied to the will of the observer, through the vehicle of the measuring devices used. Such quantum observation shows us that one approach to the observation will bring an outcome of a wave phenomenon, while another observation/measurement will produce the outcome of a particle.
The philosophers and other wise people such as Einstein who believed in determinism, did so based on the idea that we are not operating "freely" outside of determinants. Our every thought, word and deed is preceded by causes that create our actions, despite how we choose to look at it. And therefore the idea is that we do not have a free will, independant of determined cause. And at the same time, at the fundamental level of the quantum realm, the consciousness, choices and decisions of the observer directly affect the outcome of physical reality reality. Given these two conflicting perspectives, which view of reality is true?
In my personal experience, I've come to understand that we are taught to perceive reality in a cause and effect manner from basically birth. In our society, we value the "objective" truths of science and what is taught in school. We hone our "left-brain"--our linear, logical ability, at the expense of balancing our many brain functions. We are trained to look for and see what is logical and what occurs in a linear fashion, and we are taught to overlook and ignore our natural holistic awareness, which then lies latent within us all. It's not that we shut down this awareness, we are just generally unconscious of the depths of life that there are to perceive around us. Due to our left brain focus and prioritization, we inadvertently set the Law of Attraction into action. We create what we expect to see, over and over, taking our creation to be reality itself. Within these parameters, we don't have pure free will, because we are unconscious of what is really going on. We create what our past dictates to us beyond our awareness of doing so.
However, it's readily apparent to me that many people on this board are of the small percentage who are awakening to truth and to their true potential. As we become more and more conscious of the patterns of unconscious teaching or programming that we are operating on, we learn to own once unconscious choices, thereby increasing our sense of self-mastery. We come to consciously balance our brain functioning, integrating linear, logical processes with whole, gestalt ones. We create a synergistic synapse in our thinking, sparking the inner Light of in-Sight. Eventually, by ongoing self-REAL-ization, we come to harmonize with more fundamental levels of existence both within ourselves and without, becoming whole.
This becomes not a matter of determinism vs free-will, but about a whole view of reality comprised of two complementary views wherein the seeming contradictions between the two views harmonize into a rich enlivening whole. We find that at some points in our experience it is valid and appropriate to look through the determistic lens, and yet at others, we might utilize the create-your-reality types of experiences, potently using the Law of Attraction. We awaken to the power of the moment to make conscious choices designed to suit our purposes at any point in time. When we come to resonate to this level of existence, we achieve what few do. We become self-actualized, as defined by Abraham Maslow. We become one with our environment, and with our very Selves. We come to recognize our ability to manifest our dreams, and understand that as the drop of water, we are at the very same time also the ocean. We come to see the profound truth in the following statement as we become one with our ground state, being both our potential and the field of all possibilities.:
"The opposite of a correct statement is a false statement. But the opposite of a profound truth may well be another profound truth."
~Niels Bohr, the father of quantum physics