Readers Questions: Does Free Will Exist?

In this Readers Questions video, I discuss the topic of free will. Do you have free will to choose what you want to create in life? Or, is everything already set in stone? Perhaps your Higher Self set your path before you were born?

This is a question rarely discussed in the LOA community, and it’s an important one to discuss, because it’s a bit more involved than you might think.

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Topics Discussed

• [00:38] Question
• [01:23] Answer
• [02:46] Multiple Levels of Truth
• [05:38] Free Will on the Absolute Level
• [07:57] Free Will on the Egoic Level
• [09:47] The True Will
• [12:00] The Greatest Choice You Have

Transcript

Hey, everyone. This is Brandon Olivares from Co-Creation Coaching. I’m here with another Readers Questions video. Readers Questions is my opportunity every week to answer your questions about the law of attraction. If you would like to ask a question to be answered in one of these videos, you can go to playofinfinity.org/ask and submit your question there. Today you’ll notice we don’t have much of a question. It’s more of a topic.

[00:38] Question

Someone asked me to talk about this, so I’m going to, but it’s not really in a question format that I could put into a real quote. But as you see on the slide there, the question is about free will. Someone had come across an old post of mine from quite some years ago from another website, actually. I had discussed free will. They wanted to know my perspective on it now. I promised I would discuss it, plus, I think it’s a topic that is interesting that a lot of people don’t really discuss too much. I think it’s valuable to discuss it here.

[01:23] Answer

I guess the real question is, “Does free will exist?” That’s what people mean when they want me to discuss free will. Actually, back in my strict nondual days (I talked about how I used to be really, really nondual, and to some extent I still am, but I’ve softened that a lot) my answer to this was actually absolutely not. There was no free will. Everything was—I don’t know about predetermined, but everything was done basically to the Universe. Anything we imagine is basically illusory, so there couldn’t be free will.

Obviously that perspective isn’t too much fun. It kind of messed with me a bit back then. I had desires. I wanted to help others. I felt like if there was no free will, then other people couldn’t choose to be helped by what I said or not, so there’s really no point. Whether I chose to help or not, there was really no point. It led to a negative spiral, and that didn’t work too well.

I’ve had a chance over the years to reconsider my perspective on this, and now I have more of a nuanced answer to this question, which I want to discuss today.

[02:46] Multiple Levels of Truth

The first thing to say is with really deep questions like this, it’s difficult. There are multiple levels of truth. There’s an ultimate level of truth, where everything is one. Then there’s the truth down here in the physical world where we are separate beings—at least, apparently so—and going about our lives. So it’s a little hard to answer any kind of deep philosophical question like this because it can be answered in multiple ways.

For example, a lot of religions will fight about whether there is one god, many gods, god and goddess, a pantheistic or panentheistic thing like Source, and so on. Religions have been arguing about that for millennia. The answer to that is it depends on which level you’re on. On the ultimate level, there’s just one, so it’s nondual and indistinguishable. As you go down, you could say there’s many gods. You could even say there’s a god and goddess. There’s a main masculine and feminine energy. It’s just not a simple answer. It’s sort of “Everyone’s right” and “Everyone’s wrong” at the same time because we just don’t have a big enough picture.

It’s like the analogy of the blind man and the elephant. You know the analogy. A whole bunch of blind men approach an elephant. They want to know what an elephant looks like. They all feel one part of the elephant. One might feel the trunk. One might feel the tail. One might feel a leg. One might feel the elephant’s ear. They think it’s different things—a rope, or a hose, or a tree trunk, or a fan, different things like that. In a way, they’re all right, and in a really important way, they’re all wrong.

When you ask something like, “Is there free will?” it depends which part of the elephant you’re looking at. If you say, “I want the whole elephant,” it’s just really complicated. It’s hard to really give a definitive answer on all levels. I’m going to do my best to explain the different levels and what the truth on that level is. 

Obviously, this is just conjecture. Until we move on to the other side, none of us is going to know what the truth of any of this is. This is just my own opinion from my own experience. Your life might lead you to different opinions. I’d love to hear, really, what your comments are on this.

[05:38] Free Will on the Absolute Level

Basically, how I see it on the ultimate level there is just one. If you read any nondual text, you have the Bhagavad-Gita as far as ancient texts are concerned or more recently something like The Course in Miracles that clearly states that everything is one. There’s no difference. You have all these different texts that say that everything is one. 

If everything is one, and you ask, “Does free will exist?” the only answer is, “Exists for whom?” Do I, Brandon, on the ultimate level have free will? On the ultimate level, I don’t really—I’m just one with everything else. I’m not a distinct entity that could have free will. I can’t choose apart from the whole because on the ultimate level I am one with everything. So if you have many loci of awareness or consciousness that are choosing, that’s not the ultimate level. On the ultimate level, there’s one. You could almost even say none. You could say there’s a void. You could say there’s emptiness. You could say there’s nothingness in a certain sense. You could say there’s nonbeing or however you want to put that.

So on the ultimate level, free will doesn’t make sense. It doesn’t make sense because there’s just one, or even none. So who could possibly choose on that level? And what is there to choose? If the one were to choose, there would have to be two choices. If I choose what color I want to wear today, I have to have more than one choice or it’s not a choice. And that choice has to be separate from me. I can’t choose to be a person, because a person is who I am. I am a person. I can’t say, “Well, today I’m going to be not a person. I’m going to be a dog today.” I just don’t have that freedom. So the one—what can it choose that it’s not already?

On the ultimate level there is no free will because it doesn’t make sense.

[07:57] Free Will on the Egoic Level

As you come down from there and go on the other end on the bottom level (if there is a bottom level, let’s say on the level of ego), is there free will? I would say the answer is yes. You hear me hesitate with that a little bit, I know. The thing with ego is that the more that you let yourself be in ego, the less you can actually really do.

Your ego is ruled by these subconscious programs and subconscious habits and ways of being, where when something happens, you react to that thing either emotionally, through action, through thought, or whatever. In a way, I’ve always said the more awake you are, the more free will you have. I’ll come back to that later and explain that. When you are really sucked up in ego, you’re in a way the collection of habits and programs that are always going to react in a more or less predictable way. Even though it looks like free will, it’s not necessarily so. 

There is some free will on this level because there is always some light shining through from your soul or core essence, but the more you’re stuck on the ego level the less free will you really have because you’re defined by the subconscious programs that are in place that are dictating how you act. So on that level, yes, but only a little.

[09:47] The True Will

Now, as you awaken more and become more of your true essence, soul, true self, higher self—whatever you want to call it—and the ego just becomes a tool, then I do believe there is free will. I think that’s the truest free will because then we can choose what we want to create. Creation does not come from ego. Creation comes from soul. We can choose what we want to create. I think that our souls are little pieces. I don’t want to say “pieces” because pieces sounds like the one is all split up into a billion different pieces. Little manifestations, little expressions of the one. 

As little expressions of the one, we have the power that the one has to create. When I say “the one,” I mean God, the Universe, Source, the Tao, whatever you feel like calling it. We have that same power. In the Bible it says we were created in God’s image. That’s, I think, exactly what it means. We have that same power. As souls, we have that ability to create, but we’re also united with the one in a real sense. It’s this dynamic balance between this oneness where we go with the flow and also this choice where we choose.

But then there’s another level, in a sense. One of my favorite occultist figures was Aleister Crowley. He talked about your true will. If you’re following your true will, then everything is going to go fine for you. You’re accomplishing your purpose. I agree with that sense of true will. He saw it like a star having its orbit. He said every man and woman is a star. If you’re following your true will, you’re not going to conflict with anyone else who’s following their true will.

[12:00] The Greatest Choice You Have

The true will, though, does that come from something that we choose? I had a post or podcast about “Do we really choose our deepest goals?” Did I choose to be a spiritual person who wants to teach these principles? I don’t really feel like I did. It was just always with me. Did you choose those deepest things that are so important to you? Did you choose them, or were they always with you? Who chose them? In that sense, did I have free will? I think the only free will I had was to either follow my purpose or not. That’s really the purpose of this physical world.

Our purposes, in a sense, are lined with the universal flow or Tao, and we have the choice to either go with that and flow with it, or to go against it. Of course, we do have the choice to create, but creating always means going with the flow. So really, the greatest free will we have is to either choose to go with the flow with the one and be aligned with our own soul or core essence, or to choose to get locked into the ego and play the part of these subconscious programs and habits.

My final answer after all of that is, on the universal, absolute level, no. There’s no free will because it doesn’t make sense. There are no individuals. But on our level, the more egoic you are, the less free will you have because you’re in those subconscious programs. The more you awaken to your own true essence or core, the more free will you have. But the greatest free will that you do have is the choice to either follow your true will, to follow your purpose in life, or to attempt to go against it through ego, worrying about it, not believing it’s possible. That’s the greatest choice you have. 

You have that choice day after day after day. That is always your choice. That is why this whole thing exists. I don’t think it would make sense for all this to exist if there was no free will. There is. It’s just limited in some sense. You have the right to exercise that by choosing “Will I fulfill my purpose?” or “Will I be part of the dream and live from ego?” That is your choice to make.

I hope that that makes sense. I know it’s kind of a nuanced answer. Like I said, I’m sorry for that, but that’s just how it is. [laughs] But hopefully it makes sense to you. Again, for those who are listening, if you would like to get the transcript for this or just leave a comment, feel free to go over to playofinfinity.org/rq11

If you’d like to ask your own questions for Readers Questions, you can go to playofinfinity.org/ask I hope that everyone has a wonderful day. Again, I’m Brandon Olivares from Co-Creation Coaching. As always, anything is possible.

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Topics Discussed

• [00:38] Question
• [01:23] Answer
• [02:46] Multiple Levels of Truth
• [05:38] Free Will on the Absolute Level
• [07:57] Free Will on the Egoic Level
• [09:47] The True Will
• [12:00] The Greatest Choice You Have

Transcript

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