Free will, determinism and our supernatural powers

The debate as to whether humans have free will is as old as philosophy. Do we really have the will to shape our own destinies, or are we merely guided there by deterministic forces beyond our control? Or is our journey through life random and meaningless? 

Do our actions resulting from our own free will forge our future? Or has it been decided for us, long ago? By causation, or by metaphysical notions? "It is the stars, the stars above us, govern our condition" [King Lear, William Shakespeare]. 

We have no control over who our parents were, over our genetics, over the environment in which we were born and raised. A multiplicity of factors reign over our lives, from the economy to the weather and the society in which we live. Each day we walk on the edge of chaos - devastating unexpected events can shatter lives, from health diagnoses to life-changing accidents, over which we have little control.

Individual issues get resolved, new ones pop up. As I wrote in May this year, it doesn't all come right in the end; we never achieve closure on everything, no matter how long we live.

Yet I feel (in a non-empirical way) that we have more control over our destinies than a rationalist materialist might accept. But only if we consciously will it so, and believe in our powers (weak though they may be).

Can you draw an optimal outcome out of the future by strength of mind? By willing it so? The rationalist-materialist would argue that this is magical thinking - this is non-causation. There is no link between you willing something, and it happening, they will tell you.

What do I believe we can ask for? 

Freedom from anxiety; evading chance accidents (not being in the wrong place at the wrong time); comfort, peace of mind, joy - pleasance (an obsolete term, the feeling of feeling pleased). Above all, we can ask the contentment that comes from moving forward on the long road to spiritual understanding. And when these things do come to pass, feeling grateful for them is essential. They should never be taken for granted. Complacency is spiritual death, as is boastfulness.

What do I believe we cannot ask for? What we should not be asking for? Wealth, luxury, power, admiration, adoration, fun, kicks, thrills; the here-today-gone-tomorrow, the short-term high. The sugar-rush of the ego being fed. You cannot petition the Lord with prayer - for these.

We still don't know whether the many-worlds interpretation of quantum physics is right or not. But let's just grapple with it for a moment. In multiverse in which an infinite number of universes co-exist, there must therefore be one just for you! [Well - maybe not everyone, not the Trump-like p-zombies, meat-covered biological robots that act on instinct and possess no soul. Not the człowiek, który się nie zastanawia.] But given that you are here, and reading this, I assume that you, like me, are a consciousness actively engaged in a search for truth. 

Quantum mechanics, which is nearly 100 years old, has been scientifically proven but it still defies philosophical understanding. It is not intuitive, as Newtonian mechanics is. Everyone can understand what happens to a ball thrown into the air, and grasp the mathematical formula that expresses its motion. Yet we cannot wrap our human brains around the notion of superposition of particles. The idea that articles adopt all possible paths - all possible positions - until their wave functions are collapsed. All possible futures are therefore possible, until wave-function collapse limits them to just one. What causes the wave function to collapse? The Copenhagen interpretation suggests it is the presence of a conscious observer. Erwin Schrödinger claimed this was ridiculous, devising his famous thought experiment ("is the cat dead or not dead?") to highlight the absurdity. The many-worlds interpretation, however, holds that the cat is dead in one universe and alive in another, the bifurcation occurring at the moment the state of the subatomic particle is resolved. It decays in one, the cat dies. It doesn't decay in the other, the cat lives.

The implication of the many-worlds interpretation is that you are living in a universe, very similar to the one I'm currently living in, indeed, interfacing with my one in many ways - but one that has been fine-tuned for you, not for any other consciousness. Caveat: this is but one interpretation, I'm only holding this open for consideration.

I challenge anyone who says that the supernatural, the paranormal and the metaphysical are all phooey, all New Age woo-woo, to give me their interpretation of quantum mechanics in the comments box below. My interpretation is that the subjective conscious observers do have a role in the collapse of the wave function - but that role isn't understood; it is weak, and it will grow in strength as consciousness evolves. I likewise challenge those who say that all material phenomena have to have a cause to tell me what was the underlying cause of the Big Bang...

This time last year:
Hammer of Darkness cubed
[This year I've significantly mitigated the effect of Seasonal Affective Disorder, by going to sleep at the pre-clock-change time. I go to bed at 10:00-10:15pm, (summer time 11:00-11:15) and wake up at 6:00-6:15am (summer time 7:00-7:15). I've ignored the time change, I'm feeling better for it.]

This time three years ago:
Magic day, in and around Jakubowizna

This time four years ago:
Warsaw-London-Ealing

This time six years ago:
With my father and brother in Derbyshire

This time eight years ago:
In praise of Warsaw's trams

This time 11 years ago:
Setting sun in the mountains

This time 12 years ago:
That learning moment