Sam Harris: The Delusion of Free Will

[The Comrade]

now i'm imagining exploited spanking his wife with dorito cheesed hands, mountain dew clinging to his upper lip hair, fedora off-kilter.

[exploited]

So Sunday night then.

[The Dharma Bum]

I'd like to introduce esotericism to this mix. Spirituality makes nature and nurture mere directional nudges in terms of their influences over a lifetime of choices. The energies created by a community humans, or a group of any living thing really, can have profound impacts on your emotional state and subsequently your conscious decisions. Similarly, the idea that a matrix exists is utterly destroyed by the idea of spiritual planes of existence and anything other than what our 5 main senses are consciously used for.

[The Dharma Bum]

[Aaron]

Anthroposophy interests me, but I'm going to have to get to a time in my life where I either don't need to make significant money or have decided I simply don't need to, before I actually have time to pursue spiritual philosophy

[The Dharma Bum]

ah rudolph steiner, very interesting. also interested in the ideas of george gurdjieff

[The Dharma Bum]

I think esoteric practices are helpful with developing the will. But as you mentioned there are many physical constraints on the body and social obligations that preclude one following their own inner desires. The time and expense involved alone make that prohibitive and can alienate one from their friends and family.

But I think the bigger picture is to lose the desire for all of these things and becoming accepting that while we have a will, we can never truly express a free will except in tightly controlled circumstances.