The following was asked on a forum, and I took the time to jot down an answer. I wanted to record that answer somewhere, simply because I never realized I had thought that through so thoroughly before.
So now, did I think up this answer all on my own? Or was someone, somewhere, whispering it in my ear and guiding my hand? The world may never know....
"Is there free will?
Philosophers have spent centuries on that question."
I think its somewhat a bit of both, some tampering/energy flow, some free will.
Think of the energy in the universe. If you're religious or spiritual you see it as a sort of "magic" springing from deity and/or from all of life. In a more scientific sense it might be as simple as the kinetic friction of an entire planet turning quickly on its axis and rotating in space that we have eventually evolved into a sync with and possibly an ability to use and manipulate. It could even be the kinetic friction of the movement of atoms, who knows? But whatever it is, mysticism has always claimed it was there, and science seems to be starting to cautiously agree.
Whatever the energy is, it has to be subject to many of the same laws as the rest of nature, and people who have worked with it have always spoken of "building energy" in order to get things done. Be it prayer, spellwork, or vodou, there always seems to be a ritual involved to cause a shit-ton of energy to be quickly drawn and thrust out there, and the ritual is almost without exception something that will have an emotional impact. Many believe that emotion is actually one of the things that most directly affects this energy, which is why self-doubt is bad in spellwork, and why places where traumatic events occur (Gettysburg battlefield, anybody?) are haunted.
To me, free will goes something like this:
Consider us all damaged wires. we walk along in life, normally just humming with energy and harming no one, just another humming circuit plugged into the world, whether we realize it or not. But--occasionally or frequently--something happens, and we buzz and pop and crackle with a sudden brillient burst of energy, all of it sparking out there chaotically. Now energy has to go somewhere, we all know that from watching electricity, so it stands to reason when we spark and crackle, ours does too. I figure most of the time it grounds out or spends itself. It may not be harmlessly, but we would only call it "bad luck" (or "good luck") or "coincidence" or the like, because it makes a wave but not a big one.
However, sometimes it may not get spent, but stored (power spots, those place that creep us out, or energize us, places we go to plug in or avoid), or it may join the energy of others and grow. At this point it likely takes on a life of it's own. Think of the cartoon image of a snowball being rolled down a mountian, growing as it rolls. So say the energy sparks from you to another circuit, another person, and affects them. They, in turn, add their power and spark it again to another, and so on. Entire crowds might pass it back and forth, always adding energy, always growing until something snaps--the inexplicable mob mentality anyone?
And now what happens if something sparks many people all across the nation, all at once? Say, a piece of news, or a new discovery, or a bad bit of politics? And suddenly kinetic energy is leaping all over the place and growing, and since we all have intellect, we all have some idea what we want to do with it. What we're talking here is the impact point of the snowball on the cartoon character. Just to pull one out of my ass--the assassination of JFK.
That was huge, it shook America to its foundations. But, in this example, it neednt have been JFK. It could have been anybody. The energy, whatever it was, had been given shape and motion. It had to find a point to stop, and at that place and time found its natural conclusion., However, free will was what got JFL in harms way. Had he chosen a different path, it would have been someone else, someone just as influential, someone else who's death would have shaken America to its toes. It wasnt fated for JFK to die, his choices just made him the most likely target, it could have been anyone. However, because of the current of energy that had been started, it was fated for SOMEONE to die, and not someone small, something BIG, because it was a big amount of energy that needed a big grounding place.
However, whenever something like that has happened historically, the superstitious and/or sensitive have called it "Fate." What that seems to mean in this case is "I have put myself in that large, snowballing current of energy, and now like a swimmer in strong rapids, I cant get out. Like it or lump it, I am in this to the inevitable end, and nothing I can do now will change it." Rather like looking up and realizing you're about to impact another car and there's nowhere to go. You could have done a million things to avoid that impact, but at this moment, its too late, and all you can do is brace and hope for the best.
So we are all free will, but we are also victims of our circumstances, a natural part of the flux and flow of things, a part of the heartbeat and breath of humanity and of the planet. So sometimes, we wind up in places and events we (and no one) can control, and call it "fate," and feel when we're there as if our free will has been trumped.
Now, whether or not such acts of fate really are mere accidents of the world, are controlled and guided by a divine hand, or some of both I'll leave it to you to decide.
And that, boys and ghouls, was philosophy 101 for the day, thank you and please drive though.
So now, did I think up this answer all on my own? Or was someone, somewhere, whispering it in my ear and guiding my hand? The world may never know....
"Is there free will?
Philosophers have spent centuries on that question."
I think its somewhat a bit of both, some tampering/energy flow, some free will.
Think of the energy in the universe. If you're religious or spiritual you see it as a sort of "magic" springing from deity and/or from all of life. In a more scientific sense it might be as simple as the kinetic friction of an entire planet turning quickly on its axis and rotating in space that we have eventually evolved into a sync with and possibly an ability to use and manipulate. It could even be the kinetic friction of the movement of atoms, who knows? But whatever it is, mysticism has always claimed it was there, and science seems to be starting to cautiously agree.
Whatever the energy is, it has to be subject to many of the same laws as the rest of nature, and people who have worked with it have always spoken of "building energy" in order to get things done. Be it prayer, spellwork, or vodou, there always seems to be a ritual involved to cause a shit-ton of energy to be quickly drawn and thrust out there, and the ritual is almost without exception something that will have an emotional impact. Many believe that emotion is actually one of the things that most directly affects this energy, which is why self-doubt is bad in spellwork, and why places where traumatic events occur (Gettysburg battlefield, anybody?) are haunted.
To me, free will goes something like this:
Consider us all damaged wires. we walk along in life, normally just humming with energy and harming no one, just another humming circuit plugged into the world, whether we realize it or not. But--occasionally or frequently--something happens, and we buzz and pop and crackle with a sudden brillient burst of energy, all of it sparking out there chaotically. Now energy has to go somewhere, we all know that from watching electricity, so it stands to reason when we spark and crackle, ours does too. I figure most of the time it grounds out or spends itself. It may not be harmlessly, but we would only call it "bad luck" (or "good luck") or "coincidence" or the like, because it makes a wave but not a big one.
However, sometimes it may not get spent, but stored (power spots, those place that creep us out, or energize us, places we go to plug in or avoid), or it may join the energy of others and grow. At this point it likely takes on a life of it's own. Think of the cartoon image of a snowball being rolled down a mountian, growing as it rolls. So say the energy sparks from you to another circuit, another person, and affects them. They, in turn, add their power and spark it again to another, and so on. Entire crowds might pass it back and forth, always adding energy, always growing until something snaps--the inexplicable mob mentality anyone?
And now what happens if something sparks many people all across the nation, all at once? Say, a piece of news, or a new discovery, or a bad bit of politics? And suddenly kinetic energy is leaping all over the place and growing, and since we all have intellect, we all have some idea what we want to do with it. What we're talking here is the impact point of the snowball on the cartoon character. Just to pull one out of my ass--the assassination of JFK.
That was huge, it shook America to its foundations. But, in this example, it neednt have been JFK. It could have been anybody. The energy, whatever it was, had been given shape and motion. It had to find a point to stop, and at that place and time found its natural conclusion., However, free will was what got JFL in harms way. Had he chosen a different path, it would have been someone else, someone just as influential, someone else who's death would have shaken America to its toes. It wasnt fated for JFK to die, his choices just made him the most likely target, it could have been anyone. However, because of the current of energy that had been started, it was fated for SOMEONE to die, and not someone small, something BIG, because it was a big amount of energy that needed a big grounding place.
However, whenever something like that has happened historically, the superstitious and/or sensitive have called it "Fate." What that seems to mean in this case is "I have put myself in that large, snowballing current of energy, and now like a swimmer in strong rapids, I cant get out. Like it or lump it, I am in this to the inevitable end, and nothing I can do now will change it." Rather like looking up and realizing you're about to impact another car and there's nowhere to go. You could have done a million things to avoid that impact, but at this moment, its too late, and all you can do is brace and hope for the best.
So we are all free will, but we are also victims of our circumstances, a natural part of the flux and flow of things, a part of the heartbeat and breath of humanity and of the planet. So sometimes, we wind up in places and events we (and no one) can control, and call it "fate," and feel when we're there as if our free will has been trumped.
Now, whether or not such acts of fate really are mere accidents of the world, are controlled and guided by a divine hand, or some of both I'll leave it to you to decide.
And that, boys and ghouls, was philosophy 101 for the day, thank you and please drive though.