by I M Probulos
One solution on how we deal with accepting the illusion of free will is to better understand the concepts of mind control and addictive behaviors. These can seriously impact our ability to make rational, informed decisions, and can therefore usurp our ability to make reasoned, informed decisions. I examine these issues in greater depth in my other books so I just want to include a few quick lists. The bottom line is that they are another significant variable in a long list of variables that influence and ultimately determine our ultimate choice.
The Right brain versus the left brain.
In 2013 I discovered the story of how neuroanatomist Jill Bolte Taylor, who suffered a massive stroke in 1996 in the left hemisphere of her brain and for about four hours lived in the “la-la land” of her right brain. Without the left hemisphere providing input, she lived entirely in the moment and found the feeling euphoric. You can watch her on this TedTalk video. I believe I have watched it over a half-dozen times. I also read her book, My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist's Personal Journey by Jill Bolte Taylor Ph.D. [Amazon Link]
Her recovery from the ordeal was long and hard. I will add that I was disappointed toward the end of the book as she become a believer of “angel cards” and other woo woo new age concepts as a result of her trauma. Perhaps if I had the exact same injury, or some other “out of body” experience, I would become a believer as well. Many do and that is exactly the way it often happens–a massive transcendent, hallucinogenic experience–whether internal to the brain (stroke) or external (peyote) and many become spiritual.
I would like to believe that transcendence does not require a belief in spirits, gods, a living universe or any of that. Why? Well, for one because I am spiritually challenged and such a lover of science and the experimental method. When I see a study claiming that vitamins are a waste of money, I step back and evaluate my buying habits.
Second, because not accepting faith without evidence, that “show me” attitude are all part of the same, mental construct. In other words, someone who accepts that free will is an illusion does not come to that conclusion because they decide one day they wish to become a hedonist and smoke, drink, and have sex with reckless abandon. The faithful will assert that, but that is not the way it actually works (except for some small percentage per the STE). As the evidence piles up for scientific explanations for previously mysterious phenomena, and we learn more about the human brain, evolution, and the nature of the universe, it becomes increasingly clear, to me at least, that there is no reason to the universe, no deity watching over us, and no free will.
It is for those who accept this that I write. It is not natural to live in a world without active agents, where God does not have a plan, and where good and evil are now part of normal distribution curve (STE). Our brain evolved to create spirits and reason–and the concept of free will.
The left-brain, right-brain meme has been with us for a long time: right-brain people are more creative; left-brain people are more analytical. Lately, research from the University of Utah found with brain imaging that people don't use the right sides of their brains any more than the left sides of their brains, or vice versa. This may well be true, but clearly the hemispheres impact how the view the world as evidenced by those whose brains have been split (the corpus callosum) due to severe epilepsy. Research on the corpus callosum indicates it may be involved with gender identity disorder, musical ability, handedness (right or left) and dyslexia.
Addictive behaviors
This will make more sense after the reader understands the compound impact of mind control and addictive behaviors on free will. Every one of the addictive behaviors below robs of our ability to make a reasoned decision. An addiction can control us.
Alcohol
Drugs
Cigarettes/nicotine
Gambling
Sex
Hoarding/collecting
Overeating
Love
Pornography
Shopping
Mind Control
Mind control refers to any organization or person that appeals to our instinctive desires (such as wealth, sex, power, or health) with the intent to control the way we think or act. Mind control preys on our fears, wants, basic assumptions, values, opinions, and beliefs. Anyone invested in persuading us is systematically manipulating our thoughts and ultimately, our actions. Influences include:
Our parents / relatives.
School and teachers.
Our significant other
Friends and peer pressure.
Church and all religions in general. (They indoctrinate us before we are old enough to question.)
Big business.
Fast food industry.
Pharmaceutical companies.
The media: right wing versus left wing.
Political parties.
Mental Illness
This is a quick tour to some fascinating cases:
Phineas Gage
Capgras syndrome
Cotard or Walking Corpse syndrome
Body dysmorphic disorder
Body Integrity Identity Disorder
Huntington's disease
Alien limb syndrome
Tourette’s syndrome
Savant Syndrome
I think that our increased understanding of how these illnesses work has had the most effect on me in terms of evidence about our lack of free will and that we are our mind. Our brain is us. We are our brain. They illustrate specific examples where damage to their brain and neural activity can influence decisions and even morality.
The most famous example on how our personality can be altered by neurological damage is Phineas Gage (1823-1860). This unfortunate man had an iron rod pierce his brain, destroying much of his brain’s left frontal lobe. Surprisingly, he survived yet his personality changed dramatically. After his accident he was described as “no longer Gage” and that he had become "gross, profane, coarse, and vulgar." Therefore attributes often associated with character and self-control were now the by-product of gross physical damage to the brain.
A person afflicted with Capgras syndrome [Link] thinks that his/her spouse or family member is an imposter when they see them. However, if he/she hears their loved one’s voice on the telephone, it is recognized immediately. The reason for this phenomenon is that the cross-linking of the emotional center of the brain and the visual cortex (from the ocular [eye] system) is different from the auditory system pathway. Therefore, when they see the person they recognize they know them but there is no emotional connection or response. They interpret this disconnect to mean that the person is not someone to whom they have an emotional attachment and is an imposter. However, when they hear their voice the cross-linking is intact; the emotional response is there and they recognize the person as genuine. In the same article they describe:
Patients with Cotard or Walking Corpse syndrome hold a delusional belief that they are deceased. This disorder has occurred following trauma, such as during advanced stages of typhoid and multiple sclerosis and has been linked with brain regions such as the parietal cortex and the prefrontal cortex—”the parietal cortex is typically involved in attentional processes, and the prefrontal cortex is involved in delusions observed in psychiatric conditions such as schizophrenia.”
Body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) is a chronic mental illness, wherein the afflicted individual is concerned with body image, manifested as excessive concern about and preoccupation with a perceived defect of their physical appearance.
Body Integrity Identity Disorder (BIID) is a psychological disorder wherein sufferers feel they would be happier living as an amputee. It is characterized by individuals feeling that their limbs “do not belong” and they desire to have a foot, leg, arm, or hand removed. They have a persistent and virtually inconsolable anxiety concerning the offending limb. They often try repeatedly to maim themselves to remove the offending limb and often succeed.
Apotemnophilia is sexual arousal based on the image of one's self as an a
mputee.
Xenomelia is the oppressive feeling that one or more limbs of one's body do not belong to one's self.
Alien limb syndrome: There are stories of people who have lost certain abilities, such as the ability to recognize anything on the left half of their body as being theirs, so that they treat their left hand as a foreign object.
Huntington's disease is a neurodegenerative genetic disorder that affects muscle coordination and leads to cognitive decline. While the specific psychiatric symptoms vary, they include an increase in compulsive behavior which can cause or worsen addictions such as alcoholism, gambling, and hypersexuality. This is a function of a reduced ability to inhibit inappropriate actions. Those areas in the brain responsible for impulse control are impaired. Another side effect is the inability to detect disgust. Patients with Huntington’s disease show an inability to recognize the facial expression of disgust in others while their ability to correctly perceive other types of facial expressions remains relatively unaffected.
One study concludes with:
This implies that the experience of disgust across a range of modalities is encoded by a common central mechanism that most likely involves the striatum due to its pivotal role in Huntington’s disease pathology and the anterior insula, which plays a role in the responses associated with offensive tastes and is activated by facial expressions of disgust.
The striatum is the subcortical or inside part of the forebrain. It is the major input station of the basal ganglia system. The cerebral cortex inputs into the striatum. In each hemisphere of the brain, the insular cortex is a portion of the cerebral cortex. Indications are that the insulae are involved in consciousness and emotion. The point here is that something as specific as a sense of disgust can now be identified as a deterministic component and function of our brain.[ii]
In what has to be the best title ever for a book, Oliver Sacks The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat: And Other Clinical Tales (Link) explores a number of bizarre neurological disorders. In his book he describes how physically deformed twins with IQ's around sixty have the amazing ability to recognize prime numbers and to calculate consecutive primes of at least six digits in length. In another example, a stroke or a brain lesion can cause one person to lose his or her ability to understand the meaning of nouns and the ability to recognize verbs unscathed, yet in another person the reverse is true.
Savant syndrome is where someone with a serious mental disability has amazing capabilities in narrow areas. Savant skills are usually found in one or more of five major areas: art, musical abilities, calendar calculation, mathematics and spatial skills. About 50% of savants have autism.
Tourette syndrome is an inherited neuropsychiatric disorder with onset in childhood, characterized by multiple physical tics and at least one vocal tic. Tourette’s is idiopathic (no known cause) but it is believed to be the result of genetics and epigenetics (genetic expression based on the environment).
Coprolalia is the condition where those with Tourette’s exclaim obscene words or socially inappropriate and derogatory remarks.
There is considerable debate over the issue of Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) and medicating children. Even for those who favor reason and science, there still will be considerable debate. Some very successful people have admitted to being diagnosed as ADD, including: Sir Richard Branson, Paul Orfalea (founder of Kinko's), David Neeleman (founder of JetBlue Airways), actor/musician Justin Timberlake, actor Will Smith, Olympic champion Michael Phelps, former quarterback Terry Bradshaw, baseball star, Pete Rose, and comedians Jim Carrey, Robin Williams, and Howie Mandel.
This book is the product of an ADD brain intent on sharing its observations about the human condition and how science is the answer to the question of human suffering—not by faith without evidence or religious dogma. The issue here is not whether to medicate but how we can channel the inattentiveness, and hyper-focusing of the ADD brain into positive endeavors.
In summary, I find the evidence above very compelling and there are dozens more and our knowledge of the connection between personality traits and our brain increases every day.
Panic Attacks
These occur suddenly and are intense periods of fear and apprehension. A panic attack is a response of the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) which initiates the "fight-or-flight response" in which adrenaline (epinephrine) is released in significant amounts. They are not usually indicative of a mental disorder and there is no one cause but dozens with heredity, biology, trauma, specific situations, and drug withdrawal listed as the most common. Symptoms include of trembling, chest pain, and shortness of breath.
The simple point is that a panic attack is not under conscious control–by its very nature, it occurs suddenly and unexpectedly–and often is devastating. If one occurs at a crucial decision-making moment–does the person still have free will to make a reasoned choice? What if they are unable to make any choice–and therefore not deciding is the default choice by panic attack?
In a hypothetical situation, consider Jack, who is with his three childhood friends, Ted, Harry, and Zeke. Based on our perfect storm of bad genetics, bad environment, and a night of methamphetamine, his three friends decide to rob a convenience store. Reluctantly and high on meth, Jack tags along. At the last minute, seconds before Zeke shoots the attendant dead, Zeke has a change of heart and proceeds to leave the store. Jack is overcome by a panic attack, is unable to assert his free will, and he is convicted as an accomplice to murder, and with the rest of the gang sentence to the electric chair.
While I am sure many will assert Jack should not have been there in the first place, and it’s a valid observation, my point is that, the deciding factor, ultimately, whether Jack dies or not, or perhaps even goes to hell or not–was the panic attack–and not his free will. He had decided to leave but his ability to act was overridden by something beyond Jack’s conscious or willful control.
According to the American Psychological Association, "most specialists agree that a combination of cognitive and behavioral therapies are the best treatment for panic disorder. Medication might also be appropriate in some cases".
Dementia and Alzheimer’s
How anyone who experiences a relative with dementia or Alzheimer’s can believe that our thoughts and conscious do not exist as matter and energy is puzzling. As you slowly watch the erosion of memories, function, and even the emotions of your loved ones, where do you think those memories are going? Why would anyone believe these memories are magically set back into an ethereal form in heaven? As one loses their very personality in the cloud known as Alzheimer’s, do you believe that their personality, neuron by neuron, is reassembled in a metaphysical state?
There are numerous cases of dramatic personality changes either due to trauma or disease of the brain. Avoiding the research only increases the disconnect between the problems and the solutions.
Genetics
Research shows that extreme abuse during childhood can impact gene expression and long-term behavior. When stress builds up in early childhood, neurobiological factors are affected and subsequently hormone cortisol levels become uncontrollable and cannot be brought back to normal ranges. Homosexuality: psychologist Michael Bailey of Northwestern University famously demonstrated that if one identical twin is gay, there is about a 50% likelihood that the other will be too.
A new study led by University of North Carolina School of Medicine researchers is the first to identify a genetic risk factor for persistent pain after traumatic events such as motor vehicle collision and sexual assault. The study assessed the role of the hypothalamic-pituitary adrenal (HPA) axis, a physiologic system of central importance to the body's response to stressful events.
In 1996, Hamer and his collaborators at NIH seconded an Israeli group's finding that linked a gene on chromosome 11 to the personality trait psychologists call novelty seeking. One version of the novelty-seeking gene may make a protein that is less efficient at absorbing dopamine. Since dopamine is the chem
ical that creates sensations of pleasure in response to intense experiences, people who inherit this gene might seek to stimulate its production by seeking out thrills.
That same year Hamer's lab helped pinpoint another gene, this time on chromosome 17, which appears to play a role in regulating anxiety.
Although DNA is constructed out of a mere four chemicals–adenine, guanine, cytosine, thymine–it can take as many as a million combinations to spell out a single human gene. Of particular interest are variations that may affect the operation of such brain chemicals as dopamine and serotonin, which are well-known modulators of mood. Genes are simply chemicals that direct the combination of more chemicals.
Based on twin studies, genes play a greater role than environment. Researchers at Edinburgh University stated that identical twins were twice as likely to share the same personality traits such as:
Sense of self-control
Social skills
Sense of purpose
Learning abilities
The biggest factor was self-control. There was a big genetic difference in people's ability to restrain themselves and persist with difficult situations and reacting positively to challenges.