Passion Struck with John R. Miles - Does the Concept of Free Will Really Exist w/John R. Miles EP 190

Starting point is 00:00:00 coming up next on the Passion Struck Podcast. Many examples seem to support the idea that our actions and decisions may depend on external forces, which are beyond our awareness. Other counter-opinions insist on our complete independence from such powers, leaving us with total responsibility for free will over our actions. These differences in belief lead to many questions. This episode addresses these and other related questions regarding the concept of free will. Welcome to PassionStruct. Hi, I'm your host, John Armiles, and on the show, we decipher the secrets, tips, and guidance of the world's most inspiring people and turn their wisdom into practical advice

Starting point is 00:00:42 for you and those around you. Our mission is to help you unlock the power of intentionality so that you can become the best version of yourself. If you're new to the show, I offer advice and answer listener questions on Fridays. We have long form interviews, the rest of the week with guest-ranging from astronauts to authors, CEOs, creators, innovators, scientists, military leaders, visionaries, and athletes.

Starting point is 00:01:09 Now, let's go out there and become PassionStruck. Hello everyone, and welcome back to Momentum Friday, an episode 190 of PassionStruck. Thank you to all of you who come back weekly to listen and learn, how to live better, be better, and impact the world. If you're new to the show and you're unaware of our YouTube channel, you can go check it out at John Armiles. Please subscribe.

Starting point is 00:01:31 We have long form content like today's episode to much shorter clips that we put on there that you'll only find on YouTube. And in case you missed our episodes from earlier this week, including the launch of the new book, Choose Growth from Dr. Scott Berry Kaufman and Dr. Jordan Finegold. And they discuss all the different ways in their workbook that you can transcend, fear, obstacles, and self-doubt. I also had on Don DePonny this week where we discuss his new book, The Unwavering Power of Focus.

Starting point is 00:02:02 Such a great interview about intentionality and how focus can impact our life in so many positive ways. And lastly, in case you missed this momentum Friday block from last week, I did a special episode on climate change with 20 time international best-selling author, Seth Gooden. And we cover all things about climate change and why the next decade is so important for us to take action.

Starting point is 00:02:28 I also want to acknowledge our fan of the week who happens to be a guest who was on the show many months ago, Michael Unbroken, who writes, In sightful and impactful, I just wanted to take a moment to say thank you for creating such an impactful podcast. I believe that we all have a voice that deserves to be heard. Thank you for putting this in the world. Be unbroken. Thank you, Michael, so much for that review. And thank you to all of you in the audience for your ratings and reviews. We now have over 9,000 five star reviews on Apple alone. And those ratings and reviews go so far and helping us promote

Starting point is 00:03:04 the popularity of the show, getting other people to tune far and helping us promote the popularity of the show getting other people to tune in and helping us grow this passion-struck movement. Now, let's talk about today's episode. For centuries, theologians and philosophers have debated one of the most central questions of human existence, whether or not we have free will. The question most commonly asked is, are our behaviors and actions predetermined, or do we have complete control over our choices? At the end of the 20th century, many believed that neuroscience had settled the age-old question, with the conclusion from two German scientists

Starting point is 00:03:38 that free will does not exist. However, that research was challenged more recently by American neuroscientist Benjamin Limit, who made the case that our brains show science of a decision before we act. Not only that, but the wheels inside our brain start turning even before we consciously attend to do something. At the time of his death in 2007, Limit had as many critics as he did defenders.

Starting point is 00:04:04 This resulted in even more scientists and other curious humans joining in on this debate all wanting to determine if our choices are genuinely free from influences beyond us. In the decades since Libet's experiment, his findings had been replicated in various studies using much more modern technology such as the FMRI. The evasive answer is nevertheless fundamental to our moral principles, criminal justice system, religion, and even the very meaning of life. If every life event is merely the predictable outcome of mechanical laws, we may question what the point of living a life is at all.

Starting point is 00:04:45 Many examples seem to support the idea that our actions and decisions may depend on external forces, which are beyond our awareness. Other counter-opinions insist on our complete independence from such powers, leaving us with total responsibility for free will over our actions. These differences in belief lead to many questions such as, which opinion then holds true for free will. Are we consciously aware of the factors influencing our choices? What are the implications of believing or not believing in free will?

Starting point is 00:05:16 This episode addresses these and other related questions regarding the concept of free will. We must carefully consider these notions and clearly understand their reality for us. Doing so will enable us to tackle the issues concerned with our behavior, and that of others more effectively. My aim for this episode is to spark curiosity in you and encourage conversation and deliberation on this topic. Let us now dive deeply into the concept of free will, beginning with the true story of a man named Kenneth Parks

Starting point is 00:05:49 that will leave you wondering, just how susceptible are we to influences beyond us? Thank you for choosing PassionStruck and choosing me to be your host and guide on your journey to creating an intentional life. Now, let that journey begin. What's the most important thing to be able to do? What's the most important thing to do? Kenneth Parks was a gentle, easygoing young man

Starting point is 00:06:12 with no history of violence or crime. He had a wife and a five-month-old daughter who he loved very much, and he tried to be the most supportive and kind father and partner that he could be. However, after he lost his job, he became addicted to gambling and began to face serious financial consequences, which further led to problems in his marriage. To get help, he decided to discuss the issues with his in-laws,

Starting point is 00:06:36 whom he respected and got along with very well. In the early hours of May 24, 1987, the day Kenneth had planned to visit them, something very strange happened. That morning, before dawn, Parks got up and drove the 12 miles from Pickering, Ontario, to his in-laws' home in Scarborough, Ontario. He was able to again access to their house with a key that was previously given to them, and then went in and bludgeoned his mother-in-law to death. He then turned on his father-in-law, stabbing him, and attempting to strangle him to death. After the failed attempt, he got back into his car and

Starting point is 00:07:12 with blood stains all over him drove to the nearest police station and set to one of the officers who was on duty there. I think I just killed two people. He had absolutely no memory of what had just happened. The police placed Kenneth into custody and then the preparations for his trial began. His lawyer was baffled by the question of what could have gone so wrong with his brain to cause him to commit this horrendous act and seeing that he had no motive whatsoever behind the murders. In search for the answers to this mystery, she assembled a team of professionals,

Starting point is 00:07:47 including medical, mental health, and neurological experts who probed deeply into the mystery. They soon began to suspect that Kenis sleep issues contributed to the gruesome event while Parks was in prison, his lawyer called in, neurologist and sleep expert Robert Brunton, who measured Ken's EEG signals while he slept at night. The expert found the recorded output

Starting point is 00:08:10 to be consistent of that of a sleep walker. The team then found sleep issues throughout Kennis' family's history. At trial, his legal team presented the sleep results as well as his family's history. After thoroughly examining the evidence, the court determined that Kenneth wasn't conscious of his actions when he carried them out, and therefore he couldn't be held responsible for them. He was later determined to suffer

Starting point is 00:08:36 from some non-buelism, where the person loses their sense of vision, sight, and smell. Additionally, they can't form memories while they're asleep. He was found not guilty of homicide and was released. The decision was later reviewed and upheld by the Supreme Court of Canada. This interesting case shows how our behavior, rather than being predetermined, is primarily random for reasons over which we have no control. It also demonstrates that consciousness, precise role, indecision-making remains unclear. Let us use this example of Kenneth's story to further explore consciousness, determinism, predeterminism, biological, and environmental influences and their impact over our free will. We'll be right back to the PassionStark podcast.

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Starting point is 00:10:26 struck offer good for a limited time. Claim your $75 credit now at Indeed.com slash passion struck indeed.com slash passion struck terms and conditions apply need to hire you need indeed now back to the passion struck podcast. Consciousness is an alert state in which you are aware of yourself and your situation. Consciousness plays a central role in cultural conceptions of free will. When conscious conditions compel behavior, people tend to believe that the person acted freely.

Starting point is 00:10:58 However, when unconscious states cause behavior, it's commonly thought that the person did not act on their own free will. The latter view implies that it's possible to be in states of unconsciousness due to negligence or factors beyond your control, such as the case of Kenneth Parks. If you take a moment to think about past situations, when you had to make a decision, you would probably recall one or more times when you felt an intuition that a particular choice was the right one to make. Now, this feeling isn't based on logic or conscious reason, but simply a feeling. In explaining what prompted their decisions, you will hear people say things like, something

Starting point is 00:11:34 told me to do it, or I just felt like it was the right thing to do. Could a factor beyond logical explanation have influenced your choice in such cases. Indeed, there is constant, subconscious mental work ongoing silently below our level of awareness. According to neurophysiologist Susan Pockett, consciousness is not the real cause of much of what generally is considered voluntary behavior. Many voluntary actions are initiated pre-consciously, with consciousness kept informed only after the neuro-events leading to the act have begun. Now, let's talk about determinism and pre-determinism. First, determinism is not the view that free actions are impossible, but rather that any given point in time, only one future is physically possible. In other words, previously existing causes

Starting point is 00:12:27 entirely determine the future, often called casual determinism where every event is determined by precursor events and conditions along with the laws of nature. In physics, this is commonly known as cause and effect in which the cause is partially accountable for the effect and the effect is partially dependent on the effect, and the effect is partially dependent on the cause. According to determinism, people can't choose or take any other action in a circumstance when they take a particular action or decision. In other words,

Starting point is 00:12:58 the behavior is influenced by both internal, biological, and external, environmental, natural influences that are independent of the individual who is impacted. Therefore, there is no possibility of choice. Determinism is often confused with another term called predeterminism, which is the philosophy that all historical events, past, present, and future, have already been decided, or have already been known by some powerful force beyond us. That could be God, fate, or some other superpower. When it comes to pre-determinism, the chain of circumstances is pre-established. In human actions cannot interfere with the outputs of this pre-established chain. Then there is fatalism, the belief that you are powerless to do anything other than the specific outcome that will happen to you no matter what you do. This implies that nothing

Starting point is 00:13:53 that we do think or decide has any casual effect or relevance as to what we actually end up doing. For example, you are faded to be obese, whether or not you exercise or eat differently. This might be the evidence and theories to convince you that free will actually doesn't exist. But before you go down that path, you need to realize the implications of such belief. When people stop thinking of themselves as having free will, they don't seem to see themselves responsible for their conduct. They also don't give themselves or others credit for a job well done, since people believe that job would be done anyway. As a result, they're more inclined to behave irresponsibly and succumb to their basic

Starting point is 00:14:36 instincts. According to psychologists and behavioral economists, Kathleen Vose, believing that free will is an illusion has been shown to make people less creative, more likely to conform, less willing to learn from their mistakes, and less grateful towards one another. In every regard it seems, when we embrace determinism, we indulge our dark side. Now that I've explored consciousness, determinism, and predeterminism. I think it's important to examine and bring to your attention the uncontrollable factors that might be influencing your behaviors. These factors fall under two practical categories, namely biological influences and environmental

Starting point is 00:15:18 influences. In a previous episode that I did on why your brain dictates your reality, I told the story of Phineas Gage, a responsible, indeligent construction foreman after suffering damage to a portion of his brain after an accident at work. He began to exhibit profound adverse effects on his behavior, but Phineas Gage is in the loan in the case that people's biological makeup or changes directly affect their behaviors. Take, for example, the case of a 40-year-old schoolteacher, known to be a very decent kind and loving man, he suddenly developed strong sexual urges towards children and made sexual

Starting point is 00:15:57 advances towards his previous-scent daughter. An MRI later determined that the man had a brain tumor. Once the brain tumor was removed, he returned to his old, decent self and had no inclination towards the earlier displayed pedophilic behavior. Another is the case of murderer Charles Whitman, who on August 1, 1966 killed his wife and his mother and went on to randomly shoot people at the University of Texas, killing 14 and wound in 31 before he was finally shot by police. Upon investigation after his death, it was determined that he had left what was

Starting point is 00:16:31 amounted to as a suicide note, expressing his concerns at developing unusual as well as irrational thoughts and his wish for his body to be physically examined following his death. Whitman's request was granted and the optopsy revealed that he had a small brain tumor that was pressing against the amygdala, which is part of the brain that is responsible for fear and aggression. It was believed that the small amount of pressure on the amygdala could have contributed to Whitman's inability to control his emotions and actions, thereby leading him to act violently as he did. You might consider these examples extreme.

Starting point is 00:17:08 So let's look at something else. Let's take a look at the effects of drugs and alcohol. When a person is under the influence of one or both of these, they may behave interasional and often harmful manners. However, after the effects of the drug or alcohol have ceased, they may have little or no memory of what they had done under the influence of the substances. Could it then be possible that we have some type of covert biochemical interactions in our brain that could actually cause us to act in specific ways?

Starting point is 00:17:38 One more aspect of biological influences is genetics, as well as hormones. Research and behavioral genetics has shown that almost all behaviors are significantly influenced by genetics, and that that influence increases as people mature in life. For example, it has been observed that high levels of testosterone can cause an increased level of aggression, and low levels of serotonin may cause anxiety and depression. It is with this backdrop that pharmaceutical scientists have created psychiatric medications that have the power to alter our moods and emotions. After considering these cases

Starting point is 00:18:15 of the direct biological changes on our behavior, it is naive to think that we are in complete control of our behaviors at any given time. Now, let's talk about environmental influences. The environment in which a person lives or is born and brought up in has a direct psychological influence on their behavior. By environment, I am referring to their cultures, communities, and families. A child that's raised in a home with love and care will definitely have higher tendencies

Starting point is 00:18:41 to show the same to others. While one that's raised in a violent home would likely be more predisposed to exhibiting violence. Interestingly, the previously mentioned mass murder or Charles Whitman grew up in a home that was marred by domestic violence, where his father physically abused him, his sibling and their mother. Being a community member of our particular culture

Starting point is 00:19:02 will also influence your beliefs and decision-making, as you will participate in activities together and therefore develop similar mindsets. In such cases, there is a high tendency that your choices will reflect the mentality of the other members. Like the popular saying goes, show me your friend and I will tell you who you are. Environmental influences are, however, much easier to deal with and gain freedom from than biological influences. Because as humans, we have the innate capability to learn and unlearn things. I delved deeply into this very topic in a previous episode that I did on how your environment influences who you become. Ultimately, the fundamental question that we've been trying to answer today throughout this podcast, whether free will exist or not simply depends on your

Starting point is 00:19:49 belief in it. If you want to reject its existence, you should do so responsibly and not make it an excuse to live carelessly. However, remember that your belief can have a much more marked impact on your life than you may realize. Belief and free will allows us to take full responsibility for our actions and behaviors. It makes us more intentional about our growth, a topic I dive deeply into in my episode earlier this week with Scott Mary Kaufman and Jordan Fine Gold regarding their new book Choose Growth. It also strengthens our resolve to be better people. Therefore, it may not come as a surprise that certain studies have indicated that people

Starting point is 00:20:28 who believe in free will are more likely to experience favorable life outcomes, such as happiness, academic success, and improved job performance. One thing is for sure, we have choices to make and the freedom to make them. Our actions have consequences, and to the degree that we are conscious of this, we will be able to make beneficial ones. For now, psychiatrist, philosopher, and Holocaust survivor, Dr. Frankl said, between stimulus and response, there is a space.

Starting point is 00:20:57 In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and freedom. I ask you today, what will you do with that space. The aim of today's episode and highlighting all of these points is to help you to realize that you are certainly influenced by the world that you are part of, and that exercising control of your behaviors is far more complicated than you might have thought. As we wrap up today's episode, LixxXamon quotes from four famous scholars to illustrate just how different their different views are about the existence of free will. Stephen Hawking said,

Starting point is 00:21:33 I have noticed even in people who claim everything is predestined and that we can do nothing to change it. Look before they cross the road, Albert Einstein said, human beings in their thinking, feeling, and acting are not free agents, but are casually bound as the stars in their motion. William James said, My first act, a free will, shall be to believe in free will. And finally, Frederick Niche said, free will without fate is no more conceivable

Starting point is 00:22:00 and spirit without matter, good, without evil. All these quotes illustrate the ongoing debate about the existence of free will, and that it will undoubtedly continue for years, decades, and probably centuries to come. Perhaps when we're influenced by the factors in the world, it doesn't mean that we are predetermined by them. This knowledge should spur us to consciously make intentional choices, to exercise control over our actions. Maybe if people who had acted upon influences beyond them had been more conscious of their conditions

Starting point is 00:22:31 and had been more intentional about them, their harmful acts could have been avoided. I will leave you with this last thought. If your life is like a game of poker, and the hand that you are dealt is determinism, however you play that hand is free will, I hope you all enjoyed today's show, and I wanted to thank everyone who wrote in this week. And of course, everybody who listened, thank you all so much. A link to today's transcript will be in the show notes. As I said at the beginning of the episodes, the videos are on YouTube at John Armiles.

Starting point is 00:22:59 And if you're new to this show, or you would like to introduce it for a friend or family member, we have episodes starter packs, both on Spotify and the PassionStrike website. These are collections of your favorite episodes we organize into convenient topics. Get you acquainted to everything we do here on the show. Just go to passionstruck.com slash starter packs to get started. I'm at John Armiles on both Twitter and Instagram and you can also find me on LinkedIn. Advertiser deals and discount codes are in one convenient place at passionstruck.com slash deals. You're about to hear a preview of the Passionstruck podcast interview I did with Rachel Hollis.

Starting point is 00:23:33 A number one New York time repeat bestseller. Post of the popular Rachel Hollis podcast and one of the most requested speakers on personal development. The last two years, two and a half years, really, for me, have been filled with those defining moments. It's been a really hard couple of years. On personal levels, professional levels, I've experienced a lot of loss, a lot of grief, and in that process, as brutal as it's been, I am a completely different person. I'm a completely different mama. I am a completely different person. I'm a completely different mama. I'm a completely different writer.

Starting point is 00:24:09 I'm a completely different, everything. I wanted to remember that every great thing I have in my life came on the other side of hardship, came on the other side of a difficult season or a hard lesson to learn. Remember, we rise by lifting others. So share the show with those that you love. And if you found this episode useful, please share it with somebody that you care about,

Starting point is 00:24:29 and who can use the advice that we share today in the podcast. In the meantime, do your best to apply what you hear on the show so that you can live what you listen. And until next time, live life passion struck. Life, Ash and Strut.

Passion Struck with John R. Miles - Does the Concept of Free Will Really Exist w/John R. Miles EP 190

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