Do you really have free will?

[oldiesman]

On 8/10/2023 at 11:01 AM, waysider said:

Does anyone else remember being taught (Advanced Class or Dealing With The Adversary, perhaps?) that the subconscious is a fallacy? Something about everything really being spiritual background noise or ...something. I think that was proposed as part of the idea behind throwing retemories at undesired thoughts, "keeping the birds from nesting where they land". We were supposed to be the ones who made the decision which thoughts to entertain and which to discard. Somehow, 50 years of life experiences have clouded the details for me.

I remember the opposite...   I believe they said that what we feed our conscious brains will seep in to the subconscious; and that's why retemories are very good.

[oldiesman]

On 8/10/2023 at 5:05 PM, Mike said:

Thanks for that explanation.  It is mostly new to me.

I think your explanation works for directly influenced thoughts, that is from a devil spirit oppression or possession. 

But the indirect action of Satan would have lots of random thoughts in the environment and past learning that pop in without outside direct intelligent influence.  We tend to think of these second types of thoughts as "our own."

This ownership, though, is not exactly clear, in the Neuro-physiological sense.

Again, I think little to zero free will is involved in this process.

One of the most useful tips I got from VPW on this was this often repeated phrase:  "You can't control which thoughts hit your mind, but you can control which ones take up lodging in your mind."

 

Agree...

[waysider]

The teaching I'm thinking of was presented in the live, 1972, Dealing With The Adversary Class. The essence of it was that what we call the subconscious is really a spiritual force looking for a way to sneak through the "trap door". I'm not saying I believe this stuff, just saying this is what I remember being taught.

 

edit: This is why you were supposed to counteract it by quoting scripture.

Edited 2 hours ago by waysider