Does Free Will Exist?

 The following is the transcript of a conversation between a wise all-knowing being (W), and a researcher (R).

R - Does free will exist? W - What makes you ask such a question? R - I want to learn if there is some deeper knowledge to gain. W - Your question does not pose the deepest question, which is how you experience yourself. R - I experience myself as a person with free will. W - You only experience yourself as a person because you agree to experience yourself that way. The question you are asking is how it is possible to agree to experience yourself as a person who is capable of deciding what you want to experience. R - I am completely sure about my decision to make a decision. W - But you can only decide what you think, so your decision is always a thought. Your idea of deciding is no more than the thought of deciding. R - No, I decide what to experience and I make decisions. W - Yes, but your decisions are always made on the basis of a thought. You think and decide about how you want to experience yourself, so you are no more than the thought that thinks and decides. R - I want to experience myself as a person who makes decisions. W - You want to think and decide what you experience yourself as. This is why you are not experiencing yourself as a person who makes decisions. R - But I experience myself as a person who makes decisions. W - You are not experiencing yourself as a person who makes decisions, because you have not decided that you experience yourself as a person who makes decisions. You only experience yourself as a person who makes decisions, because you think and decide that you will experience yourself as a person who makes decisions. And you think and decide what you experience yourself as, because you think and decide to think and decide. So you are no more than the thought that thinks and decides. R - I do not agree that I am no more than the thought that thinks and decides. W - Yes you do agree, because you are that thought. You always are the thought that thinks and decides, and so you are no more than that thought. R - But I can agree and disagree. W - You agree and disagree because you have agreed and disagreed to think and decide that you will agree and disagree. R - I am real. W - Are you real? I doubt it.


***Can't help but note that neither are 'real' since they've both been conjured up by the query.

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