On Mar 14, 12:32 pm, meekerdb <meeke...@verizon.net> wrote: > On 3/14/2012 7:21 AM, Craig Weinberg wrote: > > > > > > > > > > > On Mar 13, 11:15 pm, meekerdb<meeke...@verizon.net> wrote: > >> On 3/13/2012 3:00 PM, Craig Weinberg wrote: > > >>>http://pss.sagepub.com/content/22/5/613.abstract > >>> Abstract > >>> The feeling of being in control of one s own actions is a > >>> strong subjective experience. However, discoveries in psychology and > >>> neuroscience challenge the validity of this experience and suggest > >>> that free will is just an illusion. This raises a question: What would > >>> happen if people started to disbelieve in free will? Previous research > >>> has shown that low control beliefs affect performance and motivation. > >>> Recently, it has been shown that undermining free-will beliefs > >>> influences social behavior. In the study reported here, we > >>> investigated whether undermining beliefs in free will affects brain > >>> correlates of voluntary motor preparation. Our results showed that the > >>> readiness potential was reduced in individuals induced to disbelieve > >>> in free will. This effect was evident more than 1 s before > >>> participants consciously decided to move, a finding that suggests that > >>> the manipulation influenced intentional actions at preconscious > >>> stages. Our findings indicate that abstract belief systems might have > >>> a much more fundamental effect than previously thought. > >>> Has anyone posted this yet? Hard to explain what brain correlates are > >>> doing responding to an illusion... > >> I think they just rediscovered hypnotism. > > >> Brent > >> "Man can do what he wills but he cannot will what he wills." > >> --- Schopenhauer > > If someone is hypnotized to think that they are eating an apple when > > they are really eating a raw onion, they have to be able to imagine > > what it is like to eat an apple. > > > If someone is hypnotized to think that they have no free will, but > > free will doesn't exist to begin with, why would there be any > > difference to the brain? > > I someone says to you, "You are paralyzed. You can't lift your arm." and you > hear these > words and interpret them how would that happen without any changes in your > brain?
Voluntary movement has to first exist in order for a suggestion of paralysis to be meaningful. If all movement was involuntary in the first place then there would be no significant difference between passively watching yourself move and passively watching yourself not move, so the suggestion of paralysis would not change the brain more than any other non-sequitur suggestion. If we had no free will, our belief about it should have no effect on the actual ability to execute our wishes though our motor cortex. We might be able to fool ourselves, but if our brain cares what we believe in then our ability to execute our will can hardly be said to be deterministic. Hypnosis is further evidence that physiological process of the brain can be directly influenced semantically, and by extension belief, or self-hypnosis is evidence of the same. Craig -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To post to this group, send email to everything-list@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to everything-list+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list?hl=en.
