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Adam Bear, writing on the MIND Guest Blog of Scientific American, describes how the mind can purposefully "rewrite history, fooling us into thinking that this choice ― that was actually completed after its consequences were subconsciously perceived ― was a choice that we had made all along." In other words, we make a choice based on some subconscious decision-making process but believe that we had actually made the same choice based on some conscious, intentional reasoning.
Bear, and his partner, Paul Bloom, are building on the work by psychologists Dan Wegner and Thalia Wheatly who proposed 20 years ago that, "the experience of intentionally willing an action is often nothing more than a post hoc causal inference that our thoughts caused some behavior. The feeling itself, however, plays no part in causing that behavior."
I think I understand what this means. It means that we only think we make conscious decisions with intentionality, but we really don't. Some mysterious subconscious processes make those decisions for us and let us think that we made the decisions ourselves.
Reporting on these findings, the media framed this as an issue about free will, or lack thereof. The Independent's headline read, "Free will could all be an illusion."
If that's not disturbing, just wait. All this talk naturally leads to that question that humanity has been struggling with forever: Who am I? Or, who the hell am I if I am not the one making choices about my life?
These questions take me back to the golden era of New Age in the 1990s when books such as "Conversations with God," "Seat of the Soul," and "The Power of Now" drove a huge self-help revolution dripping with honeyed words that hinted at deeper truths and insightful journeys to finding the "True Self" and "Oneness" in all of us.
I remember asking a learned Buddhist monk about the meaning of "True Self," and he laughingly replied, "Does that mean that there is a false self, fake self, sometimes true self, really, really true self, confused self, and everything in between?" He shut me up pretty quickly.
But the question still remains, though, and it's about agency. What the above finding ― along with many other research results ― is saying is that our conscious sense of self is not really our agency. In other words, we only think we are in charge ― and our brain conspires to keep us believing that we are in charge because it gives us some evolutionary advantage ― but we really are not. Then, who is?
Apparently, our subconscious. Okay, what does that mean, though? Is my subconscious still me even though I have no visibility, access, or control over it? In that case, do I still have agency over my actions when conscious intentionality is only an illusion?
All of this is making my head hurt when the only agency I was interested in a moment ago was whether Jeremy Lin would opt out of his contract and enter into free agency. But going back to that pesky agency question, I actually found the beginning of an answer in Buddhist teachings about Karma.
Karma is probably one of the most misunderstood words in the English language. Actually, in all languages. When we think of Karma, we usually think of reincarnation, comeuppance, or destiny. We also associate this type of Karma with Buddhism, while it really is a Hindu concept.
In Buddhism, Karma is all about your subconscious cognitive habits that have been formed from multiple sources and influences. This is what Buddha meant by a conditioned existence. You are conditioned ― taught through instructions and experiences ― to think, feel, and react in specific ways to different stimuli and situations that will coagulate into a framework of preconceptions and prejudices that color your perspectives throughout your life. And the vast majority of this conditioning happens from the time you are born through infancy. And they live in your subconscious, driving your life choices and decisions as well as everyday behavior.
In neuroscience-speak, your conditioned subconscious mostly lives in the limbic system, otherwise known as the reptilian brain. The limbic system, which lies below the neocortex layer that houses our conscious intellect, is the primary seat of our emotions and ingrained behavior. This is where your karma lives in your brain. Buddha, being the peerless scientist of the mind, even laid out the twelve steps of dependent origination that spells out the exact stages by which you become conditioned and develop karma.
Which means that you don't really have an agency as long as you remain unaware that you live a conditioned existence. Agency can't exist without self-awareness. However, hope is not lost. Buddha also laid out the path by which you can reclaim your agency by recognizing your conditioning and intentionally freeing yourself from yourself. He termed this, enlightenment.
Jason Lim is a Washington, D.C.-based expert on innovation, leadership and organizational culture. He has been writing for The Korea Times since 2006. Reach him at jasonlim@msn.com, facebook. com/jasonlimkoreatimes or @jasonlim2012.
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