*Well, I wouldn't necessarily say "most" of the time, but I
would say "some" of the time, yes. There's the N400. There's a
moment of choice - always a moment of choice when faced with
novel input.
I"m not speaking of patterns - scripts people play, habituated
behaviors. That's known and easily manipulated. I could write
books on that alone. It's one of my favorite topics, especially
when the linkup to the monomyth and how influential that is in
the way we frame our existences as "stories" and such.
Myself, I've been in a process of stripping away the stories,
only to find more stories to be stripped away and taken into
account.
So yes, they're real Influencers: When we're running on
automatic, playing our roles as it were.
BUT: barring tangible, biochemical pathway issues, is there free
will?
Yes, there is. A moment of clarity. There can be many moments of
clarity with practice.*
It's still in there. It's never gone - just hiding perhaps. It's
easier to play the scripts. Did I share this yet?
[1]
http://www.au.af.mil/.../milreview/paparone_metaphors.pdf*-
metaphors. I believe we are led and misled and in fact do much
of our learning (if not all) via metaphors overlaying on
metaphors. So much so that we often misplace the originals but
they're still there.
To me, the fact that there *are* manipulation machines, doesn't
take away free will existing.
References
Visible links
1.
http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/milreview/paparone_metaphors.pdf
