On 3/14/2012 10:08 AM, Craig Weinberg wrote:
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.
Compare: "If you had no immortal soul that would be judged after your death your belief
about it should have no effect on your religious behavior." Beliefs can have effects
whether they have real referents or not.
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.
A double non-sequitur.
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.
Wow! We've discovered that if we shout, "LOOK OUT!" people will duck. I'll be sure to
publish this evidence of direct semantic influence.
Brent
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