soberlicious

Well, we'd actually be screwed without our lizard brain...I'm glad the part of me that looks out for my survival is intact...

But

in terms of "reality"...my very own primitive brain and neocortex can each simultaneously have a different version of something in front of me. A stimulus can produce a flight response, even when the reasoning part of me knows it isn't necessary.

So if we are able to override the survival response, isn't that an act of free will?

RobbyRobot

I'm not one who subscribes to free will being a biological adaption. Having said that, of course its free will to override our lizard brain.

We have the ability to choose death over life, and so, that means self-will and/or free-will trump whatever, yeah?

MeetJohnDoe

It wasn’t chance or determinism that wrote his speech. Simply because we don’t choose our parents, and cannot control the forces of nature in our life, it doesn’t follow that we have no control over our lives. We don’t have to embrace absolutes.

Anyone interested in brain science should listen to this TED lecture from a scientist describing her experience of a stroke. Brilliant. Jill Bolte Taylor's stroke of insight | Video on TED.com

soberlicious

MJD, I enjoyed that very much...she's like a hippie scientist..very cool.

This...
It really is fascinating where the brain can take us. So when Buddhist practitioners, who have perfected stepping away from the left brain linear thinking through years of practice, are able to reach a similar state of bliss...
Well, then there's the high that so many of us seek...