No, each person has a free will choice within the idea of a life experience.

After studying the work of several beings, the following ideas resonate and make sense to me, so I’ve integrated them into my total understanding. My understanding (remembering) is not complete, but the more I remember, the better I feel and the easier it becomes to remember more. Consider this:

• Prior to my adventure into this game of life on earth, my higher self desired to come into this reality for the purpose of having certain experiences. Using free will, my higher self chose the exact kind of life experience it desired in order to play out certain themes within the life experience.

• As a physical being, in a sense, I am a projection of my higher self or the imagination of my higher self.

• As a physical being, a sense of self (ego) was constructed through life experience. However, this sense of self is an artificial construct; it’s not really real in any fixed way, because the life experience itself is illusory in nature. So it stands to reason that any ‘thing’ in an illusory reality is also of illusion.

• The only thing that’s real about reality is my higher self’s experience of it, through its own projection, which is me as a physical self.

• Knowing this is self-empowering because, over time, we remember and thus understand that because our higher self is us, it loves us unconditionally and absolutely, and so it will never lead us astray...

• As long as we’re tuned into it (vibrationally) and thus are receiving and acting upon its guidance.

• Know that your higher self chose the path or the life theme that it wanted to experience, for reasons which may not be apparent to you as a physical self. This means that know it or not, like it or not, agree with it or not, down that path you will go; be it kicking and screaming or in a flowing state of bliss.

• Ironically, as this is the transformational life and as you do have free will, once you have gained certain awareness, remembering and experience; you are free to change the destiny theme, if that’s something that has purpose for you and so will serve you.

• Getting back to the life theme, it makes sense to use your free will to surrender to the will of your higher self and to be effortlessly guided to the next step in your game of life on earth. And if you, as the ego-self, refuse to surrender, then that is resistance and it will not feel good, because it’s not who you really are.

• Yes, this is releasing all resistance and allowing; letting go and letting God. In a sense our higher self is the first level of God that we become familiar with, for without it we would not exist as this physical being expression. And as we become more aware, we become familiar with the other levels of God which exist as higher frequency vibrational states. However, our higher self is the conduit by which we have access to these higher states.

• Ultimately, it’s all about your free will choice in every moment of your existence. Choose only that which feels good to you, follow your excitement, joy and bliss and, by the very nature of that action, all things that you consider good will make their way into your life experience, guaranteed. One good feeling leads to another within each perception of the now moment, eternally ♥

Yes, that choice even applies to choosing pizza or salad :)

Free will is always there. It is essential for making choices, for making mistakes and learning from them, for growth, and eventually for becoming one with our I-Self and the Transcendental Network (Source, Universal Spirit, God, ...).

What you are experiencing is the ceasing of struggle between your Me-Self (body-mind, ego) and your I-Self (higher or true self) of which Me-Self is the physical part.

It is true that the more we align with our I-Self, the more the egoic decisions our Me-Self makes vanish. They don't seem to make sense anymore because in the greater context they don't ;)

Nothing we think or do relates only to ourselves; the whole universe is based on teamwork. Our Me-Self however cannot perceive the context. Its primary purposes are to ensure our physical survival on this physical earth, and to provide our I-Self with unique experiences I-Self could not make otherwise, with no other Me-Self but ours. This is why initially the separation between Me-Self and I-Self is necessary.

As you grow, you do not relinquish free will, although to Me-Self it may very well feel like it, like ego-surrender or even ego-death. The greater the ego, the greater the struggle, and the more painful this process will be. And yes, the more you develop the ability to let go and trust, the easier it gets. In choosing to do so, you ARE using your free will.

my answer to this is that our choices are based on how we feel, how we feel always shows the right path to follow.

Yes this is letting God in control, God will not interfere with free will. It must be up to us to let God in control. We are the ones that choose God's will over our own. If we see a friend that needs help and are being lead toward that friend we go, we don't say wow all the pieces are falling into place for me to help him but my favorite show is starting! God hold on I'll have to put you on hold for about an hour I'll get back to you later, (in the mean time unknown to you your friend is about to do himself in)

God Is In Control by Avalon

Free will is the greatest gift a human being has. Your thoughts are your own and you can think whatever you like. You can choose to do or not do certain things.

You talk of giving up free will for the good of God or the Source as the whole but who is God or the Source if not yourself. Every choice you relinquish for a higher good you are relinquishing for your own good. Who wouldn't want to do or think for their own good?

Do you have free will. Yes you do. You can think or do what's best for the Whole or you can choose not to.

We do not really have free will. We are not really separate individuals, we are part of the whole, the 'Is' 'God' 'Consciousness' whatever you want to call it.

The concept of 'me' 'I' is just a thought. When we look inside ourselves, we cannot find this 'me' - just thoughts about 'me' There is a body with feelings and sensations, but no 'me' inside.

There are apparent choices, between one thought or another, but there is no individual person choosing, they are just thoughts appearing in 'what is'

Oneness is all there is. Appearing as duality - appearing as people, trees, oceans, mountains, planets, whatever.

Oneness playing hide and seek with itself, pretending to be separate.

It's all just a game, a movie, appearing as reality.

your destiny is effected by the value of the use of free will,
it is a part of your Ego, prompting the growth of your individuality.
it is not an illusion of the egotic mind,
rather, a valuable aspect

You do not have what we call "free will", because every choice you make is based upon triggers, which are in fact other choices or reasons. Even all there is does not have what we call "free will". It is ever evolving MOMENTUM.

Every part of all there is, provides experience to itself, and these experiences are in a way triggers which either keep the momentum going in its current course or they deflect it from its current course. And so is our planet, speaking in terms of our physical reality, nothing but an ever evolving momentum!

You don't even have a choice between pizza and salad. You only have an illusion of being free to choose. It is our human physical limitation that does not allow us to see things in full context, and this context of things is the momentum rather than the zero point at which we would have "free will".

While, due to our physical limitations it is hard to see it so clearly at this very moment as it is happening right now, we can easily demonstrate it on our past! Which is what our brain is able to examine. Look into your past and you will see for yourself that EVERY SINGLE CHOICE YOU MADE WAS GUIDED BY A REASON, and there was another reason for you having that reason, and another for that one and so on and so forth.

So you only think you have a choice, pizza or salad, maybe you are going in favor of pizza tonight, and upon reading this post you might want to decide that you will demonstrate your FREE WILL and choose salad instead. But really, then my comment would be the reason for you having salad instead of pizza tonight and there is NOTHING YOU COULD DO ABOUT IT.

That's all that free will is - just an illusion caused by lack of understanding of the momentum.

I understand that egos of many will stand in the way of understanding this and they will oppose, but instead of seeing determinism as a bad thing, look at it positively. And even now that I mention positivity your mind might change your point of view on determinism because of what I just said.

In the end, whether you think you have a free choice, BECAUSE it makes you sleep better at night, or embrace the idea of the momentum, it doesn't matter. One, it's already destined to be that way, and second, both free will and determinism are one. And as separate they don't exist.

So we are back to the very basic that all is just a matter of perception.....which is then matter of something else and so on and so forth. ;)

you have free will. that is the gift from god. so use your free will wisely. stay in harmony. look at everything from nature all is in harmony. for example: plant a tree it will grow it does not matter that it is sunny or it rain or it snow etc. it will still grow and multiply. you will get a forest. but look at human can you say that we are in harmony? or do we do stupid stuff and suffer from those decision? example: war, disease, famine etc. all that for ego desire and sin. why blame god? it is our free will that is doing that. so experience and enjoy.

You know, Michaela, when I read your question, what popped into my little mind was this: "She's forcing it!"

Now, I don't know if that is just a gut reaction of sympathy, because I have been there where you stand; or, just perhaps, you need more time to "just be". It sounds like it to me.

Above all things, our God (Universe, Higher Power, Universal Mind, what-have-you) wants our happiness! Is all of this pushing yourself to always be in alignment with the Source actually making you happy? In fact, God uses our screw-ups, wrong decisions, and free days just as much, if not more, than when we are "in Alignment with the Source".

Maybe I'm all wet. I do not know. But I strongly suggest that you take a few days off to "just be"- no deliberate steps, no manifesting, no clear paths. Just be. Go to the sea, or a forest. To paraphrase Jesus, "The Trees do not worry about how they will be fed, so why should you?"

Judging from your attention to IQ, I would guess that you are an "alpha" sort of person...try to be a "beta" for a while.

It cannot hurt, and maybe you will find an answer in that peace. The fact that you feel you have lost your free will seems to be an important clue. Pay attention.

Blessings, Jaianniah

We have free will, and our thoughts and actions have consequences. When the stove is on, it is hot. We know that if we touch the hot stove we will be burned. We have free will to not touch the stove and not be burned, or touch the stove and be burned. Free will allows us to choose to touch or not touch the stove, it doesn't let us choose the consequences. I guess in this case, some people do choose not to be burned when they touch the hot stove, or walk over hot coals, etc... But for most people, without training their mind to not get burned, they have the choice of action, not consequences.

Edit, added some text per comment.: Yes, we still have to work within the confines and limits of being human. As a human, we are who we are and therefore have our 'job' to do or 'purpose' that is unique to us. How we do that job, or whether we do that job is our free will. Our individual cells have jobs, but not free will, so they do their job. Individual cells make up cell communities that make up our lips and arms, etc... Lips in themselves don't have free will, but are told what to do by our thoughts. It is our thoughts that give us our free will. It starts with the thoughts we choose to allow. Trees have their job, but not free will. Our free will doesn't give us a choice to will ourselves to be a human or a tree, but as a human, we have free will of our thoughts and actions. So, free will doesn't extend to our higher purpose, but how we handle or don't handle our higher purpose. Like how we play a hand of cards that was dealt to us. We didn't choose the cards (Some might say they did) but we choose how to play the hand.

Edit:3/26/12 I think I understand what you are asking now.

Yes, we have free will. However, the more we learn and grow, the less options seem viable at that time. For example, to a child, running accross the busy street to get to the ice cream truck seems like a good idea. The child being young, doesn't understand the dangers of running accross the busy street. An older, wiser, more educated, experienced, enlightened person would look both ways and cross the street carefully. And so it is all the way through life, we get wiser, more experience, etc... That doesn't mean that we don't have free will to choose to do as we will, it just means that less options seem to be in our best interest. That would be the narrow path that Jesus mentioned.

There are alternate realities to accomodate for all the options we face. It is throught these alternate realities that we get to explore what if's through the Universal Mind or the Mind of God or the Matrix.

This is a very good question. Feelings, can be deceptive. They can be based on ineffective lessons that one has to unlearn. Your awareness has narrowed down your most effective paths for life. This almost gives the presence of choices being already chosen. You are absolutely effective in one perspective. But ineffective because of the relative nature of the reference. All choices are valid, but in this life, you will only choose one path to the end. All possible choices that you could choose have already been made. You are making ONE track. However, you can make whatever track you would like to make, even though it has already been made. It is a paradox because of our frame on reference is linear, when in reality it is parallel. The alpha and omega are the same and one with infinity. The part of your statement that is correct is the best possible effective choice. That has been chosen also, but for your alternative choices it might not be. Free will, is just a statement of hope. We are guided by survival, and this leads us to the most effective choice for the moment. Our choices are a reflection of where our mind is. Once the Ego shrinks, you are on your own. You are defenseless once this happens because your awareness realizes the scope of what it really is. Infinity.