Determinism as Enlightenment

As has been discussed...there are unenlightened people for whom the idea of no free will is entirely plausible, and who are very scientific-minded and skeptical of any religious, mystical, or "spiritual" beliefs or teachings.

A person who subscribed to a reductionist causal determinism philosophy or who believed in B. F. Skinner's behavioral theories, would likely still take it for granted that he existed as an individual separate self. Such a person may not be shocked when experiencing a different form of determinism (block universe rather than causal chain) in the mystic state. However, the experience of the individual's ego dying and "its" self-identity or consciousness being revealed as a reflection of a universal shared consciousness that encompasses, transcends, and actually creates everything that he previously thought of as the universe can be enormously powerful. Logically, if there is no separate self there can be no free will for what is now recognized as the illusory individual. But it's the no-separate-self insight that is primary in this scenario.

The newly enlightened person, agnostic or atheistic only hours earlier, now understands what those Hindus meant by Brahman and Atman. He knows not only that something exists that can be called "God", he knows what it is and that he is a part of it and it a part of him. If this person's suspicion of or belief in no-free-will gets revised a bit, but basically confirmed by the mystic experience, that's icing on the cake.


determinism