How Much Free Will Do We Really Have?

What is free will?

Give that some thought for a second.

Let’s say I’d like to use my free will and make a decision to go to the Bahamas immediately.

Oh, wait… teleportation is not yet possible!

That means I have to book a flight, drive to the airport, and travel on a plane (because flying isn’t something we can do either).

But assuming I did that, and I am sitting in the Bahamas sipping cocktails on the beach, my own free will decision still got me there right?

Well, it’s already limited will because initially, I wanted to teleport there. What if I didn’t have the money to pay for the travel? My free will is a bit irrelevant if I can’t afford to go in the first place.

It’s clear to me that our free will is already limited. But is it non-existent?

Limited Free Will

Let’s consider the limitations.

We are limited by our three dimensions – As I have already touched on, we can’t teleport or fly (without aid); we can’t time travel either.

Money rules the world – Unless you have the money to pay for it, you can’t go on that around-the-world trip; you can’t buy that million-pound mansion and have ten Ferraris sadly.

The Laws of Nature – We can’t avoid death, illness, or suffering.

There’s no doubt we have limitations to our free will; we have to stay within the lines and limitations of what we know and have.

Within those lines, you could argue there is still a lot of flexibility and opportunity for free will to exist.

So I can’t teleport, but I can still decide where and when I go on holiday. Maybe I don’t want to go to the Bahamas so I could freely choose South Africa or Mexico instead.

I don’t have a million pounds, but there are a lot of cars, houses, and holidays that I can choose from within a budget.

No, we can’t avoid death, we can’t bring back our loved ones, but we can choose how it affects us. We can decide to make it mean something, to use it to help others; or not as the case may be. Surely it’s a choice?

Or, are these perceived choices nothing more than an illusion?

The Role of Free Will Within Soul Planning

Related Post – What Are Soul Contracts And Do You Have One?

The question of just how much free will we have has come up more than once for me. Especially in relation to studying the concept of soul planning.

Another related post you may find interesting on the subject is Soul Planning and Suicide!

Both of these articles look at the role of soul planning and whether our paths on this earth are pre-agreed prior to our birth.

They consider the possibility that all life’s milestones and our deaths are pre-determined.

When I wrote Soul Planning and Suicide!, there was little doubt in my mind that our deaths, no matter the cause, are soul-planned.

The only niggling question I have is related to free will. Especially when we consider suicide, or murder even.

Where a perceived choice has taken place to end a life.

If this ‘choice’ was destined, if it had been agreed prior to birth that this would happen, it’s a massive infringement on our already limited free will.

It’s not just death that soul planning is responsible for either. It’s who we meet in this lifetime and the events that happen to us along the way.

An entire lifetime we plan in order to learn and have the experiences our soul has come here for.

If you believe in the concept of soul planning, as I do, then you have to accept that this further limits our free will.

But still, I ask is it altogether non-existent?

Where Do You Draw The Line?

Do we have several different paths we could take during this lifetime?

Related Post – How Do We Know if We Are on Our Highest Path?

Think of the last big decision you made in your life. Was it a house move, a job change, or a relationship milestone such as marriage or having children?

Some decisions are easier than others, but there will undoubtedly be times when you have been unsure of which path to take. There is a lot of responsibility for the choice at the time, it could change the direction of your life.

Unless your higher self had already made the choice before you were born. In which case, there is no free will in your decision whatsoever.

How do we therefore know what thoughts are our own? What ‘source’ or ‘power’ is making sure our minds make the decision we are destined to make?

And where is the line drawn? Do we have free will to decide what to have for dinner?

Sara Ruble on Soul Planning

I recently had the absolute pleasure of meeting Sara Ruble.

Sara’s field of expertise is soul planning. Please check out her blog, spiritteaches.org, Sara is an inspiring lady.

Having lost her son Scott when he was nineteen, Sara embarked on a journey she never imagined she’d be on.

The grief and pain Sara and her family must have felt is beyond most people’s comprehension. How do you carry on after losing a child?

Sara managed to find a way to carry on her relationship and communication with Scott. Please do read her story, it’s inspiring, and Sara has done a lot to help others too.

The concept of soul planning changed Sara’s life and she has been teaching it to others, with the help of Scott ever since.

I asked Sara about the role of free will and, interestingly she doesn’t believe that it exists at all.

Or rather that it does exist but not on this earth. Our higher selves have unlimited free will in spirit; we had complete free will when we planned out this life for ourselves.

Sara believes that even going to the fridge for a can of soda is not a choice we have made with our human mind. There is one path, one roadmap through this life and every decision has already been made.

The way I see it is, our lives are like a movie. We are the actor/actress, not the character (the soul/spirit, not the human). Only our character doesn’t realise it’s in a movie.

In the movie, we have villains cast for that exact role. We have death, again, the actor is cast in the role knowing when his or her death scene is coming up.

The movie is scripted and the plot plays out exactly as written. The character doesn’t all of a sudden decide not to die. The villain doesn’t change the script to become the hero. That would make for a confusing and rubbish movie.

This movie analogy is one that’s been forming in my mind for some time now. I believe there is some mileage in this concept of no free will.

But… There’s Always a But

Be that as it may, I can’t help but still challenge the concept. There are some holes in this theory.

The first one being our soul’s purpose of learning.

Wouldn’t some level of free will be a great learning tool for our soul’s evolution?

If we get to the other side only to discover our actions here were completely out of our human hands, then what have we learned? We’ve had the human experience but we wouldn’t have learnt about genuine consequences. There would be no accountability to reflect on.

There wouldn’t be a need for a life review or a transition period.

There’s no denying the evidence coming from people who have had near-death experiences that a life review does indeed take place.

Many people have reported the purpose of a life review is to see the impact you have had on others throughout your life.

For me, I like evidence and this is certainly that.

Then we have Karma and Karmic situations playing out through various lifetimes. If Karma exists, is that to balance out negative outcomes from our free will decisions?

We choose to come back (re-incarnate), and make a soul plan partly to balance previous life ‘outcomes’.

For example, if you took the life of another in one lifetime, you might choose to be of service and care for the same person in another lifetime.

As I am writing this, I realise it doesn’t disprove the non-existence of free will. If anything it does the opposite. Taking the life of another would be soul planned, not a free-will decision; therefore a planned karmic situation would not be a ‘consequence’ of a poor free-will decision.

I was going to delete the last few sentences on the basis that it goes against the point I was trying to make in favour of free will.

I have decided to leave it in though (or have I, with no free will and all that). As I’ve said in previous articles, I never quite know the direction my posts will take. I am sharing my thought processes with you as they unfold.

If you’re reading this, perhaps you are on a curious journey of awakening too.

Thank you for sticking with me!

Final Thoughts

Can I wrap my head around the idea that free will doesn’t exist at all? I don’t know if I can.

One thing writing this article has concluded for me, is that we don’t have anywhere near as much free will as I once thought we did. I believe it is mostly an illusion. I don’t think the majority of our thoughts are our own.

However, I still can’t help but believe we can, and often do deviate from our destined paths through choices made out of free will.

If we are ‘tuned in’ to our higher self, if we listen to our intuition and see the many synchronicities happening around us, then we won’t deviate. We will follow the path we designed for ourselves.

We’re assuming free will is actually a good thing to have. But maybe it isn’t.

If we close down our intuition and follow a path not destined for us, then usually there are signposts along the way leading us back; opportunities to once again correct the course of our life path.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this. Please comment below and let me know what you think.