Virtual,

You have raised a question that has consumed countless hours of thought and deliberation over the centuries.

Yet, there is not a real consensus as to a complete explanation or answer.

Since there is still an on going debate, some of which has been recently enlivened through technology and advances in brain mapping.

For an interesting discription of varying views see:

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/freewill/

In any event, most would agree that to "will" something is to make a choice and choices exist among other competing choices for various reasons, sometimes known and other times not.

I find that rather then get caught up in the debate of "free will" to look at the variety of things that can and do influence ones choices. Influence is the key word.

Inevitably, ones choices effect the direction and manner in which ones life travels.

To say that one has "free will" in the context that it is most often referred to seems to mean free from influence or at the least aware of the influences and their potential consequences.

In that respect, I would think you would agree that we all have had experience with "feeling" like we had been free from influences and yet were not.

As you sit at your computer and read this do you feel the pressure of your legs in the chair?? Where your arm is resting? And don't think of a Christmas tree.

All three statements (more then likely) influenced your perceptions of reality.

It would be difficult if not impossible for them not to. Yet, if you are aware of the hows and why they do so that gives you a wider field of choices on how you might respond to them.

As EWO said and I tend to agree with:

"In my experience and opinion RSE is a true confidence game from beginning to end. The biggest con of all is thinking one is doing something of their own free will."

With the exception of changing the ending to free from influence. My reason for saying that is because it is very easy to get caught up in the free will debate when the issue is simply a con. If someone has been conned, they have been influenced, sometimes one needs to look at the degree in which they have been influenced in order to realize that they indeed have been conned!

I have found that it is much easier to speak to someone "under an influence" about influence rather then free will because most if not all of us operate under the assumption that we are always operating through our free will, yet we all have differing ideas of what that means exactly.

So, the probability of one getting upset and defensive is greater (IMHO) when one feels their free will is threatened as opposed to a challenge of determining the location, causes, environmental factors, etc that might be effecting the amount of influence they are or have been previously exposed to.

For me the "free" part of free will depends on the amount of choices there are. In so doing, my free will does not always = comfort, happiness, joy, etc.

I feel that maturity (and I am not saying that age bound as I am sure we all know those who appear advanced in their maturity in some thing or another) is an ability to view and discern from a wide body of choices.

One may enter RSE with a degree of maturity, but once in, it is all about non-maturity ;"having the mind of a child", getting rid of ones "monkey mind" and the subtle removal through masking of ones choices through mind(*^*&^%& statements like "I will lie to you if necessary" which in the context it is given leads ones thoughts to constantly consider if something is a lie or not.

To pay for that and this is where the con comes in, does not leave much room for one to think "why didn't I go on a vacation instead of sitting in this muddy field?" "Why am I being pushed and bumping into walls for hours while my eyes are duct-taped instead of getting a massage"? And on and on...