Friday, 5 February 2016



The UK psychologist Dr Steven Taylor has written about Reclaiming Human Freedom

According to Steven Taylor:

1. Some psychologists, philosophers and neuroscientists have told us that we don't have free will.

2. Some want to show us that we are powerless and controlled by forces beyond our control.

3. A conspiracy theorist might argue that this is an attempt by the elite to persuade us that we are powerless so that we won't challenge their authority.

4. Scientists and philosophers often tend towards absolutism; they tend to believe in rule by a small elite.

5. Recent research has shown that our brain structure is very flexible, and continually changing.

Practicing certain habits or behaviours brings real physical changes to the part of the brain associated with that activity.

For example, if you decide to learn to play the piano, you will develop more neural connections (and perhaps even more brain cells) in the parts of the brain associated with motor activity and musical ability.

If you meditate regularly for years, you will develop more ‘gray matter’ in the areas associated with attention, concentration and compassion.

So in that sense, rather than being completely controlled by our brains, we have control over them.

6. Research shows that the genetic structures we inherit from our parents don't remain fixed throughout our lives.

Our genetic structures are altered by the life experiences we undergo, so that the genes we pass on to our children will be different to those we inherited.

Studies of twins show that, when twins are exposed to very different environments and life experiences, in their later life they show striking differences in their DNA.

It could be said that we have the capacity to control our genes, rather than them just controlling us.


7. People can develop more self-control and more freedom.

We can begin to control our impulses and desires.

We learn to make more decisions for ourselves, becoming less bound by biological and environmental influences – a process of gaining more free will.

8. In Eastern traditions, spiritual development can be seen as a process of gaining increased freedom too.

Many Eastern spiritual traditions such as Buddhism and Yoga place a great emphasis on self-discipline and self-control – control of one's own behaviour, so that we no longer cause harm to others; control of our desires, so that we no longer lust after physical pleasures; control of our thoughts, so that we can quieten the mind through meditation, and so on.

9. So we all possess a degree of freedom, and freedom is not a static quality.

We all have the capacity to extend the degree of freedom we're bequeathed with, to become less dominated by our genes, our brain chemistry, and the environment or society which we're born into.

How Free Are You? As Free as You Decide to Be .


"Studies have shown that learning or even encountering something new sets off a series of molecular changes in neurons, to produce long-term transformations in the brain."




  2. "Our genetic structures are altered by the life experiences we undergo"

    Such as vaccines, chemtrails, fluoride, GM food, false-flags, mind control ?


    1. Sauce for the goose ...........?!

    2. choice...refuse vaccines, install water filter (no fluoride) don't watch the TV....step by step by step..!! Remember...can you eat an elephant..?? the little ole ant and his buddies don't even ask the question..!!

    3. Zika vaccine....on the way Sir/Madam. We have your (our) best interests at heart.

  3. So long-term molecular changes occur in the brains of those who regularly exhibit aggressive/dominant behaviour, with a down-side.

    All the "winning" mice in the MIPT Lab. study showed "increased anxiety levels, stereotypical repetitive behaviour and impaired ability to communicate". ".. a male that succeeded in tearing out patches of hair from the back of a weaker mouse avoided open spaces, preferring to sit in the dark wherever possible".

    Interesting post. Thanks Aang.

    Nice picture of Brabazon's 'St Mark's and the Doge's Palace' too. I can't immediately see how it is relevant to the subject of the post however. Am I missing something?


  5. I have written many posts here about how we don't have free. But then I have written others swung that we do have free will free, but only a little bit.

    This is a good article and I have put out many posts here about epigenitics (our genes are programmable) and neuroplasticity (our brains alter their structure over time to suite our environment).

    Once upon a time I suffered from severe depression that lasted many years. Drugs didn't help and then they started to consider me to be incurable.

    All the books I read emphasised the role of genes in depressive illness. This made me more depressed. So I started reading books by psychologists and psychiatrists who said that it wasn't genes that made people feel depressed. Many of these people said that the genetic theories were just marketing for drug companies that want steer people away from therapy and take more drugs.

    I found much hope in these books, and they have me the strength to fight on (free will). And I'm much better now. And with none of their horrible drugs, which tend to make things worse in the long run.

    They have always been finding genes for this and that, then they find out that it is not the case, but this never gets reported in the press. Discovering genes for mental is always big news, and the psychiatric journals that are funded by big business will make a big fanfare about it. A few months later other scientists overturn the previous research but this gets reported only in the back pages scientific journals and only a small column.

    The latest gene finding for schizophrenia will probably get overturned too.