(11-01-2019, 07:13 PM)Asolsutsesvyl Wrote: I'll add in something so far missing from this discussion - the Fourth Way perspective.
Free will becomes a more complex question in some ways when moving beyond a materialistic framework. In other ways, it becomes simpler, given a metaphysics in which free will is really free at some level.
A key question is, what really exists which is part of an individual person? Is it just the physical body, and its place within a social and cultural context? Is it also an astral body, subject to less restrictive laws of the cosmos, and simultaneously present in a world corresponding to its own nature? How about a mental body, another step up, corresponding to 4D? Then there's the level of the causal body, in which the structure of the cosmos is so simple that each such "being" is able to choose which chains of cause and effect to become involved in. Beyond that, there's no "bodies" as such - there's too much cosmic unity for that.
In terms of the physical body alone, what materialistic science has to say is basically correct as far as free will goes. Except that it exists in a world in which beings at all the other levels interact, and some of the chains of influence can reach, and sometimes strongly grip, people who only have a physical body.
When it comes to the astral body, it is the "soulful" part of 3D existence, and it is more free, willed, and influential than the physical body. To the extent that its connections with the physical body and brain of an incarnation are developed (this can improve with certain inner work), it comes to rule the subconscious mind, and in part other activity, of the physical person. Then it is no longer so useful to dismiss free will on the basis of materialistic research.
The mental body can wield a greater influence over its environment, exert greater control over the incarnation, consciously work multidimensionally in terms of navigating a person through time, and in principle, produce various extraordinary phenomena (though "mental bodies" are seldom interested in "showing off"). Brain scans of people with mental bodies may or may not perplex researchers - what is shown can be unusual.
The causal body is more mysterious. But then, it is more difficult to be clear about 5D matters in terms understandable in relation to everyday life. The point as far as free will is concerned is that free will is well and truly free at that level.
The vast majority of people have either only a physical body, or the combination of a physical body and an astral body. Most other cases can be understood in terms of wanderers. (For 6D wanderers, I think that a specially formed type of 5D "body" is created by the 6D mind to provide a structure for use as a conduit and stable presence, which then reaches down into lower-density realities to connect to incarnations.) The world and some people growing into 4D however means that the number of "mental bodies" in the world will increase over time.
I can agree 100% except with this part: "The vast majority of people have either only a physical body, or the combination of a physical body and an astral body."
I have become to know that all expressions of the Creator are always having all of the mentioned bodies (as a reality with the potential of being experienced). A particular expression might juts not be aware of some of them and not able to have a conscious experience of them for some time.