by Harry Palmer

Harry Palmer, author of the Avatar materials

The problem with self-determined will is that the motivational forces of its lesser cousins—moral indoctrination, emotional reaction, and instincts—exert hidden influences on it. For example, a person, let us say his name is Fred, may represent his choice of pink slippers over yellow slippers as an exercise of his self-determined will. But careful investigation will reveal that pink slippers were the habitual footwear of his doting mother, a fact that he has forgotten.

So is his choice of pink slippers a coincidence, or is there some motivational force (hidden influence) that predisposes his attention to desire pink?

Do you know this word “predisposed”? In psychology it means to have unconscious reasons for favoring a certain choice even before the choice is offered. In another sense, it means the outcome is highly predictable. If you have ever gambled at a casino, you could say that the odds of winning are predisposed in favor of the casino. You might win occasionally, but the longer you play the more predictable the outcome of your losing will be.

Unreasonable insistence upon a viewpoint is a characteristic of predisposed influences.

A predisposition is a hidden influence on reasoned choice. It arises from the motivational forces of the lower realms of will. Without effective education, people may insist that their behavior, regardless of how senseless or destructive, is really an exercise of their self-determined will. Here you will find the emphysemic smoker who insists that she smokes by choice, and the alcoholic who insists that he could quit any time. Unreasonable insistence upon a viewpoint is a characteristic of predisposed influences. The smoker and the alcoholic are under the delusion that they are making self-determined choices, but they aren’t. These are predisposed behaviors being justified by the self-determined will. This self-deception becomes apparent as soon as you awaken the viewpoint of transcendent will.

So back to Fred, is he predisposed to choose pink slippers? The answer can be determined by observing how consistently Fred chooses pink slippers. Imagine some magic that would allow you to offer Fred the same choice over and over without his remembering. How often would you expect Fred to pick the yellow slippers over the pink slippers?

If he always picks the pink slippers, then this is really a predisposition, a habit, rather than a self-determined choice. If Fred’s choice was self-determined, and all else was equal, you could expect a 50-50 split—50 percent of the time he would choose yellow slippers.

Let’s say you discover that Fred always chooses the pink slippers, even insists upon pink slippers. Now you know that Fred is predisposed to choose pink. Maybe the predisposition came from his genetic instincts, or from some emotional reinforcement, or from his indoctrination that pink is the right choice. Fred experiences the delusion of self-determinism, because he has not been awakened to the transcendent will viewpoint. He is not aware of his own predispositions. And even though Fred will give hundreds of good reasons for choosing pink, for instance they match his pink bathrobe, his choice is really motivated by lower realms of will. Many people who are acting under the influence of emotional or moral motivations will argue that they are being self-determined.

This may lead you to wonder how many of Fred’s apparent self-determined choices are really nothing more than justified predispositions motivated by his lower realms of will?

Self-determined choices don’t really appear until the motivating forces of the lower realms of will go off-line.

As long as you’re experimenting on Fred, imagine that you could teach Fred to transcend his mind. Fred-the-source-being (Avatar state) is fully present, aware of, but in control of the motivating forces of the lower realms of will. In other words, any predispositions that he might have are off-line. Transcendent Fred looks the same, but he acts differently. Fred has found his millions.

Now offer Fred the choice between yellow and pink slippers and you’ll find that as long as both fit and keep his feet warm, he doesn’t really care about the color. He has achieved the ability to really make a self-determined choice based on what is in front of him. He is no longer influenced by any subjective preferences. Ironic, isn’t it? Self-determined choices don’t really appear until the motivating forces of the lower realms of will go off-line.

This natural self-determinism of the being, so often lost in a maze of predispositions, reawakens with the waking of the transcendent will.

If you talk with Fred-the-Avatar, you will find him intelligent, logical, with high integrity, and refreshingly free of any asserted opinions or habitual preferences. And, as he gains more and more experience with the Avatar tools, he will recognize more and more the motivating forces of lower realms of will and discreate (become free of) their influence.

You will discover that his life and his environment have suddenly become much happier and more peaceful.

Discover more about The Avatar Course.