Yes, they happened to me. I am sorry you are feeling uncomfortable. Don't worry - I will spare you the gory details.

You can do the experiments on yourself - it's not necessary to take my word for it.

Thank you for taking an interest in the book.

I have studied most of the religions on Earth. The Gods in various religions differ from each other. For example, the Allah of the Quran is very different from the Jesus of the Bible. They are both very different from the Hindu God Brahma who is very different from the Hindu Goddess Lakshmi. They are all very different from the Norse Gods such as Thor or Odin.

I don't know if any god or goddess exists. I have never met any. I don't know what they are like except for how they are portrayed in religious books.

If God or Goddess or Gods or Goddesses made me all-knowing and all-powerful, I would be convinced that it is possible to be all-knowing and all-powerful and I would then know that God or Goddess or Gods or Goddesses exist and what God or Goddess or Gods or Goddesses are actually like.

I carried out experiments to test the roles played by our genes, environments from conception to the present, nutrients from conception to the present, and experiences from the womb to the present. These experiments were not published in any journals because I carried them out alone and I was my only test subject. I compared myself with myself under different situations e.g. how lack of oxygen affected my decision making, how lack of water affected my decision making, how lack of food affected my decision making, how lack of sleep affected my decision making, how cold and heat affected my decision making, etc. I also compared myself to how I was before significant life events with how I was after significant life events. By significant life events I mean being kidnapped, being raped, watching people murder each other, being in natural disasters which killed lots of people, relatives being murdered, etc. The more I experimented and compared, the more it became clear to me that our wills are determined and constrained by our genes, environments from conception to the present, nutrients from conception to the present, and experiences from the womb to the present.

How much do you know about neuroscience? Have you ever seen PET scans and functional MRI scans of humans? I have. If you want to learn more about how choices arise in brains, I recommend that you start by reading this book: "Determined: Life Without Free Will" by Robert M. Sapolsky. It is available on Amazon Kindle. If you want to discuss the book with me, I am happy to discuss it.

We can't change all determinants and constraints but we can change some determinants and constraints. It varies from person to person depending on their genes, environments from conception to the present, nutrients from conception to the present, and experiences from the womb to the present. I have not assessed how efficiently we deal with our determinants and constraints.

I don't know if Gods exist and if they are all-knowing and all-powerful. I am agnostic about the existence and nature of all Gods. Humans have believed in and still believe in many Gods. That does not mean that they exist.

Thank you for your sympathy. I understand what you mean by "freedom to act on one's own will" but the problem is that our will is never free from determinants and constraints. I don't know if any all-knowing and all-powerful being exists. If such beings exist their Wills won't be constrained the way our wills are. I don't know whether or not their Wills will be determined by variables or not.

You asked "If my actions are not based on my free will where are they based on? What exactly is that determines them?" Our wills are determined and constrained by our genes, environments from conception to the present, nutrients from conception to the present, and experiences from the womb to the present. This is why most of the choices made by me when I was 4 years old were different from most of the choices made by me when I was 18 years old even though our genes have not changed. Please note that epigenetic changes also affect our wills.

In my explanation above, I am assuming what we see, hear, touch, taste and smell actually exist and are not simulations or hallucinations or dreams or illusions.

No one deserves to go to heaven or hell because no one has free will.

I don't think it qualifies as a skill. It's simply the result of my realisation that we are all prisoners of causality.

I agree.

I am suffering from depression and CPTSD which affects my thoughts and emotions. I find reading, critically evaluating ideas, etc. very difficult due to my illnesses. You could argue that I do not have a sound mind. When I asked "Is solipsism true?" what I meant is that "Is solipsism real? i.e. am I the only real entity in all of reality?"

Yes, I know how to ride a bike, how to walk, how to read and write, what my address is, the names of my parents, and millions of other things. I don't have the time to list millions of things.

I think we are using very different definitions for free will. Although you have not stated which definition of free will you are using. I am inferring that your definition is "Free will is the ability to decide what to do independently of any outside influence." My definition of free will is a will that is free from determinants and constraints. I am talking about both internal (e.g. genes) and external (e.g. environments) determinants and constraints.

If I had the genes of a banana tree, would I be able to type this post? No. I have seen many banana trees and none of them can read or type or even know English. They are probably not even sentient.

If the zygote that was I when I was conceived was placed inside an oven at 250 degrees Celsius for an hour would I have become the adult I am now? No. The lethal environment would have destroyed the zygote.

If the zygote that was I when I was conceived was deprived of all nutrients would I have become the adult I am now? No. The lack of nutrients would have killed the zygote.

If the zygote that was I had all the correct genes and was in the correct environment and received the correct nutrients then I would have been born as a healthy human baby. If that baby had different experiences from me such as learning Japanese instead of English, I would not be typing this message.

So, do you now see the roles played by my genes, environments, nutrients, and experiences in the typing of this post? This is why I am convinced that we don't have free will. Do you understand my thoughts and reasoning?

I gave you a list of tasks to complete to prove that your will is free from determinants and constraints, but you failed to do the tasks. You claimed that the mind is free but it is not actually free. Can you become fluent in 6000 languages you don't know in one nanosecond? No, you can't because your mind is not free. Your thoughts are most likely the product of the electrochemical activities of your brain and they are subject to the laws of physics. The state of your brain not only depends on the laws of physics but also depends on your genes, your environments from conception to the present, all the nutrients you have consumed from conception to the present, and all the experiences you have had from when you were in the womb until the present. Therefore, your mind is not free from determinants and constraints. If you can prove to me that your mind is free from determinants and constraints, please do.

I don't blame you for feeling the way you do about people who harm deliberately. I used to blame and praise but I stopped doing it because I realised that we are all doing inevitable things and are not worthy of praise or blame.

I am agnostic about blaming and praising anyone. Is being greedy and exploitative someone's fault? Would I not behave like them if I had their genes, environments, nutrients, and experiences? To answer this question incontrovertibly, I would have to create an identical universe with identical variables and see what happens. If hard determinism is true, everything will happen inevitably exactly as it happened in this universe. I think we are all cogs in the machine of reality.

Some of the determinants and constraints can be changed.

For example:
1. Gene therapy.
2. Changing the environment by moving to a different part of the Earth.
3. Giving aid to famine victims who are dying from not having enough nutrients.
4. Rescuing people from modern slavery and giving them treatment for PTSD if necessary.

Of course, many of the determinants and constraints can't be changed by the subjects and they need external help from others e.g. doctors, aid workers, police officers, paramedics, etc.

There are many wishful thinkers on Earth. I have met many of them. Given how harsh life is, I don't blame them for being wishful thinkers.

I am agnostic about a lot of things. Is solipsism true? I don't know. Is hard determinism true? I don't know. Do souls exist? I don't know. Is anyone responsible for the choices they make? I don't know.

I am completely certain of the following:
1. I am conscious.
2. I am typing in English.
3. I am not all-knowing.
4. I am not all-powerful.
5. I change.
6. Concepts e.g. the definition of squares, circles, triangles, etc.
7. I can't do lots of things I really want to do e.g. go back in time and prevent all suffering, inequality, injustice, and deaths and make all living things forever happy.
8. I do some things even though I don't want to do them. Here are some things I have done, currently do or will do even though I don't want to do them:

1. Breathe
2. Eat
3. Drink
4. Sleep
5. Dream
7. Pee
8. Poo
9. Fart
10. Burp
11. Sneeze
12. Cough
13. Age
14. Get ill
15. Get injured
16. Sweat
17. Cry
18. Suffer
19. Snore
20. Think
21. Feel
22. Choose
23. Be conceived
24. Be born
25. Remember some events that I don't want to remember
26. Forget information that I want to remember
27. Die

I am almost certain of the following:

1. I and all the other organisms currently alive will die. Every second brings all organisms closer to death.
2. My body, other organisms, the Earth and the Universe really exist and they are not part of a simulation or hallucination or dream or illusion.
3. Other organisms e.g. humans, cows, dogs, cats, chickens, pigs, lions, elephants, butterflies, whales, dolphins, etc. are sentient beings who feel pain.
4. Being a non-consumer is more ethical than being an autotroph, being an autotroph is more ethical than being a vegan/herbivore, being a vegan is more ethical than being a vegetarian, and being a vegetarian is more ethical than being an omnivore or carnivore.
5. Gods do not exist.
6. Souls do not exist.
7. Reincarnation does not happen.
8. Resurrection does not happen.
10. Organisms evolved and were not created by God or Gods.
11. 99.9% of all the species to evolve so far on Earth became extinct in 5 mass extinctions long before humans evolved.
12. Humans and other organisms do not have free will. Our wills are determined and constrained by our genes, environments, nutrients, and experiences. The reason I have put this one in the almost certain category is that it is possible that bodies, genes, cells, stars, planets, moons, galaxies, universes may not actually exist. These things could be part of a simulation or dream or hallucination or illusion. It is impossible to know with complete certainty. I could be a solipsistic soul experiencing the illusion of being in a human body on a planet in a universe or I could be a body without any soul - I don't know these things for sure, hence I am an agnostic. There are many hypotheses that can't be tested e.g. simulation hypothesis, illusion hypothesis, dream hypothesis, hallucination hypothesis, solipsism hypothesis, philosophical zombie hypothesis, panpsychism hypothesis, deism hypothesis, theism hypothesis, pantheism hypothesis, panentheism hypothesis, pre-life selection by souls hypothesis, resurrection hypothesis, reincarnation hypothesis, etc. Just because a hypothesis can't be tested it does not mean it is true or false. It just means that it is currently untestable.

My definition of free will is a will that is free from determinants and constraints. To prove me wrong, you would have to do the following:

1. Live forever without consuming any oxygen, fluids, or food.
2. Do things other organisms e.g. tardigrades, dolphins, chameleons, etc. can do.
3. Teleport everywhere and everywhen.
4. Prevent all suffering, inequality, injustice, and deaths.
5. Make all living things (including the dead ones and the never-born ones) forever happy.
6. Be all-loving, all-knowing, and all-powerful and make all the other beings also all-loving, all-knowing, and all-powerful.
7. Own an infinite number of universes and give all beings an infinite number of universes each for free.

Once you have done the above tasks, I will be convinced that you have free will. If I had free will, I would have already done the above tasks.

I don't know the answers to your questions. I am all-loving but I am not all-knowing or all-powerful. I am the Truth Seeker, not the Truth Knower.

I haven't read his book but I read some of the reviews on Amazon of his book. It seems that his book is pseudoscience.

We may not know until we die and die we will.

I agree with your statement "If you discuss a topic under different definitions of the key concept with the others, then you will not be able to reach the agreed conclusion."

Our genes, environments, nutrients, and experiences determine and constrain our choices. Most people turn a blind eye to this and insist they and other people have free will when they actually don't.

The reason I have not edited my original question is that even if the phrasing is wrong, that's what I was thinking and asking at the time of posting. The posts are steps on my journey from then to now. If I edit the original post the record of the journey will be distorted and will no longer be accurate.

You can still answer the question "Who from the following list could be judged responsible for one's actions?

Yes, I would feel guilty if I ate meat or drank cow's milk or ate chicken's egg or wore leather or wore wool and so on. However, if my choices are inevitable then I can't really be blamed or praised for my choices. Are the choices made by all living things inevitable? I don't know. If hard determinism is true then it would make sense that all choices are inevitable. The legal system simply ignores the implications of hard determinism and assumes that people have free will and are legally culpable if they do anything illegal. This is done because society needs laws to function. So, people are assigned legal culpability even when they lack actual culpability.

I agree.

Thank you for the link. I am quoting from the link https://bjgplife.com/recalled-experience-of-death

According to Van Lommel,2 the brain has an interface function and not a producing one. The brain works as transceiver sending information captured by the sense organs to consciousness, and receiving information from consciousness. For Van Lommel, consciousness is a non-local field as compared to an electromagnetic wave coded with information, which requires a gadget to decode it such as a smartphone, a radio or a TV set. These devices can be destroyed but not the information itself and its source. Similarly, the death of the body would not imply the end of consciousness.

Is Van Lommel correct or incorrect?

Materialists believe that only the brain is real and the mind is the product of the activities of the brain. Spiritualists believe that only the soul is real and everything else is illusion. Dualists believe that both the brain and the soul are real and the soul pilots the brain until the brain is dead and then is either resurrected or reincarnated. I am agnostic about the existence of souls, gods, resurrection and reincarnation. I am trying to find out the whole truth about everything and everyone.

I have spoken with people who have experienced Recalled Experience of Death (RED) but I couldn't establish if their brains were dead or not. I wish I could have performed functional MRI scans but that was not possible given the circumstances.

Dr Sam Parnia and his team seem convinced that the patients met the criteria for clinical death and would not have come back to life without their medical intervention.

I understand your point. The doctor did not verbalise his thoughts to anyone so it is extraordinary that the patient knew the doctor's thoughts. The anecdote from the doctor begins at 22:03 on the video.

Question for everyone: who among you watched the video and read the research paper in the first post in this thread?

How do you know this?

I don't know.

It is definitely the truth that I am seeking. I have sliced some human brains, too. I agree that it's not your job to disprove implausible claims. There are so many untestable hypotheses e.g. the immaterial souls that allegedly exist but brain scanners can't see and invisible gods and angels and demons, etc.

No, you didn't. Please stop lying.

Thank you very much for the link. I had not read it before. How does this explain the incident where the patient knew what the doctor was thinking?

Did you watch the video in the first post on this thread? In that video, Dr Sam Parnia said that those people actually died and then were brought back to life by medical treatment. This is why he called Near-Death Experience (NDE) to be a misnomer and renamed NDE to Recalled Experience of Death (RED).

Yes, I have had many dreams but the kind of experiences the people in the video spoke of are very different from dreams because they have factual information that was verified by others e.g. a patient told the doctor what the doctor did and even what the doctor was thinking!

How do you know that the brain causes consciousness? I have met people who believe that the brain, the body, the Earth, and the universe are all parts of an illusion called Maya. According to them, souls reincarnate in Maya according to karma accrued in the previous life. It is impossible to prove or disprove this claim.

I have also met people who believe that souls pilot brains and are judged by God on Judgement Day which will occur sometime in the future. It is impossible to prove or disprove this claim, too.

So, is the brain real? Is the soul real? Are both brains and souls real? Are God or Gods real? Is resurrection real? Is reincarnation real? By the word "real" I mean that they actually exist as opposed to believed to exist.

I have experienced general anaesthesia 11 times so I can relate to what you experienced.

One can be legally culpable without being morally culpable. I think that no one is morally culpable but all adults of sound minds are legally culpable.

Culpable for doing something morally incorrect. For example, I became a vegan eighteen years ago because two vegans convinced me that it is morally wrong to be an omnivorous or carnivorous human.

In my list, I have included beings I have never met and am not convinced exist, e.g. gods, angels, demons and the devil. I have also included beings such as robots and AI even though I am not convinced that the currently existing robots and AI are sentient. I chose the "No one" option from my list. I could be wrong but that is what I currently think. My thoughts may change or they may not.

I like your rephrasing: "Who from the following list could be judged responsible for one's actions?" Please answer the rephrased question. Thank you.

I have read many definitions of free will but I don't agree with any of them. My definition of free will is a will that is free from determinants and constraints. I don't mind if no one else agrees with my definition. I don't require anyone to agree with me about anything.

I agree.

No, not even in my dreams. I have experienced being close to death but I have never actually died. I nearly died by drowning when I was four years and nine months old. There have been many times when I thought that I would die but I didn't. I have witnessed many deaths.

Thank you very much for your advice. I agree with making the most of one's life by doing what matters to one. What matters the most to me is saving and improving lives. So, I save and improve lives daily.

How do you know that there is no consciousness after brain death? What about all the people who have Recalled Experience of Death (RED) and the stories they tell of visiting other places and the beings they meet there?

Thank you for your advice. I meditate daily but I haven't experienced death yet. How do you know this?

I don't know. I have met people who believe we are immortal souls and choose to be born and choose all the experiences we will have during our lives in this universe before we are born. They were not able to prove what they believe but that does not mean they are necessarily wrong. I am an agnostic about the existence of souls and gods but I am open to new evidence for souls and gods.

Please prove your claim with evidence.

The moral deliberation of someone is not free from variables he or she did not choose i.e. genes, environments since conception to the present, nutrients from conception to the present, experiences from the womb to the present. We don't have free will. We have determined and constrained will. This is why no biological being is morally culpable.

I do some things even though I don't want to do them. Here are some things I have done, currently do or will do even though I don't want to do them:

1. Breathe
2. Eat
3. Drink
4. Sleep
5. Dream
7. Pee
8. Poo
9. Fart
10. Burp
11. Sneeze
12. Cough
13. Age
14. Get ill
15. Get injured
16. Sweat
17. Cry
18. Suffer
19. Snore
20. Think
21. Feel
22. Choose
23. Be conceived
24. Be born
25. Remember some events that I don't want to remember
26. Forget information that I want to remember
27. Die

My definition of free will is a will that is free from determinants and constraints. To prove me wrong, you would have to do the following:

1. Live forever without consuming any oxygen, fluids, or food.
2. Do things other organisms e.g. tardigrades, dolphins, chameleons, etc. can do.
3. Teleport everywhere and everywhen.
4. Prevent all suffering, inequality, injustice, and deaths.
5. Make all living things (including the dead ones and the never-born ones) forever happy.
6. Be all-loving, all-knowing, and all-powerful and make all the other beings also all-loving, all-knowing, and all-powerful.
7. Own an infinite number of universes and give all beings an infinite number of universes each for free.

Once you have done the above tasks, I will be convinced that you have free will. If I had free will, I would have already done the above tasks.