The illusion of self and the illusion of free will, explained | Annaka Harris
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“Many people get stuck in feeling responsible for their psychological state, and there's a way in which simply being with whatever uncomfortable emotions rather than believing that you are controlling them can be extremely beneficial for psychological wellbeing.”
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Are you actually in the driver’s seat of your own life? The illusion of free will says that our choices are determined by factors greater than our intentions and actions, that total conscious control is purely an illusion.
We may assume that illusions like this have evolved for their usefulness, but most illusions that we experience are actually glitches, says bestselling author Annaka Harris.
Take for example the illusion of self – the other side of the illusion of free will coin. We think of ourselves as solid, unchanging entities that move through time and space, separate from the rest of the physical world. This illusion confuses us about our place in nature, and the state of our reality.
Harris explores these two illusions and how they shape our everyday experience.
Read the video transcript ► https://bigthink.com/series/explain-it-like-im-smart/annaka-harris-illusions/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=youtube_description
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About Annaka Harris:
Annaka Harris is the New York Times bestselling author of CONSCIOUS: A Brief Guide to the Fundamental Mystery of the Mind and writer and producer of the forthcoming audio documentary series, LIGHTS ON. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, Nautilus Magazine, the Journal of Consciousness Studies, and IAI Magazine. She is also an editor and consultant for science writers, specializing in neuroscience and physics. Annaka is the author of the children’s book I Wonder, coauthor of the Mindful Games Activity Cards, and a volunteer mindfulness teacher for the organization Inner Kids.
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The illusion of self and free will are cognitive glitches rather than evolved features, arising from change blindness, memory consolidation, and default mode network activity; recognizing this can be psychologically liberating in specific contexts despite being unhelpful for daily functioning.
- Brain activity precedes conscious decision-making by 4+ seconds, suggesting decisions emerge before conscious awareness rather than from a unified conscious agent
- Change blindness and memory consolidation create the false impression of a static, unchanging self moving through time when neural processes are actually constantly evolving
- Quieting the default mode network (in flow states, meditation, psychedelics) reduces self-other distinction and brings experience closer to underlying reality
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Change blindness—the inability to notice differences in our experience from one moment to the next—contributes to the illusion of being a solid entity that moves through time unchanged.
“We have a blind spot in our visual field that we are not conscious of, that we don't detect, and neuroscientists are just now starting to understand that there is a change blindness with respect to our experience over time, so that we don't notice how different each of our experiences in every moment are from every other, which adds to this illusion of being a solid entity that moves through time unchanged”
Change blindness exists not only in visual perception but also with respect to experience over time; people do not notice how different each moment's experience is from the next, which contributes to the illusion of being a solid, unchanging entity.
“there is a change blindness with respect to our experience over time, so that we don't notice how different each of our experiences in every moment are from every other, which adds to this illusion of being a solid entity that moves through time unchanged”
The default mode network of the brain is associated with heightened self-awareness, while quieting the default mode network (through flow states, meditation, or psychedelic substances) reduces the distinction between self and other, bringing experience closer to underlying reality.
“when the default mode network is active, we are highly aware of this illusion of self, and it tends to quiet down when we're experiencing what people talk about as a flow state. So when we're very immersed in our work, if we're very immersed in a sport, when people are under the influence of some psychedelic substances, or various meditation techniques that quiet down the default mode network, we are not so aware of self versus other or self versus world, which is actually closer to the underlying reality.”
A 2013 fMRI study found that experimenters could predict 4+ seconds before conscious awareness both when a decision would be made and what decision (add or subtract) a participant would choose, providing evidence that conscious experience of decision-making arises after neural activity has already committed to a course of action.
“There was a very interesting study done in 2013 in which they put participants in an fMRI machine and showed them a screen, and presented two numbers on that screen, and they gave them the option of either adding or subtracting these two numbers, and they were scanning the activity of these participants' brains while they were doing this calculation, and the result of this study was that the experimenters could tell up to four seconds not only when this person was going to make the decision, but whether they decided to add or subtract”
Brains are processes in nature that are ever-changing and ever-evolving, in constant communication with the external world, and the boundaries between ourselves and the world and between ourselves and each other are not as solid and firm as they appear to us.
“They are processes in nature that are ever-changing, ever-evolving, that we are in constant communication with the external world, and that the boundaries between ourselves and the world and ourselves and each other are not as solid and firm as they appear to us or that they feel to us to be”
As complexity increases from simple organisms to human brains, the number of factors influencing decision-making becomes so vast that it is impossible to track them all, yet the fundamental process remains cause-and-effect interaction between brain and external world.
“as you move up in complexity to the level of brains and then human brains, the number of factors that come into play are so expansive that it would be impossible for us to track them all. But it is a process, and it's a process by which the brain is interacting with the exterior world and measuring the different outcomes of the different possible futures”
Memory plays a crucial role in creating the experience of self by stringing together disparate moments into a coherent narrative; without this memory-based continuity, the sense of a self moving through time would be substantially reduced.
“memory plays a role in creating this experience of self as well. There's a sense in which all of the memories that we have access to over time were being experienced by the same subject, and you can imagine if your memories weren't strung together and your experience was just of each present moment, there'd be much less of a sense of a self moving through time.”
A pea tendril's growth pattern, in which it senses a nearby branch and grows toward it to wrap around it, is an example of decision-making in nature that most people would not characterize as a 'free' decision but rather as a cause-and-effect process.
“If you look at something like a pea tendril, when it senses that it's close to a branch that it can wrap itself around, it starts growing more quickly in that direction, and then it changes the growth, so that it wraps itself around a branch. Most of us wouldn't consider that to be a free decision-making process. It's a cause and effect process that occurs in nature.”
The illusion of self and the illusion of free will are two sides of the same coin—both stem from the experience of being a solid, unchanging entity that feels separate from the physical world and cause-effect relationships.
“the illusion of self and the illusion of free will are really two sides of the same coin. It's this experience we all have of being a solid entity, an unchanging entity that moves through time, that is somehow living somewhere inside my body.”
Free will for the most part is an illusion, but the speaker distinguishes between conscious will (the feeling that we control our decisions) and free will (actual decision-making processes that occur in nature).
“I think that free will, for the most part, is an illusion. But when I talk about free will, I like to distinguish between conscious will and free will.”
Most illusions that humans experience are actually glitches in our cognitive systems rather than evolved features designed for usefulness.
“People often think that illusions are evolved for their usefulness, but the truth is that most illusions that we experience are actually glitches.”
The illusion of self and the illusion of conscious will are linked through a fundamental cognitive error: we experience consciousness as a unified entity within the head that is separate from the physical world and cause-effect relationships, when in fact consciousness is a process embedded in physical causality.
“We begin with this illusion of self, of being this solid, concrete entity that lives somewhere in the head, and even though we know better, feels as though it's separate from the physical world and separate from the cause-effect relationships that we know to be in place that could somehow freely make a decision, or freely intervene in the physical world outside of the relationships of cause and effect.”
Most illusions humans experience are evolutionary glitches rather than adaptations that emerged for their usefulness.
“People often think that illusions are evolved for their usefulness, but the truth is that most illusions that we experience are actually glitches.”
The distinction between conscious will and free will is important: free will refers to all decision-making processes in nature (including in non-conscious systems like plants), while conscious will is the subjective experience of a unified self making those decisions.
“I like to distinguish between conscious will and free will. So I use the term free will to talk about decision-making processes in nature, which there clearly are.”
Decision-making processes in nature, including in biological systems, operate through cause-and-effect mechanisms where an organism measures possible futures and selects outcomes, which can be called 'free will' though it is not free in the way it subjectively feels.
“the brain is interacting with the exterior world and measuring the different outcomes of the different possible futures, and then ultimately making a decision. This is something that I think we can refer to as free will, and that what many people mean by free will. The problem with having 'free' in the title is that it's not free in the way we feel it is”
Free will, understood as natural decision-making processes in which the brain interacts with the external world and measures different outcomes of possible futures, can legitimately be called free will, but it is not free in the sense that conscious experience suggests.
“This is something that I think we can refer to as free will, and that what many people mean by free will. The problem with having 'free' in the title is that it's not free in the way we feel it is, and this is where the illusion comes in.”
Natural decision-making processes exist even in simple organisms like pea tendrils, which detect proximity to branches and adjust growth direction accordingly—this is a cause-and-effect process that we would not normally call free will.
“If you look at something like a pea tendril, when it senses that it's close to a branch that it can wrap itself around, it starts growing more quickly in that direction, and then it changes the growth, so that it wraps itself around a branch.”
A 2013 fMRI study showed that experimenters could predict a participant's decision—whether to add or subtract two numbers—up to 4 seconds before the participant became consciously aware of having made the decision.
“There was a very interesting study done in 2013 in which they put participants in an fMRI machine and showed them a screen, and presented two numbers on that screen, and they gave them the option of either adding or subtracting these two numbers, and they were scanning the activity of these participants' brains while they were doing this calculation, and the result of this study was that the experimenters could tell up to four seconds not only when this person was going to make the decision, but whether they decided to add or subtract”
Memory plays a role in creating the experience of self by stringing together our experiences over time; without memory integration, there would be much less sense of a self moving through time.
“we also know that memory plays a role in creating this experience of self as well. There's a sense in which all of the memories that we have access to over time were being experienced by the same subject, and you can imagine if your memories weren't strung together and your experience was just of each present moment, there'd be much less of a sense of a self moving through time.”
The illusion of self and the illusion of free will are two sides of the same coin, both stemming from the experience of being a solid, unchanging entity that exists separately from the physical world.
“the illusion of free will and self are really two sides of the same coin. It's this experience we all have of being a solid entity, an unchanging entity that moves through time, that is somehow living somewhere inside my body. It's my body, it's my brain, and therefore, somehow separate from the physical world”
When discussing the illusion of self, the speaker clarifies that the illusion does not mean organisms and systems in nature do not exist or lack organization, but rather that the self is better understood as a process (like a wave) rather than a static, unchanging entity.
“what is not an illusion is the fact that we are organisms and systems in nature, and that we have certain tendencies, and that we're organized in a certain way, and so we can talk about ourselves in the same way that we can talk about a cat as another organism in nature, or even an ocean wave. But even though we can label it a wave and we can call it a wave and talk about the types of things waves do, we all understand that a wave is not a static thing in nature. It's a process, and our brains are very much the same thing.”
The brain is in constant communication with the external world, and the boundaries between self, world, and other people are not as solid or firm as they appear in subjective experience, particularly when experiencing the illusion of a static self.
“we are in constant communication with the external world, and that the boundaries between ourselves and the world and ourselves and each other are not as solid and firm as they appear to us or that they feel to us to be, especially when we feel like a static self.”
The 2013 fMRI study demonstrates that conscious experience of making a decision arises after the brain has already determined the decision, which supports the visceral sense that there is no self or free will making decisions behind the scenes.
“and so you get the sense viscerally that there's no self or free will making decisions behind the scenes, but that in terms of your conscious experience, a decision really arises.”
Understanding that conscious will is illusory can have practical psychological and relational benefits, including reducing self-blame for emotional states and increasing compassion for others by recognizing that their harmful actions stem from neural processes rather than from an evil self worthy of blame.
“there are moments where realizing that there's an experience of conscious will taking place can be quite liberating. Many people get stuck in feeling responsible for their psychological state, and there's a way in which simply being with whatever uncomfortable emotions you're experiencing, whether it's sadness or frustration or anger, being with them rather than believing that you are controlling them can be extremely beneficial for psychological wellbeing.”
Just as one would not become angry at a tornado (because its destructive behavior is understood as the result of natural processes), understanding that harmful human behavior stems from neural processes rather than from an evil self can prevent anger from becoming an unhelpful, life-ruling state.
“I sometimes talk about the fact that you would never get angry at a tornado, and that doesn't mean anger doesn't have a place in society and culture. But there are times when anger can overcome us and start to rule our lives in a way that is incredibly unhelpful and unhealthy, and when we understand that our brains are essentially processes playing out in nature, and there isn't a solid self to every person that is somehow evil or worthy of blame can also be liberating”
Just as it is practical to navigate daily life with the illusion that the Earth is flat (even though intellectually we know it is a sphere), it is practical to operate with the illusion of self in most everyday contexts, though the illusion can be suspended in specific contexts where understanding its illusory nature is beneficial.
“One example I like to give is that we more or less walk around with the illusion that the Earth is flat, and we act as though the Earth is flat, and that's the best way to go about our everyday lives. If we constantly reminded ourselves that the Earth is a sphere, and had to keep that in mind, and had to feel that way everywhere we went, it would just be an annoying distraction, and would get in the way of all kinds of activities and would not be helpful. And the same is true of the illusion of self and the illusion of free will.”
Understanding that self and free will are illusions can be disconcerting, and one helpful framework for navigating this realization is 'levels of usefulness'—whether believing in the illusion is functionally helpful in a given context.
“Many people find this realization to be quite disconcerting, which is understandable, and I think one way to address that is levels of usefulness. The vast majority of the time, it is not useful or helpful to realize that there's an illusion of sorts taking place.”
The illusion of self does not deny that organisms and systems in nature exist with certain tendencies and organization; rather, it clarifies that these systems are not static entities but dynamic processes.
“So what is not an illusion is the fact that we are organisms and systems in nature, and that we have certain tendencies, and that we're organized in a certain way”
We often equate the feeling of self with consciousness, but this equation is clearly an illusion called 'conscious will'—the belief that conscious experience is a unified self with freedom to act.
“because everything we experience, everything we know takes place within this felt experience of consciousness, we often equate this feeling of self with consciousness, and that I think is clearly an illusion, and I call that conscious will because it is this feeling that my conscious experience is this self and is the thing that has this freedom”
The illusion of self and free will confuses us about our place in nature and the state of reality on many different levels.
“this illusion confuses us about our place in nature and the state of reality on on many different levels.”
The default mode network is a neural system such that when it is active, people are highly aware of the illusion of self, and when it quiets down (during flow states, psychedelic experiences, or meditation), people are less aware of the distinction between self versus other or self versus world, which is actually closer to underlying reality.
“We're also learning a little bit more about what neuroscientists refer to as the default mode network. So we know that when the default mode network is active, we are highly aware of this illusion of self, and it tends to quiet down when we're experiencing what people talk about as a flow state. So when we're very immersed in our work, if we're very immersed in a sport, when people are under the influence of some psychedelic substances, or various meditation techniques that quiet down the default mode network, we are not so aware of self versus other or self versus world, which is actually closer to the underlying reality.”