Fate Vs. Free Will
Readers, please enjoy this guest blog post by Chantel Lysette, author of The Angel Code and Azrael Loves Chocolate, Michael’s a Jock.
A while back I did an interview with Nightstalkers Paranormal Radio where we discussed my debut book Azrael Loves Chocolate, Michael’s a Jock as well as my upcoming book The Angel Code. Justin, the host, was very gracious throughout the hour and I enjoyed chatting with him because he seemed to be well informed about angels as well as my work. (Because of time constraints, it’s common practice for radio hosts to merely skim through their guests’ materials before an interview.)
As the interview progressed, we ventured into a topic that seems to be unavoidable when it comes to discussing the inner workings of the Cosmos and spent quite of bit of airtime discussing Fate and Free Will. I told him I could only expound upon what the angels explained to me. In a very succinct nutshell, choice is an illusion.
Now, before anyone begins lambasting me over this, let me say that no matter what the angels tell me, I have to experience something for myself before it becomes gospel. And even then, it becomes gospel for me whereas I will merely suggest it for others to ponder. Like the character Morpheus says in the movie Matrix: Reloaded, my beliefs are not dependent upon others believing as I do.
That said, I am hungry, starving to know what others think about this debate. I proposed to Justin of Nightstalkers that he dedicate an entire show to it because I find the debate so engaging and thrilling to discuss. I enjoy hearing both sides of this discussion and have often hosted such debates with friends, colleagues and students—of course I had to entice them with pizza and soda because we all knew the migraine headaches such a discussion would give us. It seems to always take us in circles.
And whereas at a bookstore we’re confined to maybe two hours to discuss the topic, here in this forum we have the ability to read and truly absorb comments and positions on the subject before formulating our own response. Some of us may feel we have very succinct, clear-cut answers to this. Others may feel this is an area with so many shades of gray that it’s impossible to come to any one conclusion. Still, I welcome everyone’s input.
To begin, I’ll offer my position on the topic, which I base on the following criteria: We are all spiritual beings, children of a Creator that is omnipotent, omnipresent, omni-[insert your adjective here]. Because the Creator is all-knowing and can perceive the future, if not orchestrate the future to finite degrees, we as spiritual beings on a human journey cannot possibly have “real” choices because the Creator already knows what choice we will select before we select it. If God presents an apple and an orange to us, is it really a choice if he knows we’re going to choose the apple?
Because of this, I’ve come to the conclusion that life is not about making choices but about learning from them and their consequences (cause and effect). And since choice really doesn’t exist, free will cannot exist and we all are set upon a predetermined path that is unavoidable and inescapable.
I’ve proposed this in my books, in lectures, and in interviews, and I get a lot of responses to the tune of, “that sounds incredibly bleak.” I don’t see it as bleak. I simply see this reality as another learning tool that our spirits use to evolve. While choice doesn’t seem to exist on this plane, the angels have made it emphatically clear to me that free will does exist in the spirit realm. As Archangel Uriel told me once, “No one is here because they were forced to be. They are here because they want to be.” Here meaning this existence. So, we have choices as to how our life is plotted out before we get here, but once here, we’re locked in for this roller-coaster ride.
How does this notion make you feel? Whether you agree with this or not, I genuinely want to hear from you. Like you, I’m seeking answers to life’s biggest questions and I believe that if we work together, we might actually get somewhere.
Brightest Blessings,
Chantel Lysette
Our thanks to Chantel Lysette for her guest post! For more from Chantel, read her articles, “Fluorescent Pink Billboards” and “When Angels Whisper.”
Hello,
Thanks for the Post, as a Tarot Reader, vs a Mystic really, I take a somewhat different point if view, which I will allow my have more to do with my perspective than the underlying reality, just the same, here goes.
I believe both sides of the Fate/Free Will debate have Merit. If there is value in Astrology, and I am quite sure there is from my own experience. Our stars will align in a certain way, on a given day, and that will manifest in presenting us with certain challenges, choices, opportunities.
Such as being presented with the Apple and the Orange, and my work in Tarot has convinced me where the choices have real spiritual significance we will be presented with the same choices time and again till we get them right; and perhaps again even then … but I am not so sure that choice is illusory; I do believe their may be some truth to the many worlds theory, and many of our choices play out in many worlds.
At the same time …
If you are Familiar with the Princeton Eggs, then you will know a few hours before 9-11 they went very non random, they seemed to predict the event. I believe, but of course cannot yet prove, this may indicate a bottle neck in the possibilities; You and I and everyone reading this blog were destined to live in a post 9-11 world. A choice was made by someone, that would affect all of us, and the Quantum possibilities collapsed into a very specific reality; but the moment those planes hit the tower, how we would respond became our own affair and again the possibilities exploded.
So I tend to think of it this way…
We all participate in a sort of a grand spiritual improve. The sets, and set Pieces you and I will play out are pretty well scripted in advance, but the lines we speak, many of the choices we make, much of what we do is improved in the context of those set pieces, and those choices play out in many worlds, not just this one.
Blessings, Bb.
I look at it this way: I am a character in a story that was already written, co-authored by myself and God (of which I’m sure there was much haggling). Perhaps it actually works better to say it’s a movie, but the point is that, even though it feels to me that I’m making decisions, it’s all been written. Everything that has come before is an intricate weaving of why I would make a decision a certain way. For example, pick the red pill or the blue bill. Everything in my life to that point has been a build-up of reasons as to why the choice isn’t really a choice at all and I will, inevitably, pick the red.
In a way, it’s kind of freeing. I know that I chose to make this life the way it is from my highest spiritual self and I know that every step has God’s stamp of approval, so if I ever don’t know what to do, I can sit back and say, “Okay, God. Thrill me,” and then wait to see what plot point jumps out at me next.
At the risk of being redundant, I would suggest to you that you are doing the wrangling now, that instead of assuming the choices in ones life were made before one was born, it is more Elegant, (and I do believe creation is ultimately elegant.) to suggest the writing of the script, and the living of the script play out at once; but I do agree with you; our lives are act of co-creation, between, ourself, our fellow travelers, and God/dess. Blessings, BB.
The catch-22 notion of fate vs free will is enough to drive anyone nuts. On one hand you have the co-creators telling you to visualize and choose your life, write it down, write it down and burn it, write it down and burn it on a full moon. You can have anything you want if you just do it right. If you are experiencing something you don’t like, well, you aren’t doing it right and you attracted said negative outcome. You probably were not grateful enough or you thought you were but you were unconsciously ungrateful which jinxed everything. You have total responsibility for everything that has happened or will happen to you.
On the other had, the fatalists absolve you from any blame or guilt you may feel about your situation. I am an actor and even though I can’t remember this I execute my lines and my part perfectly. Everything that has happened or will happen was meant to be. In this scenario I agree with Chantel, free will does not exist. If it does, it belongs to the higher or unconscious self on the other side of the veil and me, the conscious self is the meat puppet that gets to pull the oar and take the heat with no say in what will be. Personally, I hate the idea that I’m stuck in a scripted path. I’ve done some past life regressions, and based on some of the stuff I’ve seen, I have to put in a big vote of no-confidence in whatever martyristic contract I’ve probably cooked up for myself this time around. How things really work? I certainly don’t know. Who the hell knows? Probably not anyone on this side of the veil. Thank God for Kryon. I read the Kryon channelings by Lee Carroll and it made a lot of sense to me and brought me some comfort. My understanding of the Kryon message is that yes, we have and are on a prescripted contract that we put together prior to being born, but in the new ascension energy, it will be possible to void our karma and also our contracts, and co-create a life that we want. I think there are 12+ books of Kryon channelings, and this message was in book 1. The Kryon website has a lot of good stuff on it, all free. My personal feeling is that the real deal is a strange combination of fate and free will, but it’s totally unpredictable which is in effect at any given time. I try not to think about this too much because I just get frustrated….then I reach for my Kryon books.
My thoughts anyways,
-Luna