About the will

When you start thinking about what the concept of will really stands for, you soon become confused. The term is used in very many diffuse contexts of both positive and negative character. It can give associations to the maturity and integrity of a person, as well as it can be associated with undue self-exaltation. In relationships between people - be it at the family level or at the societal level - the term is often used as a rebuke to those who do not follow certain basic rules. People say ”You do not want” but mean ”You should want and act so that we are happy with you”. The person who is exposed to this often feels that she has difficulty living up to what is required, even if she has a desire to do so. It seems to be thoughtlessly assumed that we humans in most situations are able to consciously control inner or outer forces that control us. Since human actions are often related to ethical and moral values, questions of guilt and punishment easily arise. Legislation in most democratic countries takes into account whether a person understands the meaning and consequence of her actions and is able to influence them. But as individuals, we often refrain from taking such considerations into account when judging another human being.

A well-known saying is, "If you just want to, you can.” Is it really that simple? As if I could easily regulate the energies that control my mental and physiological functions and thus my actions. But this way of defining the willpower of others, or usually the lack of willpower, is mostly used only in terms of someones mental functions. Rarely do you hear someone say ”If you just want to, you can refrain from emptying your bladder”. That would be extremely unrealistic. Neither is the will an isolated mental force with which we can control ourselves as we wish. Genetically inherited biological and mental survival mechanisms can control us with greater force. The power of will, which we consciously can use to convert thought and feeling into action, can thus be defined as the result of an extremely complicated interplay of a number of mental and biological functions.

Willpower primarily requires awareness and knowledge and is therefore something that particularly distinguishes man from other animals. Can not then an animal have a will? All animals are born with a large number of automatic survival programs. The higher up on the biological development scale, the greater the opportunity for the individual to influence these genetic programs. Insects do not have the slightest possibility of an own influence on their genetic programming, as far as is known.

When a dog, or a human being, sees something that frightens them, both can experience an inner driving force that causes them to react so that they move away from the danger as quickly as possible - or attack it. This is the ”fight or flight” reaction which is caused both by hereditary and by learned, but unconscious, programming. But is this then an expression of this phenomenon which we call will? Usually not. It is rather a spontaneous expression of survival mechanisms whose driving force is fear. The same applies when a threatening situation provokes an attack. Here the driving force is anger, which however is nothing but an extension of fear. Attack is always an extended defence. It is still the survival force that takes the initiative here and accomplishes the action. In the same way can desire and lust control us. But genuine willpower is a conscious capacity which is increasingly free from dependence on fear, anger, and lust. It can be defined as a function which contributes to the choice, direction and manifestation of a person's conscious actions.

We normally assume that people are aware of their will and that their willpower is intimately linked to conscious choice and conscious action. We usually do not reflect on unconscious inner driving forces. But if I say that I want something but am not able to let my will be transferred to the corresponding action, then what I call will is really just a desire or a longing. A wish alone is not strong enough, nor directed enough, to help us make a choice and act in accordance with it. Willpower and action are needed for a wish to become true. Both longing, desire and will are focused on change, or the avoidance of change. But when it comes to longing and desire, the basis for them is often varied and not known. This makes it more difficult to decide on a course of action. We must make a clear and distinct conscious choice to muster so much willpower that we dare to let our desire turn into action.

It takes courage to carry out an act of will. Sometimes it takes a lot of courage. Therefore, the will needs to be charged, not only with insight and understanding, but also with the power of our emotions and a strong and conscious belief in what we want or long for. It is this that creates a strong motivating force that can help us express our will in action. And an increasingly conscious and strong good will, which leads to corresponding actions, is the hallmark of a person who is growing towards maturity and wholeness.

One may ask whether man also can harbor an evil will. Through the ages many have argued that a conscious evil will is not only possible but real. But, what we perceive as evil is then given an independent existence which is considered to have its origin either in the individual, or existing as a free-acting evil factor outside the individual. In the latter case, the individual would then be influenced to evil thoughts, feelings and actions by the external evil force.

I leave the question of an external, independently existing, evil to others. I myself can hardly believe that the power within us that we call will could exist as a good and an evil variant. The evil will would in that case be a function completely independent of the good will and focused on destructiveness. Of course, this is a question of how to define the concept of will. But, in my opinion, the notion of an independent, conscious evil will is based on incomplete knowledge of the genetic and aquired survival forces that operate within all biological beings and which always, to a greater or lesser degree, influence our actions in a very complex way. Because these forces in their pure expression can be very strong, and often create negative consequences for the environment, they are usually given a negative value. Completely uncontrolled, these functions in humans can, of course, give rise to inappropriate and sometimes directly dangerous behaviour, but in my opinion they should never be seen as a fundamentally negative force. If we do so, also survival, and life itself, must be described as negative forces.

What we call evil is always something that is associated with humans and their actions. We do not usually believe that evil lies behind earthquakes or other natural disasters. Nor do we say that a tiger that kills its prey commits an evil act. The same survival mechanisms that we consider to be natural in other mammals we consider to be unnatural in the mammalian human. So, we obviously believe that humans should know better than other animals. But this is a strongly exaggerated view of the knowledge and awareness that we generally have about our own inherited and imprinted survival functions and our ability to effectively counteract or control these forces. It is, of course, quite another matter when we excuse our self-centered, and less good, deeds with a supposedly good purpose. Even the worst tyrant usually considers himself working for a good cause.

True willpower is based on insight and awareness and is less governed by purely biological and unconscious mechanisms. Such genuine will is good. It is good in the sense that it also strives for survival but not only in the form of competition and confrontation with other life. Instead it strives for survival by seeking wholeness and harmony, in ourselves and in the world we live in. Such a will is able, if necessary, to go against the driving forces with which biology wants to control us. Simply put, we can say that a good will is charged with awareness of both the need to care about ourselves and the need to care about everything that is part of life. With the power of will we can thus consciously choose and perform constructive actions - or refrain from bad ones.

The only thing that can create real willpower is insight, awareness, courage and goals. Then that will is good. An expression of will that seems to be evil should probably rather be recognised as a less conscious, biological and mental survival function, despite the fact that the individual in question often claims that she knows what she is doing and why she is doing it. Gaining insight and self-awareness is difficult and is not achieved without effort. It requires a lot of time, a lot of humility and a lot of courage. But the gain is worth the effort. True willpower arises when we finally succeed in balancing the forces of biological control systems with the energies of reason, heart and soul. A truly free will, which is strong enough to go against the genetic forces of survival, can only be born in the realisation that I myself am a part of the world I live in, that I influence it and am influenced by it and that I in decision and action must take responsibility for this. Paradoxically, this freedom which leads to power in decisions and actions can only grow out of a deep understanding of our utmost dependence.