Disposing of a free will is probably the most precious mean at the disposition of the self.

Discussions of this topic ought to be separated into those relating to philosophical argumentations, and those of direct impact due to exterior influences such as social constellations or due to internal conditions.

The existence of the freedom of will is frequently questioned by reasoning that the arguments underlying any decision may always be affected in undeterminable ways by personal preferences. While true and an important reason for failure, the taking of the decision itself  nevertheless does not require to rely fully or even in part on the arguments themselves.

More serious problems may arrive under condition such as mental-overload, where the will may present as a rather fluctuant unstable state. Two other conditions of concern in regard of its properties are that the will can become under complete outside control as under condition of hypnosis, and - not precisely referring to the will - , that wrongly assembled information by the mind itself, appearing as simple errors or confabulations, can seriously affect decision-making.

To become reconciled with this somewhat fearsome aspects of the function of the mind, it should be kept in mind that brain, mind and will are not designed to form the head of a top-to-bottom command structure, but evolved rather in a bottom-to-top manner during the entire process of evolution, always in demand to fulfill various functions at the same time.

Properly used the brain should mostly work reasonably well, stretched to the limits of performance, serious dysfunction may indeed occur.

Dictatorship of the will or the intellect, can easily deprive the body of the energy necessary for emotion related developments, thus impairing the quality of life. To provide this energy may present the main reason for meditation.

Visual Events

Visual events unrelated to out-side perception are imaginations, dreams, visions and hallucinations, all to various extents interrelated.

Imagination is a feature likely central to the ability of the mind to solve problems. Day-dreaming may present a special form of its manifestation, pointing to its partial autonomy.

Dreams are closely related to certain forms of sleep. Some dreams appear as superficially imbedded, others as rather deeply rooted, many are of negative content. Some dreams may present but mental trash, some may reasonably well connect to real events or thoughts, and some may be highly meaningful indeed, such as e.g. the dream leading to the discovery of the structure of benzyl.

Visions correspond to a state of consciousness further characterized by increased alertness enabling to gain deeper insight. Increased alertness can be observed in relation to the experience of fear. Of interest is the occasionally well noticed marginalization of the self. Increased alertness may be more common than anticipated.

Hallucinations are unwanted, uninterruptible predominant vision related mainly meaningless events taking place in the conscious state. They occur as a result of sensory overload, sleep deprivation, in relation to intoxications or as symptoms of diseases such as schizophrenia and others.

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