Here is an excerpt from my original comment to Dr. Giles' initial article "Buddhism is wrong"
Regarding the question of free will, I’m wondering if you’re able to do any of the following: (there are thousands of scientific experiments showing all the following can be done, even if it is quite rare)
1. Choose exactly what you’re going to eat, all day, every day, and eat exactly what you choose – the type of food, the amount, and the timing
2. Choose exactly the exercise routine you wish to undertake, do it exactly as you’ve freely chosen, and follow through for months or years at a time.
3. As you lie down to go to sleep, use your will to control your thoughts to the point that within a minute or so you stop all discursive thought.
4. As you continue into deeper stages of sleep, with your mind fully aware as your thoughs dissolve altogether, remain aware as you enter the dream state, maintaining full ability to choose what to dream about and control all parts of the dream, and then intentionally dissolve the dreamscape as your brain waves slow further to delta waves, you enter deep “stage 3” sleep while maintaining full awareness.
5. Visualize an object, such as a tree, to the point that it is as vivid when you close your eyes as when they are open.6. Observe a mood of intense anger and within seconds, detach from it so completely that it utterly dissolves (or any craving or negative emotion – have you done this with any of them using your free will?)On the other hand, can you focus on the sensation of breathing for more than 5 seconds without being carried away by your thoughts?(By the way in case you read more into these last questions than I intended, I'm not presenting them as "proof' or even evidence FOR or AGAINST free will, simply inviting you to try these experiments in the hopes you might consider the possibility that free will is not quite the very simple black and white proposition you offer).
AND HERE IS DR. GILES' RESPONSE:
****For a fuller understanding of my philosophical worldview, please see https://medium.com/p/follow-up-to-buddhism-is-wrong-48bde358a503Also refer to my article on Whitehead: https://medium.com/inserting-philosophy/alfred-north-whiteheads-natural-theology-4786a8039440Consciousness is a process. Our self and will are factors in that process as are myriad influences of the external world. On free will, there is no rational denial of it, because even asking the question proves its existence. The six thought experiments you mention are child’s play to anyone with any experience in meditation. They also prove free will. Does the simplicity of the truth of free will make it a black and white proposition? No, because the dynamic is never binary. You are missing the essence of the issue.
*****
I thought his claim that the "thought experiments" I mentioned are "child's play to anyone with any experience in meditation." (note that I explicitly closed my comment that I was not suggesting them as proof against or for free will, simply suggesting the question, which philosophers have argued about for thousands of years, might not be as black and white as Dr. Giles is suggesting)
So I wrote a comment to this article, and he said "I've already answered your question."
Do you see anywhere that he has answered the claim that for example, to maintain full awareness while being in deep sleep, is child's play?
I'm not writing this even to criticize him. I'd just love to hear about research showing what I and everyone else in the meditation research community have thought to be a rare ability is in fact, according to Dr. Giles, child's play!