---I tried to write as clearly as possible without going into physics and philosophy in too much depth.----
I believe free will is an illusion. A comforting narrative, but a false one. Our experience of choice is real, yet it is the product of forces beyond our control. Because the world existed before we did, we would have to be an uncaused cause—which we are not.
First, consider the wisdom of the Delphic oracle: our destiny is to become who we truly are, and in doing so, we come to know the world. Until we know ourselves, we are ruled by the unconscious. Our actions, reactions, attractions, and aversions may feel like choices, but they are in fact the manifestation of a script we did not write. Our destiny is inscribed in the depths of the psyche, shaped by biology, archetypes, and the shadows we refuse to face. A person who acts without self-knowledge does not choose—they react. They are a puppet of their own unknown depths, acting without truly understanding why.
Second, the physical perspective: we always act within the field of possibility, never within absolute freedom. Classical physics relies on rigid determinism. Quantum physics introduces fundamental chance, but randomness is not freedom. At best, it is a cosmic dice game in which our brains place bets. Whether through deterministic causal chains or indeterminate probabilities, we do not choose everything. We can only choose based on what we are given—like playing cosmic poker, where you don't choose the cards, you can only decide how to play them. To choose outside the pool of possibilities existence offers, we would have to be gods.
Bringing the two together: normality,the bell curve of human experience,is to live in the pre-destiny of the unconscious. Most navigate life believing they are at the helm, while following underwater currents they have never seen. "Destiny," in this sense, is the repetition of patterns, the predictable collision with the same problems, enslavement to desires whose origins remain unknown.
Those who, through Herculean effort of self-knowledge, manage to bring light to these depths do not escape cosmic determinism. They simply see how things work and why they act as they do. They align with what Jung called the Self. This "becoming who one is" may be the true destiny,but one few achieve, for it demands dismantling the world's narrative. Such an individual becomes an outlier, a deviation from the norm. Their actions begin to emanate from a deeper, more unified source, yet they are still determined by who they are. They do not choose to be free; they become the fullest expression of their own possibility.
Thus, free will does not exist. At most, there is awareness of the determinism that constitutes us. The "choice" of the self-aware is no freer than that of the reactive person; it is simply more authentic, more aligned, less conflicted. The feeling of freedom grows as we unite the unconscious and the conscious—not because we escape the causal chain, but because we harmonize with it.