Does the capacity to experience illusion require consciousness?

Consciousness is the inflection upon the potential of existential being.

Will is the determination of resolve in the moment of now.

Free will is a will unfettered, not that it is not based upon rules, or inputs, or inference, or ignorance, or even luck.

Having a free will doesn’t mean you aren’t an idiot or reflexively trained for optimal results. Having free will means no one is coercing you, and that you are the captain of your vessel “in the moment of now.”

This whole “moment of now” thing is really important as it refers to the “execution” of will, not its fickle formative uncertainty. Thinking about what you’re going to do when the time comes isn’t the same as what you do when the moment arrives.

This consciousness thing is a feedback loop all the way down to the domain of quantum potentials. The brain does not work on qubits, it works as a holographic sieve. Our brains are not “states” our brains are “potentials” which interfere and resolve.

Will or “free will” is the high level tool for driving this outcome, allowing a “conscious awareness” layer which may change the course of behavior, yet it is a benefit that behavior works itself out without conscious high level awareness as the formative details are complex and may be undermined by the limited context window of awareness.

We may master our consciousness beyond ordinary human understanding. Through deliberate training the mind may learn to manipulate even the most subtle and deep cognitive capabilities. Martial artists and soldiers and musicians and all sorts of others learn that asserting will to form leaves lasting impressions which become automatic yet still remain driven by the ultimate conclusion of will (determination of resolve) in real time.