I think, in some strong sense, free will is an illusion. In neuroscience, we have a real problem with the idea that a conscious event, which is somehow independent of the brain, which is occurring only in the mind, but not in the brain, can somehow trigger the brain activity, which then triggers the movement of my arm. From a neuroscientific point of view, there is no conscious mind independent of the brain. So, the way that we think about free will in our everyday lives, in which Descartes summarized for us, is that our conscious thoughts cause our actions, but really, this is not neuroscientifically possible. So, no neuroscientists are really surprised by the result of the Libet experiment, because consciousness has got to be a product of our brain activity. [...] I think the work that we’ve been doing on this project suggests that if you do believe in free will it may not be as strong as you think it is. And I find that quite surprising because in our everyday lives we’re very attached to our idea of free will. Which I believe is the imagination. source Unverified