For some I would gather that the material in this paper might appear to be somewhat terse, which might explain why nobody has as yet begun to kick around any of the ideas presented in this paper, which I might add, for me were most thought-provoking. Seems a bit of a shame as many of the ideas focused upon are ones we've brushed up against in this tribe.

One, in particular, has most recently been served up for discussion, that of paranormal phenomena, ESP type stuff, more specifically 'spoon bending'. And, of course, the underlying concept that our physio-mental dynamic of our experience is spun for us rather than by us - the classic free will / determinism dichotomy.

I've gone ahead and lifted several passages, any of which in itself could become a thread on its own.

"Human action is a kind of magic, an astonishing ability to think of something and thereby make it happen."

"This is something that sometimes can feel quite willful, and at other times can feel absentmindedly automatic."

"For the perception of apparent mental causation, the thought should be consistent with the action, (appear to) occur just before the action, and not be accompanied by other potential causes." ... my words in parens

"...tendency to claim authorship for the successes of others...a general process of mind underlying belief in paranormal phenomena..."

"The belief that on is influencing events also can be enhanced by prior action-consistent thoughts that are not conscious."

"...the self will be seen as causal when the thought of action occurs just prior to the action..."

"...a scientific behavior of human understanding could potentially ruin everything. The magic will be undone, the glorious human spirit will be cheapened, demystified, and rendered grotesque."

"The magic of the self does not generally go away when we explain action. In fact, the self seems remarkable resistant to reports of its demise."

"...despite my personal flurry of illusion busting, I remain every bit as susceptible to the experience of conscious will as the next person."

"It may be that the illusion of conscious will is persistent because we honor so deeply what people mean to do that we readily overlook the causal forces that have impinged on them to force their action ... apparent mental causation..."

"...perhaps it is because it has been bred into us as an evolutionary process that has found the magic of the experience of will to be useful for the propagation of members of our species..."