Several posters have admitted believing that much of our mental activity is unconscious. Doesn't that pose problems with a traditional view of free will? If you are not aware of a significant mental process, how can it be free? Any takers?
Sure. But my focus is (and will be for some time, I fear) that consciousness is a fundamental phenomenon in its own right, independent of anything material. That aside, "unconsciousness" is a mental or verbal construct and very imprecise. There are multitudiouns degrees and modes of awareness. We dream. Those dreams often color our daily consciouness. Sometimes we remember those dreams and sometimes they convey messages to us. At that point, has the unconsciousness become consciousness? I suggest that it has. There is no clear demarcation.
I would not know how to address whether or not this process is "free". It seems quite chaotic to me and yet it does have influence. There is such a thing as legitimate numinous experience. And sometimes we "just know", and to a certainty, with no idea as to the origin of that knowledge.