This article picks up where Our Multidimensional Selves leaves off. It might help to read it first.
Observing and recognizing patterns in nature is one of the greatest ways to gain deep understanding of a subject matter. Using our imagination, we can look at the way that humans program machines for certain benefits as mirror of a reality in which a higher self programs this realm with opportunities to have experiences for learning and growth. Perhaps from a higher level of consciousness, we programmed a set of laws into the matrix of reality to provide us with our desired experiences.
"As Above, So Below" or so the saying goes. What happens in the heavens or higher realms is mirrored in the lower realms according to laws at that level. What is programmed into the higher levels of electronics and machines influences the design of programming languages and software. Understanding the way we program our machines and games can give us insight into how our experience of reality may be the result of programming that gives it its nature.
To begin let's make an assumption - that no lower level can fully express what is at a higher level. They can imitate at best and their imitation is relatively proportional to the next level below it, and so on and so forth. Our programming of machines, as it stands now, are limited to a very strict set of tasks that we give them. By this logic we as humans are limited to the programming that governs us, or the laws of our reality, as well.
At this point it may sound like I've gone off the religious / spiritual path and into one of a programmed determinism, but this is not the case! All football games have the same rules but that does not mean they are predetermined. There are innumerable possibilities within one realm of experience according to its laws. The laws do not determine actions taken, they only define the actions (and, obviously, much more).
Now you may feel where this is going - can this perspective allow for free will? It absolutely can if the interpretation of free will follows the assumptions we've laid out so far. Lucid dreaming is a great thing to help illustrate this. Lucid dreaming is when one can recognize they are dreaming within their dream. At more advanced levels, one with full awareness of their dream state can also manipulate this experience to their will and do things like fly.
With lucid dreaming we've referenced a real-world example that bridges two "layers" (as we've been describing things). The reality we experience is that of the dream world where its laws apply, but we have an operating consciousness of the waking world. It's as though our dream consciousness was able to hold space for the higher level of waking consciousness to descend into its realm. Our waking consciousness understands the laws of the dream world such that it can take actions that would be considered miraculous otherwise.
If we as human beings can align our energies with those of a higher level enough to hold space for that awareness to come into our own we can gain an understanding of the programming and laws that are affecting us at lower levels, and we can use that knowledge to guide and shape our experience. This is how we can truly become co-creators of our own reality.
In this sense, a true exercising of free will comes from a place of higher awareness with understanding of the programming of lower levels and therefore the ability to more freely operate within those laws. This pattern extends all the way up to our highest self and then God where its Will and The Law interact to fractalize into all other aspects of reality.
From this perspective, programming can be considered a set of rules that define (at least some of) a certain level of awareness. And it also means that we can "raise ourselves up" or "bring higher levels of awareness down" to overcome or work within the programming of a certain layer of reality. Think if you were playing a game and your consciousness was able to enter your avatar with enough of an understanding of the programming to manipulate the desired experience. This is truly a gift that we can use to make things better for all beings.
An expanded awareness of the concept of programming can also help us in our day-to-day lives in society. There are many avenues through which humans' consciousness can be subverted or guided to serve the best interests of another. Some examples are through manipulation of our environment, the information we have access to and consume, our ability to access resources we need, and exploiting personal traumas.
The programming of our society is really one of the lowest forms of programming that we experience. But, at the same time, it is probably the most ubiquitous. There are many people, entities and organizations out there that employ devious tactics for their benefit at the expense of others. Fortunately, in the same way we can train ourselves to lucid dream, we can also expand our awareness and be cognizant at a level where we recognize the programming and can operate freely within it, freeing ourselves from potential suffering.
Programming is inherent to the many ways The Law manifests itself on all levels. One may even say that at each level of manifestation The Law is the programming that dictates the mechanisms of its level and levels below it. It can be fun and harmless, but can also be manipulative and controlling. This is not to say it is 'good' or 'bad' either. Because as extensions of The Creator we always have the possibility of expanding our awareness, recognizing the programming, and exercising our natural ability as Creators to work with our multidimensional selves to ascend, descend and take appropriate action within certain manifestations of The Law to be free. And, if our wills be aligned with The Will of The Divine, use it for the maximum benefit of all sentient beings!