Brain-dead people have reflexes, blood circulation, etc. Still others involve a weighing process in which motivating forces meet and are felt together, resulting in an intention. But this is still not free will. In order to reason about something, organize all the factors involved, and reach a conclusion, a force must oppose the tendency to free associate. It takes an active effort to maintain concentration.
People are confused because their consciousness is active and their thought is passive.
Whenever habitual embroidery of what is perceived is taking place, the energy of consciousness is diverted and one no longer sees the real world. The effort to still the mind and recover the natural mirror-like quality of the calm waters of consciousness is the aim of what the spiritual traditions call meditation. Advanced practitioners of meditative disciplines develop an awareness of the presence of the primordial stillness underneath even the most frenetic external activity and remain open to clear perception of reality. Only through the control of attention by the will do consciousness and thought occupy their rightful places and serve a larger whole.