When the Mind Stops Predicting
What “From Many to (n)one: Meditation and the Plasticity of the Predictive Mind” reveals about consciousness
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S014976342100261X
What if your sense of self isn’t something you are—but something your brain is constantly predicting?
And what if you could gradually turn that process off?
In this influential review, researchers propose a radical idea:
Meditation works by reducing the brain’s predictive processes, eventually dissolving the sense of self itself. (ScienceDirect)
This isn’t metaphor.
It’s a neuroscientific model of what contemplative traditions have been describing for thousands of years.
The Core Idea: The Brain Is Always Predicting
Like many modern theories of mind, this paper starts with predictive processing:
The brain constantly anticipates what will happen
It builds models of the world—and of you
It uses past experience to shape present perception
This includes something deeper:
Your sense of being a self is also a prediction.
A model.
A construction.
Meditation as “Deconstruction”
The paper focuses on deconstructive meditation—practices that don’t just calm the mind, but analyze and dismantle it.
The key claim:
Meditation progressively reduces “temporally deep” predictions—the stories and expectations that extend across time. (ScienceDirect)
In practical terms, this means:
Less thinking about past and future
Less narrative identity
Less abstract conceptual processing
What remains?
A more immediate, present-centered awareness.
A Continuum of Practice
The authors describe meditation not as one thing, but as a continuum:
1. Focused Attention
Stabilizes attention
Reduces distraction
2. Open Monitoring
Observes thoughts without reacting
Weakens automatic patterns
3. Non-Dual Awareness
Dissolves subject-object distinction
Eliminates the sense of a separate self
Each stage reduces prediction further.
Each stage loosens the brain’s grip on its own models.
Insight as “Model Reduction”
One of the most powerful ideas in the paper:
Insight occurs when the brain simplifies or drops its internal models.
Instead of adding new beliefs, meditation can:
Remove assumptions
Collapse unnecessary structures
Reveal how experience is constructed
This is called Bayesian model reduction.
And it reframes insight completely:
Understanding doesn’t come from adding knowledge—but from removing illusions.
The Self as a Prediction
Perhaps the most striking claim:
The “self” is not a fixed entity—it’s a high-level predictive model.
It integrates:
Memory
Expectation
Bodily signals
Social identity
Meditation targets this model directly.
By reducing predictive processing:
The self becomes less stable
Boundaries soften
The distinction between “me” and “world” can dissolve
“From Many to (n)one”
The title captures the core transformation:
“Many” → the complex, layered self
“(n)one” → a state where those layers fall away
This doesn’t mean nothing exists.
It means:
Experience remains—but without the usual structure of identity.
Often described as:
Pure awareness
Non-dual consciousness
“Here and now” experience (ScienceDirect)
Meditation and Psychedelics: A Shared Mechanism?
Although the paper focuses on meditation, the parallels are clear.
Both meditation and psychedelics may:
Reduce top-down predictions
Loosen the sense of self
Increase present-centered awareness
But they differ in how:
Psychedelics → rapid, externally induced
Meditation → gradual, internally trained
Same system.
Different pathways.
Why This Matters
This framework has implications far beyond meditation:
1. Mental Health
Rigid self-models → depression, anxiety
Reducing them → flexibility and relief
2. Consciousness Research
The self is not fundamental
It’s constructed and modifiable
3. Personal Experience
Your identity is less fixed than it feels
And potentially more flexible
The Bigger Picture
This paper connects directly with:
Free-energy principle → minimizing prediction error
REBUS theory → relaxing rigid beliefs
Entropic brain → increasing flexibility
But it adds something unique:
A detailed account of how practice can systematically dismantle the predictive self.
Final Take
Meditation isn’t just about relaxation.
It’s about transformation at the deepest level.
According to this model:
The more you reduce prediction, the closer you get to raw experience.
And at the extreme:
No narrative
No abstraction
No self
Just awareness.
Ruben E. Laukkonen, Heleen A. Slagter, From many to (n)one: Meditation and the plasticity of the predictive mind, Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, Volume 128, 2021, Pages 199-217, ISSN 0149-7634,