11 papers in the library · 104 citations · publishing 2020-2026
Neurosci Conscious February 19, 2026 Valeria Becattini, Michael Lifshitz, Mark Miller 1 citation
Learning to attenuate myself: a predictive processing account of body-scan meditation and the dissolution of bodily boundaries.
arXiv (Cornell University) November 26, 2025 Jonas Mago, Josh Brahinsky, Mark Miller et al.
Criticality describes a regime between order and chaos that supports flexible yet stable information processing. Here we examine whether neural dynamics can be volitionally shifted toward criticality through the self-regulation of attention. We examined ten experienced practitioners of meditation during a 10-day retreat, comparing refined states of meditative absorption, called the jhanas, to...
July 21, 2025 Jonas Mago, Shamil Chandaria, Mark Miller et al. preprint
Minimal Phenomenal Experiences (MPEs) represent states of consciousness reduced to their most fundamental elements, posing a unique challenge and opportunity for modeling consciousness. This paper introduces a novel computational framework based on Bayesian and active inference to model MPEs. We propose that MPEs arise when precision weighting shifts predominantly to the lower levels of a...
Scientific Reports April 3, 2025 Joel Patchitt, Sarah N. Garfinkel, William H Strawson et al. 4 citations
Mismatches between perceived and veridical physiological signals during false feedback (FFB) can bias emotional judgements. Paradigms using auditory FFB suggest perceived changes in heart rate (HR) increase ratings of emotional intensity irrespective of feedback type (increased or decreased HR), implicating right anterior insula as a mismatch comparator between exteroceptive and interoceptive...
Review of Philosophy and Psychology 2025 Julian Kiverstein, Mark Miller, Erik Rietveld
The predictive processing theory refers to a family of theories that take the brain and body of an organism to implement a hierarchically organized predictive model of its environment that works in the service of prediction-error minimization. Several philosophers have wondered how belief-like states of prediction account for the conative role desire plays in motivating a person to act. A...
American journal of human biology : the official journal of the Human Biology Council December 1, 2024 Josh Brahinsky, Jonas Mago, Mark Miller et al. 5 citations
Buddhist Jhāna meditation and the Christian practice of speaking in tongues appear wildly distinct. These spiritual techniques differ in their ethical, theological, and historical frames and seem, from the outside, to produce markedly different states of consciousness-one a state of utter calm and the other of high emotional arousal. Yet, our phenomenological interviews with experienced...
MST Review June 15, 2023 Mark Miller
Can we know God? If so, how? This essay considers Bernard Lonergan’s thoughts on God’s inner and outer Words (the Holy Spirit and Jesus Christ) and how they are received in human consciousness. It applies these two ways of knowing God to two theologians who each emphasized one of these Words: Meister Eckhart, a medieval, Neoplatonic monk, who focused on union with the inner Word, and Eberhard...
Neuroscience of Consciousness 2023 Julian Kiverstein, Mark Miller 6 citations
Our paper takes as its starting point the recent proposal, at the core of this special issue, to use the active inference framework (AIF) to computationally model what it is for a person to live a meaningful life. In broad brushstrokes, the AIF takes experiences of human flourishing to be the result of predictions and uncertainty estimations along many dimensions at multiple levels of...
Wiley interdisciplinary reviews. Cognitive science November 1, 2020 Kathryn Nave, George Deane, Mark Miller et al.
The Predictive Processing (PP) framework casts the brain as a probabilistic prediction engine that continually generates predictions of the causal structure of the world in order to construct for itself, from the top down, incoming sensory signals. Conceiving of the brain in this way has yielded incredible explanatory power, offering what many believe to be our first glimpse at a unified theory...
Frontiers in Psychology 2020 George Deane, Mark Miller, Sam Wilkinson 88 citations
Disruptions in the ordinary sense of selfhood underpin both pathological and "enlightened" states of consciousness. People suffering from depersonalization can experience the loss of a sense of self as devastating, often accompanied by intense feelings of alienation, fear, and hopelessness. However, for meditative contemplatives from various traditions, "selfless" experiences are highly sought...
Zach Buck, John Vervaeke, Mark Miller preprint
Encounter with supernatural agents and other drug-occasioned immaterial entities are a common aspect of psychedelic experiences. However, existing theories offer incomplete explanations for this phenomenon. This paper proposes a theoretical model of psychedelic supernatural agent experiences grounded in active inference. We review recent theoretical models of psychedelic neurological activity...