How the brain makes predictions come true

Before discussing the subject that's the title of this post - how the brain makes predictions come true -- I'll shoehorn in a related personal story about my check ordering saga.

Recently Columbia Bank, which my wife and I use for a checking account, was bought by Umpqua Bank. For many years I've ordered checks for our Columbia Bank account when the supply ran low. Last month was the first time I'd ordered checks with Umpqua Bank on them.

Balancing our checkbook about a week ago, I noticed that we'd been charged on May 17 for the cost of mailing the Umpqua Bank checks I'd ordered. That got me to wondering why the checks hadn't arrived.

After that bit of wondering, every time I opened our mailbox I'd look to see if the checks had been delivered. But day after day, no checks. When May became June, I started to worry that the checks had been lost. 

Yesterday I decided to contact the web site that produces and mails checks. Looking for a way to do this, I noticed a FAQ (frequently asked questions) page. One question was about what to do if a check order hasn't arrived. 

The advice was to log in to your account, then click on an "order status" link. I did that. And was surprised to find that the checks had been delivered. Which I immediately remembered had happened. 

So how is it that I kept looking in our mail for checks that were sitting in a drawer in our house? Here's my theory. As noted in my first two posts about Andy Clark's book, The Experience Machine, modern neuroscience says that the human brain is constantly making predictions about the world.

(See here and here.)

Thus rather than perception being an objective mirror of the outside world, the brain is using past experience to predict what is most likely to appear in a given situation. Discrepancies between that expectation and what is actually perceived are errors that, ideally, lead us to fashion a more accurate understanding of what's there.

In my case, I didn't have any experience ordering checks with Umpqua Bank on them. So even though all of my Columbia Bank orders had arrived without a problem, my brain wasn't as confident about the May check order.

When I saw the charge for the checks on our bank statement, a sense of "something is wrong" popped into my head. I didn't think that thought. It just appeared in my mind with a convincing sense of rightness. 

From that point on, "something is wrong" formed the prediction in my brain when I opened our mailbox. Every day no checks were there, that strengthened the prediction. Of course, the problem was that there actually wasn't a problem. 

But I needed an external push to realize that -- the FAQ about not getting a check order. For my brain was in a closed loop founded on a basic error: that the checks hadn't arrived. Sure, most people reading this are probably thinking, "You're a fool for not looking in the drawer."

No argument there. However, I never thought to look in the drawer where we keep blank checks because my brain was saying that the checks hadn't arrived with a sense of certainty that resulted in me looking for the checks every day we got mail.

Bottom line: the brain works in mysterious ways.

Regarding how the brain makes predictions come true, here's how Andy Clark describes the basic process. It shows how perception and action are much the same, since each uses prediction and error correction to do their job.

To see how this works consider a simple action such as turning my head to see the seagulls out of my office window.

...The sound of the gulls, and the fact that I'm now looking for a nice example of prediction-based action control, makes me want to look out the window and see the gulls. I do so.

In predictive processing terms, what happened is this. The sound of the gulls, and my need for a familiar example, made me strongly predict looking toward the gulls. The best way to get rid of the resulting prediction errors (which were many, since I was still actually looking at my busy computer screen) was to turn my head just so and move my eyes just the right amount. 

...The deep unity (under predictive processing) of perception and action should now be apparent. There are two different, but equally effective, ways to minimize prediction errors during our encounters with the world.

The first is by using prediction errors to help us discover the best guess about how things are out there in the world. But the second is to act so as to make the world fit some of our predictions. Instead of finding the prediction that best fits the sensory evidence (perception), you now find or create the sensory evidence that best fits the prediction.

ln the case of my supposedly missing checks, my brain initially had made a prediction that the checks hadn't been delivered after I noticed that our account had been charged for them. Yes, that prediction was wrong, since the checks had been delivered and were sitting in a drawer.

But it felt right.

And every day I opened our mailbox and saw no checks, that perception made the prediction seem even more right. It was action that corrected the errors being made. Once I realized that the checks had been delivered, and that I'd forgotten putting them in the drawer, I walked to the drawer, opened it, and picked up the packet of Umpqua Bank checks.

Now the new prediction -- the checks were in my possession -- had been confirmed with no errors.

As I get deeper into The Experience Machine, I'm learning some ways we can improve our relationship with the world and ourselves. That will be the focus of my next post about the book, which I'm enjoying a lot.

Comments

[Ron E.]

@ Brian. As noted in my first two posts about Andy Clark's book, The Experience Machine, modern neuroscience says that the human brain is constantly making predictions about the world.

I seem to understand the predictive brain theory slightly differently in that the brain actively constructs our experiences from moment-to-moment which may or may not confirm what the senses are conveying. For example, you hear a rustling in the bushes, the brain predicts what it is; perhaps the wind, a person or perhaps a bear! The brain initiates the body to react which is based on past experiences. Such past experience could be that the same thing happened a few minutes ago when you realised the wind was rustling the bushes and so the brain assumes the same thing and predicts what to do – i.e., keep walking. Or, if your past experience contained an incident of being attacked by someone lurking in the bushes, then the brain may predict that image and you perhaps scream and run – or reach for the pepper spray.

In the predictive brain theory, the brain is continuously engaged in predictions constructed from past experience whether they are sensations from within the body or without. And what’s more amazing, the brain senses impressions from the world before sound, light, odour etc. hit the brain!

In my understanding of the predictive brain theory, Brian’s story about the bank may be more about assumptions rather than 'moment-to-moment' predictions. As Brian stated: - “So even though all of my Columbia Bank orders had arrived without a problem, my brain wasn't as confident about the May check order.” Perhaps not being confident could initially be the reason that when the bank check arrived, the brain, predicting problems, didn’t ‘see’ the Umpqua Bank packet and put it in the drawer. From then on assumptions took over.

[Spence Tepper]

Clark writes
"In predictive processing terms, what happened is this. The sound of the gulls, and my need for a familiar example, made me strongly predict looking toward the gulls. The best way to get rid of the resulting prediction errors (which were many, since I was still actually looking at my busy computer screen) was to turn my head just so and move my eyes just the right amount. "

Clark is willing to put his own perceptual equipment to the test by altering a parameter within his control. Changing his perceptual placement by even a small degree alters both the information received and how his brain processes it. And so he receives a new, different, report.

But each report is a one dimensional, highly processed report from a specific set of conditions physically and psychologically.

He moved himself to a place outside his brain's construct and perceived a more accurate view.

"We do not see the world as it is. We see it as we are."
-Anaïs Nin.

If we can work to put aside our expectations, that is one less layer of processing we are burdened with.

And if we can go to that place of awareness within ourselves free of filters, a place where filtering and conceptual reconstruction do not function, who knows what we may experience? Maybe God? But no label would work there. Maybe reality directly. Maybe pure experience of the moment. Maybe the moment is eternity.

How sad we must go someplace else to see that!

But this machinery we are surrounded by and all its thinking and reconstruction are here for a purpose. It's very real machinery, and keeps us focused on the job of this life. Very practical. We should praise how well our brain functions within its sphere, and understand its limitations to this place and daily tasks in our normal environment, and how completely inaccurate it is in reporting anything outside our accepted experience.

It is meditation that takes us to a different place. Where language, visual symbols, and concept do not exist. Often or us experienced as a transcendent place of perfect balance, joy and understanding. A place of liberation.

Science helps us to understand the reality of both places. And their distinct differences.

[SantMat64]

No doubt everyone can relate to forgetting things, or doing things with no memory of having done so, and then making false assumptions. The corrective is open-minded deductive investigation, and better still, communication with related parties.

Years ago I lost my wallet. I discovered this on an early Sunday morning. Inside the wallet was $400, all my CCs, my DL, etc. I spent hours searching my home, my property, and every step I'd made the previous day. Fruitless, no wallet. I even looked in the trash dumpster. I even crawled inside that dumpster. No wallet. I reached the point where it was time to call off the search, but last ditch effort, something told me to look in the dumpster once again. Climbing in, I systematically moved all the garbage from one corner to another, and when I reached the far corner, lo, there was my wallet.

It seems that when I'd thrown out the trash on Saturday, I'd for some reason had my wallet in my hand and threw both it and trash into dumpster. Mindlessness!

Some of my delusion comes from such utter heedlessness, but not all it. Propaganda has also been the cause of many mistaken beliefs.

Back when I was a jejune teenage spiritual seeker, and a long time afterward, I believed whatever my tribe told me was true. I was a romantic in thrall to mythomania about gurus, diet, conspiracy theories, miracles, and all manner of bold claims. If it sounded cool and was in a book and elicited a certain feeling in me, I accepted it as true.

I'm far more skeptical now. Moreover, and quite ironically, though we live in an age of unprecedented access to information, we at the same time are bombarded with propaganda as never before in history.

I'm grateful to people like Elon Musk and the producers of the film What Is a Woman for their courage in confronting these powerful Orwellian forces of control.

[um]

The sun is on its way down and it makes the trees reflect in the window.
To day again birds in full flight THINK they are on their way to the tree. in the window.

[um]

Resulting their understanding of the world colliding with the reality of the window.

[Brian Hines]

Spence Tepper, your comments often remind me of Garrison Keillor's wry statement that in Lake Woebegon all of the children are above average. Wikipedia describes the Lake Woebegon effect:
----------------------
The characterization that "all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking, and all the children are above average" has been used to describe a real and pervasive human tendency to overestimate one's achievements and capabilities in relation to others.
----------------------
Your claim that meditation, or some other spiritual exercise, makes it possible to transcend the brain functions that apply to every other human shows how far down the Lake Woebegon rabbit hole you've burrowed.

There's no evidence for this. There's not even a defensible hypothesis for how it would be possible to see reality as some form of pure experience divorced from the brain functions that apply to everyone else except, apparently, special people like yourself.

You're preaching a Dream of Specialness. Sure, that's appealing, since most people want to believe that they're above average. In the realm of religion, let's make that far above average. Me, I resonate with the much more realistic view that everyone is part of the same human family.

That's why I enjoy science books, including neuroscience books, so much. They're a pleasing counterpoint to religious/mystical dogma where unbelievable claims of going beyond human limitations are made. But, hey, each to their own. If you feel good about feeling so special, it's hard for me to argue that feeling good is bad. It's just almost certainly factually wrong.

[um]

All that have these so called inner experiences,
dreams, lucid dreams, NDE, OBE, and other spontaneous experiences,
and ..
those that have artificial provoked experiences, meditation, and other forms of manipulation of the body, the intake of mind altering drugs, plants etc

ALL ... do speak of the CONTENT as the content is altering their lives , for a short time or permanent

Very few are interested in how it came to be, with the exception if those experiences do not fit into societies idea about welfare .. nightmares, hearing of voices that command disturbing behavior etc.

Those that undergo an therapeutic session with ayahuasca etc to overcome this or that trauma that has not been solved by other means are not at all interested in the role of the brain, or in diverting the attention and focus away from the CONTENT into an discussion whether it was real or not, can be proved or not or that it was caused by the brain or not.

The indigenous people have been practicing with success their "vision quest" by fasting and sleep deprivation, in order to have hallucinations in which all sorts of powers manifest themselves in answer to their quest.

The Tibetans use that same technique in an other form and so did the mystery schools in Greece and egypte as extensively described by Peter Kingsley in his book "Reality"

It is all about CONTENT

[um]

And...

If a person falls in love with another person, nobody consults an neuro-psychologist or biologist that have him explain that it is all caused by his brain and part of the inbuilt survival mechanism ... it is all about the content.

Neither can one stand before a court and tell the judge that ones brain was playing out when in a fit of anger somebody was harmed.

Nor does anybody ridicules the outcome of science telling that it was the brain etc.

[um]

It is all about attributing meaning and value to life.
it is about content

When we walk, it is all about where we go, what motivates us to go etc, not about de body, its organs, the legs and the brain that has to bring us there where we want to go

https://www.native-art-in-canada.com/visionquest.html

[Kranvir]

Well said Brian, but I would add that Gurinder Singh Dhillon , who is running only on his inflated ego and superiority complex, makes certain key strategic people feel special by a title and making them feel above others and that they will be given a guranteed place in heaven. He calls these his special sevadar and wants the common sheep to obey them without question as a matter of seva. Some of the security sevadar are given almost SS like authority given by Hitler, and himmler s evil circle, whos job is to bully the common sheep to stay in line or to do gurinders evil dirty work - such was the case with the poor farmers in India. This is all done by design as these special chosen ones are given more privileges, are given property, and makes others aspire to be like them - this way the evil propagates in the cult , creating mini sociopath versions of gurinder the villain. The other way gurinder makes people feel special is that he gives certain individuals inner visions and light shows and bells and whistles, Spense is a typical example. If you listen to what they have to share, there is emptiness, no wisdom , and just poetry and more confusion - by design. Their job is to recruit innocent souls by sharing their shallow experiences. Why not just go the the circus or a fair ground to get a similar experience. RSSB and its agents and the king serpent gurinder and his puppet master , kaal are all cunning and fake asses, steer clear of them and enjoy your own life.

[Appreciative Reader]

Of course, this would take an expert in those sine wave speech thingies to actually produce, but just a thought:

We saw in the other thread a simple but very effective demonstration of the brain correctly extrapolating from limited information and creating a model that does comport with reality --- in that case, what was actually said.

It might be interesting to have similar easily accessed demonstrations, using sine wave speech --- provided this actually works out, of course --- showing how the brain might be tricked into building a model that does NOT comport with reality. Like, a sine wave speech piece that our brain can be tricked into recognizing as something, when what was actually said is something else altogether.

Should such be available --- and of course, should such even be a thing --- then that would make a cool companion piece to go with that remarkable article featuring the sine wave speech thingies.

(We'd then have a demonstration of the brain's remarkable model building faculty; followed by a demonstration of how that sometimes misfires. Provided, of course, the brain is actually susceptible to that specific kind of error --- I'd suppose it would be, but I could be mistaken in supposing that, I realize.)

[Spence Tepper]

Hi Brian
You wrote
"Your claim that meditation, or some other spiritual exercise, makes it possible to transcend the brain functions that apply to every other human shows how far down the Lake Woebegon rabbit hole you've burrowed."

Every day you learn something new you transcend the old, Brian.

Every day you can look at your own brain's functioning you transcend it's past limitations to some degree.

How?

You become aware of what it is doing moment by moment.

And now experience reality differently.

You can say it is all brain functions, if you like.

But now you are exercising more of the conscious ones, becoming more aware of the unconscious ones.

This happens when we learn, and can verify for ourselves observing our own behavior and thoughts.

It can happen through learning about science, and then seeing it in our own behavior, spotting our own conditioning, and taking another look at what we thought was true. Now we see that was a reaction,, even our judgment wasn't accurate,, wasn't correct.

It can happen in a similar way with feedback, if it is good feedback from our friends, or something inspiring we heard it read. Anything that helps you learn and in learning replace what was unconscious reactivity with conscious choice.

And that happens in meditation all the time, as the mind calms down, with greater Alpha activity, so that you can see your thoughts and the world around you with less emotion. You move into higher brain functions and you become more aware.

Take another look at what I wrote

"It is meditation that takes us to a different place. Where language, visual symbols, and concept do not exist. Often or us experienced as a transcendent place of perfect balance, joy and understanding. A place of liberation.

" Science helps us to understand the reality of both places. And their distinct differences."

Meditation research proves time and again that the brain functions quite differently in meditation than in went other state. It is unique. But it is also an extension of learning, which happens best when the mind is calm.

" Meditation can produce a deep state of relaxation and a tranquil mind. During meditation, you focus your attention and eliminate the stream of jumbled thoughts that may be crowding your mind and causing stress. This process may result in enhanced physical and emotional well-being."
https://www.mayoclinic.org/tests-procedures/meditation/in-depth/meditation/art-20045858#:~:text=Meditation%20can%20produce%20a%20deep,physical%20and%20emotional%20well%2Dbeing.

Meditation, and including prayer, gives the practitioner a proven, higher lever of control over other brain functions.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5442174/

All human progress has been based on one simple truth : They saw something they had missed or dismissed. Now through simple understanding, gained through a moment of insight, or the pain of hard nocks, education was finally accepted.

[Spence Tepper]

Evidence that meditation, specifically focused on internal experience, is unique and very healthy for the brain and it's ability to function better.

"Abstract
Previous research indicates that long-term meditation practice is associated with altered resting electroencephalogram patterns, suggestive of long lasting changes in brain activity. We hypothesized that meditation practice might also be associated with changes in the brain’s physical structure. Magnetic resonance imaging was used to assess cortical thickness in 20 participants with extensive Insight meditation experience, which involves focused attention to internal experiences. Brain regions associated with attention, interoception and sensory processing were thicker in meditation participants than matched controls, including the prefrontal cortex and right anterior insula. Between-group differences in prefrontal cortical thickness were most pronounced in older participants, suggesting that meditation might offset age-related cortical thinning. Finally, the thickness of two regions correlated with meditation experience. These data provide the first structural evidence for experience-dependent cortical plasticity associated with meditation practice."
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1361002/

Further evidence that meditation improves cognitive functioning...

" On the basis of a growing body of research that shows that meditation has positive effects on cognition in younger and middle-aged adults, meditation may be able to offset normal age-related cognitive decline or even enhance cognitive function in older adults."
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4024457/

Meditation can make you smarter and happier..

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/meditation-modern-life/201309/meditation-can-make-you-smarter-and-happier%3famp

[Spence Tepper]

Improvements in brain structure and plasticity from long term meditation aren't just in the higher functioning frontal cortex, affecting cognitive and executive brain activity and thinking, but in the brain stem as well, affecting respiratory, cardio and emotional centers..

"Our findings show that long-term practitioners of meditation have structural differences in brainstem regions concerned with cardiorespiratory control. This could account for some of the cardiorespiratory parasympathetic effects and traits, as well as the cognitive, emotional, and immunoreactive impact reported in several studies of different meditation practices."
https://journals.lww.com/neuroreport/Abstract/2009/01280/Long_term_meditation_is_associated_with_increased.14.aspx

[Brian Hines]

Spence, per your habit, you're changing the subject. Let's return to the subject. My objection is to what you said in this comment:
---------------------------
"And if we can go to that place of awareness within ourselves free of filters, a place where filtering and conceptual reconstruction do not function, who knows what we may experience? Maybe God? But no label would work there. Maybe reality directly. Maybe pure experience of the moment. Maybe the moment is eternity."
--------------------------
You claimed that it is possible to be free of the filters and concepts that, according to modern neuroscience, every human has. Yet you presented no evidence for this claim. Instead, you have shared some later comments about how meditation changes the brain.

There's very different from meditation being able to completely change the nature of the brain. Every experience changes the brain, not just meditation. You're claiming the sort of special superiority in religious experience that I find very dangerous. That attitude leads to dogma and prejudice.

I'm planning to write a blog post tonight about the dangers of people believing they have a special relationship with reality or God that other people lack. That's what you are promulgating, and I consider that this goes against the laudable belief in equality that should be the hallmark of human culture.

[um]

>> laudable belief in equality that should be the hallmark of human culture.<<

We have divided the payment to workers in classes of contribution to society..
There are ranks in every field of activity in society and based upon that ranking we also attribute different values to people.

We attribute meaning and value to scientists also according to a ranking system.
The same hold for politician, artists.

Universities, sports and sport clubs.

We also rank experiences, The writings of Lao etc are ranked in another way then .. you name it.

Better than
Worse than

The best ..scscs
In vestn=ments are also ranked ..be it physical, menyal or spiritual.

Some do rank everything related to religion as the most base and others as the most high.

[um]

Before god all humans are equal but not for human beings in general and Americans in particular... hahahaha

The number ONE nation ...

The evil of wealth, is to be found in all walks of life ... being ...not the wealth itself or the way the wealth was created ... but in the suggestion that without that wealth it is impossible to live a valuable life and that these things are out of the reach of the other.

We humans discriminate, we select. we attribute good and bad ...
equality id an fiction.

[SantMat64]

B. Hines wrote: "I'm planning to write a blog post tonight about the dangers of people believing they have a special relationship with reality or God that other people lack. That's what you are promulgating, and I consider that this goes against the laudable belief in equality that should be the hallmark of human culture."

I've been asking you to write such an essay for ages, rather than just positing that religion per se is objectively harmful as if that's an established fact. Which it is not.

I hope you don't strawman the issue as you're doing in the above paragraph. I don't see where Spencer has ever intimated that he has a special relationship with God that others lack. Rather, I see him arguing that everyone has the capacity to improve their consciousness (and perhaps all aspects of their lives) through meditation. Doesn't Sam Harris say the same thing?

Religion is a big topic, and when critiquing it one has to be precise.

There are certainly areas where equality is an issue in religion. Eg, the recent news that young girls are being poisoned by men in Afghanistan to keep them from attending school. But not all of us agree with the progressive notion that "equality" is the primal societal virtue and can be defined any way one wants for the sake of power. And for the very reason you point out - - objective harm.

Warped ideas about "equality" have resulted in the harms of higher crime (Soros DAs letting criminals back on the street), widespread DEI bureaucracy that hires and promotes based on skin color rather than ability, men competing in girls' sports (ruining the athletic dreams of thousands of young girls) and worst of all, the normalization of the sexual mutilation of children.

Those are some ways the totem of equality can F things up. So tell us about religion. Precisely.

[Spence Tepper]

Hi Brian:

You wrote:
"Spence, per your habit, you're changing the subject. Let's return to the subject. My objection is to what you said in this comment:
---------------------------
'And if we can go to that place of awareness within ourselves free of filters, a place where filtering and conceptual reconstruction do not function, who knows what we may experience? Maybe God? But no label would work there. Maybe reality directly. Maybe pure experience of the moment. Maybe the moment is eternity.'
--------------------------
"You claimed that it is possible to be free of the filters and concepts that, according to modern neuroscience, every human has. Yet you presented no evidence for this claim. Instead, you have shared some later comments about how meditation changes the brain."

I see where you are coming from. How can we be free of the same constraints that drive the brain? We can access parts of the brain that are more objective, higher cognitive functioning centers, and help allign the rest of the brain, including the lower brain centers, to those. That's what meditation does. Result? We are happy, see a little more clearly, free of the lower brain / lymbic center influences of emotions and old conditioning. Or, more precisely, those influences become part of our conscious awareness within the context of objective view. And so we have more control over them.

The research I sited indicates these regions of the brain gain physical health and function much better with meditation. And we have more control over brain activity through meditation. We also have better cognitive functioning, through internal meditation, which is a good thing for those of us in the aging population.

Meditation is all about putting aside intrusive thoughts. Where are those generated? Some of them are those filters you refer to.

I tried to suggest to you that this process of seeing our own functioning from a different perspective, a different viewpoint, and how it can free us of old thinking, is a natural one we already engage in whenever we look at ourselves or our situation from a different perspective, including retrospection and introspection. All of that is an effort to free ourselves of the intrusion of the autonomic, unconscious train of thought generation: Part of that reality reconstruction the brain does all the time. We don't have to be a willing, mindless participant in that.

In meditation, the process of finding perspective is much more efficient and effective: we move to an entirely different place of view, internally. Meditation is much more efficient in providing that new perspective than simple introspection or learning, Still, it isn't something that is entirely unique to how we function outside of meditation.
I attempted to explain this earlier when I wrote:

"Every day you learn something new you transcend the old, Brian.

"Every day you can look at your own brain's functioning you transcend it's past limitations to some degree."

This was to help you understand that learning and seeing from a new perspective helps free you of your own filters: Just the way Clark did when he changed his viewpoint slightly, and was able to perceive more directly. He could recognize his brain's reconstruction. Same with your example. Once you thought to look again, because something inside you said there was a disconnect, you saw that checks from Umpqua bank were there.

Meditation makes this a much more intentional, purposeful integration. You were able to overcome the unconscious thinking of "where are the Columbia checks" because your brain pushed you to look again. Something wasn't fitting the pattern: perhaps the name Umpqua on the new bank statement connected unconsciously.

You chose, for whatever reason, to look again more carefully, to make a conscious inquiry and not an unconscious reaction, though it started with that unconscious nagging.

These are not different things. We do clear ourselves of filters occasionally. When a traumatic event or a life passage happens, we use our brain to review things in retrospect, and we may see different things.

Meditation, as the research I provided helps prove, helps the brain function much better cognitively. What was unconscious becomes conscious. The intrusive thoughts are right there for you to inspect in detail, or to put aside, or just to integrate so they melt away into an integrated whole. "Ah, Columbia checks, but Umpqua bank statement, I'll check for mail from Unpqua later."

When I wrote
"If we can work to put aside our expectations, that is one less layer of processing we are burdened with." This is what I was referring to.

Meditation can do that. As the Mayo Clinic reference points out, meditation practice reduces the stream of thoughts, so you can rest, but also, perceive more directly. When you put aside intrusive thoughts, or engage in a process that does so, you are little by little reducing the filters.

It's an interesting process. Meditation takes away the filters and you see more thoughts than ever before, because now it's unfiltered. But rather than random thoughts they become integrated into whole "gestalt" and fade away.

If your brain functions better, you are seeing more clearly. More clearly means less filters. But less filters will reveal all the stuff that's hidden in the unconscious. More meditation can resolve that also, but not by hiding, but by awareness and integration. Then you are seeing past the old filters.

Meditation gives you a different perspective. But it is more than that. You are in a gentle, subjective place where even language and symbolism are released. You are aware before those things and after.

A view that is not bound by the construct your brain created when you were restricted to one viewpoint.

I provided research data demonstrating that meditation improves cognitive functioning. These are two related things, Brian.

You wrote: "That's very different from meditation being able to completely change the nature of the brain."

But every experience changes the brain, not just meditation. With experience, grooves are being made. With deep meditation, they are being released, the brain is functioning better and regaining health.

You wrote
"You're claiming the sort of special superiority in religious experience that I find very dangerous. That attitude leads to dogma and prejudice."

I think you have placed me into a box by your own definition, certainly not mine.

I find dogma and prejudice arise with a lack of interest in learning.

You wrote:
"I'm planning to write a blog post tonight about the dangers of people believing they have a special relationship with reality or God that other people lack. That's what you are promulgating, and I consider that this goes against the laudable belief in equality that should be the hallmark of human culture."

The full evidence that you are applying your own filters to me is that I have fully stated the opposite of what you have projected above. I have often here stated my belief that we are all brothers, sisters and every color and kind between, all equal. And everyone's voice, religious and atheist, should be respected. And that in meditation our equality, as souls wearing these bodies, forced to function within the prejudices of the human mind, becomes entirely apparent.

If that inspires you to a new polemic, please consider the verity of the opposing view as well.