Toward a Computational Phenomenology of Meditative Deconstruction: “Letting Go” and the Deconstruction of Experience With Active Inference

2026/06/02 by Shawn Prest · 1 voice
Psychology · Neuroscience · #Mindfulness and Compassion Interventions #Embodied and Extended Cognition #Action Observation and Synchronization

paper · doi:10.1162/neco.a.1534

openalex publication_date 2026/06/02 · openalex created_date 2026/06/09 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/02

Abstract

Meditative experience has long been associated with conceptual attenuation, reduced reactivity to phenomena, increased present moment perception, and more pleasant experience. However, the computational mechanisms underlying such meditative deconstruction are not well understood, with no formal computational models available to explicate how deconstruction alters perception and action during meditation. Using the active inference framework, I demonstrate that the phenomenology of deconstruction-in terms of conceptual attenuation, reduced reactivity, and shorter temporal scale perception-naturally emerges from the dynamics of hierarchical inference when the deconstructive notion of letting go is cast as a reduction in precision of beliefs about hidden states at a specific level of the generative model. I present a formal hierarchical three-level generative model and simulate deconstruction as an intervention in a facial recognition task, where the agent selects a letting-go policy when perceived affective valence becomes excessively negative. The results demonstrate that the capacity to deconstruct permits agents to self-regulate experienced affect via letting go. The model offers a novel perspective within the paradigm of computational phenomenology on conceptual attenuation, equanimity, stillness, and affect during meditative deconstruction.

Citations

• The Self‐Evidencing Brain
• Planning and acting in partially observable stochastic domains
• Active inference on discrete state-spaces: A synthesis
• A step-by-step tutorial on active inference and its application to empirical data
• Investigation of advanced mindfulness meditation “cessation” experiences using EEG spectral analysis in an intensively sampled case study
• In-active inference: contemplative practice as an (auto-)epistemic process
• Towards an Active Inference Account of Deep Meditative Deconstruction
• Deeply Felt Affect: The Emergence of Valence in Deep Active Inference
• Active Inference, homeostatic regulation and adaptive behavioural control
• Active Inference: A Process Theory

Discussions

• 🔗 Link to open access: [https://doi.org/10.1162/NECO.a.1534](doi.org/10.1162/NECO...) [bsky, 1 points, 1 comments]

Related

• Towards an Active Inference Account of Deep Meditative Deconstruction
• An Overview of Neurophenomenological Approaches to Meditation and Their Relevance to Clinical Research
• Thoughtseeds as Latent Causes: A Dual-Process Computational Phenomenology of Focused-Attention Meditation
• In-active inference: contemplative practice as an (auto-)epistemic process
• Increasing cognitive-emotional flexibility with meditation and hypnosis: The cognitive neuroscience of de-automatization