So apparently my brain is just guessing everything?? What does that even mean for free will

[lunar_wolf]

Okay so I just finished reading about predictive processing theory and I'm kind of freaking out ngl.

The basic idea from Karl Friston is that your brain isn't passively taking in information from the world and then deciding what to do. It's constantly running simulations of what it EXPECTS to happen, and then only paying attention to the errors between prediction and reality. You're not perceiving the world as it is. You're perceiving your best guess of it.

Which honestly? That hit me weird because it sounds suspiciously like how I already think about divination.

Like, when I pull The Fool from my deck, I don't think the card is magically transmitting objective truth into my skull. I think it's a pattern that my brain uses to reduce uncertainty — it gives me a framework to make sense of a messy situation. The meaning isn't IN the card. My brain is projecting it, using the symbol as a scaffolding. That's... basically predictive processing with extra steps?

And here's where it gets weird for me spiritually. If my brain is just constantly generating predictions and updating based on error, then what the hell is "intuition"? Is that feeling I get during the dark moon just my prediction engine running with less sensory input to correct it? That would actually explain why I do my best readings when I'm sleep deprived or in that liminal half-awake state. Less prediction error correction = more room for the subconscious models to bubble up.

But the free will thing is what's really messing with me. If my "decisions" are just my brain's best prediction of what action will minimize future error, then am I choosing anything? Or am I just along for the ride?

I don't think this kills spirituality though. Honestly it might make it more interesting. If consciousness is mostly prediction, then ritual and meditation and scrying aren't about accessing some external truth — they're about HACKING your own prediction machinery. Changing the priors. Rewiring what your brain expects to see.

But I'm still wrestling with it. Anyone else thought about this stuff? Does it change how you approach your practice or does it not matter?

[mike_b_7732]

If my brain is just constantly generating predictions and updating based on error, then what the hell is "intuition"?

I think you're doing the same thing you did with your ex's texts — building an elaborate framework around something that might just be pattern recognition running with incomplete data. Calling it "hacking your prediction machinery" assumes you understand the machinery well enough to hack it, and I'm not sure Friston's model gives you that.

[slanted_robin_838]

Less prediction error correction = more room for the subconscious models to bubble up.

Or that's just degraded perception you're romanticizing — I've had those "insights" while sleep deprived too, and most of them didn't hold up the next morning.