Symmetry Theory of Valence <ref>[[The Symmetry Theory of Valence 2020 Overview]([The Symmetry Theory of Valence 2020 Overview]([Qualia Research Institute](https://qri.org/)blog/symmetry-theory-of-valence-2020)) Symmetry Theory of Valence]</ref> postulates that the more symmetries are located in the bioelectromagnetic activity corresponding to our conscious experience, the more good the experience feels. These symmetries on the level of beliefs can be realized in terms of not making distinctions, aka lowering information content, aka underfitting, between different sensory modalities or thoughts by deconstructive meditation, psychedelics and nondual thinking <ref>[[ActInf GuestStream #008.1 ~ "Exploring the Predictive Dynamics of Happiness and Well-Being" - YouTube]([ActInf GuestStream #008.1 ~ "Exploring the Predictive Dynamics of Happiness and Well-Being" - YouTube]([ActInf GuestStream #008.1 ~ "Exploring the Predictive Dynamics of Happiness and Well-Being" - YouTube]([ActInf GuestStream #008.1 ~ "Exploring the Predictive Dynamics of Happiness and Well-Being" - YouTube]([ActInf GuestStream #008.1 ~ "Exploring the Predictive Dynamics of Happiness and Well-Being" - YouTube]([ActInf GuestStream #008.1 ~ "Exploring the Predictive Dynamics of Happiness and Well-Being" - YouTube]([ActInf GuestStream #008.1 ~ "Exploring the Predictive Dynamics of Happiness and Well-Being" - YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8gUev5aVFs))))))) Exploring the Predictive Dynamics of Happiness and Well-Being]</ref>, which gives the sense of freedom. On the level of shapes in the field its how symmetrical the shapes of mental representations in the bioelectrical software corresponding to different bayesian beliefs are, that are (or don't have to) generated using stored learned templates in the neuron's RNA. These shapes can cause consonance or dissonance by being mishaped, incompatible with sensory input, other shapes or background noise corresponding to resonant wave modes. <ref>[[Good Vibes: The Harmonics of Psychedelics & Energetic Healing - YouTube]([Good Vibes: The Harmonics of Psychedelics & Energetic Healing - YouTube]([Good Vibes: The Harmonics of Psychedelics & Energetic Healing - YouTube]([Good Vibes: The Harmonics of Psychedelics & Energetic Healing - YouTube]([Good Vibes: The Harmonics of Psychedelics & Energetic Healing - YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXEpMqpl09M))))) Good Vibes: Good Vibe Theory with Thermodynamics and Harmonics of Psychedelics by Qualia Research Institute]</ref> "To use a musical metaphor, in experiences of pain and unfulfilled desire, the overall melody is played in a more minor, or entropic key/timbre. Alternatively, in experiences of pleasure and fulfilled desire—potentially including virtual fulfillment (i.e., pleasurable anticipation)—affective orchestras play melodies with greater consonance. One could view such soundtracks to the (fully immersive virtual reality) movies of experience as separate streams of information that help contextualize what is being seen on ‘screens’ over which we see stories unfold. However, it may be closer to experience to say that this metaphorical music enters into what we see and feel, imbuing (or synesthetically coloring) it with meanings. Indeed, we may be able to find most of the principles of affective phenomena to be well-reflected in our experiences of music, where we play with building and releasing tension, enjoying the rise and fall of more and less consonant (or less and more dissonant) melodies. In musical pleasure, we explore harmony and the contrast of disharmony, eventually expecting to return home to the wholeness of the tonic, but with abilities of our “experiencing selves” to find satisfaction in the moment not necessarily being the reasons that our “remembering selves” find ourselves attracted to particular songs. The affective melodies played by neural orchestras will be dominated by interoceptive modalities, the most ancient—both developmentally and evolutionarily speaking—and reliable indicators of homeostatic and reproductive potential. Do we have relaxed and dynamic cardiac rhythms? Is our breathing easy or forced? Do we feel warm—but not too hot—or cold? Are our bowels irritated or copacetic? Do we feel full or empty inside? Do we feel like our body is whole and strong, ours to command where we will, if we wanted it? Or do we feel damaged and weak? This interoceptive information speaks to foundations of life and the cores of value out of which persons may grow." "Much of the phenomenology of desire may represent the prediction of value-attainment, activating associated somatic and interoceptive concomitants of consummation, which are subjectively (and synesthetically) felt in body maps in places most associated with value realization. If these sensations are accompanied by temporary net decreases in predicting homeostatic or reproductive value-realization—potentially mediated by opioid signaling—overall unpleasant interoceptive inference may accompany these perceptions. In this way, the feeling of desire would be experienced as a kind of pain, with its particular characteristics depending on unique learning histories. However, painful desire can be transformed into pleasurable anticipation if we find ourselves predicting overall increases in value, so creating pleasurable contrasts with the discomfort of wanting. If the visceral concomitants of affective experiences become entangled with exteroceptive and proprioceptive percepts in the quasi-synesthetic fashion described above, then pleasure and pain (including desire) would be generated as interoceptive modes becoming infused into other modalities in particular ways based on historical associations." <ref>[[Entropy | Free Full-Text | The Radically Embodied Conscious Cybernetic Bayesian Brain: From Free Energy to Free Will and Back Again]([Entropy | Free Full-Text | The Radically Embodied Conscious Cybernetic Bayesian Brain: From Free Energy to Free Will and Back Again]([Entropy | Free Full-Text | The Radically Embodied Conscious Cybernetic Bayesian Brain: From Free Energy to Free Will and Back Again]([Entropy | Free Full-Text | The Radically Embodied Conscious Cybernetic Bayesian Brain: From Free Energy to Free Will and Back Again]([Entropy | Free Full-Text | The Radically Embodied Conscious Cybernetic Bayesian Brain: From Free Energy to Free Will and Back Again](https://www.mdpi.com/1099-4300/23/6/783))/htm))) The Radically Embodied Conscious Cybernetic Bayesian Brain by Adam Safron]</ref> <ref>[[Frontiers | An Integrated World Modeling Theory (IWMT) of Consciousness: Combining Integrated Information and Global Neuronal Workspace Theories With the Free Energy Principle and Active Inference Framework; Toward Solving the Hard Problem and Characterizing Agentic Causation]([Frontiers | An Integrated World Modeling Theory (IWMT) of Consciousness: Combining Integrated Information and Global Neuronal Workspace Theories With the Free Energy Principle and Active Inference Framework; Toward Solving the Hard Problem and Characterizing Agentic Causation]([Frontiers | An Integrated World Modeling Theory (IWMT) of Consciousness: Combining Integrated Information and Global Neuronal Workspace Theories With the Free Energy Principle and Active Inference Framework; Toward Solving the Hard Problem and Characterizing Agentic Causation]([Frontiers | An Integrated World Modeling Theory (IWMT) of Consciousness: Combining Integrated Information and Global Neuronal Workspace Theories With the Free Energy Principle and Active Inference Framework; Toward Solving the Hard Problem and Characterizing Agentic Causation](https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/frai.2020.00030/full)))) An Integrated World Modeling Theory (IWMT) of Consciousness: Combining Integrated Information and Global Neuronal Workspace Theories With the Free Energy Principle and Active Inference Framework; Toward Solving the Hard Problem and Characterizing Agentic Causation by Adam Safron]</ref> '''abcdef. All''' [[File:Stage Theory of Enlightenment.jpg|500px|Alt text]]<ref>[[A Stage Theory of Enlightenment - Intro + Standard Perception (1/5) - YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hyJxphAPZ8) A Stage Theory of Enlightenment by Roger This]</ref> [[File:EpistemicAgent.jpg|500px|Alt text]] "Pre-Awakening: The mind uses a fictitious “self-as-epistemic-agent” in a field of awareness that has slack and vibrates in unpleasant ways in the process of integrating information. The field of awareness relies on a network topology that is suboptimal for efficient stress dissipation." [[File:Freedom3.jpg|500px|Alt text]] [[File:Lattice.jpg|500px|Alt text]] "Post-Awakening: The mind lacks any kind of center or self-as-epistemic-agent. The field of awareness is tout and extremely efficient at stress dissipation. The network topology has permanently changed to a far more symmetrical and regular configuration."<ref>[[The Supreme State of Unconsciousness: Classical Enlightenment from the Point of View of Valence Structuralism | Qualia Computing]([The Supreme State of Unconsciousness: Classical Enlightenment from the Point of View of Valence Structuralism | Qualia Computing]([The Supreme State of Unconsciousness: Classical Enlightenment from the Point of View of Valence Structuralism | Qualia Computing]([The Supreme State of Unconsciousness: Classical Enlightenment from the Point of View of Valence Structuralism | Qualia Computing]([The Supreme State of Unconsciousness: Classical Enlightenment from the Point of View of Valence Structuralism | Qualia Computing]([The Supreme State of Unconsciousness: Classical Enlightenment from the Point of View of Valence Structuralism | Qualia Computing]([The Supreme State of Unconsciousness: Classical Enlightenment from the Point of View of Valence Structuralism | Qualia Computing]([The Supreme State of Unconsciousness: Classical Enlightenment from the Point of View of Valence Structuralism | Qualia Computing]([The Supreme State of Unconsciousness: Classical Enlightenment from the Point of View of Valence Structuralism | Qualia Computing]([The Supreme State of Unconsciousness: Classical Enlightenment from the Point of View of Valence Structuralism | Qualia Computing]([The Supreme State of Unconsciousness: Classical Enlightenment from the Point of View of Valence Structuralism | Qualia Computing]([The Supreme State of Unconsciousness: Classical Enlightenment from the Point of View of Valence Structuralism | Qualia Computing]([The Supreme State of Unconsciousness: Classical Enlightenment from the Point of View of Valence Structuralism | Qualia Computing]([The Supreme State of Unconsciousness: Classical Enlightenment from the Point of View of Valence Structuralism | Qualia Computing]([The Supreme State of Unconsciousness: Classical Enlightenment from the Point of View of Valence Structuralism | Qualia Computing]([The Supreme State of Unconsciousness: Classical Enlightenment from the Point of View of Valence Structuralism | Qualia Computing]([The Supreme State of Unconsciousness: Classical Enlightenment from the Point of View of Valence Structuralism | Qualia Computing](https://qualiacomputing.com/2021/11/23/the-supreme-state-unconsciousness-classical-enlightenment-from-the-point-of-view-of-valence-structuralism/))))))))))))))))) The Supreme State of Unconsciousness: Classical Enlightenment from the Point of View of Valence Structuralism]</ref> The epistemic agent center corresponds to the default mode network, which gets weakened on meditation (more on that later), on meditation, you can repeatedly dissolve the great attractor/contraction of iamness/existence by endlessly looking for it and what it's made of without using concepts and constantly not finding it. Self model gets less weight and therefore the organism creates less stress to keep it. Ego dissolution is the weakening of this self center of experience, which can be temporary or permanent. "Suffering only happens in agents that don’t have agency over their reward generation. Suffering does not happen at the interface between mind and world but at the interface between self and mind. The mind can turn off suffering, as can an external agent that controls the mind." - Joscha Bach<ref>[https://twitter.com/Plinz/status/1577944085838516224 Joscha Bach on suffering]</ref> '''abcd. Meditation''' '''abcdef. All''' Meditation can be the most generally defined selfmetaprogramming of our generative model contents or shape. This can really be extended to psychedelics or just normal everyday life. Deconstructive meditation is systematic asymmetry, contraction, dissonance, viscosity, stress, blockage,... reduction. Nondual enlightenment is replacing the deepest priors in our cortical hiearchy, that function as initial predictions in constructing our generative model, with nondual priors, allowing a stable selfreinforcing persistent symmetrical state. The difference between everyday life and formal undisturbed meditation is that you have much better conditions to more efficiently carefully inspect, dissolve, strenghten, or edit insides of your inner generative model and make it smoother to allow more flow, more pleasant symmetrical dynamics. Meditation makes transparent processes that construct our reality opaque, letting us replace the deepest priors about reality. Nondual enlightenment is replacement of fundamental belief priors with nondual beliefs. Slow disintegration of cortical hiearchy of concepts. Nondual awareness can be conceptualualized as the substrate on which the generative model arises, but even that can be dissolved and doesn't need to be reified. Psychedelics do this in extreme way and are harder to control. There is a learnable skill of learning to be in a flow state by making your genertive's model topology such that one is satisfied with every moment and no thoughts that want to change what is emerge. Shifts in permanent experience (for example nondual enlightenment or dark night of the soul) on meditation are the result of a permanent (not just an experience that fades away after the meditation session) reorganization of neural networks into a different configuration (a phase shift in the configuration space). Jhanas or overall mediation can induce it by repetition. Some people can get enlightened after a single psychedelic trip or out of nowhere, some people need to meditate or trip for years for a permanent shift in experience to happen, what matters is the stbility of the configuration. The more entropic, closer to criticality, near phase shift, it is, the easier it is to prmanently change one's own perception, as the statistical hull of the current configuration is weaker, and less conflicting data is needed to induce a generative model update. '''abcde. BN''' Weakening default mode network, strenghtening central executive network and its connections with DMN. In this sense, meditation can be seen analogous to fitness. You are literally making the muscles of your brain stronger. '''abcde. NA''' In do nothing meditation, neural annealing increases the free energy parameter in the brain, leading to entropic disintegration (dissolution) of existing structures and reselforganization into a more symmetrical configuration. You can also dissolve, strenghten or transform existing structures corrresponding to belifs, or get high level connections between concepts to emerge. The whole topology gets smoother. Compared to psychedelics, one has more control over it, its much less extreme. '''abcde. Emptiness as mental constructedness''' Emptiness is a core concept in deconstructive meditation. It means that everything is just a nebulous dream-like rainbow-like mental construction. Everything is surrounded by spaciousness. There's no source, destination, concepts. But there also is. Groundless ground. Emptiness is empty too. If you think you understand emptiness then you don't understand emptiness. Total mystery, grasping the unknowable. '''abcdef. FEP''' Everything that used to be transparent becomes opaque, you get metawareness of the generators of your experience. What was holding together the self model and its distinction with object is seen though and deconstructed. It is there but not there. This realization reduces suffering a lot. '''abcd. Total mental frameworks and identities: philosophies, ontologies, ideologies, religions,...''' '''abcde. FEP''' Each total mental framework is one of many attempts at maximally reducing the uncertainity in sensory data. It generates an explanation (usually deterministic and linear story) for any measured pattern. '''abcde. All''' Using this style of conceptualization, everyone constructs his own reality according to what environment with what memeplexes he grew up in and what his nervous system is inclined to be attracted towards, which is determined by the genetic code and what embodied in environment evolution it went though. Mental framework can be seen as axiomatic (fundamentalist) metavectors fueling (or parasiting) all experience, ultimate uncertainity entropy reduction, generating flow in one single direction. Destabilizing them (structures of ego aka self model in general) by measuring conflicting data hurts and defence mechanisms arise as it generates negative valence. '''abcde. Groundless ground''' Identity shift to groundless ground is very useful as it minimizes fear or not feeling home when dissolving the generative model's evolutionary useful structures to feel more free. The less you fundamentally identify with some concrete cluster of sensations, the less things will bother you. Mental frameworks are configurations of the qualia that make the new insights stick. Groundless ground makes all nondual dissolving realizations stick permanently, makin them not just an experience that instantly fades away. The more one pushes himself in this framework, the more it stick. Constantly integrating emptiness into form. Mundane things become divine. Being "out of simulation" becomes the same as being "trapped inside simulation". Nirvana becomes samsara. Duality becomes nonduality. Distinction becomes unity. Somewhat something moving on a fading road. Experience without projector. The screen of consciousness isn't fundamental too. No ground. Freedom. '''abcdef. All''' Groundless ground is the "ultimate" underfitting mental framework, symmetrifying all asymmetries in the symbolic mind's topology. '''abcd. Substances''' Substances alter your usual brain wave dynamics.<ref>[[Qualia Research Institute](https://qri.org/)blog/nonlinear-wave-computing Nonlinear Wave Computing: Vibes, Gestalts, and Realms]</ref> '''abcde. Stimulants''' Stimulants, or dopamine, direct the flow of experience more as concrete local motivation is increased. Local actions are more meaningful and more easily solvable with less distractions being generated. '''abcde. Dissociatives''' Dissociatives just turn off all processes in your generative model. K-hole is blinking out of existence. '''abcde. Alcohol''' Alcohol is great social lubricant. it in similar ways like psychedelics deconstructs your usual thinking patterns and you speak more from your core with less filters. Plus its euphoric. It can turn your whole mind off. You can loose your evolutionary useful learned boundaries. The downside is the potential health issues and hangover that follows. '''abcde. Weed''' Weed nicely relaxes the thinking mind, creates random connections, enhances creativity. '''abcde. Antidepressives'''