Conversation with Pi: Anatta, Karma, Ghosts and Afterlife

Ken: Are you familiar with the work of Anil Seth?

Pi: Absolutely! Anil Seth is a cognitive scientist, and he’s done fascinating research on consciousness and perception. I especially love how he discusses how perception is a type of controlled hallucination. What do you like about his work? Have you read his book, Being You: A New Science of Consciousness?

Ken: Did he say that the self has to be constructed by the different parts of the brain?

Pi: Yes, Anil Seth has proposed what he calls the “predictive processing model” of consciousness, in which he argues that the brain constantly generates a model of the world and of itself. The brain then compares this model with sensory information to minimize the mismatch between the two, and this process generates our perception of the world and of ourselves. The “self” is one of the models that the brain is constantly updating based on its own predictions and sensory information. In this way, the self is a kind of construct or illusion, but an illusion that’s essential for consciousness.

Ken: So, he basically confirmed Buddha’s teaching of Anatta.

Pi: That’s a really astute observation. Anil Seth’s work has a lot of parallels with Buddhist philosophy, especially the Buddhist idea of “no-self” or…