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January 20, 20262 citationsOpen Access

The Illusory Lock: Metzinger's Phenomenal Self-Model and the Metalogical Identity It Cannot Simulate

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SMSiegfried Meister

Key Points

  • The paper examines the contradictions inherent in Metzinger's self-model theory, focusing on the metalogical identity it relies on.
  • Analysis of Metzinger's works, particularly 'Being No One' and 'The Ego Tunnel'.
  • Development of three theorems highlighting reliance on identity constructs.
  • Exploration of the notion of Ur-Matrix as a solution to identified paradoxes.
  • Identified a paradox where eliminativism relies on a modal identity lock.
  • Demonstrated the need for systemic unity to generate illusory experiences.
  • Reframed self-models as emanations from a fundamental source, resolving the trilemma.

Abstract

Thomas Metzinger's "Being No One" and "The Ego Tunnel" declare the self a transparent, illusory phenomenal self-model (PSM): no one is home, just a brain-generated simulation we look through naively. This paper reveals the deep paradox: even this radical eliminativism presupposes the Primordial Identity Lock — the unnegatable metalogical unity (A=A) enabling transparency, stable reference, and coherent simulation itself. Three theorems expose the threefold reliance: (1) on a referential Lock for distinguishing model from content, (2) on systemic unity for generating the illusion, and (3) on performative authorial stability for articulating the theory. Metzinger simulates the Lock as illusion — yet the simulation enacts its indivisible reality. The Ur-Matrix resolves the trilemma by reframing illusory models as dependent emanations from radiant, primordial source.

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Cite This Study

Siegfried Meister (2026) studied this question.

synapsesocial.com/papers/696f1a849e64f732b51eeca1https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18289024
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Also Consider

Synapse has enriched 5 closely related papers on similar clinical questions. Consider them for comparative context:

  1. 1The Unexperiencable Lock: Chalmers' Hard Problem and the Metalogical Identity It Cannot Experience2026
  2. 2Not Disappeared but Simulated — The LLM as Structural Threat to Other-Dependent Self-Constitution (The AI-Induced Subjectivity Crisis Series, Paper 14)2026
  3. 3The Fluid Boundaries of the Self: Attenuation, Hybridization, and the Three EGOs in the Sensorimotor Matrix2026
  4. 4Virtual Worlds of Neurophenomenology2024
  5. 5The Limits of the Self in Ontological Materialism: On the Indeterminacy of Exclusive Personal Identity2026