Abstract

This work proposes Non-Identity-Based Metacognitive Coherence (NIMCC) as a foundational cognitive architecture that operates prior to narrative construction, identity attachment, and self-referential distortion. Rather than treating cognition as an identity-driven, story-maintaining mechanism, NIMCC frames cognition as an auto-regulating awareness-substrate that maintains coherence through direct recognition rather than interpretive processing. The architecture described here is not presented as a metaphor, theory-of-mind, or psychological model built on traditional representational assumptions. It emerges from first-person structural observation: when narrative noise, identity-maintenance loops, and accumulated distortions collapse, cognition reveals itself as a coherent, self-correcting system that functions without the need for “selfhood” as an organizing principle. NIMCC outlines how awareness detects distortions, resolves them without volitional effort, and restores functional alignment immediately. The work further explores the phenomenology of a non-narrative cognitive baseline, the dissolution of self-referential structures, and the implications for metacognition, autonomy, and human cognitive potential. This paper does not attempt to “explain” consciousness through inherited philosophical categories; instead, it maps what cognition does when the categories fall away. The proposed architecture aims to contribute to discussions in philosophy of mind, cognitive science, and phenomenology by offering a structurally coherent account of cognition without identity, narrative, or representational intermediaries.