The Vanishing Self: Neurodegenerative Diseases Through the Lens of Multilevel Recursive Coherence

Neurodegenerative diseases are conventionally conceptualized as molecular pathologies of protein aggregation. Yet this framework fails to explain the temporal disconnect between pathological load and clinical deterioration, the presence of significant amyloid burden in cognitively normal individuals, and the repeated failure of therapies targeting protein clearance alone. We propose the Multilevel Recursive Coherence (MRC) framework: healthy neural function emerges from sustained oscillatory coherence across organizational levels --- molecular, cellular, network, systemic --- that recursively validate each other. Neurodegeneration represents coherence breakdown: molecularly correct signals occurring in temporally desynchronized contexts. We further propose that this breakdown follows a cascade of failure through the three components of the coupling factor F --- dynamic, structural, and topological --- and that the earliest signs are not cognitive symptoms but Level~1 electromagnetic signals currently invisible to standard diagnostics. The therapeutic efficacy of 40~Hz gamma stimulation reflects the natural resonance frequency of cortical circuits, emerging from biophysical constraints including GABAA receptor kinetics and parvalbumin interneuron myelination. Human trials show reduced brain atrophy and preserved function over 6-month treatment. Independent autoimmunity research documents quantitatively parallel patterns --- cellular heterogeneity, subpopulation-specific markers, desynchronization preceding pathology --- supporting MRC as a domain-general principle. The framework generates falsifiable predictions and proposes a therapeutic shift: from molecular suppression to active resynchronization of systemic coherence, with different intervention modalities acting on distinct components of the coupling factor.