"But as you said, of course, transcendence has nothing to do with either having a thought, or having no thought. It is not a physiological signature, as some keep telling here, a physiological signature, can only relate to a particular experience, and any experience is by the mind."
Actually, sensory experiences happen because raw sensory data comes into the brain via the thalamus and is routed to the cortext via connections called thalamo-cortical feedback loops. Internal thinking is perceived when processed data from the cortex is fed back to the thalamus and merged into the incoming raw sensory data. This is called thinking. The process of transcending is when the activity of the thalamus becomes less and so the funneling of raw sensory data and/or the merging of processed data becomes less. This happens whenever one allows the mind to wander but is facilitated by what we call "Transcendental Meditation." When the thalamus no longer allows ANY data to come in from the outside and no longer allows ANY processed data to be merged with the (now non-existent) raw data stream, and yet the part of the thalamus that promotes the connectivity between distant parts of the cortex remains functioning normally, one has no internal experience, no external experience--that is, nt thoughts--and yet the brain is still alert. This is samadhi. And it certainly has a physiological signature: I just described it. L
