No way, hearing your experience is definitely helpful, people have been trying to train their minds for millennia, (I'm reading a book about early monks and mental discipline now) and hearing about how you approached it recently helps put things in context of a modern day person who seems to share at least many of the same thought patterns I have. Reading about how the monks ideal form would be free of bodily sensation matches up with your use of sensory deprivation. (I really need to keep working on addressing my chronic pains, curse this earthly vessel lol)

I'm going through secondary applications for MD schools now, and have been having a lot of trouble squaring my self-effacing nature (honed through some years of depression) with the need to present myself as the best candidate possible. I've been flirting with creating a character who checks all of their boxes. I'm going to mull over the usefulness of seeing this character as the hero to my journey, somebody to be embodied, who exists not only in the fiction of my application but in the real world. (without holding my tongue about how fucked healthcare in the USA is like I have been doing in my app haha)

Anyways I'll let this be my last reply to this old thread, but may tag you for discussion in the future!