I completely forgot to reply to this...
* What changed your mind about your first assessment?
The kicking I got with the next cycle through the dukkha ñanas was so thorough in bringing me back down to earth that I went back to square one. It struck me that I had no idea 'where' I was and I questioned whether or not my self-diagnosis was the result of wishful thinking, or whether it was simply that some non-dual realization had stuck once and for all; looking back on it now, and with the benefit of exploring other models, specifically Thusness and AEN's descriptions, the latter option is more likely as it was a total "Eureka!" moment rather than a cessation, but was accompanied by a massive dilation of consciousness which remained until the next shift happened. That "dilation of consciousness", which I hope conveys the idea well enough to be recognized, I suspect is perhaps
the common phenomenological experience (I have no idea if those are ever the right words to use) in Path moment.
Whether cessation, as described in Mahasi's model, equates to a Path moment in terms of the dropping away of the fetters, I no longer agree as my experience suggests otherwise. That said, not being anywhere near knowledgeable enough in any of the technical side of Buddhism or even remotely well-versed in most of the theory, I couldn't possibly offer more than an opinion.
* In what sense was your long PCE a path moment or a consequence of a path moment? Was it immediately preceded by (caused by) cessation?
I was sitting on the bus looking at how the mental overlay was still implying someone who was "feeling" emotions, there was a cessation which was different from previous (suspected) Paths in it's complete bang-bang-bang-gone clarity, but 're-entry' involved another massive dilation of consciousness which, even though the, what for convenience I'll call, PCE-like clarity went away, remained the same until the most recent change-up in experience. What became very, very clear during that period was how I hadn't fully understood what "centerlessness", "luminosity", "emptiness" referred to, and I also developed an immediate taste for the dependent origination model too.
What continues to confuse me is that I can recall at least five of these sorts of permanent shifts, which were preceded by the same sort of dilation of consciousness which became my baseline. One of them happened before what I thought was 1st Path, and the other four were, in retrospect, preceded by clear and definite cessations. Whether these were Paths, A&P's, or whatever they were, I have no idea anymore and use the MCTB model for convenience sake, and 'cause it's still pretty funny to tell people you're an Arahat for teh lulz, but it'd be interesting to go back over my notes and analyze them further when I've got a chance.
It's possible, but I wouldn't relate the experience of what I was previously calling "early AF" to what Dan or Kenneth or anyone else in the pragmatic dharma world has said about their experience.
My bad. I should have been clearer, but it wasn't anything important or greatly useful anyway.
According to Mahasi Sayadaw, different paths are supposed to have different fruitions, and a yogi can apparently distinguish between them.
I can recall different fruitions, but whether or not that was more to do with the Three Doors I don't know.
The entrance to the state I called "early AF" was different in many ways, but similar in that it involved two or three pulses experience, albeit experienced very slowly compared to previous paths, and experienced in a highly detailed way that made the structure of the experiences clearer.
See that makes sense to me too, and that description of it happening more slowly and clearly seems to be what happened just prior to that five-day PCE, but as I said before I have no idea anymore. What you describe as being "experienced very slowly" would be especially accurate in describing how that "dilation of consciousness" occurred, I could see exactly how the whole thing was being brought back together, but not in any communicable way, more like an intuitive recognition or something, just directly known which did 'something'. Also, during that PCE, I seem to have experienced what Thusness calls "mind and body drop", where the whole body and mind as having any sort of independent existence vanished completely leaving a mode of experience which I can't describe, but which I suspect you've encountered too.
So, could these two distinct experiences just be fetter-model 1st path and 2nd path fruitions, respectively?
I suspect you might be correct, but I have to put my hands up and say that I don't really know either way. All I know is that what is described as ceasing, or is at least attenuated, when fetter-model Paths are attained does appear to be a more accurate way to diagnose ones whereabouts.