Hi Travis and Ben,
I'm really glad this worked for you both. Maybe thank Edutopia and Dan Goleman for working together

Ben, I relate to a lot of what you wrote in your post at the high energy state. I hesitate strongly to call your experience "jhana" or anything: That's for your study and your determination.
How can a person determine for themselves if their jhana study is going well?
[1] One, a person can go to the texts and see if the jhana factors are arising. Here's a wiki entry on the factors of dhyana: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dhyāna_in_Buddhism#Jhana_Factors
Note the (b) footnote about single-pointedness (ekaggata, unification of mind):
"In the Suttapitaka, right concentration is often referred to as having five factors, with one-pointedness (ekaggatā) not being explicitly identified as a factor of jhana attainment (see, for instance, SN 28.1-4, AN 4.41, AN 5.28)."So for me ekaggata is a feature of my limited jhana experience, but a friend who seems to have good concentration reports that ekaggata is not part of their meditative experience. So we're different; I cannot weigh in on their practice.
[2] A person can see for themselves products of a concentrated mind. Repeated, this type of practice causes changes in how the brain can apply itself and changes what dhammas (stuff) comes up in meditation.
What arises in daily life and in meditation as a result of concentration practice is not always wholesome. Affective states, like desire and anger, can be delivered with more intensity, I think. It's alarming and can have unwholesome outcomes (reflecting their origins). So constant soft metta becomes very important. And karuna (compassion) particularly in the presence of anger and conceit, for me; if someone if showing anger or conceit, then I can relate to them because I've had those affective states, too. Unwholesome use of concentration is a disaster and definitely bites one back over time. So ethical conduct becomes an important support for concentration training.
Nothing you've written indicates you would use concentration practice in an unwholesome way, but I put it out there as a caution and also that it would be natural for strong concentration, like ekagatta, to arise in unexpected ways in a new practitioner.
As you know, jhanas are conditioned, temporary states studied in order to train the mind in a pleasant way: saturating the mind with pleasantness and gradually allowing the states of mind to reduce until the mind enters equanimity. To me, this fourth conditioned state (equanimity) cannot be made to happen (cannot be "attained"), but I can prepare its conditions by subduing the mind and body through jhanas 1-3. And to me the fourth jhana is the place wherein insight happens on its own and there can be occurrences on which one reflects after the meditation analytically and/or practically. There was one palpable insight in my practice after which I immediately got up from meditation, joined a particular NPO, and stopped eating seafood. It was the sort of occurrence that "I" could not anticipate nor in my best creative states could I imagine or invent. So that sitting had an immediate effect on my conduct, However, a lot of practice is in just refining the mind's stability and the 1-3 jhanas (to me).
And if my sincerity to learn this practice drops, then the practice seems boring and rote and it becomes a tension-increasing practice, like anything unwilling.
If one has a daily,
sincere schedule of a couple hours of jhana practice, then it seems it takes only a few weeks (4-6?) for insights and some brief equanimity to arise. However, if someone is like me and gets easily lost in the hindrances of worry and restlessness, then that fourth jhana cannot arise (to me) because one it too agitated and one starts to clock-watch and the practice loses sincerity...
Ultimately, the practice studies suffering, the causes and presents abatement of suffering (which is not cold-hearted dispassion) and changes the quality/spirit of one's actions. How does it study suffering? Well, even after the most amazing jhana experiences and weeks and months even of bliss, if the peace of mind is not complete and suffusive, then one will (I will) continue to investigate, "What in me is a countermeasure to reliable ease?" There are humans who have survived the worst, most degrading conditions and yet they evidence a reliable mind that is not cold-hearted, protective dissipation, but are deeply warm, acting beautifully, appreciating what is their living.
So my thoughts about your reports, Ben and Travis: I was happy to read them!