I think I'm probably over my post limit, and definitely over my thread limit, but I promised myself I would do nothing today except try to maintain PCE (or what I'm thinking is PCE), and my only entertainment has been a little math homework and some posting.

anyway, tell me if this works for you, this is what I'm doing, I just look around at stuff in my room trying to induce wonder and a sense of its perfection, also considering that now is the only moment, then I try to just sense with the senses, trying to feel right at the edge of the skin, see with the very front of the eye, hear with the very end of the ear cavity, and then I start feeling a pleasure (whatever you feel in 1st jhana - its just like that) in region of below navel to solar plexus. I try to totally tune in to the senses and I'm in what I think is PCE. I feel that jhana pleasure, concentrated in the earlier mentioned region but also felt at all points of physical contact as well as in face. It makes me incline towards breathing more slowly and also tensing some muscles.

My questions for people farther along in actualism than me are, do you feel that pleasure in (at least entering) a PCE, what thoughts do you have? For me I can think words if I really want to (its uncomfortable) but I can't picture anything.

Something that also works is focusing on that sensation first with my eyes closed, trying to really feel physical sensation, then I open my eyes after about 5 minutes and boom.

If you're trying to maintain a PCE then most likely you're not in a PCE (there's no maintenance while in it). It could be you maintaining yourself. There's no effort in a PCE, it's complete as there's no sense of it diminishing if you're in it. Thus it would not require "me" to maintain it. Atleast as far as I've experienced anyway. Also, if you're feeling any emotion at all (such as at your solar plexus or below), then it's not a PCE. As far as first jhana goes, I've never entered first jhana (or been able to identify it) so I don't think I can write on that matter. But I've noted that there is a pleasure inherent to sense perception.

What I usually do to induce a PCE is just pay attention to the fact that now is the only moment I ever experience and that whatever is happening is happening now. I'll almost always instantly have a short PCE (ranging from seconds to minutes), but it can break off into tangents after that. So just the part about "considering that now is the only moment" is enough to bring me to my senses. Maintaining that exclusively present moment sensual attention brings about PCEs or helps me stay close to it (it's hard to maintain or practice at all if I'm feeling bad). The PCE still always seems spontaneous even if I induced it for some reason because I just sort of find myself here as this body as if I just noticed for the first time. As for my state before a PCE occurs, I'm usually feeling at ease or comfortable (although hasn't necessarily always been the case).

yea, those things I mentioned are what it seems to feel like going in, then they sort of go away

and what I mean by maintain is just after one ends trying to start again

What happens after the boom?

then I stop thinking, and try to see everything from a point of naivete and centerlessness, it has led to a few PCEs.