From personal experience over many cessation occurrences I will tell you that there is a total loss of consciousness during the cessation, and for however long that event takes. It's obvious to the practitioner because coming out of a cessation one can actually see the mind reboot, like a computer that has been restarted.

Again, this is coming from personal experience, not a scholarly view, not a text or second hand description. Experience matters  

While there's the view that there's a complete black-out of consciousness -- by some in the pragmatic camp with apparently some experience, and some in academic circles who lack first-hand experience, just devining interpretations of texts -- others, such as Thanissaro Bhikkhu, maintain firmly that there is in fact a "consciousness" there.

In most clear fruitions experience was direct experience of mind meaning directly experiencing brain matter firing instead of images it creates, kinda peeking out of the system. 'Mind falling onto itself' kind of event, more like bright flash of mind-dump (like in computers memory dump when system crash) than momentary non-experience. But this flash is not in normal experience because it doesn't contain pointer to it. It can be seen looking behind everything but it not this moment but pointer to living structure, so experience seem random, not something remembered. This kind of experience can be experienced all the time via experiencing 'background', metaphorically behind any visualized content (all of normal experience) witch is kind kind of visualization itself but not being meant as visualization.

Those experiences are basis of my 'single-neuron experience' theories and other neuron network nonsense such as experience being projected onto universe via momentary quantum superposition of particles in special structures inside neurons which evolved in cells to be used as quantum computers and memory storage facilities and which can be used to experience universe itself if they invert polarity to experience background not of content of experience (like above) but bacground of experience itself which experience I identify as "Nirvikalpa Samadhi", the highest abode.

The so called non-experience can happen all the time. It actually happen so frequently that there is almost nothing but non-experience. At least it is how it looks when mind is quiet enough to be just above its true noise-floor. Going quieter (deepening sahaja samadhi) this non-experience is experienced as experience and is what is being meant by 'nibbana'. With very loud mind however this nibbana being there all the time is not experienced and momentary falling on it is experienced as non-experience. This loudness is caused by desire for relief which cause mind to be agitated, nibbana is seen as relief and reinforcing desire for relief making it impossible to actually see this experience as what it is but present it as non-experience: relief. When this is abandoned and mind quiet then nibbana is experienced most of the time with mind merely rising slightly from it to fall back to it again in the same moment thus there is more nibbana than experience.

ps. All experience is unsatisfactory, so it is not my fault if my answer is also unsatisfactory. Blame the experience ;)

When I was noting, it was a daily-life practice, so when I would experience these events, I would have to stop what I was doing at the time.  I'm not sure what to make of the textual reference to Arahats.  I figure cessations would happen to anyone who hangs out in high eq for long enough, and that could be done in formal meditation or daily life practice.

What do those terms mean?  Is phala any cessation, and magga phala the cessation of an actual path moment?

I've followed the theravada map in an amatuerish way.  i was asking cus I honestly don't know what the terms mean.  I tried googling them but there are a lot of different answers  Whats the 'for dummies' version of their meanings?

I've followed the theravada map in an amatuerish way.  i was asking cus I honestly don't know what the terms mean.  I tried googling them but there are a lot of different answers  Whats the 'for dummies' version of their meanings?