"Do you have evidence to support this claim? I can empty my mind, and it is not blissful. It is nothing."
Just emptying your mind isn't meditation. But there definitely are states of pure bliss if you're doing it properly. For example, this guide to attaining first level enlightenment in ten days talks about some of the bliss states one will experience:
Bliss is actually one of the easiest mind states for a beginning meditation to experience, it shouldn't take more than a half hour or so before you're experiencing at least some level of blissfulness.
Well, it seemed a rather strong claim. I was wondering whether I had reason to believe myself abnormal in this respect (a fact which I would find interesting).
I suppose you meant that it leads to bliss for yourself?
> You say you can empty your mind, I doubt that. Can you give me evidence?
This is a much weaker claim, the scope of which is myself. The evidence is my personal anecdote, and from your perspective this may constitute poor evidence. But at least if my anecdote was true, then my statement would be true. The same cannot be said for your statement, unless you would like to present (at least) a set of anecdotes.
I'm not aware of any studies here, but it's been said many times that solutions to tough problems often present themselves while the ponderer isn't thinking about the problem, sometimes upon waking up or just before falling asleep.
A good book about this is: The Breakout Principle by Herbert Benson. His model is that creative insight comes from periods of intense activity followed by a down period.
Do you have evidence to support this claim? I can empty my mind, and it is not blissful. It is nothing.
> A wandering mind is more prone to distraction, which can be fatal. Assuming, of course, we are speaking of survival factors.
Tradeoffs. Personally, I would want to be distracted by an event that might otherwise prove fatal.