Thank you Dean.  I was thinking about your post during the night; I was lightly sleeping and vaguely aware of thoughts arising over and over and over. There is no end to them!  They are just a noisy display of nonsense.  I feel I may have mis-spoken when saying that the psyche could be silent.  I don't think it ever is.

This statement of yours is clarifying:

 Dean Archer from what I could sense, it's like the core-self had reached a level that may require it to burst through or out of a layer of whatever substance that it may be contained in. 

I think the "core", when isolated from the noise, or as you said: reaching a level that may require it to burst through....." ,  does then experience itself more authentically, and enters those zones of stillness and observation. Even there is sound like the popping you heard, that seems to be coming from an adjacent dimension that is totally apart.  It is hard to describe.  Wonderful though, because one gets closer to knowing what is absolute and what is temporarily manifesting.  

Thanks for sharing your experience.  I really appreciated that you were objective throughout the practice session. Many experiences I've had happen spontaneously in sleep or when entering or awaking from sleep.  Those that have been seen clearly during exercises and/or meditation seem to come from long, applied steady effort.  They are earned--not awarded.