Yeah, I tried to avoid saying that you were wrong, because you're not-- in practice, meditation does result in a quieter state of mind, and does enable altered forms of consciousness. It's just that's not the core, and for someone who's never meditated before a lot of the advice about what meditation feels like (clear your mind, ignore conscious thought, etc.) is likely to be quite counterproductive. The first and (in my opinion) most important step is to just be.
