Sensory Deprivation And Meditation II

See the previous post.

Siddattha became the Buddha. Let me quote an extended passage because it is relevant to our discussion of sensory deprivation.

"Studying under Alara Kalama [Siddattha] quickly mastered his teachings and achieved the meditative state referred to as 'the sphere of nothingness.' According to this form of yogic practice, Siddattha was able to achieve a meditative state of concentration in which his mind was able to transcend every distinct mental object of thought and rest in nothingness. Although this practice produced a heightened state of inner mental calmness, it did not, unfortunately, satisfy him. In fact, he said, 'This Dhamma does not lead to disenchantment, to dispassion, to cessation, to peace, to direct knowledge, to enlightenment, to Nibbana, but only to reappearance in the base of nothingness.' As a result, Siddattha left Alara Kalama despite Alara's offer to make him co-teacher of his community of followers.
"His second teacher, Uddaka Ramaputra, taught a different form of yogic practice that resulted in the state of concentration known as 'neither-perception-nor-non-perception.' This state went beyond the meditative level of 'the sphere of nothingness' and produced an experience of minimal consciousness. Again, Siddattha quickly mastered both the teaching and the practice taught by Uddakka. Although this meditative practice also produced a calm and still mind, Siddattha rejected it for the same reasons that he had rejected his first teacher's method, because it did not produce the goal he was so eagerly seeking, i.e., enlightenment and the realization of the end of suffering."
-Stephen J. Laumakis, An Introduction To Buddhist Philosophy (Cambridge, 2009), 5, pp. 93-94.

Laumakis adds that Siddattha later incorporated both meditative states as stages in preparation for enlightenment.

I have several questions about all this but perhaps only one of them is directly relevant to sensory deprivation: assuming that both "the sphere of nothingness" and "neither-perception-nor-non-perception" are possible meditative states, would they enable their practitioners to endure sensory deprivation and indeed do they not sound very like sensory deprivation itself but accompanied by inner calmness instead of confusion?