I think there is often this mixup in academia between "consciousness" and "conscious experience (of the world)". Jhana is a highly manipulated state, after all

I think there is often this mixup in academia between "consciousness" and "conscious experience (of the world)". Jhana is a highly manipulated state, after all you have to train for a long time, and learn how to set up the conditions of the mind just right to be able to access jhanic consciousness. It's not easily achieved by most people. That said, one of the features of jhana is that the deeper you go, the less the mind fabricates experience and presents it to consciousness. External objects fade, sensations fade, thoughts fade, and yet it's an intensely conscious state. I don't think this goes against this theory, as long as you make the caveat that they're talking about having conscious experiences of the world, rather than generalising about consciousness and altered states of consciousness, although whether they believe that themselves, or agree at all, I don't know.