Hi GerandTwine, thanks for taking the time to reply.
Yes, I got swept along reading the book, but if I think back I didn't actually make a BP. (I did make a BP when I first came across AVRT, maybe two years ago, but it did not hold)
Yes, as you suggest, basically, the BP cut through the noise of the AV very briefly, and I felt angry with the Beast and mentally swore at it. I think that was what snapped me out of it.
I see the simplicity of the technique, yet at the same time, those Beast attacks seem at times to swamp me so thoroughly that all separation between me and IT is lost. It feels like being 'possessed', although of course that is only in hindsight.
I can see now that it's all about pattern interruption. It's like in Zen meditation. The zen master would walk around the room with a big stick, and whenever they sensed a meditator was drifting off (being swamped by involuntary thoughts), they would whack them with the stick. It seems that is what AVRT is - it's a way of snapping out of those thoughts before they gain a stranglehold, right?
Thanks again