I think it cannot be overemphasized that "internal" refers to the techniques happening within one's own body--not outside or between tori and uke. It happens inside "tori" and the effect on uke is because he is touching tori while tori makes the adjustment within himself.

Well, your experience is undoubtedly deeper than mine, but I'm going by what Ark said: all the energy remains within your own body. And unless I'm remembering very poorly, Dan Harden said the same thing. Ark went further, I think, by saying that you "choke off" the techniques within yourself, i.e., you do the technique within yourself.

This was such a startling concept to me that it really stuck in my mind and became part of my understanding of the difference between internal and external: the internal relies on the center and manipulation of one's own center to generate power and that the power and techniques are retained entirely in one's own body.