Hello All,
Apologies in advance for what will turn out no doubt to be a long, rambling, and mostly incoherent first post.

Just to introduce myself, with as brief a history as possible to contextualise my post below, my name is manjit, i live in the UK, am 35 years old. Since I can remember (3 or 4?) I have been obssessed with mysticism, god, ultimate reality, "gurus", the paranormal etc. I have experienced, since that age, many varieties of ecstasies, synchronicities, insights etc In my teens I more or less mastered lucid dreamining (astral projection) and had many "adventures" in that realm. I also followed for several years in my late teens & very early 20s, most intensely, an indian religous group called "radhasoami" which is based essentially around guru-bhakti & meditation on the "inner sound" (as is currently being discussed in some currently active threads here). Though I never actually got initiated into the practice as I was too young - I nevertheless had many profound & deep experiences in that group. In my early 20s I experienced a profound "dark night" (to contextualise, this is not the dark night as defined by Daniel....I believe there are multiple levels of "dark night") which was triggered to some extent by my inability to discern objectively verifiable information in my OBE states, and also by reading the works of Baba Faqir Chand, a remarkably, beautifully honest guru in the Radhasoami tradition which destroyed the mythos of that group for me. Some years later, I met with an "advaita" guy locally which pushed me into the so called neo-pop "advaita realisation" state, but concurrently with a truely remarkable set of synchronicities and spontaneous kundalini awakening. Over the years, I have come to find and feel all this is truely worthless and not at all how "seekers" imagine it to be. My current state is one of complete unknowing, and ignorance, simulatenous with a deep & profound understanding of our reality and multi-dimensional beings. Which of course is paradoxical, which is the very nature of this entire pursuit.

I miss out in the above far more than I include, of course. More pertinent to my post here; I have read Daniel's MCTB twice, and have been reading posts here for some 3 or 4 years, more or less daily. I have also, please excuse the appearance of arrogance (it *really* isn't, honest

, studied to some exceptional depth all known schools of mysticism, the occult, science & all kinds of research into the interface between physical reality and so called "paranormal" and mystical phenomena.
At this point I would like to add, Daniel, if you've got this far - I very much admire and respect your character and temprament as demonstrated in your interactions on this forum. I find it *genuinely& admirable - I've been around the internet forum block (mostly a lurker, as here - except on one forum many years ago) and you really are exceptional in that way. Personally, I find it reveals far more than peoples claims to "power" or "shakti" or whatever which so many are enamoured of in this realm.
Annnnnyways, after years of lurking, over several days of reading the comments by dear Sawfoot, I felt an impulse to reply, today.
Hi Sawfoot!

For the last several years I have found it increasingly & exceptionally hard to express my own insights (hence I just enjoy reading those of others

, so please excuse my rambling style - I hope that something of the knowledge base I'm coming from gets through
To begin, my life could be stated as; Extreme believer > Extreme Sceptic > simple knowledge of reality as it is (which happens to be saturated with the possibility of "powers" as they've been called here).
I can't see the OP post, but I believe he states with a priori confidence in the "reality" of "powers"? Your several responses have the appearance (I can't read minds so may be wrong

of being mildly scornful & denigrating of such "beliefs"?
Let me state here, I have read (or audio booked) the majority of works, in full, by Dawkins, Dennett, Sam Harris, Hitchins, Susan Blackmore, Michael Shermer, the Churchlands, etc as well as read their numerous ad hoc articles (and those of many, many other so called "sceptics" and consciousness researchers such as Hyman, David Marks, Geller etc etc).
I have also, prior to reading the above, dabbled in Occult practices specifically geared at manipulating physical reality such as sigil & chaos magic, trance work etc etc In every single instance, I never used any of these for personal gain, but for confirming to myself the reality or not of such things.
I've already written so much, I'm also tempted to just write at this point that NONE of these guys & galls have a clue what they're talking about - but that would be incredibly self-indulgent as so far I've only talked about ME, ME, ME

Okay, I would suggest reading all the works of Dean Radin - not JUST the online, fundamentalist materialistic reductionist debunking of him - his work is masterful and supported by a mass of referenced data that the "skepdic" site just seems like a joke in comparison. Really, I've been all round the block and the online militant materialist brigade is gettting more and more boring & utterly irrelevant, yet sinister by the day.
Then read all 3 volumes by Chris Carter called "science and the....". Also read Irreducible Mind.
If you could stomach something a bit more creative, but not quite restricted to the extremely narrow band of reality as viewed through the lens of pre-twentieth century science (there is nothing in contemporary science which excludes the possibility of "powers" - in fact, as many great physicists have said - not psychologists and media darlings like the vast majority of vocal materialists today - psychic powers and the like seem quite *likely*). read perhaps something like "the paranormal & the trickster" to really understand something of what's going on here, and why mainstream media and society will never accept or acknowledge the scientifically proven (to a degree more certain than the beneficial effects of Aspirin, for eg) reality of these "powers".
For consciousness studies, perhaps study the research and data of Wilder Penfielf & John Eccles - the greatest of neuro-scientists.
Further, there are numerous, official statements from sceptics like Hyman, Blackmore and many others where they have openly agreed that to any *normal* standards of science, "powers" have been "proven". Seriously, they're hiddin in plain site.
Then look into why militant sceptic organisation CSICOP changed their name to just CSI - in such utter, unacknowledged disgrace (astrology being proven by their own scientific reasearch, then subsequent manipulation of data to hide their own evidence of such "woo") - sadly, the entire field of militant materialism and scepticism is rife with such deplorable distortions. PS - I have never had any interest, and am personally entirely dismissive of astrology and like - but you can't argue with the "evidence", but you can ignore it like me in this case.

One of my favourite subjects is the NDE - the profound nature of these experiences has, in my opinion, made a complete & utter mockery of all the numerous (to this very day......rats have a burst of electricity prior to death - NDE's explained!! Hehehe) sceptical arguments against it. It's an extremely fascinating area.
To clarify, I don't personally have any "belief" in anything, and although extremely interested in NDEs (I have had numerous experiences myself, during my kundalini phases, identical to those described) - I am personally extremely wary of taking the narrative of these experiences literally - personally I think reality will be found to be more strange & incomprehensible than we could possibly imagine....seriously, I simply cannot put into words the potentiality and possibilities.....though I am confident the current materialistic reductionist model is laughably incomplete.
I could go into the numerous experiences and synchronicities and experiences with occult & meditation I have had, or those of a more famous nature, but this post could go on for years and years.
I understand where you're coming from - truely, probably more than you will believe - I've been there, even to the point of denying & questioning my own personal unexplicable experiences. But you get to the point where you realise the so-called "rational" explanations become more ridiculous than the "woo woo" ones

.
There are archetypes and "powers" working through this whole sceptic vs "believer" world views debate going on, that can only be grasped at very deep levels
I am a nobody here (or indeed anywhere

, so of course take everything written with a large pinch of salt - but at least consider there may be things far more mysterious than we can imagine out there - it would be exceptionally arrogant and ignorant not to do so.
I hope you take this post in the good nature spirit they were intended.
Deep bows,
Manjit