Marie,

" keep thinking about it, and I just don't get the connection between psychic ability / intuition and enlightenment... "

LOL, there IS no connection. Singers can make beautiful sounds and be rotten human beings. I think the same applies to psychic phenomena.

In my view, there are no physcial effects which prove or indicate an enlightened status more directly than kindness, a sense of humor and an instinct for equality.

Who cares if you can levitate? If you an A**HOLE, I don't want to know you let alone study from you.

And even then, I think it comes down to motivation.

Why are you doing what you are doing? Is it to know yourself and the world better or is it to prove something to someone that you don't beleive yourself.

I have also noticed that people with a great fear of being wrong have a great difficulty with psychic awareness.

If you believe these abilities make you a "master" or demonstrate enligtenment, you are probably coming from fear, thus weakness, thus reducing your ability to do them.

Vicious circle ensues

I agree that psychic abilities do exist (I have them and have since I was a little girl), but that it does not equate 'enlightenment'. If it did, I'd be happy to pull a candy bar out of the ethers instead of paying for it at the store. That's just one of the sales pitches that RSE markets, but upon which there is no delivery. At least, not in almost 30 years...no christs. The teaching would have us believe that we will become christs by doing the disciplines, which are designed to make it happen. So, students will dedicate HOURS daily, to disciplines, for naught. It's all quite sad. SINCERE students, with idealistic visions of gaining enlightenment for themselves, so that they can in turn, heal others and the planet. If I could wave a magic wand and heal this planet of all "negativity", I surely would and who wouldn't ? Heaven on Earth sounds delightful to say the least.

The theory and the reality are two different things.

Go Pete!!!!!!!!!

and Marie-
today is a sunny, crisp day in Yelm.
Thoughts to your mom

Reeeeeeeeeeeally? I looked at the weather and it said 50s and raining all week!!....

I think psychic ability is something we all have...and we can indeed be trained to use it...
Whether this means we will be enlightened or not is another story...it's like, let's say that it was some more tangible and obvious ability, like, running a 6 minute mile...not really related to spirit, directly, except that I believe we all also have the ability to live our truth and love each other...and that would mean, enlightenment. and just about any endeavour or concerted effort can lead to some form of enlightenment.
I think that overcoming leads to enlightenment. Following through on your goals leads to enlightenment. Really tuning in to other people, too, as well as you "inner self" can lead to enlightenment.
But then, if we can all do it, would it be "remarkable" if some or many of us found enlightenment?

Alright, I just have to add to this thread. I used to date a man (over 20 years ago) who, from very early childhood, foretold a series of deaths and other traumatic events. He was so freaked out by this that he eventually asked to be trained at the Shao Lin temple in Chicago to understand what was happening to him. He had spent years training there when I met him. As an example of what he could do, sometimes I would visit him after my daily exercise class. The class exercised different body parts every day. “M” could scan my energy field with his hand and tell me exactly what body part I had focused on that day, and he was always right. I saw M demonstrate more paranormal abilities than anyone I have ever known who studied at RSE.

“M” was also one of the most abusive and spiritually backward people I have ever known. I say abusive because he had a sort of “harem” made up of his ex-wife and at least one former girlfriend—he would call them (sorry folks) a**wipes and always wanted to “multi-task” his dating time by asking them to all come over and keep him company while he changed his oil or did some other task. Yes, that was his idea of spending time with the women in his life.

I call M spiritually backward (with compassion) because he was always creating psychic attacks on himself and doing battle with dark entities. I am not saying that any of this was real, but other people were with him a number of times when he was driving, and “something” more powerful than M would fight with him for control of the steering wheel and nearly run him off the road (and M was built like a linebacker). A series of dreams had shown M that in a past life he had failed to keep a girlfriend from being brutally attacked and killed, and it seems that this time around, he came back in “warrior” mode—hence the Shao Lin training, his profession as a security expert, and the psychic attacks he created or attracted. My point about that is I was never attacked and neither were the other people in M’s life—only him. I walked away from the relationship when I saw all this going on.

So-called paranormal powers are just another sense, like sight or hearing, according to my friend Gail Ferguson, author of Cracking the Intuition Code : Understanding and Mastering Your Intuitive Power. Anyone can develop their intuition, just as one can develop their eyesight with vision therapy, or train their other senses to take over if one is damaged. SO PARANORMAL ABILITIES HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH ENLIGHTENMENT!! (IMO)

Great post, onehand. That makes a lot of sense to me.