you just (without malice, I’m sure) equated being open to one’s own nonordinary experiences (like finding oneself healed by a witch) to “batshit crazy” presidents, fringe movements and conspiracy theories

I was trying to point out how an unquestioned and “unguided” fall through a rabbit hole may pan out. Many people end up believing in various sorts of “batshit crazy” ideas because the force of unknown is simply overwhelming. They lack the necessary “discipline” and grasp at straws, search for some kind of certainty, and can fall for anything, because, frankly, anything goes. Their previous world-view is shattered (or seriously damaged) and they desperately need a new one to replace it, to not “fall apart” (it takes work to withstand the pressure and “fall apart” without really falling apart). These days, most of the people “on the path” are simply thrown into “deep water” with almost no preparation. Enter the whole spiritual self-help industry but also concurrent religions, and you have the chaos I was talking about. A bit of topic — I just watched a video exactly on unknowing.

It’s not us that pokes the holes, it’s reality bumping up against our illusion of ordinary life.

Yeah, we are basically not even able poke the holes. Castaneda would say that it’s the “touch of spirit” that’s needed.

We don’t have to do the poking, we just need to stop rushing to fill the holes as fast as they appear.

I don’t think there is a power in this world that can close an opening after a genuine “revelation” (spontaneous, drug-induced, or other). So, it’s not much about not “filling the holes”, but more about not letting junk in through them.

It’s that the vast majority of people on the whole wide planet never question the oppressive system that holds us in thrall. They believe “what you see is what you get,” and there’s nothing anyone can do about it.

And they would hardly listen to people who “believe unverifiable things” (I would rather say, “explain things in implausible ways especially if the answer is ‘I don’t know’”) or believe in things that could be debunked in five minutes, because most often that not those things come with the package/messenger. As I said many many times before — religions and basically anyone dealing with spirituality has to really get their shit together as best as they can, otherwise we do more harm than good (I certainly don’t expect the atheists to lead the way in this case). And preaching to the choir is not the point I guess.