On 'enlightenment'... The explanation is similar to why color and shape seem to be vague concepts at best to a blind person. In this case, the good news is that virtually nobody is actually blind, but rather willfully blindfolded via consensus conditioning. There's no secret handshake or complex mystical nonsense to dropping that blindfold, it's a matter of personal integrity and facing the human psyche and spirit as they are, just observing the whole game as it unfolds. It's not a puzzle to figure out or a mountain to climb, and that fact seems to insult and upset folks who've been trained and convinced that life is a matter of intellectual agility and working hard for rewards. This is a subtle matter, but there's no "chosen" elite based on IQ, work ethic or anything other than honestly looking at the contents of consciousness without the preconceptions we've all been stuffed with since infancy. There's no magic involved, it's about going through ones personal "dark night of the soul" and finding pure love and meta-gratitude at sunrise. Others can point for you, hint at the nature of what theists call "God," but you've got to pull this particular all-nighter all by yourself, in profound silence and solitude. (excerpt from post to newsgroup - alt.consciousness.mysticism)