I prepared this post and then lost it when I tried to submit it and got an error and was unable to access the SOTT forum - for a couple of days - and rewrote it all offline to post... then read the new posts since I had last read page 4. I guess I will post it and hope it’s not too irrelevant especially after Joe’s and Laura’s latest posts which are informative to the utmost for me and make adding anything else seem extraneous. But they were just my thoughts anyway about time and energy spent in pursuit of esoteric development.
I will state from the outset that I don’t claim to know much. (About PSI or anything else). I’m not the person to teach others about the Work - not yet anyway. I am here to learn. However, I will comment on some of the issues raised in this thread and hope it helps someone even a little. We are working here with the hypothesis of the Matrix Control System and all that it entails. We do not make absolute assertions about this. It is the working hypothesis. It does seem to explain our condition and experiences better than trying to do so without this working hypothesis. We are trying to put the pieces of the puzzle together....
Within this hypothesis, we are all STS (an issue raised a couple of times in this thread) - we are all part of the Matrix system. We contribute energy to the system / "feed the moon," etc. Through the Work, we are trying to change that, to "unplug" ourselves from the Matrix. I pretty much agree with the caveats raised by others about the dangers of what is proposed (telepathic networking). The Work of the 4th Way is an ancient tradition to accomplish this "unplugging" successfully. It has withstood the "test of time."
The Work is extremely difficult. Whenever anyone tries it, he will realize how difficult it is. I have many failures in my attempts, but I must keep trying. The failures are lessons. We must fail often to succeed once. But, as we continue to try to Self Remember, and generally work on ourselves, it becomes a little less difficult. We make a little progress. The chance of success is increased. So I don’t see any reason to experiment with things we do not understand (at least I don’t understand) well. But especially to convince others to participate. There are people here who at least understand the dangers and take them seriously (and have said so). Although LordBucket seemed to also state some possible problems/"dangers," he may not have taken them seriously (or maybe didn’t really mean what he said about these, I don’t know) as he began to take what others were saying - their thoughts and comments - personally, if they tended to disagree or challenge his thinking. Also, part of the Work is to preserve the Free Will of others, while trying to strengthen our own Will (in this context, continuing to try convincing others to participate in potentially a pretty dangerous "experiment").
Occasionally, I find myself failing in this in subtle ways as well, although I have a natural tendency not to violate others’ Free Will, and am usually aware enough not to do so. It is quite difficult to notice sometimes, or it is "hidden," and becomes more apparent later on, as I re-examine/rethink certain exchanges, interactions, situations, etc. And worst of all, I catch myself doing this mostly with people close to me (immediate family, etc.) that I really care about. Usually it is in an attempt - perhaps a desperate one - to point out something about their habits or thinking. (This is related to internal considering/external considering.) Later I feel really bad about it, because besides being a failure to apply the principles I have learned from the material on these sites, I realize more importantly that I am hurting someone more than helping them (which was not supposed to be my intent). Or at least that is what it feels like to me. Mostly it is a waste of energy, behaving improperly, tripping up myself and others, as well as not being able to apply what I hoped I had learned. When someone I am trying to point out something they may want to change becomes defensive and starts the old denial routine, a strange dynamic of a "battle of wills" takes over, and I do not always catch myself early enough to stop immediately and leave them alone. Again, it is with people I’m close to and really care about, but also have a history of denial of things they do that I have no doubt about - I don't buy their denial for one minute. However, I should not get sucked into this dynamic at this point, and realize that they are not colinear and that it is a violation of Free Will, even though what I’m trying to point out also effects me and others I care about. I should drop the issue earlier or realize that it’s better not to bring it up in the first place with any expectation of positive/constructive results. If I don’t catch myself and drop the issue long enough, the defensiveness will change into offense and attacks, accusing me of things that are not true, or at the very least, are distorted and exaggerated. The Matrix Control System seems to kick in, and I have to make great effort not to get sucked in deeper into a futile waste of energy. But I don’t take these attacks personally. There is nothing personal about the Matrix system; whoever is not conscious and is available to play a role at a give moment (including myself) can be activated to play a certain role to serve the system, or so I think. Even in this area, however, I AM making progress. So these situations are more examples of how difficult it is to apply the principles of the 4th Way and the Work and esoteric knowledge in general. But overcoming these problems are the goals of the Work.
One of the reasons this forum and the related sites are so valuable is that they provide an opportunity to share important information without violating Free Will. They provide a way, an opportunity, for a COLINEAR group of people to point out the Errors in each other’s "Reading Machine" that we individually tend to miss. In doing so, this also provides the emotional shocks that I have learned are so important to the Work. We can take these opportunities to make more progress, if our commitment level is high enough, and we have worked on and want to get rid of our Self-Importance (also a part of the Work and its goals), and the other obstacles we must overcome to succeed.
Finally, in addition to the extreme difficulty of the Work, there is the limited time (and energy) we have. We have to read and research an enormous amount of material, and continue learning in many ways, while still making the time to work on ourselves, and continue making progress on that front as well - both alone and with others. So to consider this proposed experiment seems to me not to be time and energy well spent (even over and above the dangers of being deceived, controlled, enslaved, etc., discussed in the other posts).
These are just my thoughts from what I think I’ve learned so far, for what it’s worth.
Added: I found this entry from the Cassiopaean Glossary under Thresholds. It is connected to the issues raised, and relevant to Laura’s post #39.
http://glossary.cassiopaea.com
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The next step involves gaining access to the higher intellectual center. The final step makes these changes permanent. At these stages, various 'supersensible' capabilities may manifest, according to situation and need. Still, such gifts of the spirit are not in themselves the goal of the Work.
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