Well, to me, enlightenment is the process of increasing personal light within our being, which means several things - 1. Increasing understanding (learning). 2. Increasing the speed of vibration of parts of us that are vibrating more slowly than they otherwise would be.

A great deal in creation is perceptual and relative - so one who seems 'bright' to another person, may seem 'dim' to a third person. Isn't light simply obvious to everyone? Not always - light has various qualities and some people will not always detect them in others due to a variety of reasons, including the possibility of damage to the receptive centers of the individual that prevent them from receiving full input from outside of their being and also the possibility of them filtering reality through beliefs and judgements.

The ability to feel into whether light is loving or not is the absolute requirement for increasing personal light in a beneficial way. This is the main thing that has been missing from all spiritual teachings since the beginning. This missing piece is how we can have so many 'teachers' telling people to destroy their ego and that the ego is the source of all of our problems, when in reality 'ego' simply means 'I' in latin and is 'the part of us that knows who we are'. There is nothing wrong with having a sense of our own beingness which understands the individuation that a being has experienced. Without such light we would be perceiving ourselves as everything simultaneously and would die pretty quickly. The ability to manifest individual form and will requires balanced ego. We can't have balance without heart being opened and being able to feel everything to know what it really is.

There definitely can be a battle of oneupmanship in people's ideas of englightenment and this is one of the reasons why traditionally, 'Eastern' teachers of meditation and enlightenment would say that 'Western' people should not become students! Ironically, they were caught up in their own ego game while pointing fingers at other's presumed ego games. This is one of the common ironies or ego battles, we tend to be pointing to our own imbalances and being triggered by seeing them in others - even when we are talking about the nature of enlightenment, ego and the self - plus, even when we are claimed to be some kind of 'enlightened master'. Since I understand enlightenment to be understanding and since I understand balance to require us to end subordination aaand since I understand myself to be a oneness, I recognise that the idea of a 'spiritual master' is an oxymoron.. You cannot master you without forcing parts of yourself into subordination, which is not balance and not right understanding.

Yes, identifying and ending manipulation is very important. The distortions are all around and have been with us for so long that they are thoroughly normalised into the fabric of the universe. How are we going to be free if we believe that our own sense of understanding cannot be high enough to recognise that there are traps and distortions built into the fabric of the universe itself..? "Well, it would be very egoic of me to think that I know more than the creator of the universe - so I won't look for the causes of problems that seem to be coming from beyond my pay grade". Oh dear!

The ultimate 'conspiracy' is that the spiritual energy and beings that we may encounter when out of body or 'in between physical lives' are often connected to people in the spiritual groups and hierarchies on Earth (even including David Icke, who openly spoke of channeling his writing from spirits early on in his career). Their goal is often quite different to the image they portray. Part of their goal is to cover up and deny their role in causing many of the problems on Earth and there are many people on Earth who are helping them to achieve this by 'gifting' us beliefs that limit perception in the name of being 'holy' etc.

What a shitshow! lol

As far as spirits go. We are all spirits. Yes, there are beings who exist more wholly in the realm of spirit's vibrations - and who are not dense/physical like us on Earth.. but we are all also spirit. Spirit inspires and our individual will responds to our spirit's input. Many people recognise that part of them feels eternally young, despite an ageing body - this is spirit. Spirit, unfortunately, has a tendency to try to disown and disassociated from it's parts on Earth in order to try to avoid feeling pain and emotions it doesn't like. The net result is that we see a collage of dysfunctional beliefs on Earth, presented as wisdom - including the beliefs in some religions that the body is Evil/Animalistic and must be risen above and disconnected from. These beliefs only cause death.

I'm not sure there is a way to really understand this topic without also gaining insight into the process that has led us to be where/how we are on Earth because it includes specific stages that shaped us into beings that are part density and part light, but who are confused and not fully aware of what has been happening.

It's a big topic!