Little Toe:
And you've lost by sheer lack of statistical data.
Quite the contrary. The fact that I do not know anyone, anywhere may deprive me of community consensus, but reality is not determined by a democratic election in which everyone gets to vote on what is real and what is not real. Reality is, and it falls to us to learn to recognize and adapt to it.
I invite you to "get real."
It is likely that the biggest reason for the willingness of misinformed people to accept the unsubstantiated claims of metaphysicians is the fear of mortality - for some, it is near-impossible for them to conceive or accept the idea that one day soon they will completely cease to exist. They tell themselves pleasant bedtime stories to ease their sleep, stories about sky-daddies and angels and monsters and magic, stories that deny cause-and-effect. Falling in love with the stories they've imagined, they prefer their sweet, soft somnambulism and refuse to wake up.
I once spoke with a member of Eckankar (Ek, founded by Paul Twitchell) who was eager to tell me about how she could leave her body at will and experience "soul travel." I told her that in my home I had a cylinder six inches across, two feet tall, and open at the top. An object was at the bottom of the cylinder. I invited her to "soul travel" to my place and inspect the cylinder with her non-corporeal eye and report back to me. She stopped making her silly claims.
I was a JW for more than 20 years, raised as a Dub, and surrounded with the Dub brand of metaphysicians. During the nearly 30 years that I have been out of the WTS, I have investigated and done a number of things that can be found in the metaphysical funhouse, and none of them had any substance. (Pun intended.)
