Where do the extremes meet and balance?

  We hear a lot about the importance of self exploration, direct experience, etc.   Can't really argue with that one, seems pretty self evident.   And i'm definitely a proponent of self exploration, direct experience, and the like.   I call this aspect, this nature free-flowingness.

  Yet, humanity as a whole, given the facts of various degrees of spiritual developement, the influence of individual and collective ego and misleading forces, seem to combine to facilitate the necessity of some kind of structure which translates to the necessity of outer guides, teachers, belief systems, and/or comparitive logic.

  But i see extremes everywhere i go with this.  Some people really powerfully stress one over the other.

  Now, a person cay say to themselves, "i let go of it all, all of the preconceived belief systems, teachings, guidelines, etc. out there and i'm sure going to find my way through exploration and direct experience. I have no example, no wayshower, no guidelines, no structure.  I'm gonna pull a Zen of sorts". 

  Ok, sounds good at first, but let's keep in mind that they are in the world of concentrated maya, they have ego, imbalances, issues that are in the way of clear perception and translation.  So they start exploring and looking for direct experience to rely on.   They start getting info about somethings, but maybe this info is not as accurate, clear, quite what it seems as they think it is--maybe it comes more from their own or collective ego, maybe from ignorant or misleading consciousnesses.   They've decided there is nothing to check it against and its almost anything goes at this point, there's no standard so to speak. 

  What if like attracts and begets like no matter what our beliefs are or aren't, what if its a universal constant that pertains to all, all the time?   Then a person or consciousness immersed in maya and ego, is on average going to tend to perpetuate that reality for themselves.   Sure, helpful and constructive nonphysical guides are constantly sending messages as well, and sometimes these do get through loud and clear, but overall its part of the white noise and hard to hear, meanwhile based on the same law there are those more negative attracted to and trying to influence them as well.

  Yet, some rare soul out there has somehow pulled themselves completely out of this stuckness, someone who became a perfect example of how to get out of the stuckness and who gave clear indications of such a pattern, who set up a line of force which when you choose to align or attune yourself too that stream of consciousness, it facilitates you getting unstuck that much more.

   This person left teachings, and general guidelines as well as being a living guide and force. 

  Which is the smarter path, speaking for humanity as a whole, to set aside all these and just go it alone from a physical standpoint, or to balance your direct experiences, self explorations, etc, with some kind of standard and guideline layed down before you came along?  To check those experiences and insights against various outer sources who have seemed more verified, helpful, and/or logically consistent..

  Do we become too much the individualist or relativitist, or too much the relating collectivist (is that a word?)?

  I don't think humanity and the majority of people alive right now, are realistically able to just drop all outside aids, guidelines, examples, standards, etc.  and blaze paths for themselves in a purely clear and constructive manner.    Sometimes those who are rather unusually spiritually attuned forget that they are reasoning from their own perspective and degree of attunement and project that out onto other people, saying in some sense, be like me and blaze your path, don't even listen to me and my words, etc.  Sure, it certainly sounds humble and what a truly spiritual person or "real" teacher should or is supposed to say (or someone who wants no responsibility), but there is such a thing as false modesty and humility which is just as destructive as blatant and projected arrogance and know-it-all-ness.

   In a world of such complexity, of freewill, of so many differeing and contrasting variables, its unrealistic to expect people to be able to be at that level of clear self attunement and dropping outer beliefs and structures.   

  I guess what i'm saying is that its a more complex issue, and that there is an important balance between outer and inner that needs to be taken into consideration.   Looking at outside info, whether psychic, religious, channeled, etc. is not somehow an innately less evolved, intellectually or spiritually lazy, or inferior way nor is self exploration over individualism, arrogance and a lack of perception of or keeping in mind the Oneness of force and all consciousnesses or an innately more helpful/constructive way.  But these can become those negative extremes, and often do it seems.

See, i believe it can be more subtle than that to begin with.   I believe we have intuition apart from what i call sensual or sense focussed psychism.   I believe that when we clear, balance, and attune ourselves more and more, the more we can scan various other outside beliefs, energies, and get a sense of their relative degree of attunement to that pure standard and most Universal state.  This can happen automatically and instantaneously if we are open and balanced enough.

  So, its not necessarily that we have a direct and obvious experience like Monroe might have had, where he went out of body and had a sensually psychic experience which was overt and obvious for its nature and similarity to physical perception...but that we can learn to feel truth and untruth on a knowing level, but until we get to that point in a consistent and clear sense, that oft times we should still look to examples and beliefs which both logically, verifiably, and feeling wise make sense as well as look to our more direct and individual experiences and self explorations.

  Remember, you are a God in the making, but meanwhile you've created a false and little god out of yourself, and that part of you is at times subtly or obviously arrogant, separtive, overly individualistic, and misleading by its very nature.   Sometimes we need to look to those who have fully realized their own Sourceness and have a certain amount of humility and self honesty about our degree of developement and necessity of help and of guidance in our lives.

  Maybe this rambling projection belongs in the off topic section?