As a generalisation; I find it striking that those who plausibly claim to have exceptional spiritual experiences mostly lack exceptional spiritual wisdom.
Such people may display clairvoyant or precognitive gifts; may have remarkable mystical visions and epiphanies; may be able to contact and channel spiritual beings; may even begin to affect the world spiritually to make changes or healings... and yet be quite unremarkable (or sub-average) people in terms of their wisdom, holiness, profundity of insight.
The accounts given by spiritual and mystical people (descriptions, information, predictions etc) usually vary extremely widely - they can't all be right, but could all be wrong. The way they talk about their many and varied experiences tends - cumulatively - to be experienced as glib and trivial; either incoherent or over-systematic in a contrived and superficial way - in other words intuitively unconvincing.
In other words, it is one thing to have remarkable spiritual experiences - and quite a different thing to learn-from these experiences; to be transformed (for the better) by such experiences. Some people seem utterly unaffected - their experiences comes and go like water off a duck's back. Others seem to be damaged by their experiences - made worse people.
One problem is that spiritual experiences are often most highly regarded either when experiences come-upon a person unsought and overwhelm that person - or else when they are the result of long training, initiation, and ritual practice.
The people who have spontaneous spiritual beliefs are just that kind of person - and it is a gift or curse of being that kind of person; but this is essentially a passive thing.
Spiritual experience is just something that happens-to such people; there is no engagement of the real self in the process (indeed, the real self may be deliberately set aside, as with channelling) - it is lower selves, personality selves, inculcated selves that are involved.
Since the spiritual experience is passive, does not involve the real self, and is (pretty much) uncontrolled - it is should not be surprising that such spiritual experience fails to make someone a better person.
As for those who seek a spiritual experiences as a result of training in meditation, regular practice, by formal rituals, by the use of consciousness-altering substances or rituals, and so forth.
This is a process of narrowing, or confining and entraining (hence lowering) the consciousness. It is a matter of making the spiritual experience into a habit - and a habit is a diminution of consciousness.
So the problem can be seen in exactly this reduction of spiritual experience into a thing narrowed, habitual, controlled. Eventually the adept will be able to induce-at-will and control the spiritual experience; but the self that experiences is a more superficial or lower self - not the real self.
I think the above descriptions explain why almost all the individuals who report special spiritual experiences are not special people. It seems clear that there is little correlation between impressiveness of spiritual experiences and the impressiveness of a person - in terms of his spiritual wisdom, depth of understanding.
A person may be a remarkable spiritual adept but such persons are usually unsuitable to be a guide, teacher, mentor. When both spiritual expertise and spiritual wisdom are found in the same person, this is (or has been up to now) actually very unusual.
Yet I would say that nearly-all of the wisest spiritual guides that I know of, have some some spiritual experience. But these experiences (at least those that get reported) are not especially remarkable; often quite ordinary and everyday.
On the other hand, when someone denies having had any spiritual experiences ever; when there are spirituality-blind, utterly insensitive to the immaterial - these are seldom or never wise or deep persons.
Indeed, it is likely that such people are either habitually suppressing the possibility of a spiritual experience, or else systematically denying (explaining-away) the validity and meaning of spiritual experiences when they do occur.
The non-spiritual situation is therefore probably due to a contrived, trained materialistic shallowness or to an habitual dishonesty - both of which negate the possibility of wisdom.
What this tells me is that spiritual experiences are necessary to the awakening mind; but ought not to be the centre of personal life; and that the ways of amplifying and inducing spiritual experiences all have deleterious effects.
A spiritual experience is of significant value only when it is encountered fully by the real self, as a real and true experience; is learned-from, and has a transformative effect. Then it is an experience of decisive positive value.
