Consider, as a thought experiment, a situation that happened for many Western anthropologists who were observing native tribes in various parts of the world.
A tribal "shaman"/ medicine man/ spirit healer would perform some kind of ceremony - perhaps of healing - in front of the tribe; and everybody present would see spirits (or, claim to see spirits) - except the anthropologist.
What does this mean, that everybody present perceives some-thing, except for one person - who is looking, but does not see?
1. One possibility is that the majority are correct, and the minority of one who cannot see spirits has "something wrong with him" - some kind of perceptual deficit.
Since spirit blindness is so common in the West, it is presumably some combination of racial and cultural "sensory defect".
The "answer" would seem to be for Westerners to become able to perceive spirits; and if this is taken seriously it leads Westerners towards exploring manipulations of consciousness such as happen during hypnosis and trances (perhaps assisted by music and dance), dreaming sleep, between sleep and waking; or in psychosis, delirium, and from the effects of some kinds of psychoactive drugs.
2. Another possibility is that the majority, the tribesmen, are deluded by their expectations, or perhaps have been duped by a conjuring trick of the shaman.
The idea is that the tribesmen are like young children in the West; who are fooled partly because they want to be fooled, and partly because they lack sufficient knowledge and experience. In other words; the testimony of the tribe is irrelevant: the Western anthropologist is right, and everybody else present is wrong.
The "answer" implied is that the tribesmen need to be Westernized, and educated in science - so that they will stop seeing what is not really there.
3. For some traditional orthodox Christians, the spirits seen by the tribesmen are really spirits, and are really there; but are of demonic origin - designed to mislead, corrupt, and spiritually-harm the tribesmen. They are seen by the tribe because the tribes are in thrall to the devil; devil worshippers.
The Westerners are immune to this demonic deception - either for the positive reason that they are Christians and reject demonic visions. Or the negative reason that Western anthropologists usually do not believe in the reality of the devil or of spirits - or indeed of Goad and angels; and made themselves incapable of perceiving either.
So, in the imaginary tribal situation; the demonic influence on the Western atheist is present, but unseen and unconscious.
Because the spirits perceived are real but of evil intent; to, the "answer" to the problem of tribesmen seeing spirits is to convert them to Christianity, and train them to discern demonic deceptions - so that the tribesman will cease to see the spirits conjured by shamans.
(And the same applies to an atheistic anthropologist!)
4. A less common interpretation is found among those influenced by Jung; which is that the spirits are real but in an intermediate and "imaginal" realm - situated between (and bridging between) objective-public-physical reality and subjective-personal reality.
This tries to posit a psychological objectivity, distinct from literal-physical objectivity. And that this psychological realm is unconsciously collective, shared among all humans (whether they are aware of this or not). So the spirits are symbols (archetypes) of the collective unconscious, being reacted-to differently by tribesmen and the Westerners, due to cultural differences in attitude.
The Jungian answer to the different experiences of tribesmen and Westerners, is that the Westerners need to learn of the reality of the archetypal realm of the collective unconscious, reconnect with it and become conscious of it; and develop a relationship with the objective-but-symbolic images that inhabit that realm.
Thus may Western alienation of Men from themselves and The World be alleviated.
5. A perspective derived from Rudolf Steiner and Owen Barfield (which I also believe is correct) is that the spirits are really there, they are not symbols but actual Beings; but whether spirits are seen is a matter of the development of consciousness.
Some adult tribal people (like some Western children) are less developed in this respect, and still have the ability to perceive spirits - indeed they cannot help but perceive spirits, just as Westerners cannot help but perceive physical objects such as trees, chairs and other people.
In the West; most adolescent and adult people have lost the spontaneous ability to perceive spirits; and this has also (like the Western anthropologists) made Westerners largely resistant to the communications of spirits.
Negatively, the Westerners have lost the ability to see what is there.
Positively; Westerners have gained independence from (freedom from) the previously inescapable influence of spirits - which include both good (angelic) and evil (demonic) spirits - as well as other spirits perhaps more neutral (elementals, "Fairies", or nature spirits).
(This development of consciousness is divinely driven; and understood to be part of God's plan for the world. So the development of consciousness through an individual person's life, or throughout the history of Mankind; is something that happens by means of the incarnation of various kinds of spirits as mortal Men, and the attributes and needs of individual pre-mortal spirits.)
The "answer" from this Steiner/ Barfield perspective; is not to ignore spirits, nor to try and perceive them again, nor to relate to spirits via symbolic intermediary symbols or archetypes; but instead to move forward a new relationship with spirits that is rooted in direct knowing of spirits.
Instead of a spirit being spontaneously seen and communicating with the Man by means of perceived stimuli such as visions, speech or symbolism; the idea is that the spirit is known by the Man, in thinking.
So, to return to our thought experiment; the tribesmen would see the spirits, because they could not help perceiving spirits. But the observing Steiner-Barfield anthropologist would not see the spirits; because he would would instead know by experienced thinking, that the spirits were indeed present and active here-and-now.
This knowing would not be by any intermediary such as picture, sound or symbol; but the knowing would instead be direct knowledge, as intuition; as an experience of knowing occurring in the ongoing stream of thinking.
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