The first premise of The Path of Liberation / Enlightenment is that we are not self-aware...that we are limited consciousnesses, only able to be aware, in a given amount of time, of a very narrow, extremely limited amount of what we are and what this world is.
From childhood, our perceptions are necessarily aimed at becoming aware of the world outside of ourselves. And few of us ever learn a dependable way to stop our ever-moving bodies and minds long enough to stay focused on ourselves. So we usually go through life in relative levels of unconsciousness, especially of ourselves.
That is why the real Path begins with quite a long period where the main activity is simply self-observation. When we sit still in the right circumstances for about half an hour to an hour at a time, in a posture that has the least amount of physical distractions of the body (which is mostly, but not only, a very special version of the cross-legged lotus position), and pursue certain seemingly passive, but actually very busy, disciplines of mind and body, the distractions of the outside world tend to recede and we are able to observe ourselves, body and mind, the apparently material and immaterial. And eventually, with the necessary help of our human guides, who must, themselves, have mastered the process, as we become adept at getting to that state of less-distracted consciousness and progress in our own development in and through it, God reveals himself and what we are and what he is doing in ways that are meaningful only to the individual...ways that give no one any power or influence over anything more than him/herself.
That is what the real seekers are doing. They are not trying to influence the world, which God has well in his control without our help.