Know this is a little older thread, but I have worked through some of the GD (regardies book) and Thelema (duquette regardie and oc crowley+some mathers/Levi)systems as well as chaos magick (psychonaut/liber null were where I sort of got started)..among others.
Posting cause the other night I had a really eye opening experience that was one of the most "real" experiences I can say Ive experienced to date. Not going to go into explicit details here bc I hate things "woo woo", but I will say it was a marked experience of sensation (tactile, visual, auditory) and felt what I experienced as a definitive "presence". It was terrifying, and enthrallingly thrilling.
I think this was said in one of the first responses, but I think Im realizing how important it is to remember the fundamentals. A decade in at this point and NOW 'communicated with spirits' from a (mostly) intuitive based action. Ive been on a major 'authentic' folk magic kick lately so I've been tinkering with a more shamanistic approach to 'sensing' and journeying / doing magick in general. Way more intuitive approach, focused more on intuitively feeling, 'sensing';which after a few days of this type of work I had the contact I mentioned above. Still finding ceremonial tools useful/actively incorporating them, but the lean into an intuitive species of divining styled practice has produced results for me personally. Not sure if that helps. Id love to chat