Nick:
Leaving the cave means becoming consciously able to receive from above and give to below.
That may be what it means to you but it is certainly not what it meant for Plato. You have a habit of mixing your own beliefs in with what others have said, as if they are the ones who have said it. It is a deceptive appeal to authority.
I've never claimed this ability ...
Then you have no knowledge of these things and whatever you say about them is said out of ignorance.
Reflex introduced the idea that we have within us the seed of the human soul which can mature to become a son of God. It is a gradual process only a rare few are capable of. But why this need to destroy those who have felt their potential …
As I have said before, if this is something you believe than have at it, but when you, Nick, shift ground from a belief to an assertion of knowledge, that is problematic. When you advocate a Platonic education based on a belief that for all you know may be wrong, that is problematic.
Just because I've been made aware of this transition between mechanical animal life and conscious human life is not to say that I've made the transition.
You have been made aware of a claim that you believe to be true. Again that shift from belief to a statement of truth.
… the awakening purpose of philosophy …
You know nothing of the awakening purpose of philosophy, and yet you assert it as if it is something you know. If you said simply that you believe there is such a purpose I have not problem with that, but when you try to assert your superiority over those who do not buy into it, that is problematic.
As Simone Weil said:
You can play the sage, most will not fooled by it, the danger is in fooling yourself.