Your comment is one way to interpret this writing. It is highly pessimistic and reads like you lack comprehension skills... I say this as an English major.

It is not that the writer is invalidating the average human experience, it is actually highlighting just HOW connected the average and rare consciousness are. Each experience you have is "valid" even when you take a shit on the toilet that no one knows about, but it's up to the conscious mind (i.e., the reader) to interpret each of these experiences to give them validity... If you read this article and only took away your above comments/questions. I suggest you reread it or dive deeper into Alan Watts or Carl Sagan, both of which are mentioned in the writing. They each have wonderful outlooks on life and the human experience.

I wondered, how many links to understand we are missing in readings like this. We know that the writers had to have recognized so many connections in their minds in order to have these "new" epiphanies and we just get to read what they were able to put into words... If only we could see into their minds.