The Knowledge and Conversation model of Adeptship

Just a few minutes ago, I replied to a status update (on Facebook) by Stephanie Connolly Reisner, who mentioned an ongoing talk that led to the question, "What is an Adept?"

And someone replied with the oldy, but goody, that an Adept was someone who had Knowledge and Conversation of their Higher Guardian Angel.

To which I replied:

"I have never been comfortable with the whole Knowledge and Conversation standard; who is to decide who has and has not [experienced this]? If it is just oneself, how do you keep your ego out of it? If others, how do you keep the egos of others out of it?"

My answer is firmly rooted in the fact that I am positive that I have seen egos all around whenever this standard is used. Plus the K&C model of Adeptship is not even officially Golden Dawn/RR et AC...it is actually something that came out of Thelema. While gauging Adeptship on magical results and knowledge may be elitist, and subject to the standards of the group that one finds themselves in, at least (in principle) the Thirteen Inch Rule is applied equally to all group members, and not just those who can stroke the ego of the leadership.