What I've learned about it is that every time I've tried to enlighten somebody it's failed, no matter how clever I was or not (meaning I wasn't being clever, but rather direct).
Then I've noticed successes, and these come when I have no notion of myself, when I'm not trying to gain anything. (So in this case I don't see that I'm trying to enlighten anyone.) Enlighten for me is a step in one's growing, not a one time event.
So when these successes have happened, then I notice another thing about it, the person had an outstanding question - in essence they were seeking for an answer. If a person doesn't have an essential question, it means they are confident with their state of being, thus aren't questioning it.
Confident with one's state of being can be seen as not being open to accept new information, because to allow new information in will threaten the confidence.
So you see if one feels they have it all figured out, you can't tell them anything. It doesn't matter how clever one is, with answering or asking questions, if the door is closed, then nothing can be recieved.
But you can enlighten all people by working on the level of energy, and you do this my making an essential change in yourself. Then you start to realize where your power to make changes really lies.
Betsy
Addendum: You can put another person into an altered state of consciousness through essential touch - either physically or if you're really skilled, with words - sort of like 'shaktipat' or 'laying on of hands'. So to do this, it depends upon the state of the one giving the touch, if the giver can 'surrender their personality', then they can transmit a pure energy. The receiver being in contact with that kind of energy, won't know what hit them, and not 'knowing' how to respond to it, will lose contact with identity, thus putting one into an altered state. Basically, what you are doing with this is rising their energy momentarily, and during this 'thier healer' takes over and makes some changes to the system. Then later 'after the healing', an insight can be received changing one's consciousness in a profound way. The result in the receiving one, is then one small step on the road of enlightenment. But I also know that one can't heal another in this way completely, because part of the full healing is to become independent and sovereign and take over the process completely. In other words, one can only remove the effects of personality chiseled into the body and frozen into one's structure, by physically moving. But we can all help each other to enlighten and bring us to the point of kundalini activation: the point at which our energy has risen enough that we are able to 'start taking over'.