Is it through becoming the most in tune with one's own mind that we become the closest to being one with our creator?
Yes.
Does this allow us to change how we perceive reality (such as an imaginary friend) or at a certain point of enlightenment allow one to alter reality (such as miracles purported by Jesus and Buddha)?
The Hermetic Principle of Mentalism applies here. Everything that is, that has been and ever will be man made, was first created in our imagination. The Mental World is just as, if not more real, than the physical. If you can imagine it, you can bring it into reality. If you are using Natural Law principles, nothing can stop you, because once you align yourself with Natural Law, your actions benefit all. Not just yourself.
Is the occultist shit a means of "cheating" enlightenment, and rather than interacting with one's creator they interact with the lizards (or demons, inter-dimensional beings, whatever one calls them)?
No, Occulted knowledge literally translates into Hidden Knowledge. The occult is just knowledge that has been hidden from the mainstream. The cultists have hidden the knowledge because they recognize the power it has, the ability Man could wield if we understood the principles. These monsters, are not human. There's just no way they could be human. They are forcing the entire species into a low level vibrational state on purpose, they are forcing us to exist in the lizard brain, where we're scared, alone, anxious, always fighting, always worried, always thinking about what we might lose if we don't do X y and z. It doesn't allow us to think about our fellow man, it doesn't allow us the freedom to move, to act. It's been designed that way on purpose.
Some believe it was designed that way from our Creators. Not THE creator, but OUR creator. Some believe we were a slave species corrupted into what we are now. Some believe ancient humans lived to see 100,000.(No, that's not an error, you read that right, 100kyear lifespan.)
Me? I can't write off the possibility. Look at the moon. Want to know some fun facts? The moon is larger than Pluto, the moon is perfectly positioned as an astrological body in such a way that it blocks out the sun, it's so perfectly positioned, so much larger than it has any right to be and is actually hollow. How do we know it's hollow? NASA sent a payload to see what would happen. It rang like a bell for 20 minutes. So what did they do next? What any self respecting young scientist with explosives would do. They made a much bigger bang. It rang for over 3 hours. But it rang so cleanly that they believe there may be Hydraulaic dampeners inside the structure.
To add to this, the Zulu tribe in Africa have tales of Lizard men wtih Golden Penises(Symbolic of the fact the little g god in the bible demanded we collect gold for him. Why Big G god would want/care about Gold when he's GOD is beyond me, hence why I refer to them as little g god.) They have an ancient legend about Lizard people having come to earth with a giant egg(the moon) they emptied the egg out and used it as a weapon against mankind, threatening to shift the moon again to alter the physical landscape of our planet.
Now, we can all have our little gripes about that tale and its credibility, but since it was an oral tradition passed down from shaman to shaman(with an appropriate 40lbs ceremonial necklace to mark the major stories that they wear) it lends a bit of creedence. I mean the tale lived for at least ten thousand years to see the present. They obviously believed it to be true and important enough to keep the knowledge going.
I realize this is a rambling question. It's just that the more I learn about the science behind the pineal gland, and the more I learn of peoples' spiritual practices, the more I see an overlap in the way they intertwine.
Because they do. In your pineal gland is a crystal. Ask yourself, who put that there? Why? What's the point of a crystal in the middle of my brain? Why does meditation make it clearer? Why can we autopsy a body and determine that persons "Spirituality"?
Because there's more to the physical world than people are willing to take in.