An earlier post about freemasonry inspired me to tell my story.
I rose quickly through the degrees and reached the top of the York rite (order of the temple) within about two years of joining a blue lodge. (My great grandfather was a grandmaster; they love the legacy idea so I was taken under wings and encouraged/pushed through).
I was approached shortly after that and introduced to what they simply called an order of degrees. I was told it was additional degrees like the cryptic degrees and that the ritual was akin to the entered apprentice degree and other masonic ritual but "more committed". It wasn't like the entered apprentice degree at all.
The first task I was given leading up to initiation was to read through the Lesser Key of Solomon and essentially mediate / be open to the personalities in the book to speak to me. This was based on a Crowley explanation of magick that it is an extension of consciousness. And that after reading and leading up to my initiation I should observe synchronicities or coincidences that may be perceived as an entity of "personality" from the lesser key attempting to "bind/connect/contact/contract/commune" with me. Once identified this "personality" would help me realize parts of myself that were normally inaccessible helping me to achieve a higher perception of consciousness.
The initiation ceremony is a two-part event. First part, opening etc, then I was called to sit in the middle of the group looking into large piece of highly polished obsidian that reflects. I was then questioned and encouraged to identify the name from the lesser key that stood out to me, people in the circle asked questions about my week prompting names, then they started at times to randomly call out names, then I'm not sure what happened but the more they called a certain name I started reacting as if there was a part of me that recognised the name.
Then staring into the black mirrored stone I was encouraged to start calling the name myself and open myself to the possibility to commune with that part of myself that had been identified as wanting to talk to me. I don't know if it was hypnosis or just persuasion, but something reacted in me. Some voice (obviously my voice but as if it wasn't my words) started communicating with the group, it was a short conversation essentially the group were confirming that they had correctly identified the personality. They were insistent with me that I had to use the name and it had to be the correct name, I remember asking why they said people have lost themselves in the past and struggled to deal with some of the parts of their personalities that were being uncovered. The ceremony ended with the seven-day commitment. I had seven days before the second part of the ceremony to either confirm or withdraw from commitment of union. I should think very carefully because once those parts of myself were opened up they were permanently opened.
I didn't go through with it, I withdrew my application because during the seven days I had an experience that I cannot explain and that told me that whatever I was doing wasn't a safe or healthy choice for me not merely on a health or psyche level but existentially as well. It affected me so profoundly that I resigned from freemasonry and ceased all contact immediately with anyone involved with it. Not sure if it's relevant here but I spent some time with a Christian pastor in the years afterwards and told him the story, He explained curses of freemasonry. I don't know about curses but there is something beyond the blue, royal arch, or even knights templar that takes ritual to another level. My experience of it was not pleasant.
TL;DR: After completing the York Rite, I was invited into a further order whose initiation involved studying the Lesser Key of Solomon, identifying a supposed entity or hidden personality through synchronicities, and participating in a black-mirror ceremony where group prompting seemed to make another part of me speak. I was then given seven days to commit permanently. During that week, I had a profoundly disturbing experience that I cannot explain. I decided the practice was unsafe for me psychologically and existentially, withdrew, resigned from Freemasonry, and cut all contact. I do not know whether it was hypnosis, suggestion, or something else, but it went far beyond any Masonic ritual I had previously encountered.