Okay, I was gonna quote some posts but it's too many so I'll just summerize my thoughts.
I think that
@Satans_Serrated_Edge really nailed part of it.
@Saint Frankenstein touched on a similar thing but I think I really need to expand a little bit on what was said about "eastern" and "western" LHP.
Firstly, the LHP idea of individualization towards the point of deification is
not unique. My own religion has been doing this for over 1,000 years and
is Left Hand Path.
I think the confusion is coming from trying to apply the idea of the LHP to orthodox schools like Samkhya . But LHP is heterodox, and nothing about the nonduality implies that the mind is totally destroyed. In Kashmir Shaivism your mind is regenerated into the universal consciousness as a discrete but united personality along with all other enlightened folk. I don't think that
@Satans_Serrated_Edge was contradicting himself/herself by speaking of tradition and heterodoxy, as the two are not mutually exclusive but can go hand in hand with many esoteric systems.
A couple of branches of Kashmir Shaivism actually have the heart/mind as the vessel towards this nondual unity (it's not monisitic but it isn't dual, being beyond even the monisitic-dual duality) and sees nothing as impure or pure but by perception. I would think this is closer to what maybe some of you conceptualize the Left Hand Path as. Anyways as Frank said Brahman isn't a hive mind. In at least what I practice, you are still you and your higher self, your atman as it's called in Vendanta and some other schools... was really a god all along. The main difference is that these schools of thought don't subscribe to the dualism of being separated. Again as
@Saint Frankenstein said you can't really separate yourself from the Cosmos because it defines all that exists... and in these philosophies god/brahman/self is identified with all of existence. And you can't really separate yourself from yourself.
Also as three last notes, the soul isn't a Hindu concept, the closest thing you will get is atman but that means 'self' not soul. Also life is very natural... it's a result of natural laws just the same as the stars are.
@Saint Frankenstein's definition of supernatural as existing outside of the natural world is essentially my same view and why I reject ideas of supernaturalism. Humans don't have any quality that makes us any better than anything else. We might be better with abstract concepts like math and with making tools but that doesn't make us any wiser or better. Actually some other apes have been observed using basic math skills in making bridges out of logs and using sticks to measure water depth. It's rudimentary mind you but it shows that other species could likewise evolve to do what we do now.