Friend: I would assert that ‘spirituality’ and idealism are modes of denial/escapism.
Me: I couldn’t agree with you more, although it appears my understanding of the key word ‘spirituality’ may be the inversion, the complete antithesis, of yours. The way I have come to understand spirituality—or, more precisely, spiritual perception—is that it does in fact enable one’s 𝑒𝑠𝑐𝑎𝑝𝑒 from the ‘cave’ (of shadows mistaken for substantial truths) or from the ensnaring ‘veil of maya,’ which amounts to much the same thing. 
It is the 𝑑𝑒𝑛𝑖𝑎𝑙 and surmounting of inferior modes of perception and cognition as reliable guides and guarantors of the truth. But if I’m not mistaken, what you seem to mean by ‘spirituality’ and ‘idealism’ amounts to the abdication of any self-criticism or introspective rigor—and flight into the cloud cuckoo land of imaginary heavens and merciful deities. I’m no more of a believer in such fantasies than you are, but I have resisted a temptation you appear to have succumbed to—i.e., to throw out the baby with the bathwater. Instead of doing the difficult, subtle work of differentiating the authentic from the false, the abiding from the transitory elements of the inner world of experience, you seem to have given up (or never truly commenced) such painstaking efforts and concluded—against the impressive testimony of wise men from all ages and nations—that this spiritual dimension is just a giant hoax perpetrated by charlatans, pied pipers, and deluded dreamers.
Now, certainly the world has seen its share of such exploitative, opportunistic frauds and tricksters—but to fail to distinguish these posers (and their gullible followers) from the relatively few genuine articles is a common mistake these days—and there are good reasons for that. 
Part of the work I have taken upon myself is to root out and expose these ‘reasons’ or contributing factors that have made it so much more difficult for intelligent, well-meaning persons like yourself to entertain even the possibility that these claims I make for the inner light contain some substance. But there is much muck and malarkey that must first be 𝑝𝑜𝑜𝑝𝑒𝑑 𝑜𝑢𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑠𝑦𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑚𝑠 before these claims of mine can really begin to register properly. There is still way too much inherited and encrusted shit blocking the way.
First 𝑒𝑛𝑒𝑚𝑎𝑠, then, before we can truly be friends?
