Theo,
No one can say with absolute certainty, whether there are more than one dark nights or not. One thing I have learned is to take someones pronouncements of absolute certainties with a grain of salt. When I was taking the Rosicrucian studies, I remember the monographs declaring, that we should be walking question marks in our search for answers. It is not a sin to question the veracity of mystical studies. We should not take everything on faith. We should also seek within for the answers. The studies can prepare you to learn about things through direct experience, or they can just be an intelectual pursuit. In my postings on this web site, I try to keep to things which I have first hand knowledge of. I feel that many students have had plenty of theory, but not enough experience. If the students hear from one who has had many of the experiences they read about,and hear about my experiences in reaction to mystical teachings, it may give them a better idea of things. Not that they should try to mimic mine, or anyone elses path, for we are all experiencing things from our own perspectives which will not be the same from one person to another. When I was younger, I used to always wonder where I was in the scheme of things, and compare myself with those who were more advanced than me. This is a fruitless exercise. Follow your own path and dont worry about someone elses. Sometimes I visualize that the path to enlightenment is a ladder of a hundred steps reaching into the heavens. During my own Journey, sometimes I have thought I was halfway up the ladder, then at other times (after a spectactular failure), I was on the bottom rung barely hanging on.
Gary