I have had similar experiences, since childhood .
I too would have a very difficult time trying to summarize and economize the individual encounters and myriad of situations.
The way this post is expressed feels the most succinct and non-colorful ( best way I can say, it's not full of woo-woo )
I feel encouraged to share this now: what seemed like scary and horrific encounters from childhood began to coalesce into more common and then less frightening and then applicable ways of receiving " data " / large amounts of sensual/ information.
I was applying ways of receiving with my former wife, I noticed and ignorantly assumed this was only something one can experience with a romantic partner. It is not. Because as even bad relationships ended , the ability to remote view and share "dreams" remained. That said, it appears to be a sexual thing for me, and perhaps for others, it can platonic/ thanatos.
It was only in the last 2 years ( interestingly my rise in focus on this coincides also with OPs timeline of 2017-2018 ) that it seems to be far more than just bonding or romantic in effectiveness. I started a small grouping over the last 3-4 years and in these groupings the experience was intense and shared with people across several timezones. This focus saw us interwoven into each others lives and even some had journals which documented visits from out older (current age) selves.
However, after 4-5 of these rounds of groupings the pattern was usually the same; the ones in the group began using their intense perceptions to enact base desires (lust/revenge/arbitrary chaos) as though they were given a given loaded arsenal of firearms before being able to speak , if my meaning is clear.
To tie this all back to OP, I had to make a decision to forcefully end these groupings of like minded talents , because it would become too much power with too little self discipline
Let me repeat that :
IT BECAME TOO MUCH POWER WITH TOO LITTLE DISCIPLINE.
I want what OP wants. And he is correct, others are and have been gifted with a more direct communion with these lifeforms.
The best advice I can give is to not be discouraged, if you are also like me, or my past partners / colleagues etc. Because there were other groups that knew of us as well, and we couldn't intermingle too well , because it would feel.almost perverse. But, having said that, it was clear that, as OP stated there was a window of perception which was with emphasis on applying what information we were. Receiving .
It sounds far fetched, but if you have been reading this far , then there must be some truth you can relate to in this. Just as we have all waded thru OPs post.
Be skeptical also, because one caveat in the groupings was ( for our own protection) to deny this was happening to casual passerbys that might've gotten wind of the groupings.
Grounding, making certain we werent insane, were necessary exercises in all of it.
Now, I barely allow myself to have that kind of fellowship with others, but....the ability to receive on command , information to apply has never stopped. In fact, I wanted to somehow put it all behind me for 2021, to start fresh and isolated. But, having read OPs post...I had to check if I was in r/Aliens or some other esoteric subreddit.
This simply reiterates what my past colleagues have been exploring in private, worldwide rooms.