One of the most remarkable experiences I've had involved spontaneously manipulating flames from a bonfire for about a half an hour twenty years ago. At the time I was not pursuing any formal, or even informal really, practice.
Aeran said:
"I also think there's a "culture of silence" to an extent, where even in communities like this one where many members have experience with such capabilities to some extent or another, people downplay those experiences and refuse to talk about them. There are all sorts of reasons for this, and whether or not they're justified is debatable..."
For the duration of my bonfire experience one thought ran through my head, loud and clear, insistent and authoritative: "This Is Not That Important".
vonkrankenhaus said:
"So there will be a "culture clash", and many comics books will come to mind…”
and
“I have always avoided this discussion, even though as a youth I did work for some time with my skills at "psychic" functioning, showing future for people, finding lost people/objects, and so forth. I stopped doing that after a while. People actually have strict ideas about what I was doing, that I could not really be contained by. It actually became "boring", like greeting a procession of similarly configured robots."
The bonfire was at a party, and about ten or so people were around me when I started playing with the flames. I don't think I said a word the whole time, but the others present became quite vocal. About half the people immediately turned and walked away. A couple others became angry, and started rooting around in the fire to "disprove" what was happening. Three people were transfixed, and one of those insisted on calling me "Fire God" every time he saw me after that.
It occurs to me that the most important questions regarding siddhis could be where people are coming from and where they are going when they accidentally, casually or seriously interact with them.