Amargith,
Oh I hadn't even thought about the whole Harry Potter thing, how has THAT gone? I think I wrote this somewhere recently in this thread, but I also think shamanism is pretty cool. Have you heard of Michael Harner and "core shamanism", in essence an attempt to find the common core between shamanic groups/traditions? I think Native American shamanism is pretty interesting, though I can't directly culturally relate to it. I also like Celtic shamanism, and feel much more of a connection to that. I should ask people about if I had any previous lifetimes as a Celtic druid or the like. Anyways, have you heard of Geo Trevarthen? I found her website particularly riveting and powerful/impactful.
Don't worry about it if you don't want to, but I recently posted some semi-recent [ie in the last 2 years] pics of me in the recent pics area, feel free to peruse and comment about anything that stands out to you if you'd like.
As big of differences as eastern stuff has with monotheistic stuff, I think the entry point can be relatively easy in the sense that people can just start by thinking of it as stress reduction [yogic asanas, tai chi, chi kung breathing], or trying to "center" yourself [any meditation practice]. Sure, someone could ask about big heady "out there" things like karma, reincarnation, subtle bodies, gurus, etc but there definitely is no requirement to do so, and generally people don't ask about those, at least not in say your average yoga class or the like. Also, people only have to take things as far as they want to, don't care about subtle development, fine just stick to your asanas and receive the benefit of that. On the contrary, earth based stuff seems to very early on assert all sorts of, as you put it, "'psychic', 'supernatural' and 'magic'" things, which I think would be much more of a make or break thing for many people, if nothing else its a bigger "hurdle?" to jump. With that said, its my understanding that most people who do magical things consider themselves to have done so before, and are simply finding it again. Expressed differently, if your not meant to do it [ie haven't done it before in previous lifetimes], you probably won't be doing it anyways.
I don't think that I've particularly freaked out people that I know. "Oh look, Scott has closed his eyes and is sitting in a partial lotus posture with his eyes closed. Yawnnnnn, so what's on tv right now anyways?" For my more NT friends, some things I talk about I'm sure push their boundaries, but they also just tend to keep their reactions to themselves. Most of my NF friends find this stuff "extremely fascinating" and wish we had more time to talk about it. ENF's and their active social lives!
I've found that more New Age/pagan/earth based people tend to make statements/assertions that are much more you believe it or you don't. I might look at a friend and sense from multiple things that they are very tense, and be like "Dude, your tense, here eat some ice cream", whereas I can see people I've known in the past saying things like "your uncomfortable at [place] because various spirits are hanging out there and emanating their personal fears and angers, I should come there and exorcise them for you and then you'll be fine again. But until then visualize a candle flame growing into a protective bubble composed of the color white and send intention to your protector spirit guide to help you with this, that will make it work better. " I'm not saying that's right or wrong, but I am saying that that is a whole lot to swallow at once for most people and will probably really push the boundary of most people's beliefs. Just for reference again, compare with "twist your body this way, hold this posture until it feels more comfortable, and breath deeply", yeah that's much more tenable/reasonable in the eyes of most people. Until someone starts telling stories about saints/gurus/siddhas and how they levitate, divine the future, materialize physical bodies in multiple locations at once, and the like. See, we span the spectrum too, just not in your average yoga class.