Empowerments and initiations

Hello there,

reading stuff from Vajrayana tradition I come across quite often the notion of empowerment. Mainly at the beginning of the practice they're about to describe in detail: do not even attempt this practice without having been given the appropiate empowerment....

do any of you have had empowerments? did you ever notice any difference in anything?

I'm just curious about the nature of these empowerments.

Cheers

Speaking from a different tradition (Santeria), initiation provides various things:

what's usually said is more or less:
-mystical connection to the deities through ritual, so they recognize, accept and protect you, and you develop a bond with them

pragmatically, and not always said, or maybe not even recognized by traditionalists, it also provides:
-a way to guide newbies into a supervised practice so they develop balance and don't get into trouble
-a relationship to a teacher who can pass on the complex oral tradition in a personalized way
-a partially-effective idiot filter to help keep out people who just want power without responsibility