Hmmm... I only started aikido three months ago but all I can say is that practice and my own mistakes are only what's really important. Aikido is not magic; so no magic pill will help a person whose approach is purely formalistic. Someone here wrote about working "at the higher levels" and "grubbing around in the dirt"... There seems to be quite a bit of snobbishness and contempt in these words. I believe that everyone's got a mission in this life. You've got to make an effort, a fantastic lot of efforts, to try to complete it (that, if you finally come to realize what it is ).
Skipping a part of it would nullify all of your previous work and only make it harder fo you. Cheating does no good.