Well, for one thing, it has ruined my ability to possibly write anything. If I can't have that kind of depth, I don't want to write... so I can't. I keep looking at Aenea as the "perfect" person- she was the "Godhead" after all- but like, she worked for the story. I don't know how he did that.
I was really struck by the way Simmons put that empathy into Aenea; for me, I've kind of had this idea of empathy as a driving force of collective human consciousness. Reading the Cantos helped me solidify that, in some ways. It got me to thinking about an idea my husband and I have talked about off and on since we got together, that "God" is perhaps just a word for the complete experiences of every creature and person, both good and bad. I don't know if you can see how I would jump to thinking about that from Hyperion, but it's what happened anyway.
Getting away from the spiritual aspect of it, I also really liked the message that you can be anywhere, anyone, anyhow, if you encompass the world around you, accept it as it is, and strive to change it through yourself. The church represented the antipathy of that- which I also see in "real life", the few leading the many astray through promises of great rewards. In the case of Hyperion, it was truly terrifying because they could actually deliver on those rewards- eternal life. Maybe it's not so much getting away from the spiritual, is it.
Did you get any of this when you read it? This is probably just the tip of the iceberg; I haven't thought about it in a long time.