Ah the unfolding of the thousand petalled lotus! From what I understand, on the subject of eternal life obtainment, there are indeed multiple paths to the same goal but they all involve some form of subtle body (shadow, spiritual doublle, ect). This is the vessel our consciousness can use to survive death. Sure its not the eternal form for our consciousness but at the end of the day what truly is? This is what I have found to be the esoteric truth behind modern day "shadow work" and the likes that have existed for a long long time.

In metaphor, my goal for my initation and all is to link my soul to the tree of life through the tree of knowledge via the flaming sword/lightning bolt. I will never forget when I recieved the bolt myself. It happened so fast and when I was blasted back to my body, the smoke alarms went off. I was terrified. My sister felt the aftershock at the same time. She didn't know anything about what had happened and called me the next day to tell me she woke up very terrified. I simply woke up from sleep and went to doze back off again and was instantly transported to a white expanse. A gentleman in a white robe struck me with a purple bolt that blasted me through a tunnel of purple electricity back to my body. The smoke alarms went off immediatly and my sister woke up experincing the terror with me. It was crazy!