There aren't any true initiates or real teachings, its a scam of fabricated and plagiarized half-truths all the way to the end, notwithstanding that there are deeper levels of BS that only a select few are let in on. This is one of the few things I found out that I'm sure about.

My favorite gospel, by a wide margin, is Gospel of Thomas, though I doubt that its authentic either. My favorite part of the Bible is Jonah, especially Jonah 2. I like Ecclesiastes also, though I think its a bit overly pessimistic, if you can believe that coming from me.

I took it all quite seriously at the beginning, trying to deepen my understanding by pulling at the threads that didn't seem to make sense. At took about 6 years for it to come completely unraveled for me. I guess 6 years isn't very long, but I'm still pissed at the insincerity of the people who promulgated it.

On the positive side, one value of it is it provided a way to exercise that part of my mind. I also learned that there's an awful lot to reality that I don't see or understand, notwithstanding that nobody else understands it either, apparently.