I am aware of Gurdjieff, and own various books by him and Ouspensky, but haven't really delved into them. I do, however, have a friend who is passionate about him, and who spent some time in the Work, although not currently. He is also heavily into non-dualism and Advaita Vedanta.

Your response makes one thing clearer. I wasn't sure in the article whether you were in agreement with him; now I see that you have some differences and doubts.

My take is that there is an afterlife, and reincarnation. The spiritual goal is to attain immortality (Enlightenment?), thus removing the need to reincarnate. This idea seems to be expressed in ancient hero myths, e.g. Hercules, who achieves immortality and where the labours are allegories, mythological takes about the great difficulties involved in achieving this. Also in Christianity where Jesus demands of his followers to seek eternal life. I don't see any reason in principle why everyone is not capable of this, although many people would obviously have to 'wake up', and free themselves, as you say, from the chains of Plato's cave. Jesus is also quoted as saying: “For the gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life, and there are few who find it”. But he doesn't say that there are some who are incapable.

All that is at least in agreement with Gurdjieff. My difference would be that we would be regaining immortality, not achieving it for the first time. This is for me the implication of the Judeo-Christian belief in the Fall, which may or not be true, but at least makes sense.