is Kabbalah Centre a cult?

[XYZpdq]

A buddy of mine is getting into the local branch of Kabbalah Centre, and googling around about them seems to indicate they ain't so cool a group. Anybody know anything about them?

EDIT- Apparently it's the mom and pop indie Kabbalah group across the street from the local The Kabbalah Centre branch, so it's all good.

 

[Ruin]

That's a cult.

 

[XYZpdq]

That's a cult.

I suppose there's some element of "if you have to ask" to that question, now that I think about it.

 

[MrTroll]

Madonna practices Kabbalah. If it's good enough for Madonna then it's good enough for your buddy.

 

[Tranhuviya]

mang, you don't want to harness the Jewish shekel magic of the universe?

 

[WonkeyDong]

Im jewish, and i think kabbalah is a bit sketchy, but not like, cult sketchy

 

[XYZpdq]

Im jewish, and i think kabbalah is a bit sketchy, but not like, cult sketchy

As far as I can tell this is a specific group "The Kabbalah Centre (tm)" with branch offices in cities, not just some old guy explaining stuff.

 

[WonkeyDong]

As far as I can tell this is a specific group "The Kabbalah Centre (tm)" with branch offices in cities, not just some old guy explaining stuff.

Ah, alright, thanks for clearing that up

 

[Sailor_Jupiter]

Kabbalah is for neopagans who want to be Jewish.

 

[Leonid Brezhnev]

it's definetely a cult, it's not really kabbalah jewish but some weird occult bullshit.

 

[Internet War Criminal]

Its definitely a cult Kabbalah is some obscure theological branch on the level of quantum physics that requires a mastery of Hebrew and ancient Aramaic to be able to even read its basic texts

So yeah anyplace that teaches that in English and Madonna is a member is a huge cult trying to milk people for money

 

[autisticdragonkin]

I don't know whether to say it is a cult as I don't think it has quite the fanatical loyalty needed for a cult but they do have a sketchy financial history and say that if Jews used Kabbalah in the 30s the holocaust wouldn't have happened

 

[Internet War Criminal]

I don't know whether to say it is a cult

It has every hallmarks of a cult from milking people out of their money to sexual abuse from the leaders, topped with ultra-friendliness to sucker you in and suicides as a result of people who lost everything

 

[AnOminous]

It's a cult but more stupid Hollywood celebrity ripoff cult than Jonestown, or even Scientology. I wouldn't trust a spinoff group not to be similarly predatory, but I also wouldn't expect anyone getting involved to end up in a mass suicide wearing Nikes or some shit either.

 

[Abethedemon]

Kabbalah Centre itself is a cult, they said the Jews who were killed in the Holocaust didn't have Kabbalah with them and have shunned medical operations on sick people in their group.
However, the branch of mysticism itself is badass. There's a lot of interesting metaphysical interpretations of biblical phenomena and meditative practices. Kabbalah is best, I've noted, either with legit Jews, or true-blooded occultists. It's pretty dense as well, but very rewarding.

 

[Internet War Criminal]

I doubt the occultists ever understand it considering you need to have a knowledge of Judaism that would take literally decades to amass to even start breaching those waters though

 

[Strelok]

At one point they claimed to sell holy water that cured cancer. Does that sum it up?