Update: Part Two is now online, and focuses on the enormous amount of money flowing through the Kabbalah center, as well as the murky history of Philip Berg's association with Kabbalah. One interesting tidbit: letters provided by the Kabbalah center to bolster Berg's claim of being the rightful heir of a Kabbalah guru in fact state quite clearly that only Jews can receive Kabbalah's wisdom. Perhaps nobody at the center reads Hebrew?
I'll keep the series links updated below.
Inside Hollywood's Hottest Cult
The Kabbalah Chronicles from Radar Online
Part One: Red String Theory
A four-month Radar investigation reveals how a renegade rabbi and his striver wife ended up atop a multi-million-dollar empire built on bracelets, bottled water, and Madonna.
Part Two: In the Beginning
Radar’s investigation of the Kabbalah Centre continues, focusing on founder Philip Berg, insurance salesman-turned- guru, and his second wife, who conceived the idea of dumbing down Jewish mysticism and selling it to the masses.
Part Three: Madonna’s Magical Mystical Tour
Demi! Ashton! Marla! Roseanne! When it comes to attracting celebrities, the Bergs have given Scientology a run for its money. But their lucky star is an aging pop icon who has funded the Centre to the tune of $18 million… and counting.
Part Four: There’s No Profit Like Non-Profit
How did a family of middle class mystics end up with matching mansions in Beverly Hills? Our final installment examines how the Kabbalah Centre is pouring millions into a network of businesses controlled by the Bergs and their minions.
Article comments
1 - Phillip Winn
The bullet points are quoted from the Radar article, so they're not my wording. I'll link to the rest of the parts as they become available.
2 - Josia
Always trust your feelings - and go where your heart leads you - keep searching until you find what your heart is looking for - that's what the big kabbalists tell us to do.
"I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, I believe that Kabbalah is simply wrong, as in false."
3 - Aaman
It is the Berg - resistance is futile
4 - Debbie
I agree Josia. One must always go with his/her feelings and the soul always knows the truth. If something feels wrong it just is! Kabbalah is not a religion nor is it a something that should be used to exploit others. There is no coercion in Kabbalah.
5 - Phillip Winn
"The soul always knows the truth." This is so demonstrably wrong I can't believe you managed to look at it on-screen long enough to hit submit without laughing!
A psychopath's soul knows the truth?
A rapist's soul knows the truth?
The millions of people who've died fighting wars to resolve arguments, their souls have all known the truth?
My soul generally tells me that everybody around me is dumb and that I deserve to have every beautiful woman I meet (which is the vast majority of them) in my personal harem, just because. I think my heart is lying to me, so I control myself.
6 - Debbie
Don't get the ego mixed up with the soul. The soul is the inner core of what a person feels as right and wrong since the soul is connected to our Creator. The ego thinks only of things that a person wants or feels ( one's selfish desires). The chills a person feels that go right to the core of his/her being that is the soul.
7 - Phillip Winn
The chills that I feel are usually a biochemical response to information processed by my brain.
I'm glad you trust your experiental perceptions; just try to stay away from any of the research that demonstrates how easily and often those perceptions are manipulated by the things around us.
Re-labeling things doesn't make them any less nonsensical.
8 - Debbie
Yes, our perceptions are manipulated by both our egos and our environment, but the truth is constant and does not change only our perceptions change.
9 - chris
Ein Od Milvado = There is None else beside Him
10 - Phillip Winn
I've added a link to part 3.
11 - tem
the kabbalah centre is going down, and bnei baruch will soon be known as the only respectable kabbalah organization, www.kabbalah.info prevails over .com
12 - kam
the kaballah center is full of frauds. madonna is a fraud. they are greedy and fleecing people out of their money. they'll get what they deserve from magazines and newspapers who slam them for stealing from people. it's kind of ironic. Berg robs his slaves paying them $35 a month but is too sick to enjoy all the money he and madonna are fleecing people out of. and she looks absolutely miserable and tormented.
13 - Phillip Winn
I finally added the link for part four. Sorry for the delay.
14 - goran
Most of these points are describing the corruption of the Centre and it's leaders - the way Kabbalah is operated. The law suits, luxurious life styles...etc... What does that have to do with Kabbalah itself? Nothing really... Kabbalah is not bad, it's the leaders that are not all perfect.
Catholic priests had received a bad reputation when it came to little boys, but that does not mean that Catholics or Christianity is a bad religion.
The person who said, "I believe that Kabbalah is simply wrong, as in false."
Please be specific, Kabbalah or the people who run it?