so i've been reading up, and karbala seems just as crazy a money-making cult as scientology, but i suppose it doesn't get the nasty reaction because it's somehow attached to judaism. (karbala includes people like madonna, demi moore, ashton kusher as members).

it's really quite incredible so many mature people are falling into these sorts of things.

Do you mean kabbalah?

New Age bullshit is just a bunch of homo shit that some rich fuck came up with to scam people. It's exactly the same as scientology and every other religion: fake.

The kabbalah seems to have become something of a new age cult, as Buddhism did years ago. I don't know much about it, but the word, kabbalah just means "that which has been received." In case you haven't noticed, Judaism, as the religion that most of us know, doesn't seem to have any of the mystical trappings of other religions. The sacred text is the Torah. And the main religious texts that goes along with it seek only to determine an ethical code of behavior based on the word of God. How does God guide us to a better life?

The other things that so characterize Christianity such as heaven and hell are not described in the Torah. These are unknowable things. Kabbalah is the mystical side of Judaism. And typically, what kabbalah does is probe into the essence of God based on the things that are given. So all we know, if we are religious Jews, is that God created all things. And that God is neither matter nor spirit but something beyond that. So how do we approach the study of the unknowable? Only through what has been given. This is partly where the significance of the letters comes in. Perhaps all of the Torah is code for something.

The study of kabbalah is centuries old. Here's a thumbnail sketch:

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jso ... balah.html

And the movie, Pi, by Darren Aronofsky has some very interesting and funny commentary on kabbalah.

i always wanted to get a cult together and do the kool aid thing. And everyone would drink it before me. And then i walk out the door

guess i had iraq on the mind. whoops.

just as scientology is the mystical side of science fiction? as far as i know, kabbalah in new york city is a money-making cult with beliefs just a bit less crazy that those of scientology.

No. Scientology is considered it's own religion although it has it's cultish aspects. There's an argument to be made that stories like Noah's Ark, the Tower of Babel and the Resurrection are science fiction. No matter how many cultists have appropriated kabbalah, it's still a part of Jewish teaching and lore. The Orthodox consider it an advanced study.

But it is also a hip, cultish phenomenon. I would say that Buddhism has become something similar in Western hands as well as the Hindu Vedas. I think that these can reasonably be separated from the traditional religions. These new age cults aren't generally of the Jonestown variety. They seem to focus more on topics related to physical and spiritual health and well-being. They also seem to be very expensive.

So I guess that cults can be divided into at least two varieties, the expensive, spa-oriented, hip, new age variety, and the type that turn adherents into brain-washed true believers who follow a fanatical charismatic personality.

Some strains of Yoga seem to border on cultish. Somehow Eastern mysticism is more hip and 'spiritual' than the western variety.

eastern religions are on the whole more "spiritual" than eastern religions in practice. it probably follows.

You don't think Charismatic Christians can give them a run for their money?

Hasn't the Western religious tradition been to embrace suffering as a part of purification while the Eastern tradition has been to transcend it? Perhaps that's why Yoga, Zen Buddhism and kabbalah make for better hip, new age cults.