KABBALAH BUSINESS

Yesterday I posted about the new popularity of Buddhism. Another hot religion is the Jewish mystic sect, Kabbalah. Madonna was the first I heard about being involved with it. Jeannette Walls writes that the center that all the big stars (including Mick Jagger, Gwyneth Paltrow, Courtney Love, Sandra Bernhard and Barbra Streisand) are dealing with is interested in more than just their spiritual growth:

“It is not a traditional expression of either Judaism or the historic Kabbalah,” says critic Rick Ross. “The Kabbalah Center is a highly organized, highly profitable group which I consider to be the Berg family business.” Phillip Berg, a former insurance salesman, heads up the Kabbalah Center in the United States, which in addition to giving pricey courses, sells books, tapes, scents and expensive skincare products both at its centers and at Kabbalah.com.

Not only that, but forget Dasani or Perrier, buy Kabbalah water:

The group also sells bottled Kabbalah water — which Madonna swears by. The water, according to the group’s site, is “dynamic ‘living’ water” with “a highly organized structure, crystalline formations and a fractal design.” Kabbalah water, the Center’s Yehuda Berg insists, is a tradition dating back centuries. “We charge the water with positive energy,” he tells the Scoop. “So that it has healing powers,” he says.

Uh, yeah. I think I know where to get my living water.