Experiencing Kabbalah
My first direct experience of Kabbalah was with a representative of the Kabbalah Centre who knocked on the door of my
parent's home some fifteen years ago. He was passing out Kabbalah information and selling books. After mom shooed him away I chased after him down the street to learn more. I bought two books from him by Rav (Phillip) Berg, director of the centre. When I got home, I looked them over, read a few chapters, decided they were too bland and esoteric for me and put them up on the shelf where they sat unopened for about seven years, beckoning me all the while with whispers and winks.
I knew that if I read those books I would be "hooked" and my life would never be the same so I was frightened. Finally, I took "the plunge" - I attended a K Centre lecture and later took a course. While I appreciated very much the information I learned, I felt cautious about the Kabbalah Centre and their cultish reputation.
I was certainly open to discovering for myself (especially given my background as a research scientist) the truth about Kabbalah and what it represents. So I embarked on my own research project to learn all I could about it - realizing that I would be immersing myself in it as one who partakes of the mikvah (ritual bath of purification).
I read everything I could get my hands on about Kabbalah. I studied from diverse sources, including scripture itself and translated portions of the Zohar - the "Bible" of Kabbalah. Being able to read Hebrew helped. I learned about the historic roots of Kabbalah, where it came from and its intimate connections with Jewish history and Judaism in general (which is never mentioned in Kabbalah Centre literature).
One thing I learned is that I had encountered Kabbalah indirectly many times via my Jewish roots as a child growing up in Brooklyn,
New York (which is the world headquarters for the Chabad Lubavitch movement). I remember the "Mitzvah mobile" coming around my neighborhood, playing Kletzmer music from a speaker and the Lubavitch Chassidim (followers of Chassidic Judaism with its Eastern European and Kabbalistic roots) showing volunteers how to put on the phylacteries (2 small leather boxes connected by a leather strap, each with scrolls from the Torah inside - known in Hebrew as tefillin) and recite the afternoon prayers.
I also grew up praying with my grandfather in the Orthodox synagogue he attended and in other synagogues and temples in Brooklyn.
Retrospectively I came to realize that Kabbalah's influence is ever present in every Jewish house of worship in the world! That is because Kabbalah is the spiritual core of Judaism itself.
Perhaps most importantly, I learned that Kabbalah was (and is) a gift from God presented to all His children through His chosen people, the Hebrews. The Jewish people were charged with the heavy responsibility to pass the knowledge and wisdom of Kabbalah to all of God's progeny, and not to withhold its great power in order to advance themselves at others' expense (which would be impossible anyway).
Eventually, Kabbalah quietly and secretly spread throughout the Christian world, later to Islam and to modern day Gnostics who all incorporated it within their own systems for their benefit, as was always intended. We see Kabbalah today within the New Age and New Energy movements, heavily influencing these in so many ways.
Kabbalah, Kabbalah Centre Style
I have read a number of books written by the brothers Bergs of the Kabbalah Centre ("The Way", "The Power of Kabbalah", "72 Names of God") and have learned and benefited from each of them. The K Centre has without a doubt been at the forefront of bringing the knowledge of Kabbalah into the 21st century. This is an honored achievement in my view. Yet the K Centre also misrepresents Kabbalah in critical ways unfortunately.
It has a tendency to identify itself with Kabbalah as if it were a brand name like Coca Cola. It has subtly misled people by representing themselves as "true" Kabbalah, as if they invented it and are its rightful heirs. They did not by any stretch. The K Centre is not the universal "spokesperson" for Kabbalah. That is because Kabbalah is not a brand name - it is more akin to a generic term. No single person or group can claim Kabbalah as its own to the exclusion of anyone else.
When I refer to Kabbalah in my own work it is in terms of this generic "everybody owns it" sense. The work of Kabbalah will go on as long as there is a single human alive left to receive it! I often refer to the type of Kabbalistic healing that I perform as the "no name" so as not to confuse people that I am the sole representative of this art.
I am not by any stretch - I am merely a beneficiary of the ageless wisdom of Kabbalah that has been passed down from generation to generation and is a gift and legacy to all who wish to partake of it. I have been exceedingly blessed in this way to practice this art and teach people the amazing benefits that Kabbalah and Kabbalistic healing can work in their own lives.
Magical, Mystical Thinking?
Although it is traditionally understood that Kabbalah incorporates a component of magic, such as the use of amulets, incantations, symbols, etc. we are now seeing that these aspects that we once believed just came "out of thin air" with no rhyme or reason have a definite logic as science is rapidly rediscovering.
The idea that these tools work "just because they do" with no real reason behind it indeed goes against the grain of the very essence of Kabbalah. We may not know why a particular object has or seems to have some possible preferential power but that does not mean there isn't a reason why.
As Kabbalah is a system, you can be sure there are rules and laws that govern how it all works. But because Kabbalah is a special kind of system (an open, infinite and ever-expanding one), many things may SEEM magical and mysterious when they are not. To be sure, that appearance of the mystical is appropriate and highly useful! Imagine if we were aware of every facet of the tools of life and their uses. Our lives would cease to maintain their vividness - they would become flat and "tasteless" - not much reason to keep on experiencing in this 4D reality.
Haven't you seen folks who are just going through the motions - they have lost their excitement, their zest for life? This is because they have fallen out of touch with the special, sacred mystical dimensions of it. In these dimensions, not knowing holds a vaunted position in our lives.
On the other hand, why do we so adore magic? Think back to all the spectacular magic shows you have attended since you were a child. What does magic do for us? It elicits laughter, excitement, wonder and awe! For instance, I remember same 30 years ago when Doug Henning had his Magic Show on Broadway. I'm still trying to figure out how he made an elephant disappear on stage!
This is the same thrill - "charge" that Albert Einstein experienced over the last 30 years of his life motivating him to find the laws of physics that would unify all the forces of nature - to come up with a so-called Theory of Everything. Einstein fully understood the gifts that life's mysteries hold - they are what keep us moving, seeking and expanding ever outward along with the rest of ongoing creation.
It keeps us in the adventure that life is, with all its dynamic energy. Yet we should be careful not to conclude from the existence of currently unanswered questions that there are NO answers. The Truth and the answers do exist and our focus is best to "do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God" (Micah 6:8).
Recently, the TV news show 20-20 produced an informative investigative report on the Kabbalah Centre. Among other things they discussed the use of so-called Kabbalah water, the red string, and scanning the Zohar. Let's dispel a few myths about these items and give a sense of what Kabbalah is and is not.
Kabbalah Water
The idea that a particular product that one buys holds special powers in a preferential manner with respect to any other thing, is deceptive. For example I would be cautious about purchasing "Kabbalah Water" from the Kabbalah Centre with the implication that this water has exclusive powers just because it comes from that source with a K Centre label pasted on it.
This is brand naming something that is already freely available to all and indeed is every individual's birthright! It is a subtle abuse of power and position. The Kabbalah Centre tends to justify the amount of money they make from sales of Kabbalah water by saying "we put every penny of it back into the organization to continue getting the word out." While it is certainly reasonable to understand that an organization must bring in funds for its support, might this also be an overly self-serving justification?
The truth is that all water that exists in this universe is already imbued with the intelligent Light, energy and consciousness from The Creator. This is a traditional, time-tested understanding of Kabbalah itself, and something that for example, quantum physics is rapidly verifying. In effect, the potential of "blessedness," the blessedness itself is already a natural endowment of every water molecule.
This energy, this Light exists within water in a kind of resting-potential state. As it is a form of consciousness it will respond to other thought forms (thoughts are a kind of light) and transition from the rest state to the activated, "happy" state, when for example one prays over water, or expresses gratitude for it.
When one appreciates the immense blessing that water holds in potentia the water is activated on multidimensional levels - not just within 4D space-time but beyond to higher dimensions. It causes energy and information held in this potential state to transform into movement energy - kinetic. This increases the vibration of the water and therefore its energy and purity through the process of resonance.
When one drinks such blessed water its expanded energy will induce the biological tissue that it interacts with to "sing the same sweet song along with it" - that is, resonate with it at an energy close to or identical with the water. This higher vibration of the tissue promotes healing on many levels in the body - especially noting that we are made of about 75% water.
The experiments of Dr. M. Emoto (chronicled in the film "What the Bleep Do We Know?") seem to bear this out - when people bless or
pray over water it is observed to change its physical conformation down to the molecular level. The chaotic, "messy" structure of polluted water is transformed into an orderly, parsimonious one. Water crystals become beautifully hexagonal-shaped.
So how can you create your own "Kabbalah water"? This is easy! Express positive intentions, love and gratitude for water. Express them as
genuinely as you can.
Say a prayer over the water you drink giving thanks to The Creator for the miraculous blessing that IS water. Let these prayers come from your heart in its native tongue - love! Expressing the prayers in Hebrew is optional. Ask that the water be of a balanced and integrative energy with respect to Mother-Father God, and that its Heavenly and Earthly energies be integrated/unified as one. Thank the water itself for the blessing it is to you personally.
There are no "technological widgets" that one must use to pray, other than the loving and sincere intentions of your own heart. Study how special water is on so many levels - this is a form of expressing appreciation for this precious resource/gift of The Creator!
Thoughtfully consider ways to conserve this precious commodity. Teach your children why water is so very special. In this way you
may choose not to pay extra by buying water that is labeled and productized when it need not be - that applies to not only Kabbalah water but obviously to ANY bottled water!
As you do these things prior to consuming water, then your realization that the water is "charged" with Divine Light sets the stage for your allowing that the water will have a healing effect on your entire being, body-mind-spirit. The more open you are to this truth (and therefore the less resistance to it) the more powerful water's healing effects will be for you - it is even not outside the realm of possibility that this could help to eliminate such diseases as cancer!
The Red String
Clearly the same consideration is going to apply for any other "widget" you can think of. The Kabbalah Centre's so-called red string placed around the wrist, currently sold for $26 with an instruction book on how to use it, would make a valued donation to the Kabbalah Centre if you choose to support their cause.
However if you buy this red string because you were led to believe it holds special powers for you (it will help you to keep negativity at bay) because it comes from the Kabbalah Centre blessed by Kabbalah Centre rabbis, this is a subtle but sure form of deception.
The implication is that buying it from the Kabbalah Centre makes it "divinely special" because of the name and the air of power associated with the brand label, and this is not true - a form of false advertising. Not a single person needs to have a Kabbalah red string to be protected from evil. In addition if you so choose, you can "charge up" any (red or other colored) yarn with your intention to remind you that you are already protected and safe from negative influences.
The reality is that ones' protection and safety is very simply through the awareness, the conscious realization of that which is already present: that each one of us has available to themselves safety and protection within and all around us. You need DO nothing for this.
Yet the awareness of that which is readily available to you will "activate" this Truth and has the fortunate side-effect of enabling you to "don it like a cloak." What makes the difference? Consciousness and receptivity of it naturally make it readily available for your use. That is a perennial Kabbalistic message.
Kabbalah insists that you are always the responsible agent of events in your life, not the outside "stuff" you take on and cede your responsibility to. So go ahead and wear the red string if you like, but do so in the realization that YOU are the one who gives it any power it may have, not the Kabbalah Centre or anyone else!
Zohar Scanning - Good Subliminal "Technology" for the Soul
The Zohar is the mystical "Bible" of Kabbalah. It is actually about 20 volumes in Aramaic, depending on the version and/or the translation. They are sold by the Kabbalah Centre but certainly not exclusively available only through them. The Kabbalah Centre asserts that "scanning" the Zohar - without having to know Aramaic or understand it - is sufficient to activate resting potential energies within your soul that relate to the information the Zohar contains.
This implies that each of us already has access to this information within (or it is readily available to us when called upon) and when we scan the Zohar, this "dormant" information is activated within, helping us to achieve our objectives in life. This mechanism is independent of your understanding of the material on a mental level.
It turns out that this is actually a correct theory and the neural sciences agree that it has a logical basis. As the eyes scan the pages, the information enters the brain. Aramaic and Hebrew, having a visual-pictographic basis as one of their important modes (sound, number and story are others) thus flows into your brain-mind where it forms patterns that are matched with pre-existing "templates" or memory engrams. This is the same mechanism at play when subliminal messages are presented to you.
According to Kabbalah these engrams along with total knowledge of the Torah - considered to be the blueprint of creation according to Kabbalistic understanding - were already present in your soul-being before you incarnated into this life.
Since we are created in the image and similitude of the Creator who is eternal and omniscient then it implies that each one of us is eternal (once created) and all-knowing - including the knowledge of the Zohar and the Torah. When we come into this world all this "data" has already been implanted within us, lying in a resting state until we choose to re-activate it in this life.
Thus the mechanism behind scanning the Zohar is not magical without rhyme or reason. This indeed works on principles that quantum mechanics agrees with (we won't go into the precise details here). The point is that it works the same way as when expressing an intention or blessing over water. When one scans the Zohar with the intention that it will activate "Zoharic energies" within - it does. In fact it only does so WITH that intention! This applies whether one is conscious of the intention or not.
The Kabbalah Centre is therefore being somewhat deceptive about this because they say it is the scanning itself that does the trick but this is not so. The expectation that scanning the Zohar will make the Zoharic energies active in someone, sets up an unconscious intention for it to do so - it is this intention that re-activates these (already present) energies within.
In fact, ONE NEED NOT EVEN SCAN THE ZOHAR ITSELF TO DO THIS! You don't even have to buy the Zohar (around $350 from the Kabbalah Centre, much less for some other versions)! All one has to do is express the intention, the desire to integrate and activate Zoharic energies present within their being for this to become so!
One can simply "connect" with these energies by expressing an intention to do so and then ask that they assist one toward their positive objectives. In addition, think how much more "active" these energies could become as agents of growth and healing if one were to spend time reading, meditating on, and/or studying the Zohar in Aramaic (best), Hebrew (next best), or English (least best of the three because you always lose something in translation)?
Is there any question that by doing these things one would be making themselves more available to utilize such energies/information imprinted by God within our hearts, minds and souls? I think not. Would this really be any different than doing the same with the Bible or the Koran? I leave that up to the reader's discretion to consider these questions.
As most of us don't understand Aramaic, scanning the Zohar with the conscious, deliberate intention of re-activating the energies already present within our soul-being will be an effective way for you to "phone home" - commune with your God-Source.
If there is a moral to this story it is to look inside ourselves to find the greatest repositories of Kabbalistic knowledge and wisdom. Using our own discernment to decide what works for us, what Kabbalah is, how it impacts us personally, and how it can help us to live our lives. It can in very profound ways.
Always be in "question asking mode" like any scientist worth her salt, as Einstein was. Don't blindly accept what anyone (not even me) tells you about Kabbalah. Don't be brainwashed by deceptive misrepresentations of Truth. Be an experimentalist and do your own research. Explore innerspace for yourself and the Truth will set you free!
Please contact us to learn how you can benefit from Kabbalistic healing and from
Kabbalah-oriented counseling and life coaching. We do phone sessions and remote healing work - distance is NOT a limiting factor!
- Dr. Michael E. Brandt
Click here for an article about what Kabbalah IS!
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