Regarding the importance of finding out what is authentic Judaism and what is simple misguided craziness: The Mesillas Yesharim says in the introduction that the basis for proper service of G-d is to clarify what our job is in this world. This means that there is prone to be a misconception as to what proper service of G-d is. It follows then, that because of this there may be (many!) misguided Jews out there who do things which they think are mitzvos and proper service of G-d which are really not!