The pungent smell of incense is the first hint that this apartment on Brattle St. is not your ordinary home. Pinned up against the wall are flyers advertising Psychic Healing, Crystal Therapy, and classes ranging from meditation to massage. Several kitchen chairs and tables on which are spread colorful crystals and velvet bags of runes comprise the only pieces of furniture in the room. One table by the window has a plate of cookies and a selection of herbal teas on it.

Every weekend people leave behind the mundane world of the Square and visit this apartment to have readings done, buy books and some just to satisfy their curiosity.

If you're one of those willing, you're not alone. More and more Americans are beginning to lend credibility to what they once would have considered the far-out world of psychic wonders, according to several of the psychic readers who frequent the fair, which is sponsored by the Healers' Resource Center. Consequently, activities like the psychic fair are growing in number across the nation.

"Thanks to Shirley McLaine, things have picked up--we've jumped off the Gypsy wagon train and into the limelight," says Gloria McPherson, a psychic reader who works part-time for the Healers' Resource Center.

Acording to Chaya Sarah Sadeh, who founded the non-profit Healers' Resource Center, about 200 people drop by the fair on an average weekend. Some of those come just to look around, but about a quarter actually have readings done, she says.

Readings are $12 for a 15 to 20 minute session. The readers work out of a small room in the apartment, where packs of Tarot cards, colorful crystals, and an occasional bag of runes can be seen on set out on small tables. But the readers say that these objects are mere tools, and that the actual reading of a person is done through psychic abilities.

"A psychic can pick up a person's vibes and tell where they're coming from, as well as where they have been--their past lives. The psychic can then predict certain things in the future based on patterns in that person's life," says reader Steve Brown.

Brown says he concentrates "on a person's life experiences. We don't try to deal with all of the mental garbage you have floating around in your head. We deal with intuitive experiences--where people are coming from."

In a typical session McPherson says she focuses on the person she is reading and lets her subconscious pick up information about that person. "I use my intuition, my psychic abilities when I'm reading. It's not a thought process, it's all intuitive." Using runes, crystals or cards, she says, only "provides a focal point."

Looking For Balance

The readers all have their psychic specialties: some prefer using tools, some use nothing other than their mind; some profess to be able to tell you about the future or about past lives, while others prefer to deal only with the present. They all share the goal of offering guidance.

"After figuring out what is going on for a person, and what might be expected to go on in their life, we offer clarity and perspective on directions that the person could move in," says Linda, a reader who asked that her last name not be used. "Psychic readings are a tool for the inspection of the self," Linda says. "We are like mirrors, we often just confirm what a person already knows about themself."

Joyce Lynch, a New Hampshire resident who was visiting the fair a few weeks ago, says she came because she had received a notice in the mail and felt it was a message to her that "it was time to do this again, time to concentrate on my spirit." Lynch says that the readings help her gain perspective on her life, and often give her good advice. In a reading she says, "You need to be open to what you need to hear, not necessarily what you want to hear."

"Everyone needs to have a balance in life between the physical, emotional and spiritual. If you have an effective balance, you will be at most peace with yourself and the world," adds Lynch, who says that life is a search for that balance.

But, she says, she doesn't limit her search to readings and psychic fairs. She applies her philosophy of seeking balance and inner peace through mental-imagery in her career as a successful business executive. She says she even teaches her office staff the powers of positive thinking. "You can choose to be positive. Once you decide what you want to happen, and visualize that in a positive way, it can become reality," Lynch says.