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They're mental, magical, hypnotic, bizarre. And they want to entertain you. They are the Psychic Entertainers Association, or PEA, an organization of mostly performers and creators who present entertainment of a psychic nature.

"That includes mentalists, a term for people who do mind reading and thought reading," says Loyd Auerbach, a former PEA president and currently on the board of directors. This weekend, the group, which numbers about 250 international members, is gathering in Los Angeles for its annual "Meeting of the Minds" convention.

"Basically, we're not phony psychics -- we're psychic entertainers," says Auerbach, 54, who, in his alter ego of "Professor Paranormal," is an accomplished mentalist. Auerbach is also an acclaimed parapsychologist, whose first book, "ESP, Hauntings and Poltergeists," was referred to as the "sacred text" on ghosts by Newsweek in 1996.

One of the things he does is what the PEA calls "bizarre" magic, a mystical form of storytelling. Auerbach creates his own "Seance Fiction Theater."

"The whole focus is on entertainment. When you go to a magic show, there's not even the slightest expectation that anyone -- other than a 3-year-old in the audience -- is going to think that this stuff is real, and it won't impact them emotionally. "Magicians fool you, trick you, but we try to engage you. It's psychic entertainment with the sixth sense -- that's your sense of humor."

While mentalism -- where performers seem to demonstrate extraordinary mental powers -- is traceable to 19th century spiritualists, history is filled with stories of seers and prognosticators, dating back to the oracles of ancient Greece.

The PEA, formed in 1978, is the latest incarnation of that all-knowing tradition, and it prefers to keep its membership in the low numbers."We don't look for members who simply pay their dues and hang on," PEA president Joseph Curcillo says. "The organization was founded to give us a place to meet with each other and share ideas, thoughts and to mingle with our own. We don't really fit in anywhere else -- in this market, we're somewhat loners."

In addition to his PEA presidential duties, Curcillo, 49, wears a couple of other interesting hats. By day, he's a criminal trial attorney in Pennsylvania, and at night, he sort of slips into a phone booth, changes his clothes and emerges on stage in his alter ego, Joey "The See" -- Mindreader to the Mob.

Curcillo's defense attorney vocation seeps into his stage persona. "A trial lawyer is a showman. We're not looking for applause or an audience to cheer. We're looking for an audience that's going to do what we tell them. There's much more at risk, but it's the same type of work."

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