COVER STORY : The Other Gurus Who Guide the Stars

Greta Garbo was a follower of Krishnamurti, the late Indian philosopher who spent part of his time in Ojai, and it may have been his influence that caused her to abandon her movie career. Eastern mysticism also held a fascination for Aldous Huxley and Christopher Isherwood.

After meeting a psychic who predicted the attack on Pearl Harbor, Mae West developed a deep interest in metaphysics and would invite friends to her house for demonstrations of ESP. Jayne Mansfield and Sammy Davis Jr. became priests in the First Church of Satan, founded by the well-connected but much-maligned Anton LaVey.

Years later, Hollywood still offers plenty of work for gurus of every stripe, from the mystical to the motivational.

From Steven Spielberg to Nick Nolte, celebrities are busy “liberating” their inner child under the guidance of John Bradshaw, the recovered alcoholic turned best-selling author and public television host. Barbra Streisand, Roseanne Arnold, Quincy Jones, Cathy Rigby, Carol Burnett, Carrie Hamilton and Oprah Winfrey are among the millions of Americans who have sought spiritual awakening and higher consciousness through Bradshaw’s tapes and books, according to his assistant, Karen Fertita. Some even go to workshops where lullaby music is played and participants cradle or stroke one another.

Tom Cruise, Kirstie Alley, John Travolta and Mimi Rogers are just a few of the big-name members of the Church of Scientology, whose roster also includes Anne Archer, Priscilla Presley, Karen Black, Chick Corea and Al Jarreau.

Celebrities whose names have been linked with Werner Erhard’s est movement include Raul Julia, Valerie Harper, John Denver and Ted Danson.

Like many celebrities, Denver, Streisand and Danson also seek psychic or spiritual wisdom in more than one place.

Denver has meditated with Gurumayi Chidvilasananda, an Indian “enlightened master” and female monk who inherited the mantle of spiritual leader of the Siddha Yoga movement from the late Swami Muktananda. Other actors who have practiced this ancient meditation tradition include Isabella Rosselini, Marlo Thomas, Roseanna Arquette, Melanie Griffith and her husband Don Johnson.

The 36-year-old Gurumayi “has opened Melanie’s heart and she tries to see her as much as possible,” said Griffith’s spokesman, Elliot Mintz.

Streisand has attended “transformational” seminars in Arizona at a posh conference center called Moonfire Lodge run by W. Brugh Joy, a onetime practicing physician who turned to spiritual healing after recovering from a serious illness and now helps people “reopen the forces of nature.”

Novelist, screenwriter and director Michael Crichton wrote in his book, “Travels,” that he experienced his “auras” while attending one of Joy’s conferences. “Something cracked in my way of looking at things,” said Crichton. Richard Chamberlain is another Joy enthusiast. Not one to shy away from unconventional ideas, Joy in his book “Avalanche” strongly recommends eating “higher forms of animals as part of a ‘vibrationally balanced’ life-essence diet, which would also include plants and plant products, minerals, and even insects.”

As for Danson, he is one of many entertainment figures whose spiritual path has led them to a “channeled” entity. In Danson’s case, it is Lazaris, a “spark of consciousness” who communicates through Jach Pursel, a former Florida business executive and ex-vice president of an investment company called FutureVision. Other Lazaris “friends”--the term he prefers to “disciple” or “master”--include Sharon Gless, Renee Taylor, Joe Bologna, Barry Manilow, Lesley Ann Warren and Michael York, said Andrew William, Pursel’s spokesman.

Lazaris “represents a force of positivism and love that illuminates--like a bright, beneficent searchlight--the obscure and unknown corners of human life,” York is quoted as saying in a blurb for the two-volume “Lazaris Interviews.” The star whose name is most closely associated with channeling is, of course, Shirley MacLaine. She is close to Kevin Ryerson, who channels several entities, including a one-time Irish pickpocket, a Pakistani physician and a Jamaican who illuminates racial problems.

Through a nationwide series of seminars, MacLaine taught thousands how to get in touch with their spiritual selves, but had to bow out because “the public put her on a pedestal” and started confusing her with a guru, said her spokesman, Dale Olson.

Olson said MacLaine is no longer involved with J.Z. Knight, the Seattle-based woman channeler she made famous in “Dancing With the Light.” But Linda Evans said through a spokeswoman that she remains a “good friend” of Knight, who claims that a 35,000-year-old man named Ramtha speaks through her.

Contrary to widespread speculation, Evans said she moved to Seattle after “Dynasty” was canceled to be near her sister, not Knight, who lives on a horse ranch outside that city.

Some entertainment industry figures are not especially loyal to one or two movements but dabble in several. Take Sandy Gallin, manager of Dolly Parton and Michael Jackson. “I’m not a fanatic about ‘A Course in Miracles,’ or Marianne Williamson (who lectures on the course) or est or Lifesprings,” he said, “but I do it all, and I find something to learn in most of it.”