GURU MICHAEL?

Look out, Deepak Chopra and Anthony Robbins. You might have competition in the self-improvement arena from none other than Michael Jackson.

The beleaguered ex-King of Pop is being touted as a quasi-spiritual avatar in “Michael Jackson American Master,” a new book by Bay Area writer C. Mecca. What’s more, both the author and Jackson’s publicist say that the entertainer has read it and endorses its notion that he is a superior being, on a par with Mozart and Michelangelo. Not only did he give Mecca 37 unpublished photos to use, but Bob Jones, the vice president of Jackson’s MJJ Productions, who last year compared his boss to Jesus Christ, wrote the foreword.

“Join C. Mecca in discovering the techniques and thought process of Michael Jackson as we study and observe the creativity of the living master of our generation,” says a promotional pamphlet for the book, which Mecca published herself. “He is a prime example of the masters of the past, and the lineage to the future.”

Mecca, 60, is a former teacher and counselor of abused youth. Over the years she developed her theory of “the masters”--people with supreme talents and achievements whose lives could serve as blueprints for the rest of us to use in elevating ourselves. Jackson, she says, is the only living figure who fits the mold.

“It doesn’t talk about his biography,” Mecca said by phone from her Millbrae office. “The main premise of the book is to say the creation of the talent of these masters is in how they interpret nature [in their lives and art].”

As for the numerous allegations leveled at Jackson in recent years--from eccentric behavior to charges of child molestation--Mecca dismisses them as fabrications and products of media focus on “negativity.” And even if some are true, she says, they’re irrelevant.

“What difference does his lifestyle make in terms of talent?” she said. “It pains me and it pains a lot of people to have the media criticize [Jackson]. You’re feeding a negative movement out there.”

So she’s trying to get people to feed positive progress. Of course, that’s not cheap. The book, printed on deluxe satin paper, has a retail price of $54.95.