"We teach people how to think, not what to think, and folks find that appealing," Hayes says. "But we do make sure to tell people that, while the mind is a powerful way to get what you want, you may face some pain along the way. Nothing comes easy." That sounded like a fair trade to Bob Stewart, a county commissioner in St. Petersburg who recently was drawn to First Unity when a favorite Presbyterian minister retired. Skeptical at first, he now relishes the weekly meetings, as well as his new meditation routine.

"I've found a comfortable zone at that church," Stewart says. "I find that focusing my mind helps me with my life."

Over the decades, everything from personal solace to material wealth has helped draw people to spiritual and secular leaders who promise that your wish is the cosmos's command. Even before the Civil War there was a fascination with mental healing, an outgrowth of the work of 18th-century Austrian physician Franz Mesmer, who pioneered the study of the unconscious mind and hypnosis and gave us the term "mesmerizing."

When photography became popular, "many people were sure these often-foggy images were proof that the body possessed an energy that was capable of taking physical form," says Robert Fuller, professor of religious studies at Bradley University in Peoria, Ill., who focuses on unconventional U.S. religions.Fuller says a growing fascination with the unseen world gave way to a wave of interest in Spiritualism, in which otherworldly energy was used for both healing and summoning Aunt Betsy from the great beyond.

Famously, magician Harry Houdini embraced the movement in the hope of contacting his late mother, but he turned on it when she didn't appear. His attempts to debunk mediums led to dire threats from high-profile Spiritualists such as Sherlock Holmes creator Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. (Just last week, Houdini's relatives moved to exhume the escape artist's body in an effort to see if he was murdered by Spiritualists.)