Afew steps down to a basement on Pearl Street will lead you to a spiritual wonderland where you might say "hey, we are not in Kansas anymore."

"Lighthouse Books Metaphysics", says the glass door of the bookstore. A little bit lower than that, a bright yellow sign with big boldface letters reads "Psychic Reader Tarot Reader Spiritual Advisor ON DUTY."

Inside the bookstore, statues of Egyptian Pharaohs, Chinese Buddhas, Ganesh the Indian elephant-headed god, dragons, fairies, angels...gods and goddesses traveled around the world to attend this carnival. Books on Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, Shamanism, Mythology...all major religions and beliefs have converged on this small corner of the planet.

The Lighthouse Bookstore is a reflection of the New Age Movement, which started in the 1970s, and was popularized by mass media in the 80's. It has to do with alternative spiritual beliefs and practices: ESP, UFOs, tarot, crystals, astrology, Feng Shui, Zen Buddhism, acupuncture. The one thing that seems to tie it all together is its distance from mainstream science.

Rick Manville started the bookstore in Boulder in 1984. Before that, he tried in San Diego, San Francisco, Tucson, Phoenix, and a few places in Florida. Whenever he got a bit successful, Barnes & Noble or Amazon would move in, and put him out of business.

"It's like you are eating a candy bar. Some big guys came and grabbed it away," Rick said.

Friday morning, the business was slow. Rick, now in his sixties, is reading a book called Beyond Thinking: A Guide to Zen Meditation at the register. He looked above the rim of his glasses whenever there were customers walking down the stairway.

"Hello young ladies." Rick greeted two college-age customers. One of them was wearing an army green jacket, the other in a purple skirt with ruffles, big sunglasses mounted on top of her head.

After they said they are interested in a psychic reading, a woman sitting in the back of the store stood up. Her name is Cleo, 75 years old. Dressed in a black top and a long violet batik skirt, Cleo is a graceful and soft-spoken woman. She told the two girls her sister, the reader, would be pleased to meet them, but she was booked up for today and tomorrow. Cleo took a card out of the book she was carrying and handed it to the girls.

"Give us a call before you come. Weekends are usually busy. Other times if you are in the area, just drop by."

"OK," the girl in the army green jacket took the card, paused and asked, "uh, can I ask her any questions I have in mind? How does it work?"

"Yes, you can ask her any questions in your life that you don't have an answer to," Cleo said softly. She looked into the girl's eyes. "My sister reads the tarot card. But she won't tell the answer, because that is inside of us. She helps YOU to find the answer. It's like cleaning the clouds and fogs in your life."

The other girl cut in, tilted her chin to point at a tremendously heavy-looking necklace on Cleo's neck, "what's the meaning of that?"

"I call it my flower," Cleo looked down at the flower-shaped necklace, told the girls that she got it at a psychic fair in Arizona. It was made by Tibetan monks and nuns. It's a generator, which generates compassion and love and wisdom.

"Do you have special power too?" the girl in the ruffle dress asked.

"We all do." Cleo said with a smile. "It doesn't matter if we know it or not." Her big eyes are bloodshot; her face full of wrinkles, but she looks kind and peaceful.

With that Cleo left, saying that a woman was coming from Denver for a reading. She had to go greet her at the gate.

A young woman came in hand-in-hand with her boyfriend to look for a book called Love and Sexuality through Palmistry.

A tall man in a tweed sports coat and blue jeans stopped for a long time at a section with books on Tibetan traditions and religions. On the bookshelf, there was also a copy of the Falun Buddha Law. This is the religion accused by the Chinese government of being an "evil cult" and banned on the mainland.

"Do you have statues on sale?" A woman asked Rick at the front counter.

"For you, 10 percent off, any statue." Rick said.

The woman was pleased and started looking up and down among the hundreds of statues in various sizes and shapes in the store. She walked past a sign on the wall that says:

"Please treat the Buddha or any religious image that you purchase with great respect...Buddha statues don't bring good luck. All protection sought must coincide with your individual karma to be effective."

As the owner of this melting pot for world religions, what does Rick himself believe?

"I believe different religions, systems, cultures are all the same," Rick said, "they are all ice-cream, just different flavors."

Rick continues, "let's say we are all climbing a big mountain. Buddhism, Taoism, Christianity, Islam all choose their own trails."

"On the way up, it looks different. But when they get to the top, they see the same view; the same happiness; the same light---This is the message of the Lighthouse Bookstore."

At this moment, a woman with light brown shoulder length hair came in. She dropped a small cup of coffee and a pastry paper bag on the counter.

"This is my wife," Rick said, "she is from Italy. My family is from Ireland and France. But we are the same. We are people."

Rick said there is a tendency for people to focus on differences. "When they concentrate on different things, people grow apart. But if they can look at similar things, we become close."

"During the sixth century B.C., a group of people in India called the "Jains" believed all viewpoints are valuable. There was no one belief, language, or existence that were superior to others."

"If we can all understand that," Rick said, "a thousand years of peace."

When I climbed up the stairway to leave the store, Rick said to me, "good luck in the harsh world."

Outside the Lighthouse Bookstore, Pearl Street seemed as lovely as usual: piano music in the air; kids playing on rocks under the sunshine; people stepping out of the ice-cream shop holding big chocolate waffle cones.

The lighthouse glows at the corner.