Eddita Felt insists she's shy.

It's spirit guides that motivated her. One named Fergus in particular.

They wanted her to get out more, to be out more.

So much so that they goaded her into forming the Northeast Professional Psychics, Mediums & Healers Guild.

"Fergus was adamant that I was ready to be out there in the public as a wise woman and a teacher and as a medium. He was just like, 'Whatever it takes- just do it!'" Felt said.

"How could I argue with that?"

Yes, she's aware, in certain circles, mediums are considered "crackpots." That was partly behind her initial hesitation.

Not a hang-up shared by Fergus, presumably.

Felt's guild, more active recently with fairs in the Twin Cities, turns 3 in May. It has three members. Petite, blond and grandmotherly, she won't accept just anyone.

Would-be psychics, mediums and healers have to prove their chops with client testimonials and agree to ethical standards, like not telling the future in bars.

Felt, who lives in a Durham apartment with a tart, woodsy smell from "smudging" (burning cedar and sage to clear the air), said she had her first psychic experience when she was 2. (It was uncovered, years later, under hypnosis). She began reading tarot cards for family and friends in the 1970s and turned it into a business in 1995.

She charges $45 for a half-hour session.

Everyone is psychic, she said, only some people are well attuned to it. She listens to her own guides and clients' guides. Most people want to know about their health, their job and how to contact dead friends and family.

"Sometimes I'll see stuff going on with their feet, sometimes I'll see sluggish digestion" or even chronic illness, she said.

Guides can get most vocal about work: "They'll tell me to send folks to the Lewiston Career Center - that's happened at least three times."

Sometimes, she claims, other people's people come to her days or hours before a reading. Felt was vacuuming once, three hours before an appointment, when "I'm suddenly feeling very frail, very very old, and male."

It was the father of the woman coming in for the appointment. He'd died of cancer.

He wanted to make sure he was first in line to talk.

Felt said she doesn't like big crowds or, especially, going to the mall. There's too much of that sort of chatter.

"There's so many diverse energies coming to one place, you get like a psychic headache," she said.

"I'm shaking someone's hand and I'm hearing 'She's an accountant.'"

Felt took classes to hone her medium skills; she teaches them now. One is planned for Oxford Hills in June. Intermediate Psychic Development classes start this month in Durham.

With the guild, she hopes people feel comfortable going to a vetted practitioner and get familiar with different holistic options (Reiki, polarity). And she hopes that enough psychics, mediums and healers join to create a broad referral network.

It's a challenge bringing credibility to a field more frequently associated with misty-eyed women hunched over crystal balls and Dionne Warwick's Psychic Friends.

"It's not a sideshow - to me it's serious work," said Kate St. James, one of 10 people in the lengthy process of joining the guild. "I wanted a way to find clients, sort of gain the exposure."

She's had a traditional therapy practice for years in Brunswick and a separate medium practice for 18 months.

Brenda Wentworth of Freeport has had several readings with Felt. She said she was never pumped for information. Felt sits there calmly, appears to talk to people Wentworth can't see and offers up images and messages, every so often asking if something sounds right. Felt encourages clients to record sessions; she often doesn't remember what she's said afterward.

Wentworth said Felt suggested her father have his foot checked for gout - turns out he did have a foot issue - and picked up on mannerisms of her mother, who died 10 years ago.

"I've never had a reading that on," Wentworth said.

Felt said she read for another woman whose deceased mother-in-law wanted to apologize for being so absolutely mean in life.

The client didn't want to hear it at first. Eventually, she relented and felt better.

"And that couldn't have happened when they both were on the earth plane - the mother-in-law wasn't in the right space," Felt said. "You'll see people make up with people on the other side. For me, it's good to know death is not the end and we can still work on our relationships."