AUBURN – He asked for a volunteer and in soft, feathery motions, swept the air away from the volunteer’s body. Front, back, side, side. He made a hands-washing motion after each head-to-toe trip. To get rid of that person’s bad energy, John Alexander explained.

Demonstration over, he divided up the class and strangers practiced cleaning each other’s auras.

“It gets covered in mud, spiritual mud, so we need to cleanse it,” he said.

Alexander, a London medium, led a “Mediumship Made Simple” workshop Saturday morning at the Unitarian Universalist Church Vestry Hall. The locally based Northeast Professional Psychics & Mediums Guild sponsored the visit.

Alexander challenged the audience of 30, in a circle of wooden chairs, to question what he had to say. With humor and simple instructions, he walked them through meditation skills.

He said he has a spirit guide named Running Bear, an American Indian, and a Chinese gentleman, Wang-fu, who appears to him in trances. He believes in reincarnation; he was first a Zulu. A retired politician, he leads classes and gives readings full time.

“I hope I can be controversial this morning,” he said.

He offered snippets of tips. Be mindful of your energy, or aura, when you start the day or walk into a room. Negativity sent toward someone else will find its way back. Ask why you were put on this Earth plane. And don’t worry so much: “Worry is the art of asking for things you do not want to happen.”

When Alexander asked if anyone in the room could see auras, two hands went up.

“I was just curious if we were all sitting here with lights all around us?” one woman asked.

Sometimes, he said. She looked white. The woman next to her, purple and blue.

After the cleaning, he used dowsing rods to test how far some people’s auras emanated. The answer was about 10 feet.

In an exercise to get rid of bad energy, participants were told to visualize being on a beach, putting troubles in a hot air balloon and watching it go away.

“I’ll be unkind: ladies, if you don’t want the old man, shove him in there,” Alexander quipped.

Lynn and Wachian Welch of Lewiston said they came out to see what they could learn.

“I’ve been seeing spirits since I was a little girl, about 5,” Lynn Welch said. She’d like to be able to hear them.

Her husband said it was important to learn from others’ cultures. “He taught it on a level people can understand.”

It was Alexander’s second summer swing through Maine. He’s booked solid for two days of readings Tuesday and Wednesday in Portland, then it’s back home.

“I’m only giving people a flavor; I should be doing more,” he said at the end of class.