The run-down, two-story building next to Albertsons on Palo Alto's Alma Street seems unremarkable at first glance. An abandoned first-floor storefront displays the corny cartoon of an enthusiastic man selling donuts.

Inside, the smell of incense is the first clue that something is unusual. On the second floor is the Ecclesia Gnostica Mysteriorum , one of the few Gnostic churches in the country.

Free spirit