MASTER OF PERCEPTION : `WORLD'S FOREMOST MENTALIST' TO HEADLINE FUND-RAISER.

Byline: Charles F. Bostwick Daily News Staff Writer

The man who goes by the title of ``The World's Foremost Mentalist'' says he is not a psychic, not an occultist nor a fortuneteller.

There is nothing supernatural about guessing the Social Security number of a stranger in the audience, or mentally encouraging a person to pick a certain playing card, or finding where in the theater the check for his payment that night is hidden, says Kreskin - usually billed as The Amazing Kreskin, host of his own 1970s television series and a guest on scores of talk shows.

``I don't like the term psychic,'' said Kreskin this week by telephone from his home in New Jersey, where he was born 61 years ago as George Kresge. ``I'm sure there are some sincere ones, but to tell you the truth I don't know why they don't spend more time at race tracks.''

Of his ability to do things that others regard as either a theatrical trick or a paranormal skill, Kreskin says: ``I think it's partly a sensitivity and intuition and unconscious perception. I used to say I think the term ESP should stand for `extremely sensitive perception.' A blind person can tell you when a person is coming before you can hear them.''

Kreskin will headline Saturday's Heartsounds Goes Hollywood, the signature annual fund-raiser for The Children's Center of the Antelope Valley. Appearing with Kreskin will be comic impressionist Joey Van and nine celebrity impersonators, including look-alikes of Marilyn Monroe, Tina Turner, Whoopi Goldberg and Charlie Chaplin.

Saturday's benefit begins at 6 p.m. at the Lancaster Performing Arts Center, 750 W. Lancaster Blvd. A few VIP tickets at $150 each - which entitle the holder to attend a special reception with the performers after the show - are still available, as are some of the $50 balcony seats.

VIP tickets are available by calling the children's center at [phone], and balcony seats by calling the theater at [phone].

The event will be done in the style of a Hollywood movie premiere of the 1940s or 1950s, organizers said.

``We have a searchlight, and we've got three red carpets leading into (the theater), and we're making it really into an old-fashioned Hollywood event,'' said Ingrid Chapman, director of resource development for the center.

The center is a private nonprofit agency established in 1990 because of community concern about the high rate of child abuse in the Antelope Valley. It depends on fund-raisers like the annual Heartsounds benefit and on government and private grants to subsidize its services.

Serving about 150 families a year, the center provides therapists for victims of physical and sexual abuse, and offers training programs, lectures and information to the community.

The center also offers a family preservation program service that includes counseling, homemaking instruction, parent training and other help directed toward making individual homes safer places for children to live.

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Photo: The Amazing Kreskin will demonstrate Saturday his unusual ``sensitivity.''