“I didn’t like her when she was alive, and I don’t want to hear from her now. Why don’t you bring someone interesting like Elizabeth Cady?” ---Susan B. Anthony’s response when a Lily Dale medium claimed to have a message from her deceased aunt.
Located in western New York state, Lily Dale was founded in the 19th century when spiritualism was thriving in the United States (estimates state that anywhere from 8 to 11 million people practiced this new religion at its peak, near the end of the century). New York is where spiritualism officially began (with the Fox sisters of Hydesville; see general article on spiritualism). According to the Lily Dale Assembly, a spiritualist is, “One who believes, as the basis of his or her religion, in the continuity of life and in individual responsibility. Some, but not all, Spiritualists are Mediums and/or Healers. Spiritualists endeavor to find the truth in all things and to live their lives in accordance therewith.”
About 400 spiritualist churches and communities are thought to exist still in the U.S., and Lily Dale is one of the more famous. It is thought to be the first settlement in the world formed specifically as a spiritualist village (in 1879). With the publication of Christine Wicker’s ambitiously named book Lily Dale: The True Story of the Town that Talks to the Dead in 2003, this small gated district (actually not a town on its own but part of the town of Pomfret) has seen a resurgence of visitors and interest in its history and current condition.
Lily Dale has seen many famous visitors: Susan B. Anthony, Harry Houdini, Sinclair Lewis, Mae West, Gandhi, Eleanor Roosevelt, and others. In its heyday, the town had thousands of inhabitants, and, among other things, a Ferris wheel, a bowling alley, a ballroom, its own newspaper, the Maplewood Hotel, and a collection of ornate Victorian homes. In 1916 the Fox sisters’ home was moved to Lily Dale (it, unfortunately, burned in 1955). Today the town shows its age, but still survives with its Lily Dale spiritualist Church, Assembly Hall, Forest Temple and the still-standing Maplewood Hotel. Each summer the ‘town’ of less than 500 residents continues its original mission, offering up a plethora of spiritualist opportunities in the form of workshops, spiritualist meetings, and private readings with mediums. (An estimated 20,000 intellectually curious and weird folks alike visit the town.) Indeed, no one is allowed to own property in Lily Dale, a gated community, unless he or she passes a medium test administered by the Lily Dale Assembly. Many women live in Lily Dale today; the spiritualist movement attracted thousands of female practitioners, with its opportunity for them to speak up and be taken seriously, and with its free love message. While table tilting, channeling, and spirit guides still can be found here, the Lily Dale Assembly outlawed many forms of physical mediumship in the early 20th century. Activities such as spirit photography and spirit boards are no longer allowed because of the rampant fraudulent practices of many residents here and in other spiritualist communities (Houdini, the greatly feared fraud detector, visited Lily Dale to learn from Ira Davenport, a famous medium, only to return later to expose him and others as ‘fakes’).
Wicker, in her best-selling book, visited Lily dale three times in an effort to either confirm spiritualism is alive and thriving in Lily Dale, or that the town boasts one fraud after another. She found some of each in the community and her study ends rather inconclusively. What struck Wicker the most deeply is the number of grieving people who visit Lily Dale each year in their desperation to communicate with deceased loved ones (no one uses the word ‘dead’ in Lily Dale). [It has been argued that spiritualism survived (after waning substantially in the early 20th century) because of the flu epidemic in America of 1918 that killed over a million people. Many of those left behind were frantic to contact those who had died.] The inhabitants whom Wicker profiles often believe they are the true psychics but their neighbors are inept and even charlatans. “May I come to you?” is the catchphrase Lily Dale mediums use to ask your permission to read one’s thoughts, pass on a message from the dead or attempt to heal someone.
Wicker arrives a skeptic and leaves. . . . well, she is not sure what to believe after immersing herself in this town and its culture. The people and events show her enough to make her consider the possibility that some psychics are genuine, at least part of the time.
If you want to judge this historic community for yourself, take
I-90 exit 59 to Hwy 60 south, or I-86 exit 12 or Hwy 60 north. Once in Cassadaga, turn west on Dale Drive to get to Lily Dale.
I-90 exit 59 to Hwy 60 south, or I-86 exit 12 or Hwy 60 north. Once in Cassadaga, turn west on Dale Drive to get to Lily Dale.
0 comments:
Post a Comment