Does the Community of Lily Dale Reconnect the Living and the Dead?

Spiritualism is a 19th-century belief system that holds that the living can communicate with spirits of the dead through mediums. Learn about the community where spiritualism is famously practiced, Lily Dale, in this episode of BrainStuff.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of I Heart Radio, Hey
brain Stuff Lauren Vogelbaum. Here. In eighty two, young women
known as the Fox Sisters heard mysterious wrappings in their
house in Rochester, New York, and claimed that they were
messages from the spirit world. Enough people at the time

(00:22):
believed the Sisters that an entire new field known as
spiritualism was born. Based in European philosophic writings from previous centuries,
Spiritualism was and is a structured belief that humans consist
of a body, a soul, and a spirit. When someone dies,
the belief goes, the soul and spirit live on in

(00:43):
a spirit realm. According to a study published in the
Journal of Religion in nineteen thirty, quote, the chief duty
of these spirits is to look after the welfare and
progress of those on earth. Upstate New York at that
time was already a hot bed of intellectual communities, so
hot that it was known as the burned Over District

(01:04):
for the nearly constant religious revivals that took place there.
Joseph Smith, the founder of Mormonism, got his start there
literary and intellectual community of Chautauqua, where feminist for mother
Susan B. Anthony hung out was nearby, so in a way,
spiritualism fit right in. In eighteen eighty, the lily Dale

(01:25):
Spiritualist Assembly was founded at the eighteen acre Cassadega Lakes
Free Association Camp for Spiritualist gatherings. In nineteen o six,
the whole community was renamed lily Dale. Now, more than
a century later, it sounds kind of weird and witchy
and campy, but lily Dale was incredibly popular in its
early days. It began holding summer camps in the eighteen

(01:48):
nineties that were well attended. To put it mildly, Susan B.
Anthony was one of the many who visited to check
out the mediums. A journalist working for the New York
Times stayed in eight and reported that a quarter million
people went to the tiny town every year. The reporter
noted mediums as a class are strange beings. At the

(02:10):
time of his visit, mediums were charging a hundred dollars procession,
which is about three thousand dollars today. Interestingly, the price
for reading is currently around eighty to a hundred dollars
in today's dollars. He witnessed a few of the techniques
that came to be associated with lily Dale, such as
an ear trumpet that would rise from the floor and
deliver a message directly into an attendees ear. Mediums at

(02:34):
lily Dale also used a slate on which spirits could
write messages. You may be surprised to learn that candles
and incense are forbidden at lily Dale. The buildings in
the community are very old and very wooden, and it
doesn't take a medium to know what will happen if
there's an open flame. Well, actually they know very well
what will happen. The Fox Sister's original house was moved

(02:57):
from Rochester to lily Dale, but went up in flame
in nineteen fifty five. Spiritualism declined in the twentieth century,
but lily Dale remained a stronghold was summer camps continuing
every year for the past several years. Attendance has also
held study at twenty thirty thousand visitors going there in
search of clarity and direction, though this year visitor numbers

(03:19):
were restricted to just eighty per day, with social distancing
and mask rules in place in addition to other precautions.
A study published in the Review of Religious Research in
nineteen eighty found that only a small percentage of visitors
at that time we're going to talk to a dead
family member. The studies authors came to the conclusion that
the kind of spiritualism practiced at lily Dale was more

(03:42):
like a religious sect than a cult, the difference being
that sex are usually breakoffs from mainstream religions, whereas cults
tend to involve novel ideas. The study concluded that the
mediums at lily Dale might be doing people a service
by granting them a level of peace and acceptance. The
searchers wrote, if spirit communication can be associated with madness,

(04:04):
it's also possible to view the medium as a mental
health resource. Whether people still visit lily Dale today for
clarity and direction or they want to make contact with
the other side probably comes down to the individual. But
since the nineteen seventies the number of mediums and the
population of lily Dale have soared. Back then, the village

(04:27):
was home to about thirty mediums in residence during the
summer camps, and a dozen or so who stayed on
to keep up the town year round. Today, under normal circumstances,
visitors are welcome in the off season, and lily Dale
has a year round population of two hundred and fifty,
as well as a post office, volunteer fire department, library
and a playground. There's also a coffee shop, two restaurants,

(04:50):
a few gift shops, some guest houses, a hotel and
a museum. The National Spiritualist Association of Churches is located there,
but only members of the lily Dale Assembly can lease
houses in the community. But back to the mediums, and
now there are some forty registered mediums and all aspirants
have to pass a test consisting of three readings before

(05:13):
being established in the community, and they are still the
main draw. Whether people are going in hopes of receiving
or conveying a message to dead loved ones is totally
personal and depends on their belief in the medium's abilities
under normal circumstances. Those interested don't have to pony up
for a private session either. There's a day use fee

(05:34):
for anyone who wants to go and simply roam the
streets and attend the public meditations and services, and you
can visit Inspiration Stump where services have been held. Since
this year, all workshops, classes and some circles were held.
Virtually one thing has not changed throughout lily Dale's history,

(05:56):
the community has always emphasized sobriety, humility, and a decided
lack of showmanship. They may appreciate a good pun, but
they take their work seriously. They also emphasize that the
future is not written in stone. Everyone has free will.

(06:17):
Today's episode was written by Kristen hall Geisler and produced
by Tyler Klang. For more in this and lots of
other curious topics, visit how stuffworks dot com. Brain Stuff
is a production of iHeart Radio. For more podcasts my
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