InLily Dale: The Town That Talks to the Dead, Christine Wicker packs her bags and takes a good honest look at the Spiritualist community of Lily Dale and the mediums that call the place home. She views every experience with an open and respectful, yet unapologetic and skeptical eye, which I appreciated… even if I felt a bit guilty for appreciating it. The reader gets to follow what ends up being a cast of fascinating characters, including guests, mediums, and other members of the community. She asks the questions many of us would probably want to ask, but wouldn’t, because we’d be afraid of being offensive. Christine covers the good, the bad, and the dysfunction of Lily Dale (even juicy gossip among mediums)! And even though she stubbornly refuses to have a spiritual experience, there’s evidence that she does, even if it’s just temporary.
In the last five years or so, I’ve spent much of my time reading, experimenting, and researching all things “spirit communication”. After first reading about Lily Dale in a book aboutSpiritualism and the famous Fox Sisters, and after conversations with mediumLee Allen Howardand hearing about his trips to the famous Spiritualist camp, it has been a destination I’ve been very interested in learning about and possibly visiting. Also, six months ago I watched and reviewedNo One Dies in Lily Dale, the HBO documentary. As I mentioned in the comments of arecent post about this book, I think I’m going to have to watch the documentary again after reading Christine’s take on it all. I’ll make it to Lily Dale one of these days, but in the meantime I feel like the experience of reading this book was the next best thing.
Do you have any other recommendations on the topic of Lily Dale? Let me know in the comments below!
I don’t remember who recommended it or brought it to my attention. It may have been one of you. So I purchased No One Dies in Lily Dale, the 2010 HBO Documentary, from Amazon and it arrived on the doorstep this evening. I didn’t waste much time before settling down with some coffee and a blanket, and throwing the DVD in the computer.
I’ve wanted to visit Lily Dale since I learned about it for the first time a few years back. I know several of you have been… I enjoy seeing the pictures. I can think of three major reasons I want to go: to surround yourself by open and enlightened people, many who are psychics and/or mediums who have the ability to give readings or deliver messages from loved ones; to see the physical beauty of the homes, the nature, and the surroundings of the peaceful community; and lastly, to be in a place with so much history and so many artifacts from the early days of the spiritualist movement.
This documentary captures everything that I was curious about, like just what is a reading like there? Are there community members that just live there all year? Is everyone nice and friendly? Is there a gate? (Seriously, that has been one of my questions.) You’ll also see skeptics or open skeptics roaming around. But for sure, it seems that in the documentary, many of the visitors had recently lost loved ones.
Check this documentary out. I think my Lily Dale book might just be next.
In Lily Dale: The Town That Talks to the Dead, Christine Wicker packs her bags and takes a good honest look at the Spiritualist community of Lily Dale and the mediums that call the place home. She views every experience with an open and respectful, yet unapologetic and skeptical eye, which I appreciated… even if I felt a bit guilty for appreciating it. The reader gets to follow what ends up being a cast of fascinating characters, including guests, mediums, and other members of the community. She asks the questions many of us would probably want to ask, but wouldn’t, because we’d be afraid of being offensive. Christine covers the good, the bad, and the dysfunction of Lily Dale (even juicy gossip among mediums)! And even though she stubbornly refuses to have a spiritual experience, there’s evidence that she does, even if it’s just temporary. 
