LILY DALE, N.Y. — A town where the dead never die — sounds like something out of a movie, right?

For one small community an hour southwest of Buffalo, spirits coming alive is their claim to fame.

“Well, this is an inspiration stamp. It is one of Lily Dale’s vortexes,” said Eileen McClure, a medium with the Lily Dale Assembly. “A lot of [visitors] will say as soon as their feet touched the Lily Dale grounds that they felt a zap.”

McClure felt it too. It inspired her to become a medium.

“I don’t think it’s on your top 10 job positions when you’re 5, OK,” she laughed.

While Lily Dale has its sights to see, perhaps the biggest draw is what you can’t see.

“A lot of people say that — ‘where the dead never die.’ But, you know, we don’t…die,” McClure said.

This is a community of spiritualists and mediums that bridges the gap between this plane of life and the next. They’ve been doing it for 147 years, bringing in thousands of visitors every summer.

“They go from 1880 all the way around till today,” said Ron Nagy, the historian for the Lily Dale Assembly.

“Some people call it a walk back in time,” he added.

Nagy keeps that history alive, starting with the beginning of modern spiritualism with the Fox sisters.

“They [..] picked up on a noise that a murdered peddler was making in the house they lived in,” Nagy explained.

His exhibits also walk through various phenomena that have happened throughout the years.

“They had the spirit trumpets, they had precipitated a spirit page where a painting would appear on canvas without painting them,” Nagy said.

Lily Dale even served a role in societal change.

“We have a section set aside for just mostly women’s suffrage, which was a big movement here,” he said, pointing to a corner of exhibits in the Lily Dale Assembly.

McClure believes there’s something for everyone.

“This is one small piece of religious history and it’s also one small piece of New York history,” she said.

However, the medium part of it can come with some uncertainty.

“Some of the first newcomers come because they are a skeptic,” McClure said. “When they come for a reading, I will go on my reading just as I do for anybody.”

These sessions can be pricy, sometimes hitting hundreds of dollars for a half hour, reflective of the years of training and requirements that mediums here must meet.

“They have to do outside messages and then are critiqued by the registered mediums,” she added.

Spectrum News 1 Buffalo reporter Viktoria Hallikää came in with her own doubt, but still tried out a reading.

It was a wide-ranging session where the medium heard from various lost family members. While it didn’t totally change her thoughts, she could see how people find peace here.

“The most important question is, ‘Are they OK?’ And it’s such a joy […] when you kind of describe what they might be doing [and] that they are still watching over them,” McClure added.

So whether it’s to make a connection or just to find a place to breathe, Lily Dale is happy to welcome you in.

“It’s a little niche that is different, but yet […] really is still needed,” McClure said.

Lily Dale’s season ends Aug. 31.

Though if you’re looking for a reading outside of that phone and online sessions are available with some mediums.