Lily Dale<\/a>\u00a0has its sights to see, perhaps the biggest draw is what you can\u2019t see.<\/p>\n\u201cA lot of people say that \u2014 ‘where the dead never die.’ But, you know, we don’t\u2026die,\u201d McClure said.<\/p>\n
This is a community of spiritualists and mediums that bridges the gap between this plane of life and the next. They\u2019ve been doing it for 147 years, bringing in thousands of visitors every summer.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey go from 1880 all the way around till today,\u201d said Ron Nagy, the historian for the Lily Dale Assembly.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome people call it a walk back in time,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Nagy keeps that history alive, starting with the beginning of modern spiritualism with the Fox sisters.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey [..] picked up on a noise that a murdered peddler was making in the house they lived in,\u201d Nagy explained.<\/p>\n
His exhibits also walk through various phenomena that have happened throughout the years.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey had the spirit trumpets, they had precipitated a spirit page where a painting would appear on canvas without painting them,” Nagy said.<\/p>\n
Lily Dale even served a role in societal change.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a section set aside for just mostly women\u2019s suffrage, which was a big movement here,\u201d he said, pointing to a corner of exhibits in the Lily Dale Assembly.<\/p>\n
McClure believes there\u2019s something for everyone.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is one small piece of religious history and it’s also one small piece of New York history,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
However, the medium part of it can come with some uncertainty.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey have to do outside messages and then are critiqued by the registered mediums,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
Spectrum News 1 Buffalo reporter Viktoria Hallik\u00e4\u00e4 came in with her own doubt, but still tried out a reading.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe 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,\u201d McClure added.<\/p>\n
So whether it\u2019s to make a connection or just to find a place to breathe, Lily Dale is happy to welcome you in.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s a little niche that is different, but yet […] really is still needed,\u201d McClure said.<\/p>\n
Lily Dale\u2019s season ends Aug. 31.<\/p>\n
Though if you\u2019re looking for a reading outside of that phone and online sessions are available with some mediums.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LILY DALE, N.Y. \u2014\u00a0A town where the dead never die \u2014 sounds like something out of a movie,…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":145478,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,23598,9870,7448,17546,7366,405,403,17050,50,5226,5225,5228,5227,879,1072,52,86168,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,86169],"class_list":{"0":"post-145477","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-app-in-the-community","10":"tag-app-things-to-do","11":"tag-app-top-stories","12":"tag-buffalo","13":"tag-community-news","14":"tag-new-york","15":"tag-new-york-city","16":"tag-new-york-state","17":"tag-news","18":"tag-newyork","19":"tag-newyorkcity","20":"tag-ny","21":"tag-nyc","22":"tag-rochester","23":"tag-things-to-do","24":"tag-top-stories","25":"tag-trip-on-a-tankful","26":"tag-united-states","27":"tag-united-states-of-america","28":"tag-unitedstates","29":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","30":"tag-us","31":"tag-usa","32":"tag-viktoria-hallikaar"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115027984153784301","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145477","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=145477"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145477\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/145478"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=145477"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=145477"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=145477"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}