CASSADAGA - PSYCHIC CAPITAL OF AMERICA  

 Spiritualism turns the face of humanity to the light of the truth.

Cassadaga – Psychic Capital of America

Writing and traveling are my passions. Invited to join a friend, Jude Parry, on a road trip around Florida, I jump at the opportunity.

Especially as the trip is in a Cruise America RVAlong with Jude, a theater producer and mime artist and me; Otto, her beloved dappled brown, knee-high daschund will join us.

As a tribute to American writer John Steinbeck and his classic novel, Travels with Charley, my plan is to write a book, Travels with Otto, the Tale of a Dog.

Several days and 250 miles from our home base in Miami, we head to the Psychic Capital of America - Cassadaga.

Cassadaga is located roughly 50 miles from Orlando, Florida. A Spiritualist Community whose unique and mysterious beginnings are shrouded in the mists of time. Over 120 years ago, founder, George Colby was led to this remote area of central Florida by his spirit guide "Seneca."

The unincorporated small town is mostly comprised of an eccentric style of rural architecture with wooden clapboard cottages and energy balls in practically every garden. It is home to mediums, healers, psychics and metaphysical practitioners.

Colby Memorial Temple stands on Mediumship Way, and Sunday services take place with guided meditation and spiritual healing. Guest speakers present lectures, and demonstrations are provided by reverends, mediums and healers from the community and around the world.

There are historical tours, special events and Nighttime Encounter Spirit (Orb) tours. At the bookstore, visitors can buy tapes and CDs, crystals, stones, jewelry, Native American crafts and sign up for classes and workshops. If it's way out there, it's here in this weird and wacky town.

The residents of the settlement known as Spiritualist Camp, sign a Declaration of Principles. Number 1 states: We believe in Divine Intelligence; 2) We believe the phenomena of nature, both physical and spiritual, are the expression of Infinite Intelligence; 5) We affirm that communication with the so-called dead is a fact, scientifically proven by the phenomena of spiritualism.

The final belief stated in Number 9 affirms that the precepts of prophecy and healing in the Bible. are divine attributes proven through mediumship.

On Spiritualist Street, Mediumship Way and at the Harmony Hall Rooming House,mailboxes testify to a town chock-full of reverends and doctors, mediums and healers. Quaint, ephemeral homes are painted in misty blue, sea green, winter /white, buttery/cream and silver grey. American flags flutter over statues and sculptures of angels, cats, butterflies, colored globes and wind chimes.

No building is over two stories high, and practically every home has a written sign advertising the services of a medium on the minimally tended gardens and pathways.

Cassadaga Hotel is the dead center of town. It's somber, oppressive, antique-filled furnished rooms, creak and resonant with an unseen low-level breathing that echoes through the building and out onto the verandah. An unsettling atmosphere, reminiscent of a once elegant 1920s hotel now masquerading as a film set, threatens to entrap unsuspecting travelers and enmesh them in toe-curling stories of ghouls and ghosts. Whispering, so as not to wake the dead, each time a staff member or guest appears, it behooves one to question their mysterious sudden appearance.

The hotel hosts an Olde World Tea Leaf Reading Party twice a month and the ancient artclaims to give insight through symbolism to the near future or distant past. A disclaimer points outinformation given is always guided by free will.

Elsewhere in the community, there are opportunities to have past-life regressions, learn how to do a psychic reading and see auras, receive electronic communications from the spirit world and be guided on an esoteric path through the spiritual plane.

An Evening with Spirit combines clairvoyance. clairsentient and clairaudient development.

The Andrew Jackson Davis building on Stevens Street welcomes believers to a Talking Stick Circle with drumming, dancing, flute playing, prayers, stories and customs.

Cassadaga enthusiastically embraces all manner of metaphysical and psychic beliefs, and all spiritual world views appear to be recognized or accepted here.

Mediums and healers are available for readings and classes, but many houses appear empty or their residents prefer to stay mysteriously hidden behind closed curtains and locked doors.

Venturing alone down Mediumship Way, having escaped Otto and his mission to protect us, I decide it is time for spiritual guidance.

Tuning in to the psychic vibration, I am led to the front door ofSnipes House, a substantial property surrounded by sable and scrub palms, built in 1928.

Two concrete lions and five globed street lamps guard the entranceway leading to the closed and screened porch. Angel statutes and bird baths decorate the doors and windows, and the sun illuminates a stained-glass panel on the top floor of the house. Wind chimes, flower arches and sunbursts cover the house and encourage visits from all manner of angelic beings.

Why was I led here? I had not made an appointment. Out of nowhere I heard a voice.

An elderly lady, whom I had seen earlier tending her garden, looked me in the eye and spoke in a quiet voice, "You know where you are going," she told me kindly. "You are on your life path. Don't keep seeking answers. Have faith and walk toward your destiny."

Silently as she had come, she was gone. The message had been delivered.

Cassadaga vision states: As the sunflower turns its face to the light of the sun, so Spiritualism turns the face of humanity to the light of the truth.

Bemused and reflective, I turn and see Jude emerge from the Meditation Garden. Otto pulls on his leash and his insistent barking signals it's time to feed the body, not just the spirit.

Cassadaga is weird and wacky, and some kind of wonderful. Surely there is no other place on heaven or earth exactly like it.

Ends

Ellen Frazer-Jameson

www.ellenfrazerjameson.comThis email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.