Customer Reviews

Lily Dale: The Town That Talks to the Dead (Plus)

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Lily Dale fascinates because it is an unusual account of a skeptic approaching believers with sensitivity and openness. It is beautifully written, and a compelling story of the ins and outs of fragile faith. Christine Wicker goes to Lily Dale, a Spiritualist community in upstate New York, with many doubts, but that glimmer of hope we all feel when dreaming of communication with the next life. She meets a wide variety of characters, all involved with the Spiritualist faith that dominates the small town, (although not all in the town are true believers, and her firmest friendship is formed with a skeptic who loves the town's community.) The committed faith and experiences of the people she spends time with gradually win her over, if not to belief, at least to a real openness to the genuineness of their experiences, and paint a very compelling picture of one of the last Spiritualist communities in America. This is a one-of-a-kind book, and I can't recommend it highly enough - so grab it while you can still find copies!

Christine Wicker was a journalist with the Dallas Morning News as the religion reporter. In this book she explores Lily Dale, the 122 year old spiritualist center. While much has been written about it, there has never been a thorough examination about exactly what goes on there, who the people are and what they do from the inside of the town.

The people of Lily Dale allow Ms. Wicker to come into their town, their homes and their lives to examine the spiritualist/medium movement, its history and its claims.

Ms. Wicker approaches the topic with gentle skepticism but an open mind. We are presented with a good history of the town and the spiritualist movement. We meet the people who had created Lily Dale and the people who are there now. Practices that were popular when the town was founded are discussed. Examined are some of the tricks that had been used. We see the changes that have been made, how the practice that had been a boom to the town became exposed, and how the town changed their practices to bring it more in line with spirituality rather than a side show.

Ms. Wicker does look at what the beliefs of the mediums are. And while I believe she is never totally convinced, she does have material to ponder, and she does question. I found that admirable. I also see where she re-examines her own beliefs, and comes away with some unexpected insights.

It's a lovely look at the town, at its history, at the practices and the spirituality. It is presented honestly and openly. And it also tells of Ms. Wicker's own journey through this examination of things that are just a little outside the box of normal religion and spirituality.

There is some good journalist writing here, the story is well told and will entertain, enlighten and possibly spark some curiosity on the readers part. Boudica

Lily Dale is a summer camp for Spiritualism. It is sixty miles south of Buffalo. Sinclair Lewis visited in 1917. Mediums no longer use spirit cabinets, ouija boards, or crystal balls.

Only Spiritualists are permitted to buy the houses in the one hundred sixty-seven acre compound. The Lily Dale Association is a religious corporation. The community is located only twenty miles from Chautaugua.

What is a vibration, the author asked. Mediums believe that they can sense when a spirit is present. Even skeptics brelieve that Lily Dale may be a place of great spiritual wisdom.

Services at the encampment are called message services. There are no appointed ministers for the two churches in the community. There is much respect there for individual rights.

William James reported that belief in psychic events has appeared in every society. Cornelius Vanderbilt sought the assistance of clairvoyants. Karen Armstrong has noted that rationality cannot assuage our sorrow.

The author went to Lily Dale as a skeptic, but she changed. Spiritual growth is about walking into mystery. The author, a journalist, worked on the staff of a Dallas daily newspaper. She spent several seasons at Lily Dale. She gives a fair and interesting account of her sojourn there. Students of American history and general readers will find much to like in this book.

Lily Dale, by Christine Wicker was an interesting book. The author, a journalist who focuses on religion, based this book on visits to the town of Lily Dale, a spiritualistic community in New York State. While it reads like fiction, this is a true account on her experiences in the town and the people she meets (some names changed).

While originally just going to see what all the hype is about, Wicker has to concede by the end of the book that there is something special about Lily Dale. While some of her experiences she determined to be outright fanciful and full of hype, she does determine that some of it was real. She uses these instances to help her grow and while she may not believe it is "ghosts" that help her with her feelings, the people there are genuinely trying to help her.

She focuses on several people and among these are a few that come to Lily Dale to help them with their grief. Pat Naulty is a professor whose son died during a Russian roulette game. Her trip to Lily Dale is to just get some rest and while there she does believe she makes contact with her son. Carol Lucas is a teacher who wants to contact her husband who is recently deceased. While she is a skeptic, she does find some comfort in the town. Marian Boswell while outwardly seems to have the perfect life, learns that not all is at it seems and with the help of her faith, learns to grow past her hardships.

She also interviews some of the mediums and becomes friends with a couple. While they all seem to genuinely believe they commune with the dead, she is able to realistically show that they are normal people and believe they are doing normal things. And it feels natural.

While I enjoyed the book I did find that the way it was written bothered me. While the writing itself was detailed and you could picture the scenes of the town, it was also very confusing. She mentions several people during the novel and they reappear here and there with no seeming order. This makes it difficult to keep track of who's who in the novel and you have to read several paragraphs into a story before you realize just who she's talking to. She does include a cast of characters at the end of the book but that doesn't help much while you're trying to read the book.

This book also featured a couple pages of pictures. I found these fascinating and enjoyed seeing the older ones of the places and people of Lily Dale. There weren't many, but I think it added to the book and helped create the town a little better in the mind while reading it.

Lily Dale
Copyright 2003
277 pages

The sleepy, tiny town of Lily Dale, New York is tucked away in its own little world. Said to be a focal point of positive spiritual energy, it is home to and visited by psychics and healers of all kinds. Tourists come to hear from their deceased loved ones or merely to enjoy the healing provided by the peaceful, positively-charged atmosphere. This book tells about one woman's experiences in this unusual town. She provides us with history and interesting stories of the people, past and present, of Lily Dale. Although this book is not very well-written and tends to jump around quite a bit, it does describe some of the wonders of the exceptional little town called Lily Dale.

As a medium and author I found Ms. Wicker's style to refreshing. Playing devil's advocate she allows the reader to decide the merits of mediumship and this unique town. Her journey as a non-believer is real and attractive to many readers who are struggling with their own beliefs. For them her quest to seek, ask and research may lead them to do the same and bring them further on their journeys. I would never want to force my beliefs on anyone; I know my truth; everyone has to find their own. Just be open and the world will be at your feet -- new and exciting. After reading this book, I booked my trip, and will be doing a book signing there on July 17, 2009. Thank you Ms. Wicker for leading me to a new adventure.

Anna L. Raimondi
Talking to the Dead in Suburbia - An Ordinary Woman with an Extraordinary Gift

Christine Wicker is an extremely readable writer. This book is one of the most enjoyable reads I've run across in ages. She handles her subject with sensitivity, intelligence, and humor. A Must Read for anyone interested in afterlife exploration and/or Spiritualism.

Lily Dale is a New York town, infamous for its residents . . .not necessarily those you see but the ones you can't see. It's been on the map as a Spiritualist community for over 100 years. Residents you can see, and there are lots of them, too, are avowed Spiritualists. They open their community each summer to the curious and all looking for an answer to the great unknown questions--what happens after we die? Do we die? Is there an afterworld?

Residents of Lily Dale, the physically alive and those who move in and out via the spirit world, speak directly to a deep belief in a world where death is simply a loss of the physical body. The life of the spirit lives on and on. So we know way ahead of time what they think.

The author, Christine Wicker, was the religion reporter for the Dallas Morning News. She's clearly a seeker and the book is as much her search for answers as about the town and what it represents. Maybe it was my perception from the title, which told me the book would give us the truth, but I came away from this book a bit let down. I felt as if it was presented as a literary experiment, a reporter's journey into the unknown. She'd give readers her assessments of what the truth might be based on Lily Dale itself, not undeniable fact. I was ready for author/subject interaction, and hoped to hear Ms. Wicker's thoughts on what Lily Dale represented to her.

I didn't get that. It was as if she maybe didn't get the answers she hoped for so she simply didn't offer her impressions. She seemed still skeptical despite her affection towards Lily Dale's locals, and she was even in awe of some of them.

Christine Wicker is a talented writer. The book is lively, full of colorful, entertaining, enlightening characters. I even had an urge to consider my own pilgrimage to Lily Dale . . . and in the final count, maybe that's what the author intended. Maybe she just wanted the mystique and curiosity to continue to flow.

Ms. Wicker could not or didn't want to commit. As she put it, "One minute I could believe, and then someone would push me too far." I guess she didn't want to push any of her readers too far.

I've got a scientific mind, a logical mind, an engineer-type mind. And, I'm also open to things that science cannot explain. Wicker practiced open-minded skepticism, a wonderful approach! 5 stars! I enjoyed the entire book.

Let's face it: Whether or not you really believe that ghosts exist or not, it's still fun to read about them. The author takes a very subtle approach in demonstrating how for most people, ghosts represent feelings of loss, guilt, or unresolved issues rather than an actual spirit that has yet to make its' way toward the "Light". Especially telling is the believers that continue to have faith in the mediums despite failure to reproduce spiritual marvels under controlled conditions, or when the medium has been exposed as an outright fraud. It is very easy to look back on this era and laugh, or make fun, but if one looks closely enough, you can make adequate comparisons between the Spiritualist Movement and several other religious, social and political ones. The power of belief is a phenomenon perhaps even more interesting than even ghosts and apparitions!