In a small town not far from where I live, spirits move. Or so I am told. Lily Dale, a small hamlet in New York state, was incorporated in 1879 as Cassadaga Lake Free Association: a spiritualist camp. The principle tenet of spiritualism is the ability to communicate or interact with the dead. As a belief, it has been around almost as long as religion itself. As a movement, it gained popularity in the Victorian period as science and religion competed, collided, fused, and occasionally meshed—with followers like Arthur Conan Doyle and William Crookes (inventor of the Crookes tube for x-ray). Lily Dale’s brand of spiritualism owes itself to that nexus of science, philosophy, and religion—and I had meant to write today’s newsletter about the town, the spirits and mediums, and the upcoming Peculiar Book Club show with musician Jill Tracy, for whom “music is a ghost.”
What a beautiful tribute to these amazing women.