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Haunted Travel: Lily Dale Assembly

July 13, 2007 at 1:46 PM | 0 Comments

It is Friday the 13th so we're introducing a little supernatural travel. Lily Dale Assembly, located south of Buffalo, New York along Lake Cassadaga, near both Pennsylvania and Ohio, is the country's largest psychic community. Residents claim that the barrier between the living and the dead stretches so thin there that visitors often feel burdened by the intense "other-wordly" presence. We just felt creeped out, whatever that meant.

Pastel cottages with the detailing of gingerbread houses line the streets. Inside, mediums perform readings in their living rooms for a fee of about $60 for a half hour. Only members of the town's assembly are allowed to live within the gated community. This means every one of the town's 500 inhabitants (or an immediate family member) is a studied psychic and member of the Spiritualist religion.

More than 30,000 visitors from the mortal world (some call us muggles) flock to Lily Dale each summer, when the town's central square fills with lectures and workshops featuring speakers gifted with the sixth sense. Well, supposedly.

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·Travel Stories in Buffalo [Jaunted]

[Photo Credit: Richard Sutphen]