Spiritualism’s Place: Reformers, Seekers, and Séances in Lily Dale

In Spiritualism’s Place, four friends and scholars who produce the acclaimed Dig: A History Podcast, share their curiosity and enthusiasm for uncovering stories from the past as they explore the history of Lily Dale. Located in western New York State, the world’s largest center for Spiritualism was founded in 1879. Lily Dale has been a home for Spiritualists attempting to make contact with the dead, as well as a gathering place for reformers, a refuge for seekers looking for alternatives to established paths of knowledge, and a target for skeptics.

This intimate history of Lily Dale reveals the role that this fascinating place has played within the history of Spiritualism, as well as within the development of the women’s suffrage and temperance movements, and the world of New Age religion. As an intentional community devoted to Spiritualist beliefs and practices, Lily Dale brings together multiple strands in the social and religious history of New York and the United States over the past 150 years: feminism, social reform, utopianism, new religious movements, and cultural appropriation.

Podcasters and historians alike, Averill Earls, Sarah Handley-Cousins, Elizabeth Garner Masarik, and Marissa C. Rhodes each identify one site in Lily Dale and one theme that its history illuminates. They use those sites and themes to approach Lily Dale not as debunkers but as inquisitive researchers and storytellers. At the same time, they also reflect on their own relationships contending that it’s never quite possible to separate grief, hope, faith, and friendship from understandings of the past. Spiritualism’s Place breaks myths, unveils unexpected stories, and finds new ways to contemplate Spiritualism’s role in American history.

Averill Earls is Assistant Professor of History at St. Olaf College. She is the author of the forthcoming book, Love in the Lav, and Executive Producer of Dig: A History Podcast.

Sarah Handley-Cousins is Assistant Teaching Professor of History at the University at Buffalo. She is the author of Bodies in Blue, Executive Editor of Nursing Clio, and Producer of Dig: A History Podcast.

Elizabeth Garner Masarik is Assistant Professor of History at SUNY Brockport. She is the author of The Sentimental State and Producer of Dig: A History Podcast.

Marissa C. Rhodes is Assistant Professor of History at Saint Leo University. She is former Managing Director of A Journal of the Plague Year, and Producer of Dig: A History Podcast.