By Dondi Dahlin

In our house, the Ouija Board wasn’t just a popular board game of the 1970s -- it was a very serious undertaking! My friend Mireille and I are 8 years old in the photo and we were quite earnest about contacting the spirits of the dead (as you can see by the look on our faces!)

My family has always lived with an awareness that there is more beyond what we can see and touch. So, in 2008, when I was invited to go with Mom and David to Western New York where they were teaching at the legendary Lily Dale, a quaint little village, not far from Niagara Falls, I was thrilled! It was a magical and mystical adventure to a sweet hamlet, considered to be the birthplace of modern spiritualism.  

Spiritualism is a system of belief or religious practice based on communication with the spirits of the dead. Mediumship has been an important part of Lily Dale since it opened in 1879, and it has also included early developments of alternative healing from the laying on of hands to hypnosis.

Lily Dale is not only a renowned Victorian village of over 200 mediums, it is where the suffragette movement had its early beginnings and where Susan B. Anthony – the Grande Dame of the women's movement – spoke to over 3,000 people in 1891. 

With just a 3-mile walking radius, Lily Dale is home to about 275 people year-round. Each year, over 22,000 visitors travel to this tiny village for readings with mediums, classes, workshops, and lectures with well-known speakers such as Deepak Chopra, Dr. Wayne Dyer, and John Edward. Many of the workshops are on topics such as mediumship, spiritualist studies, and the paranormal.

The scenery at Lily Dale is lush and wooded, with trees between 200 to 400-years-old, growing to the edge of lakefront beaches and there’s always something exciting going on! Twice a day, every day, there are gatherings at Inspiration Stump – a sacred spot that, for many, is the site of the most intense spiritual feelings. Since 1898, two services have been held at the Stump each day where mediums receive messages from Spirit for members of the audience. 

Needless to say, I was thrilled and honored when Lily Dale contacted me to be a 2024 workshop presenter and keynote speaker! I hope you will join me the last weekend of June to explore this one-of-a-kind sacred space and the teachings of Eden Energy Medicine and the Chinese Five Elements. You can learn more and sign up here.