Awakening (Lily Dale #1)(63)
WCS: I find that comforting! It’s happened to me and to my siblings and husband and father. My father, sister, and I all had dreams about my mom, not long after she had passed, and in all of them she was wearing red (we found this out after the fact and the coincidence struck us!). Do you think there’s some kind of symbolism or meaning there? We all strongly felt these were visitations and not just “dreams.”
LT: When you have that sort of “collective” experience with matching details, you can be assured it’s a visitation. And colors often are part of the message.
WCS: I want my readers to know that Lily Dale is a real place. They can visit www.lilydaleassembly.com for more info about it. Dr. Lauren, you’re there during the summer “season,” correct?
LT: Yes, I’m one of forty or so registered mediums. Have you spent much time in Lily Dale yourself?
WCS: I’ve been visiting Lily Dale many times a year for as long as I can remember—I grew up a few miles away and return to my hometown every couple of months to visit my family, who all remain in the area. I often make my way to the Dale, not just for research or spiritual healing, but because it’s a beautiful, serene setting in any season.
LT: What is your most vivid memory of Lily Dale?
WCS: It was the last place I visited with my mom before she passed away in May 2005. She was in her early sixties and dying of breast cancer, and I had sadly been called home. My father, husband, two little boys, and I took her to her final radiation treatment, then went for a drive because she couldn’t bear to return home yet. It was a cold spring day, and we were all crammed into my father’s car, driving through the streets of Lily Dale. I realized she and I were thinking the same thing, which remained unspoken because the kids were with us—that after she passed, I could return to Lily Dale and find her. That is exactly what happened. She was in a coma two days later, and she passed away the week following our last visit to Lily Dale. The famous psychic James Van Praagh vividly brought her through to me and several family members three months later, in August, in the Lily Dale auditorium at his workshop.
LT: I’m so glad you had such a meaningful experience at one of our events. If you visit the Dale in the summer, you’re likely to find me out and about at one of the daily message services—so say “Hi!” if you visit. I look forward to meeting friends and fans of Wendy—and Calla.
Dr. Lauren is also the author of Natural-Born Intuition: How to Awaken and Develop Your Inner Wisdom and Natural-Born Soulmates:
Follow Your Inner Wisdom to Lasting Love. To find out more about Dr. Lauren or Wendy, visit their Web sites at www.DrLauren.com and www.wendycorsistaub.com.
TRUTH IS INDEED STRANGER THAN FICTION
IN THE TOWN OF LILY DALE . . .
? Lily Dale is 60 miles south of Buffalo, New York.
? Founded in 1879, Lily Dale is the largest Spiritualist community in the United States and possibly the world.
? It costs $10 per person to enter the wrought-iron gates of the community during its summer season.
? Several houses in Lily Dale are said to contain energy vortexes, and supposedly there is a spot in the forest that is so charged, the hair on your arms will stand up straight.
? Psychics hang up shingles outside their homes advertising their specialties.
? Inspiration Stump is Lily Dale’s holiest place, where the mediums gather daily during the season to give readings to the town’s guests.
? Mae West was a Lily Dale believer, and she said that her favorite medium there came to visit her right after his death.
? Harry Houdini, a foe to Spiritualism, so frightened the community that when he came to town, they all locked their doors and hid.
? Lily Dale was one of the first towns to get electricity, and it was originally called the City of Light.
? Susan B. Anthony was a frequent visitor to Lily Dale. Most of Lily Dale’s leading psychics over the years have been female, and the women’s rights movement had many supporters there.
? Lily Dale psychics rarely have insights about themselves or those people close to them—mainly because they have their own lessons to learn here on Earth, or so they believe.
CAN CALLA LEARN TO TRUST HER NEWFOUND GIFT?
READ ON FOR A SNEAK PEEK
AT WHAT HAPPENS NEXT IN LILY DALE
The corridor smells of hot food as Calla makes her way toward the cafeteria after social studies, her fourth-period class.
So far, so good. Things are going better than she expected, being the new kid for the first time since kindergarten. Wait, kindergarten doesn’t even count, because everyone else is new too.
Here, everyone else gives off the comfortable, easygoing attitude that comes with familiar territory.
This was familiar territory for Mom by the time she started her senior year here. Just knowing that this is where her mother went to school gave Calla chills when she first walked up the broad stone front steps.
Not you’re about to see a ghost chills. More like if you’re not careful, you’re going to burst out crying in front of everyone chills.
Calla quickly discovered that beyond the old-fashioned redbrick exterior of Lily Dale High are equally old-fashioned green chalkboards, banks of gray metal lockers, scuffed hardwood floors, and straight rows of desks.
This place is a world away from Shoreside Day School back in Tampa, with its state-of-the-art labs, indoor-outdoor classrooms, and lecture halls housed in a sprawling cluster of sleek, modern buildings that feel more like a college campus than a high school.