There is a small town in western New York where spiritualists gather each summer to communicate with the dead. They have been doing this for well over a century. Just driving through the town, as I once did, can be a bit spooky, although that may have been my imagination.

Christine Wicker was a religion reporter for the Dallas Morning News when she first visited Lily Dale. She ended up returning summer after summer, getting to know many of the spiritualists who live there or visit there. The result was her 2003 book “Lily Dale: The True Story of the Town that Talks to the Dead.”

Many well-known people have visited Lily Dale over the years, from Mae West (a believer) to Harry Houdini (a doubter). Wicker first went to Lily Dale as a doubter, then found herself shifting back and forth from one camp to the other. She calls it "the Lily Dale bounce." Something strange happens that makes you think spirits may actually be communicating with living people, but then something happens (or doesn't happen) that makes you think the whole thing is hooey.

Wicker bounces back and forth throughout her book. Training to become a medium herself, she discovers she has a gift for reading the pasts of other people, a gift that leaves her when she leaves Lily Dale. She sees tables dance and mediums say amazing things that have no logical explanation, while she finds that so much of what these mediums say is utter foolishness.

Even the mediums themselves doubt much of what they hear in Lily Dale. They themselves are skeptics, she finds, and they take swift action against obvious frauds.

Wicker comes to like these people. She believes that they believe. And sometimes, she admits, she does, too.

Reading Wicker's book makes me wish I had stopped on my way through Lily Dale and had a conversation or two — preferably with the living. ( )

Towards the end of this book, it becomes less a series of character sketches and more of a memoir, which I enjoyed more than the earlier, dry and impartial, segments.

I could relate to the author's back-and-forth self-talk as her intellect struggled to interpret some of her observations and experiences. She never comes down hard one way or another; she does an excellent job of leaving nearly everything open for the reader's own intellect to grapple with the stories she's told. Reading about her experiences invited me to go back and ponder some experiences of my own. I like it when books do that.

I got this book as a gift for a friend who likes ghostie things. Now having read it, I really can't say for sure whether or not it will appeal to her. It really isn't about ghostie things at all; but I am rather glad to have read it, myself. ( )

Review: Ghostland: No Man's Land   I was quite excited to spend my monthly Audible credit on this book; what a fascinating idea--reframing American history by examining our relationship with our landmark haunted locales.
 
I, unfortunately, have returned it to Audible.
 
Each house is well-chosen: the Lemp mansion, for example, as a haunted touchstone in American history and culture...
and then debunked as an actual, or at least a full as-known haunting by the author. Chapter after chapter.
 
I hung on through the underlayer of smugness until the author stated repeatedly that Spiritualism didn't last, it was dead, it was no longer a thriving practice in the United States. Then I stopped reading. Why? I had reached the intolerable level of poor scholarship and research. There is an entire town of Spiritualists who live and work as such, in plain sight, and have done so for years: Lily Dale. Both a documentary and a book are available about Lily Dale, New York, and both are easy to find:
 
Lily Dale: The Town That Talks to the Dead * Christine Wicker
 
HBO Documentaries: No One Dies in Lily Dale
 
Side note: The author was also treated well by the Lemp Mansion's hosts, taken on their Haunted Tour, and given the choice room--one that is on the tour because it is reported to exhibit so much phenomena. His entire account of his Lemp tour and stay was mocking, in my opinion, disdainful of staff, location's history, and even his fellow tour group members! I feel as if I have been subjected to a history book written by a hipster: "Look, we're supposed to be enjoying this. OMG, all these people are really enjoying this! I cannot wait 'til I return to my cocktail and typewriter." Combined with the shoddy research, and some debunking claims without citations, this book is disappointedly unprofessional.
 
Also posted at The Dollop: American History Podcast ( )

Towards the end of this book, it becomes less a series of character sketches and more of a memoir, which I enjoyed more than the earlier, dry and impartial, segments.

I could relate to the author's back-and-forth self-talk as her intellect struggled to interpret some of her observations and experiences. She never comes down hard one way or another; she does an excellent job of leaving nearly everything open for the reader's own intellect to grapple with the stories she's told. Reading about her experiences invited me to go back and ponder some experiences of my own. I like it when books do that.

I got this book as a gift for a friend who likes ghostie things. Now having read it, I really can't say for sure whether or not it will appeal to her. It really isn't about ghostie things at all; but I am rather glad to have read it, myself. ( )

I have been to Lilydale many times and this book astounded me with history and information I did not know. Lilydale is a lovely,calm,peaceful place to visit. A spa for your senses. The fact that you are not the only "visitor" there makes it more interesting. ( )