S3 Episode 1: Exploring America – Lily Dale – Bound by the Cloak
Lily Dale is a place where Spiritualism lives and the dead are in constant contact with the living. It’s a place that people flock to in search of comfort, healing, and meaning. It is also a quiet community located in western New York that’s a stone’s throw away from Canada and nestled between Buffalo and Erie, PA.
In our search for some of the most interesting and unique places in America, Lily Dale stood out for its influence on American culture and society. We spoke to Mandi Shepp, the former director of the library in Lily Dale and has a great knowledge of the town’s history. We also spoke with Bobbie Caswell, a psychic medium living in Lily Dale. Bobbie discussed what it’s like to be a psychic medium, how the Spiritualist movement has, and continues, to shape this community and why people flock to it every summer.
Mandi Bio:
Amanda M. “Mandi” Shepp received her MLS in Library & Information Science in 2013 from the State University of New York at Buffalo. From 2014 – 2018, she worked for the Lily Dale Assembly as the first professional Librarian of the Marion H. Skidmore Library, a special collections and rare books facility which houses the largest private library collection of Spiritualist and Occult books in the world, and became the Library Director in 2016. In 2017 Mandi was presented with the WNYLRC Excellence in Library Service Award for her role in completely revitalizing the library and bringing it up to modern academic standards. In 2018, she transitioned to The State University of New York at Fredonia’s Daniel A. Reed Library Special Collections & Archives Division where she currently serves as the Coordinator of Special Collections & Archives.
In addition to her professional duties, Mandi presents and writes on topics related to collections and historical subjects within the realms of Freethought, Spiritualism, and the Occult; she also serves as the co-chair of the Harvest Moon Cemetery Tours planning committee. When she’s not elbow-deep in materials from a bygone era, Mandi can be found homebrewing, experimenting in the kitchen, and enjoying life with her happy-go-lucky husband, Chris, and enormous Norwegian Forest Cats, Kujira and Bakemono.
Bobbie Bio:
Bobbie Caswell is a medium, healer, creative strategist, coach, speaker, and the owner of Conscious Potentials. Conscious Potentials is a business that offers coaching and business strategies to develop ideas and resolve concerns.
Show Notes:
Articles:
Communing With the Dead: A Photographer Spent 20 Years Documenting Seánces by Jacqui Palumbo (2023)
Why Did So Many Victorians Try to Speak to the Dead by Casey Cep (2021)
The Art of Belief: On Talking to the Dead in Lily Dale by Laura Maylene Walter (2021)
To Join This Community of People Who Speak to the Dead, Prepare to Be Tested by Sarah Durn (2021)
Spiritualism, a New York Heritage by Rikki Schlott-Gibeaux (2020)
Books:
Radical Transmissions: Isaac and Amy Post, Spiritualism, and Progressive Reform in Nineteenth-Century Rochester by By Caitlin Powalski (2009)
Lily Dale: The Major Vortexes by Patricia Price (2017)
Supernatural Entertainments: Victorian Spiritualism and the Rise of Modern Media Culture by Simone Natale (2017)
Lily Dale: The True Story of the Town that Talks to the Dead by Christine Wicker (2003)
The Black Spiritual Movement by Hans A. Baer (2001)
The History of Spiritualism by Arthur Conan Doyle (1926)
