Cassadaga, Florida

The best non-fiction book I have read this year is The Power of Coincidence: How Life Shows Us What We Need to Know, by David Richo. I don’t say that lightly, because I read a lot of books. It’s so good, in fact, that I’ve already begun rereading it.

THE CASSADAGA HOTEL
(note the spirit orb that mysteriously appeared in the photo of the bedroom)

The Power of Coincidence is a book about synchronicity. Synchronicity was first recognized as part of the human experience by Carl Jung, a student of Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis. Jung broke with his teacher to form his own approach to psychology which became the foundation of modern depth psychology. Richo, the author of the book I mentioned above, refers to synchronicity as “meaningful coincidences…that may guide us, warn us, or confirm us on our path…always unexpected and somehow uncanny in [their] accuracy of connection or revelation.”

Why am I starting a piece on the Cassadaga Spiritualist Camp with information about Carl Jung and synchronicity? I want to provide you with one possible avenue to gain intellectual entry into an exploration of Cassadaga that, assuming you’re not a spiritualist, will allow you to appreciate what goes on there. Please note, I say “one possible avenue.” There could be many others including taking the beliefs of spiritualism at face value. But, looking at mediums from the perspective of depth psychology works for me and it might for you. In fact, Jung’s writings, especially his Memories, Dreams, Reflections, explore alchemy, divination, astrology, and UFOs, from just such a perspective: mirrors that reveal glimpses of motives and feelings and desires of which we may not be consciously aware.

Of course, you could explore Cassadaga, Florida, purely for its historical charm as a town founded in 1894 that is now an historical district. But, I think it’s much more meaningful to actually take a taste of its very reason for existing: spiritualism.

Cassadaga is an entire town comprised only of mediums, psychics, clairvoyants, and diviners of different traditions, all of which are covered under the term spiritualism, which the Cassadaga Spiritualist Camp Association describes as a “Science, philosophy, and religion based upon the principle of continuous life.” For a fuller statement of what their church believes, be sure to read this page from their website: Spiritualism Defined.

Recently, a friend and I traveled to Cassadaga. We stayed at the Cassadaga Hotel & Psychic Center, an early 20th century hotel that is reputed to be haunted. We each had separate, private readings done by a medium associated with the hotel. We were both extremely impressed by the things our intuitive said to us during the course of our respective 45 minute sessions.

One of the contemporary terms used instead of “medium” is “intuitive.” I like that term because it fits with my own way of approaching this whole thing. As humans, we have intuitive powers that make us far more perceptive than we realize. Too often, to our detriment, we dismiss our intuition. It is totally conceivable to me that a medium can accurately intuit issues and attitudes with which a client is grappling. That insight, sincerely and empathically discussed, can then, as I said earlier, act as a mirror that reveals a glimpse into our subconscious. That glimpse, as Richo says, “…that may guide us, warn us, or confirm us on our path…always unexpected and somehow uncanny in its accuracy of connection or revelation” has the power of a synchronicity, a meaningful correspondence between the inner and the outer (a paraphrase of one of Jung’s own definitions).

I hope you travel to this historical town near us and I hope you permit yourself to suspend your hardcore rationality long enough to enjoy a session with one of the psychics. There are a list of them associated with the hotel available through the hotel website (www.cassadagahotel.net) and another list of psychics in town available through the town’s website (www.cassadaga.org). We picked ours more or less at random and were very pleased.

We also went to the Spiritualist healing and reading service that night at the Colby Memorial Temple there in town. The healing portion was particularly interesting to me. My friend has not had trouble with her knee since then. That’s the kind of tale that, of course, gives skeptics conniptions, but…a fact is a fact. It may be only the placebo effect, but placebos have a very long and very useful history.

Of course, Halloween is coming up. Halloween night, there is a Witches Ball in Cassadaga! That might be just the excuse to rent a room at the hotel, try out a medium, and get some snapshots of some ghosts. If there’s anywhere in Florida that’s guaranteed to have ghosts, it’s got to be Cassadaga.

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Tagged as: ACTIVITIES, attractions, Cassadaga, favorite articles, Florida, HISTORIC, vintage