I recently returned from a trip to Lily Dale, NY, the world’s largest Spiritualist Camp. Back in the second half of the 1800’s, people would travel to the rural Spiritualist camps; not only to attend séance and message circles, but to escape the heat of the cities. Lily Dale was founded in 1879, and has been a site of mediumistic practice for 131 years.

My first trip to Lily Dale was in the summer of 1977. Carl Hewitt rented a bus and a large group of his students traveled approximately 10 hours to Lily Dale. It was a very exciting experience for me, since I was new to Spiritualism at the time.

One of the strongest impressions I had was attending a Message Service in the Auditorium. In those days, the Auditorium was showing its age. The stage had four or five chairs on it reserved for the mediums, who would be delivering Spirit messages. I remember being stunned at the beginning of the service as the medium arrived: men dressed in suits, and the women in long evening gowns marched onto the stage. It was not their dress that surprised me, but their age. All of the mediums had to have been in the late 70’s and early 80’s.

That trip holds other fond memories for me, as I remember Carl had met another medium whose name was also Rev. Hewitt. Rev. Emily Hewitt was from Paterson, NJ. She also had brought a group of her students with her. The Rev. Hewitts decided to have both groups of students meet at midnight in the forest Cathedral (literally a group of wooden benches in the middle of the woods). There the Rev. Hewitts went into trance and both their spirit Controls addressed us. It was a amazing demonstration of trance mediumship and a most memorable night. 

My next visit to Lily Dale was in 1979. Carl had been invited to be the final speaker that year, which was the 100th anniversary of the camp. I remember he went into a trance state, and delivered the most magnificent lecture, I ever heard him give.

I do remember Carl and I returned to Lily Dale at another point in time, but we were rather disappointed with our visit. There seemed little to hold our interest at the time.  

Now that I am developing my own mediumship, I often hear my teachers discuss that there is an ebb and flow in the energy during a session of Spirit communication. I find that especially true, as I give a message. As I begin, I have access to just a small bit of information. However, once I discover who the message is for, and as the conversation between myself and the sitter continues, there is definitely a build up in energy, and the information begins to flow, with more and more detail forthcoming. 

I feel this ebb and flow also is present in Lilly Dale.  Today, I am most impressed with the camp in its present state. Not only has much been done to update the main buildings, but there also has been much effort put into creating a vibrant program that provides workshops on many aspect of mediumship, and psychic phenomena.

I had the privilege of seeing Lisa Williams give Spirit Messages, while I was at Lily Dale. Lisa Williams is a top-notch British medium, who had and will have another TV show. While she did not train with the SNU (Spiritualist National Union) nor at the Arthur Findlay College, she works in the British style. This means she concentrates on bringing forth evidence, which proves the identity of the Spirit communicator to the person receiving the message. She spoke about this fact, and while evidence is important, she also conveys the personality of the Spirit communicator, as well as any idiosyncrasy the Spirit may have possessed during his/her physical lifetime. 

What was so very surprising to me, which is not evident on her TV show, is Lisa’s own bubbly personality. Her energy is absolutely infectious. She just draws you into what she is doing and saying. She also is extremely down to earth, and as I was to learn during the workshop I took with her on the flowing day, she is genuine, sincere and impassioned about mediumship. 

I think the most valuable realization I came away from this experience is that perhaps my perception of mediumship, has been skewed for all these years. As most of you know, Carl Hewitt was a superb medium. Part of his infectious appeal was his magnetic personality. As is taught to all student mediums, not only does one have to be able to communicate  information from Spirit, but also one has to deliver that information in a way, which  will keep the audience’s attention. Therefore, the medium has to have some “showman ship.” Carl was an excellent showman, and part of that was he never seemed to have any doubt, about what he was saying. However, now I believe he just kept that to himself.

I found it most interesting, and relieving that Lisa Williams did show some “doubt” during her presentation. At times, she was not sure of the meaning of a symbol, or some confusion as to what she was getting. This happens to me most frequently, and I assumed it was because of a lack in my ability. Now I realize that this is actually part of what every medium goes through when he or she steps into the role of being the intermediary between the physical and Spirit worlds. 

I have recently been surprised to learn that many working mediums have intense “stage-fright” before giving messages. It is imperative for a medium to trust the world of Spirit, and the more one can remove self-doubt  and fear from one’s consciousness, the clearer vessel one will be for Spirit. Learning there is static on the lines of communication between the two worlds, is a fact of mediumship, regardless of one’s abilities or experience was a valuable lesson I learned from Lisa Williams.