Alien Homestead and Psychic Sanctuary
Cassadaga, FL
Cassadaga, FL
Cassadaga, Florida, the psychic center of the world is bordered by Daytona Beach to its northeast, where events such as beach racing, and spring breaks gave it the name, “The Worlds Most Famous Beach,” and to the southwest you’ll find Disney World in Orlando. Cassadaga has the local reputation for being a spooky, spiritualist camp. This throwback town was reputed to have been settled – or unsettled — by aliens from outer space. More realistically its Seneca name means: “Water beneath the rocks.”
The town got its start when the Southern Cassadaga Spiritualist Camp Meeting Association was founded by George P. Colby, a medium from Pike, New York. He had attended summer camp meetings at Lily Dale, adjacent to Cassadaga, New York. He moved to Florida. The Southern Cassadaga Association received its charter on December 18, 1894.
Some of the psychics claim to be the descendents of alien founders. We’ll never know. Entering the town is like going back to the 1930s: old houses lean, roads are rutted and the sidewalks rise and fall with the roots of the old trees that have pushed under them for decades. Its eerie quiet envelops you. What breaks the mood are the shingles hanging from porches or posted on doors: “Tarot Cards Read Here;” “Palm Reading Inside, Please Knock;” “Get your Psychic Reading Here;” “Spiritualist is in conference. Please have a seat on the porch,” and Psychic Healer.” There is more going on here than astrology and tea leaves.
Around Halloween, if you’re lucky to be here at that time, groups book “The Cassadaga Hotel” for a Mystery Dinner, complete with murder and victim. Eventually after much sleuthing by the guests, the murderer is caught.
One late October afternoon during a mild hurricane, a group of Romance Writers booked the hotel for a luncheon. The town supplied representatives from every spiritual discipline. While the old hotel creaked like Inter Sanctum and doors banged open and shut. Cold drafts wheezed though the main lobby. Psychics told the writers that, “Yes, your book will be published,” and asked leading questions such as “Is your husband in the spirit?”
“He was fine when I left home,” someone protested, grabbing for her cell phone.
In the early spring, you can attend a festival with psychics in booths lining the streets selling talismans and good luck charms. If you want to visit this unique spiritualist camp, call the Cassadaga Hotel (386) 228-2323 for the schedule of events, or go online.
Mapquest or Yellowbook can guide you there.
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by Julie Eberhart Painter
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