Jul
20
to Jul 23

LILY DALE 2026: ASSEMBLY HALL

SYMPOSIUM @ LILY DALE PRESENTS:
ASSEMBLY HALL PROGRAM
July 20—23, 2026
Curated by Shannon Taggart

MEDIUMSHIP 101: INTRO TO MEDIUMSHIP FOR BEGINNERS
with Lily Dale Registered Medium Willa White
Tuesday, July 21st @ 9:30am – 12:30pm

$60 Ticket Link Here

Mediumship 101:

Intro to Mediumship for Beginners

Are you curious about mediumship and ready to take your first steps in connecting with spirit? Join Lily Dale Registered Medium Willa White for a beginner friendly workshop designed to help you explore your intuitive gifts in a safe, supportive space. In this 3 hour interactive class, you’ll learn:  What mediumship is and how it differs from psychic work. Grounding and protection techniques to keep your energy safe. How to recognize and develop your “clairs” (clairvoyance, clairaudience, clairsentience, claircognizance). Simple practices to raise your vibration and connect with spirit. Guided exercises and breakout sessions to practice with others. No prior experience is needed — just an open heart and curiosity. You’ll leave with practical tools, confidence, and a deeper sense of connection. Please bring a notebook or journal.

Ticket Link Here

SPIRITUALIST HISTORY REVEALED
with Paul Gaunt
Monday, July 20 — Wednesday, July 22

In this illustrated lecture series, Curator and Historian Paul Gaunt will explore the history of Spiritualism—from its earliest roots to some of its most extraordinary and lesser-known chapters. Drawing on decades of archival research and direct access to rare primary source material, Paul will share stories many audiences have never heard and separate fact from fiction in ones we think we already know.

SPIRITUALIST HISTORY REVEALED: Part 1 & 2
with Paul Gaunt
Monday, July 20 @ 2:00 pm - 5:00 pm

$30 Double Feature Ticket Link Here

Part 1: Spiritualism Before 1848

Pioneers such as Emma Hardinge Britten and Stainton Moses did not accept that Modern Spiritualism began with the Fox sisters. Long before 1848, the ideas behind the movement had been initiated by figures such as Emanuel Swedenborg, Franz Mesmer, the Shakers, and Andrew Jackson Davis. The events at Fox cottage in Hydesville only sealed this transformation with a powerful demonstration of physical mediumship, introducing the phenomena of mediumship and two-way spirit communication. In this presentation, Paul Gaunt argues that this pre-history is essential to understanding the origins of Spiritualism.

Ticket Link Here

Part 2: The True Story of Hydesville and the Fox Sisters

The events that transpired on March 31,1848 at the Fox cottage in Hydesville, New York, generally marks the beginning of Modern Spiritualism. This long-told story of strange phenomena surrounding two young girls, Kate and Margaret Fox, has since entered into the realm of fantasy, exaggeration, and untruth.  This talk will present the historic information concerning that fateful night.  We will hear the actual words of the people who witnessed and described the events.  But our story doesn’t end there.  Paul Gaunt will delve even further into the mystery of the property and reveal what was recorded there both before and after that historic date.

Ticket Link Here

SPIRITUALIST HISTORY REVEALED: Part 3 & 4
Tuesday, July 21 @ 2:00 pm - 5:00 pm
with Paul Gaunt

$30 Double Feature Ticket Link Here

Part 3:

A History of Psychic and Spirit Art
Part 4:

A History of Psychic and Spirit Photography


Psychic and spirit art has been the most consistent form of mediumship in Spiritualist history with its ever-changing forms, interpretations and techniques. This presentation looks at the early beginnings of art mediumship through its various phases of direct art, trance, inspirational, post mortem portraits, and photography. 

$30 Ticket Link Here

SPIRITUALIST HISTORY REVEALED: Part 3 & 4
Wednesday, July 22 @ 10:00 am - 12:00 pm
with Paul Gaunt

$20 Ticket Link Here

Part 5: The Materializations of Helen Duncan

Spiritualist medium Helen Duncan’s unbelievable story includes tales of full-form spirit materializations, stolen ectoplasm, and messages that disclosed World War II events.  Helen eventually came to international infamy as the only person to be imprisoned under the British Witchcraft Act of 1735.  This talk will present details from Helen Duncan’s sensational career – from her beginnings in Scotland in the 1920s, to the development of full-form materializations that became the subject of scientific study in the 1930s, to the events that attracted the attention of British Intelligence Agencies in the 1940s.  Often referred to as a martyr, her death in 1956 is one of the most storied events in all of Spiritualist history.  Paul Gaunt will separate fact from fiction in this analysis of Helen Duncan’s astounding life.

Ticket Link Here

SPIRITUALIST HISTORY REVEALED: Part 3 & 4
Wednesday, July 22 @ 2:00 pm - 5:00 pm
with Paul Gaunt

$30 Double Feature Ticket Link Here

Part 6: A History of Physical Mediumship

Since its introduction in 1848, Modern Spiritualism has developed many forms of physical mediumship. This presentation will present an overview of the ultimate séance phenomena: materialization. 

Ticket Link Here

Part 7: A Live Reconstruction of Rare Phenomena: Spirit Wax Molds

This presentation explores the rare phenomenon of spirit wax molds—impressions of hands or feet said to have materialized while the medium was securely restrained. Figures including Catherine (Kate) Wood, Annie Mellon, and Franek Kluski were associated with such extraordinary demonstrations. The talk will outline the historical accounts of these events and include a reconstruction of a remarkable 1891 séance led by Annie Mellon. It will also examine the scientific investigations conducted by Professor Charles Richet and Dr. Gustave Geley, to which Kluski submitted himself over a period of more than seven years.

Ticket Link Here

THE ACADEMY OF MAGICAL ARTS PRESENTS:
ZABRECKY ON HOUDINI AND THE SPIRITS
Thursday, July 26th @ 2 pm - 3 pm

$15 Ticket Link Here

2PM


The Academy of Magical Arts Presents: Zabrecky on Houdini and the Spirits

Zabrecky explores one of the most dramatic cultural battles of the 20th century: Harry Houdini vs. the spirits. This richly illustrated presentation blends archival images, historical accounts, and live demonstrations to examine Houdini’s crusade against fraudulent mediums at the height of America’s Spiritualist fever. A master of illusion himself, Houdini recognized the methods behind spirit cabinets, slate writing, trumpet manifestations, and ectoplasmic materializations, and set out to expose them. Yet the story is far more complex than a simple debunking campaign. Zabrecky will take us into the shadowy crossroads where belief and skepticism collide.

Ticket Link Here

MUSIC & HEALING
Thursday, July 26th @ 3:30 pm - 5 pm

$25 Ticket Link Here

3:30PM
Music and Healing, with Matt Marble, Guy Blakeslee, and Tim Kerr

Matt Marble, director of the American Museum of Paramusicology, leads a conversation with musicians Guy Blakeslee and Tim Kerr exploring their personal experiences of healing through music. Matt will provide contextual history drawn from his years of archival research, noting music’s role in relation to Spiritualism and healing. This talk will also be supplemented with live performance.

Ticket Link Here

 

WITH GRATITUDE

Special thanks to sponsors Sacred Grounds Coffee House

View Event →
Jul
23
to Jul 25

LILY DALE 2026

12th ANNUAL SYMPOSIUM @ LILY DALE
July 23-25, 2026
Curated by Shannon Taggart

First time visiting? There’s much to explore in Lily Dale, including free healing and message services. You may want to plan extra time to explore beyond the Symposium.

Need a Room in Lily Dale?
LILY DALE’S HISTORIC MAPLEWOOD HOTEL *Open for booking in March
LILY DALE GUEST HOUSES
LILY DALE CAMPGROUND

Travel Questions? EMAIL ME

Starting Monday, July 20
Assembly Hall Program

Early Program

This year, I have also added a pre-Symposium program on July 20, 21, 22 & 23.

FULL PROGRAM DETAILS ARE HERE

Thursday, July 23 @ 8:30 PM
SYMPOSIUM OPENING EVENT

The Academy of Magical Arts at the Magic Castle Presents: 
The Zabrecky Hour

 

The Zabrecky Hour

Join us for a one-man comedy, magic, and variety show like no other. For more than two decades, Zabrecky has headlined theaters, magic festivals, and conventions around the world—from Tokyo to New York City. He has appeared on Penn & Teller: Fool Us and has been honored with seven awards from the Academy of Magical Arts at Hollywood’s famed Magic Castle.

Ticket Link Here

Friday, July 24th
9 am—6 pm

SYMPOSIUM DAY I

9 AM
Breaking the Fourth Wall: Understanding the Paranormal Through Fiction, with Joshua Cutchin

“When you look at the phenomenon, the phenomenon looks back.” This saying, popular among paranormal thinkers like the late John Keel, speaks to what he called the “reflective factor.” But what drives this strange reciprocity? Join Joshua Cutchin, author of Ecology of Souls and Fourth Wall Phantoms, as he explores the mechanisms that let us see beyond the frame of ordinary reality—into a realm where anything seems possible. Here, fictional characters come to life, UFOs mimic their pulp depictions, cryptids step out of folklore, and urban legends materialize as genuine hauntings. Drawing on examples of “fourth wall breaks” (metalepsis) from ancient myth to modern cinema, this presentation suggests that truth isn’t just stranger than fiction… truth is fiction.

10AM


Fraud and Performance in Mediumship and the Paranormal, with Jack Hunter

The séance—as well as other forms of mediumistic demonstrations—undoubtedly possesses a performative element. Like an actor on the stage or on the screen, or a magician in the theatre, mediums of different kinds perform with their bodies in front of an audience to manifest the presence of invisible intelligences—sometimes on a stage, sometimes from a lectern, sometimes in a private circle of sitters. In calling the séance a performance, however, it is not my intention to suggest that it is all “make-believe.” There are complicated depths to performance, which has been used throughout time to very great effect - to tell stories, alter consciousness, and bend the rules of consensus reality. Trickery, illusion and performativity run throughout the history of spirit mediumship and the paranormal. In this presentation, Author and founding editor of the journal Paranthropopgy, Jack Hunter PhD will will untangle some of the threads of this relationship, drawing on perspectives from the history of Spiritualism, anthropology, performance studies and parapsychology.  

11AM
The Materializations of Franek Kluski, with Paul Gaunt

Franek Kluski, sometimes referred to by researchers as the “King of Mediums”, was born in Warsaw in 1873.  From around 1918 to 1925, he provided psychic science with some of the most “puzzling evidence on record” through his wide range of physical mediumship. His final period, 1921-1925, was his most powerful phase, during which he reportedly produced materializations of human spirits. He was one of the first mediums to show ectoplasm emanating from his body, with a “fluid” described as a stream a meter wide at human height. In this illustrated presentation, Paul Gaunt will discuss Kluski’s unique production of materialized forms, which has not been reproduced by any other medium to date.

2PM
Spitting Out the Apple: Psychedelics and Psychical Capacities, with Maria Mangini

The Eden story is not just a tale of being thrown out of the prelapsarian park. In addition to the loss of innocence, immortality, purity, and perfection, humans were also deprived of the preternatural gifts, which included instantaneous, non-learned understanding with which we could know the world without the need for study or experience. The capacity for intuitive knowing and psychic proficiency are natural but neglected human attributes that can be developed through training and exercise.In this talk, Maria Mangini PhD FNP explores how psychedelics present the opportunity to assist the development of psychic abilities by awakening the use of neglected but natural perceptual pathways.

3PM
The Stone Tape Theory and the Sonic Uncanny, with Leila Taylor

The recorded voice is inherently spectral, a disembodied trace of a person detached from time and space. It's no wonder the most common evidence of a haunting is sound: footsteps made without feet, an inexplicable bump in the night, the fragment of a phrase on a tape recorder. How do you capture the voices of the dead? What do ghosts sound like? From a haunted electronics lab in a BBC made for tv movie to the Gold Room at The Overlook Hotel; from the 19th century theory of “place memory” to Discovery channel ghost hunters, this talk, by Leila Taylor—author of Sick Houses: Haunted Homes and the Architecture of Dread—explores the spectral sonic and our desire to document the voices of the dead.

4PM
"A Place Known Only to the Spirits": A Fortean History of Pennsylvania, with Timothy Grieve-Carlson

Writing from the Pennsylvania frontier in 1750, the Lutheran missionary Henry Muhlenberg reported that “there are more necromancers here than Christians.” Muhlenberg was being a bit hysterical, but he was commenting on an undeniable fact about the people who were drawn to the territory. William Penn’s radical policy of religious freedom turned the colony into a magnet for Europeans with esoteric, unorthodox, and otherwise unacceptable religious and metaphysical beliefs. This unique cultural circumstance has made Pennsylvania one of the most significant sites of paranormal and Fortean phenomena in the historical record. In this talk, Timothy Grieve-Carl PhD will explore the historical causes and contemporary significance of Pennsylvania’s rich Fortean history, including the earliest descriptions of American poltergeists, séances, and psychical phenomena.

5PM


OTHERWORLD

Otherworld podcast host Jack Wagner in conversation with Shannon Taggart + special guests.

Saturday, July 25th
9 am—6 pm

SYMPOSIUM DAY II

9AM


Magic Maker: Artist as Magician with Pam Grossman

Artists are Magic Makers. They embody the archetype of the Magician, becoming a bridge between realms, and collaborating with invisible entities to conjure their work. Using the power of their craft, they bring Creative Force into intentional form—and their imaginations quite literally change the world around them. Creative people often speak of being channels for inspiration, while others refer to communing with their muse. For many, this is more than mere metaphor, as artists throughout history have employed magical techniques to tap into their creativity, express powerful messages, and make contact with the sacred. In this illustrated presentation, author and host of the podcast The Witch Wave Pam Grossman explores the deep relationship between creativity and magic, putting forth the idea that they are perhaps one and the same.

10AM


Bibliophantoms, with Asti Hustvedt

Provoked by the death of her brother-in-law, the novelist Paul Auster, author Asti Hustvedt PhD (Medical Muses: Hysteria in 19th-Century Paris) explores what it means to “get lost” in a book. She frames reading as a kind of mediumship—a state in which the reader becomes a site of possession, a host for the author’s consciousness. Drawing on the figures of the medium and the hysteric, this talk argues that the act of reading is not merely a cognitive process for decoding inert signs on the page, but a kind of séance: a weird and complex collaboration between the living and the dead.

11AM


Heathens of the Heavens: George Kuchar on John Keel, Whitley Streiber, and Jacques Vallée, with Andrew Lampert

Born in 1942 and raised in the Bronx, twin brothers George and Mike Kuchar were 8mm filmmaking dynamos whose audacious style, kooky humor and far out subject matter made them darlings of the 1960s underground. Gifted an 8mm camera for their twelfth birthday, they worked together and eventually apart over the ensuing decades to create an unparalleled body of brazenly madcap works. George, who passed in 2011, was especially prolific, producing hundreds of films and videos that explored every facet of his personal life and peculiar interests. He believed in extraterrestrial encounters, and claimed to have experienced a few, including a visit from the real Men in Black. Over the years he made many riotous movies about aliens, mythical beings and creatures that could only emerge from his vivid imagination. In this talk/screening, Andrew Lampert will provide an introduction to George’s delirious movies and feature footage of his remarkable circle of friends and admirers, who include John Keel, Whitley Strieber and Jacques Vallée.

2PM
Listening to the Cosmos with Andrew Jackson Davis: Creative and Social Liberation through the Spiritual Spheres, with Matt Marble

Though often misunderstood, the concept of the “spiritual spheres”—most famously exemplified in his notion of “Summerland”—was central to 19th-century philosopher Andrew Jackson Davis, who claimed in trance states to explore distant planets and higher realms of being. His cosmic, or “Harmonial,” philosophy became a foundational strand within the broader Spiritualist movement, but Davis has remained overlooked and even dismissed since his passing. Artist and historian Matt Marble of the American Museum of Paramusicology will provide historical and metaphysical context, guide participants through Davis’s seven spiritual spheres, and draw connections between his model and the creative practices of figures from 19th century Spiritualist composers to luminaries like Sun Ra, Alan Hovhaness and Alice Coltrane. In this presentation, artist and director of the American Museum of Paramusicology Matt Marble invites attendees to consider how Davis’s spheres can still serve both as a viable map for the creative process and as a framework for social and spiritual liberation.

Portrait of Andrew Jackson Davis by Tim Kerr, from the exhibition ‘Spiritualist Heroes.’

3PM
Electric Dreams: George Van Tassel, Solgonda, and Their Integratron, with Daniel Paul

Deep in the Mojave Desert night, next to what is believed to be world's largest freestanding boulder, on August 24, 1953, former aerospace man George Van Tassel received a visitor. By his account, a space person named Solgonda expressed concern that as human beings are learning the wisdom of their lifetimes, they are too old and ready to die. The solution was a laboratory machine, based on Solgonda's instructions. Over the next 25 years, his own somewhat abbreviated life ending at age 67, this ultimately unfinished project, today known as the Integratron, became George Van Tassel's life's work. George Van Tassel held specific beliefs around electricity as spirit and combined a variety of bio-electrical approaches into the Integratron technology, intended to extend human life through electricity. In this presentation architectural historian Daniel Paul will introduce the Integratron, emphasizing electricity's prominent place in Van Tassel's spiritual and life extension systems.

4PM
Weird Studies Live, with Phil Ford & JF Martel

Professor Phil Ford and writer J.F. Martel record a live episode of Weird Studies, an arts and philosophy podcast exploring ideas that are hard to think and art that opens up rifts in what we are pleased to call "reality."

AFTER PARTIES
Friday, July 24th & Saturday, July 25th @ 7 pm

Free entry for ticket holders!
Secret venue outside the Lily Dale gate.

Artists-in-Residence 2026


Sponsored by Sacred Grounds Coffee House

PEGGY AHWESH
Video Installation: The Night Sky

Peggy Ahwesh came of age in the 1970's as a Super8 filmmaker in the Pittsburgh punk underground. Her interests are wide-ranging, and include re-editing found footage, play acting horror and melodrama and inventive uses of low-end, popular technologies- all towards turning the conventions of cultural identity and the role of the subject on end.  Film retrospectives include: Girls Beware! at the Whitney Museum (1997); Filmmuseum, Brussels, Belgium; Carpenter Center at Harvard University; Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid, Spain (2003); Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh (2020); Women Make Waves International Film Festival, Taiwan (2024) and Cinematexas 6, Austin, Texas.  Ahwesh is Professor Emeritus of Film & Electronic Arts, Bard College.

GUY BLAKESLEE

Guy Blakeslee is an American musician, songwriter and producer, best known for his solo work and his role as the lead singer and guitarist of The Entrance Band.

"A singular voice and point of view; one of the most talented and original musicians working today." — NPR

The ELECTRIC SOUNDBATH, a sonic container for inner journeying. During his time as a musician in residence at the Philosophical Research Society in Los Angeles, Guy began developing a new, electrified version of what has become known as a “sound bath.” Each ELECTRIC SOUNDBATH is unique, an intuitively improvised interaction with the energy in the room, broadcasting the materialized intentions for healing and expansion back into the ethereal realm and vibrating attendees on a cellular level.

Photo by Lael Neale

TIM KERR + UP AROUND THE SUN

Tim Kerr joins us again for another exhibition of Spiritualist Heroes created especially for Lily Dale. he will also perform with Jerry Hagin and Jane Gillman in his newest music project Up Around the Sun.

“Self-expressionist” Tim Kerr is an Austin-based musician, visual artist and photographer whose work and life resist categorization. Born in Lake Jackson, TX, Kerr studied painting and photography at the University of Texas at Austin. His career spans from the early years of the DIY punk and skateboarding movement. He was a founding member of many bands including The Big Boys, Poison 13, Bad Mutha Goose, Lord High Fixers, and Monkey Wrench. Kerr’s art from the early years of the punkfunk, skaterock, grunge scene, has been widely featured in books, publications, album covers, posters, skateboard graphics, and advertisements. A retrospective book on his work is forthcoming.

MATT MARBLE

Matt Marble is an artist, media producer, and director of the American Museum of Paramusicology, described as “brilliant and humbling” by The Paris Review. He is the author of Buddhist Bubblegum: Esotericism in the Creative Process of Arthur Russell, praised by The New York Times as “groundbreaking.” His work explores the intersections of music and spiritual imagination in American history; it has been presented internationally and supported by a research fellowship at the Yale Institute of Sacred Music. Marble is the creator of the podcasts Secret Sound and The Hidden Present and editor of the AMP Journal. He holds a PhD in music composition from Princeton University, a BA in Speech & Hearing Science from Portland State University, and a black rattlesnake from his dreams.

Matt will share material from his archival research on rare American Spiritualist songbooks, drawn from his forthcoming book The American Séance Songbook. The project situates nineteenth-century Spiritualist music in cultural context while recovering overlooked composers, presenting historical scores, and practical reflections on how these materials might be reactivated and reimagined by contemporary artists.

 

WITH GRATITUDE

Special thanks to supporters and sponsors Sacred Grounds Coffee House
Charles & Penelope Emmons, Ed & Lauren Thibodeau of The Bird House at Lily Dale, and Ralph Smith.

View Event →
Jul
23
to Jul 26

LILY DALE 2025

  • Lily Dale Assembly (map)
  • Google Calendar ICS

11th ANNUAL SYMPOSIUM @ LILY DALE
July 24—26, 2025
Curated by Shannon Taggart

$225 FULL 3-DAY EVENT PURCHASE TICKETS HERE
*Please note, Lily Dale has a $15 Gate Fee

SINGLE DAY TICKET LINKS

SPOON BENDING: July 23

WEIRD STUDIES LIVE: Erik Davis + Phil Ford: July 24

SYMPOSIUM DAY 1: July 25

SYMPOSIUM DAY II: July 26

Need a Room in Lily Dale?
LILY DALE’S HISTORIC MAPLEWOOD HOTEL
LILY DALE GUEST HOUSES
LILY DALE CAMPGROUND

There’s much to explore in Lily Dale, including free healing and message services. You may want to allow extra time when planning your trip.

Travel Questions? EMAIL ME

EARLY BIRD EVENT
Wednesday, July 23rd @ 4 pm—6 pm
Ticket Link Here

Spoon Bending Party, with Shannon Taggart + Guests

Metal bending parties became popular in the 1970s after “mystifier” Uri Geller began twisting silverware on television. Part I will be a short history of 20th-century mind-over-matter experiments with metal objects and the magicians, physicists, and Spiritualists who conducted them. Part II is a workshop intended to be fun – a party! The bending will be accomplished by holding utensils with our hands and applying slight pressure when the metal feels soft. Participants are encouraged to bring silver, plated, or stainless forks and spoons – the more, the better.

*This event has an additional Ticket

SYMPOSIUM OPENING EVENT
Thursday, July 24th @ 8 PM

PHIL FORD + ERIK DAVIS Live!

A live episode of Weird Studies, an arts and philosophy podcast exploring ideas that are hard to think and art that opens up rifts in what we are pleased to call "reality."

This year, Phil Ford will be joined by Erik Davis to discuss the work of the paranormal journalist John Keel.

SYMPOSIUM DAY I
Friday, July 25th, 9 am—6 pm

9 AM
The Worlds of Eric Dingwall: Psychical Investigator, Intelligence Agent, & Sexologist,

with Christopher Josiffe

Dr Eric Dingwall was a friend, associate and rival of the famous ‘ghost-hunter’ Harry Price. Research Officer for the Society for Psychical Research in the 1920s, his overly-sceptical stance frustrated and occasionally infuriated SPR colleagues, but private communications tell a different story. A number of physical mediums impressed and mystified him with their displays of inexplicable phenomena in the séance room. An intelligence agent during WW2 and later appointed Assistant Curator of the British Museum's Private Case (a collection of erotica and pornographic literature). An acknowledged expert in this area, he became an unofficial police consultant assisting investigation of crimes with unusual sexual or occult overtones. Librarian and author Christopher Josiffe will shed light on this secretive and intriguing character.

10AM


The Paranormal Object, with Jack Hunter

Author and founding editor of the journal Paranthropopgy, Jack Hunter, Ph.D., will explore ideas relating to animism, panpsychism, and the 'new materialism' to reconsider the role and nature of so-called 'inanimate objects' in the paranormal. Recent theoretical developments in the humanities and social sciences have sought to re-conceptualize matter - usually considered to be essentially inert - as something active in the world and possessing real agency. This presentation will emphasize poltergeist phenomena - inanimate objects' central role - and suggest an alternative perspective to the poltergeist's standard spirit, psychokinetic, and fraudulent models.

11AM
Consciousness, Costume and Camping: Decoding the Kindred of the Kibbo Kift, with Annebella Pollen

Who were those mysterious green-clad hooded figures roaming the hills of England in the 1920s, hiking in triangular formation? What was the meaning of the strange shadows they cast at Stonehenge? And what of the cryptic banners they waved at antiquarian sacred sites and the carved totems they raised? As a thousand-strong band of social reformers and spiritual seekers, the Kindred of the Kibbo Kift wore their art, magic and political beliefs on their sleeves, but they were – and are – often misunderstood. Annebella Pollen Ph.D., author of The Kindred of the Kibbo Kift: Intellectual Barbarians, introduces us to the organization’s radical ethos, and to their equally radical style, to explain their uncompromising vision for bringing peace to a war-torn world.

2PM
The Pre-Internet Magickal Network, with Steven Intermill

Long before online bulletin boards or WitchTok, the global occult underground spread information through analog means. From the Reader's Digest like Fate Magazine to the DIY Green Egg, these publications had the important role of letting people spread their truths out there. Take a journey into the past with Buckland Museum director Steven Intermill as he unearths gems from the museum's archive and shares a treasure trove of correspondences, zines, magazines, cassettes, and record albums.

3PM
The Spirit Room of Jonathan Koons, with Sharon Hatfield

Farmer and fiddler Jonathan Koons was a pioneering Spiritualist who drew hundreds to his backwoods séances in the 1850s. Considered one of the most impressive physical mediums of his time, today some scholars credit him with developing the trumpet used for voice communication in séances. As told in Sharon Hatfield’s nonfiction book, Koons’s Athens County, Ohio, log cabin offered public demonstrations of instrumental music, singing, and spectral hands. During her eight years of researching and writing Enchanted Ground: The Spirit Room of Jonathan Koons, Hatfield found visitors’ accounts in the spiritualist press and letters and essays penned by Koons himself. This illustrated presentation will include rare archival paintings preserved by the Koons family for over 100 years, likely created by one of the original mediums.

4PM
The Visionary Power of Liminal Dreaming, with Jennifer Dumpert

We all possess the ability to maintain a waking, rational mind while sinking into the free associative, kaleidoscopic realms of the subconscious. Yet few of us delve into the visionary potential of this easy-to-learn practice. Liminal dreaming occurs at the boundaries of consciousness. This category of dreaming is made up of hypnagogia—the hallucinatory dream state through which we pass as we sink into sleep—and hypnopompia—the floaty, mesmerizing dreams we have as we surface back into waking. Liminal dreaming is one of the most unusual states naturally achieved by our brains, both experientially and as measured by EEG. In this talk, Jennifer Dumpert, author of Liminal Dreaming: Exploring Consciousness at the Edges of Sleep, will describe ways these states have been used to access liminal realms and for divination, creativity, problem solving, dream incubation, and healing. She will also provide several exercises to help anyone access liminal dream states at will.

5PM


Brightness Visible: The Surprising Spirituality of the Twenty-First Century Gothic, with Victoria Nelson

Close to three hundred years since its founding, what began as a subversive literary shock genre is now a mainstream behemoth. The dynamic ever-expanding Gothic has dug its tentacles into so many pop culture products and lifestyles that Maurice Lévy has dubbed the phenomenon “a spreading process and imperialist conquest of the whole human experience.” The most striking feature of the elastic, all-pervasive twenty-first century Gothic is its presence in a gamut of alternative spiritual practices drawn from the popular imaginary that flip heroes and villains, turn the dark monsters of the traditional Gothic into shining role models and even objects of worship. Author Victoria Nelson (The Secret Life of Puppets, Gothicka, Neighbor George) will explore the new “bright” Gothick in some of its many forms along with its radical theological implication that if we want to get to heaven, monsters and demigoddesses can show it to us right here on earth.

SYMPOSIUM DAY II
Saturday, July 26th, 9am—6pm

9AM


Brain on Fire: Meaning, Madness, and Mediumship with Susannah Cahalan

In 2009, Susannah Cahalan perceived having the ability to control time with her mind. She saw disembodied eyes following her. She watched paintings come to life and heard voices when no one was present. Initially, she was misdiagnosed with schizoaffective disorder. But after a month-long hospital stay, she received the cutting-edge diagnosis of autoimmune encephalitis. Susannah wrote about her experience in her 2012 bestselling memoir, Brain on Fire. Still, she continues to be haunted by the aspects of her experience that could not be explained away by neuroscience, including out-of-body experiences and telepathic and precognitive events. In this talk, Susannah will explore her own story and the continuing efforts of scientists to differentiate between psychiatric and the psychic. 

10AM


Unveiling the Eileen J. Garrett Parapsychology Foundation Collection, with Beth Saunders

In 2022, Special Collections at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, received the extraordinary gift of one of the world’s largest collections devoted to parapsychology. Named for its co-founder, the 20th Century trance medium Eileen J. Garrett, the archive includes books, periodicals, photographs, and audio-visual materials on the history of psychical research, Spiritualism, mysticism, mediumship, apparitions, hauntings, poltergeists, near-death and out-of-body experiences, as well as studies on ESP, psychokinesis, and precognition. In this presentation, Art historian and Curator Beth Saunders, Ph.D. will share highlights and hidden gems, including Eileen Garrett’s scrapbooks, Nandor Fodor’s notes on the Dalby Spook, Hans Holzer’s ghost recordings, and Admiral Angelos Tanagras’s long-distance telepathy experiments. Attendees will also be guided on accessing this resource, which is open to the public.

11AM


The Mystery of Gef the Talking Mongoose, with Christopher Josiffe

During the 1930s, Britain’s newspapers were full of incredible stories about Gef, a ‘talking mongoose’ who allegedly haunted a farmhouse in a remote district of the Isle of Man. Gef was said to talk in several languages, sing, steal objects from nearby farms, eavesdrop on locals, and bear gossip back to his host family, the Irvings. Despite investigations by ghost-hunter Harry Price, psychoanalyst and psychical researcher Nandor Fodor and others, there is still no single accepted explanation for the extraordinary phenomena at Doarlish Cashen, the Irvings’ farm. Hoax, mental illness, poltergeist - or all three? Christopher Josiffe, author of the award-winning Gef! The Strange Tale of an Extra-Special Talking Mongoose, will talk about his findings during seven years of research.

2PM
The Krotona Colony: Theosophical Architecture in Southern California,

with Amy Slonaker

From its earliest inception at a Spiritualist séance in Vermont in 1874, the Theosophical Society’s influence quickly spread worldwide. In 1912, a new center of Theosophy, The Krotona Colony, was founded in Hollywood, California, under the leadership of its second president, Annie Besant (1847-1933). In 1924, Krotona relocated north of Los Angeles to the bucolic hamlet of Ojai, establishing a sprawling complex that remains in operation today. By surveying examples of the Krotona colonies’ unique designs, this talk identifies a particularly Theosophical style of architecture that embodies and amplifies the philosophical message of Theosophy.  The eccentricity of Krotona’s buildings is mirrored in the creators themselves, such as the pioneering female architect and Theosophist Marie Russak Hotchener (1865-1945) and the architect-occultist Robert Stacy-Judd (1884-1975, pictured) whose fascination with the lost city of Atlantis influenced his flamboyant designs. In this illustrated talk, Amy Slonaker, JD, Ph.D. presents a virtual walking tour of the colorful homes and meeting places of Southern California’s Theosophists. 

3PM
How to Build a Haunted House: An Introduction, with Robert Schneck

The archetypal haunted house has “an unsavory history”, yet houses with terrible histories are often ghost-free, and new houses can be haunted. Location (e.g., Indian burial grounds) is a popular explanation, but what if the structure itself is involved? The design, orientation, and materials might be as important as a building’s history, and this raises a question: if haunted houses are created accidentally, can they also be created deliberately? For 25-years, Robert Schneck has been considering “How to Build a Haunted House”, in order to build one. This lecture explains the project, how different approaches can be combined to cultivate haunting, and what to do with the completed building.

4PM
Richard Shaver: A Personal Mythology of Secret Caves and Ancient Rocks, with Doug Skinner

Richard Shaver first appeared in the pulp magazines of the 1940s, claiming experiences with forgotten civilizations in underground caverns. In this illustrated talk, author and musician Doug Skinner traces his troubled life and unique view of the world, with special emphasis on the visionary paintings he made by gazing at stones.

Image: Adam and Eve in Space by Richard Shaver, from the cover of the magazine The Hidden World, Fall 1962.

5PM
Metaphysical Michael Jackson, with Shannon Taggart

Working on her book Séance, Shannon Taggart encountered many mediums who claimed to be in contact with the spirit of Michael Jackson. These experiences led her to contemplate the mysterious life and afterlife of the “King of Pop.” This illustrated presentation—an evolving project since 2013—will consider Michael Jackson’s curious dead/alive status and explore him as an ultimate liminal figure, blurring the binaries: black/white, male/female, child/adult, good/evil, human/god, man/animal, reality/fantasy, and even the states of awake/asleep. Materials drawn from popular culture will explore Michael Jackson as a modern mythical figure and reveal his parallels with gods, saints, and shamans of the past.

Image: Statue of a Woman, Egyptian, c.1550 B.C.-1070 B.C., © Field Museum, Chicago, USA.

Artists-in-Residence 2025


Sponsored by Sacred Grounds Coffee House

FREE EVENT
Thursday, July 24th @ 4 pm—6 pm

Webb Gallery

Exhibition: Art of the Spirit
Gallery Talk @ 4 pm

A Pop-up exhibition of seven visionary and mediumistic artists, curated by Gallery owners and collectors Bruce and Julie Webb. For this event, Bruce and Julie will examine artworks with the audience and share stories about each artist.

Artists include:
JB Murry
Royal Robertson
Chelo Gonzalez Amezcua
Grant Wallace
Helen Burkhart Mayfield
Nan Swan
Frank Jones

*with special addition to the exhibition by Tim Kerr

Up Around The Sun

Record Release + Performance @ 5 pm

Tim Kerr and Jerry Hagins join us to celebrate their new album, Water Valley on Dial Back Sound.

AFTER PARTY
Saturday, July 26th @ 7 pm

Free entry for 3-day event ticket holders! Secret venue outside of the Lily Dale gates.

Co-sponsored by Illuminated Brew Works.

 

WITH GRATITUDE

Special thanks to additional sponsors Charles & Penelope Emmons, Ed & Lauren Thibodeau of The Bird House at Lily Dale, and Ralph Smith.

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Jul
24
to Jul 28

LILY DALE 2024

  • Lily Dale Assembly (map)
  • Google Calendar ICS

10TH ANNIVERSARY SYMPOSIUM @ LILY DALE
July 25-27, 2024
Programmed by Shannon Taggart

$225 FULL 3-DAY EVENT PURCHASE TICKETS HERE
Full Ticket Includes After Party Co-sponsored by Illuminated Brew Works
*Single day tickets are also available

*Please note, Lily Dale has a $15 Gate Entrance Fee

Need a Room in Lily Dale?
LILY DALE’S HISTORIC MAPLEWOOD HOTEL
LILY DALE GUEST HOUSES
LILY DALE CAMPGROUND

There’s much to explore in Lily Dale, including free healing and message services. You may want to allow extra time for this when planning your trip. Free events related to the Symposium at Sacred Grounds Coffee House begin on Wednesday, July 24th.

Travel Questions? EMAIL ME

OPENING EVENT
Thursday, July 25th @ 8PM

WEIRD STUDIES Live!

Professor Phil Ford and writer J.F. Martel record a live episode of Weird Studies, an arts and philosophy podcast exploring ideas that are hard to think and art that opens up rifts in what we are pleased to call "reality."

SYMPOSIUM DAY I
Friday, July 26th, 9am - 6pm

The Making of Magical Cornwall, with Amy Hale, Ph.D.

In the first decades of the twenty-first century, Cornwall has been center stage for a resurgent interest in myth and magic. Current tourism frames the region in the southwest of Britain as a site with stunning landscapes and enchanted folkways that have withstood the ravages of modernity. However, since the Middle Ages, Cornwall has been shorthand for “the place where legends happen” throughout much of Europe. It was the setting for some of the earliest Arthurian tales, the sunken lands of Lyonesse and Tristan and Iseult, and legends of Druids and witches, all of which shaped ideas of Cornwall as a site conducive to magical happenings. In this presentation, Amy Hale explores Cornwall’s enduring reputation as the perfect Celtic Otherworld.

Eusapia Palladino: Epistemological Troublemaker, with Asti Hustvedt, Ph.D.

The extraordinary physical medium, Eusapia Palladino (1854-1918), known as “the diva of the savants,” was investigated over a period of more than twenty years by leading scientists and scholars, including Nobel laureates. Variously called a fraud, a marvel, a human oddity, a hysterical trickster, and an authentic conduit to the spirit world—sometimes all at once—Palladino’s seances troubled existing taxonomies and baffled some of the most brilliant minds of her generation. In this talk, Asti Hustvedt will examine how Palladino disrupted gender and class hierarchies, and blurred the boundaries that separate fact from fiction, mind from matter, life from death, and the natural from the supernatural.

Acid Queen: Rosemary Woodruff Leary's Life Underground, with Susannah Cahalan

Poet Allen Ginsberg once named Rosemary Woodruff Leary "the Acid Queen," but her legacy remains unacknowledged following her break with husband Timothy Leary in 1976. Using archives and an unfinished memoir, Susannah Cahalan will explore Rosemary’s role as a key hidden figure of the acid movement of the 1960s. Rosemary's story will be traced from her childhood in St. Louis, to peyote ceremonies with Beat artists, to Timothy Leary's infamous acid commune in Millbrook, NY, and to her eventual status as an international fugitive after aiding her husband's prison break. Rosemary, however, is not merely a Zelig of the counterculture. She offers a rare glimpse into a woman's exploration of altered states and a life lived in pursuit of the ineffable.

Lily Dale, Canada, and the Spiritual Journey of Mackenzie King, with Anton Wagner, Ph.D.

For Canadian Spiritualists, Lily Dale was like the Greek Temple at Delphi, connecting seekers with the spirit world through oracle-like mediums. Anton Wagner’s illustrated presentation highlights how Lily Dale’s mediums influenced prominent Canadians, including Mackenzie King, the country’s longest-serving prime minister (1922-1930, 1935-1948). Materials drawn from Anton’s groundbreaking two-volume biography of Mackenzie King, The Spiritualist Prime Minister, will spark the discussion. Topics include direct-voice trumpet medium Etta Wriedt’s séances linking Lily Dale with King, Lily Dale’s connection to Canadian actor Dan Aykroyd’s family history, and Mackenzie King’s belief in Spiritualism, which has often been censored. The dream visions and séances that led Mackenzie King to attempt telepathic communication with Adolf Hitler during World War II will also be addressed.

Ghosts in the Machines: A History of Spirit Communication Tools, with Brandon Hodge

Author, collector, and séance historian Brandon Hodge reveals the fascinating history of spirit communication devices, from the earliest origins of spirit rapping and table-tipping mediumship to automatic writing planchettes, talking boards, spirit trumpets, and more. Spiritualism’s history is deeply tied to the psychic apparatus that enabled its adherents to communicate with the dead, and this presentation explores that history and its enormous impact on popular culture through the decades. Participants will have the opportunity to handle historical séance apparatus from Brandon’s extensive collection and experience artifacts not found in any other collection in the world, getting up close and personal with the means our ancestors used to commune with the dead.         

SORRAT: The True Story of America’s Most Active Séance Group, 1961 - 2015, with Shannon Taggart

In 1961, the American Poet John G. Neihardt began directing students from the University of Missouri in experiments meant to increase scientific understanding of the paranormal. The Society for Research on Rapport and Telekinesis (SORRAT), would endure for over half a century, becoming one of the strangest cases within the history of psychical research. The group’s extraordinary claims shocked onlookers, baffled investigators, and incited scandal. SORRAT’s saga was painstakingly documented by a founding member, an aspiring science fiction writer named John Thomas Richards. The Richards archive represents a singular collection of psychic media, including the first purported example of spirit cinema. This presentation will use the Richards materials, recently rescued and largely unseen, to tell SORRAT’s story.

Uncanny, Absurd, Authentic: The Art of the Paranormal Documentary, with Ronni Thomas

Filmmaker Ronni Thomas (Kybalion, The Midnight Archive) presents his favorite clips depicting paranormal realities, drawn from films made in the 70s and 80s—an era he proposes as the ‘Golden Age’ of the genre.

SYMPOSIUM DAY II
Saturday, July 27th, 9am - 6pm

Finding Dawn: A Remote Viewer's Search for a Missing Woman with Suzanne Clores

Remote Viewing is a scientifically validated but anomalous method of gathering data across space and time. Born in the 1970s, Remote Viewing is the result of a collaboration between government agencies, psychics, and scientists. This controversial method is still used in law enforcement and the private sector to gather intelligence from thousands of miles away. In this multimedia presentation, author and podcaster Suzanne Clores will introduce the practice and explain how Remote Viewing differs from typical psychic or mediumistic methods. Her presentation will then look at the role of Remote Viewing as recently used in the cold case of Dawn Mozino, a 24-year-old woman who disappeared on May 22, 1989, near Bryn Mawr, PA.

Margery the Medium Revisited, with Anna Thurlow

Mina Crandon, known internationally as "Margery," discovered her mediumship abilities in 1923 and continues to be a topic of interest and debate today, over 100 years later. As Margery, Mina was unique in terms of the range of phenomena she produced and the scientific discussion she provoked on an international scale. In this presentation, her great-granddaughter, Anna Thurlow, will remember Mina's life in the context of her as a daughter, sister, wife, mother, and artist, exploring how these myriad roles influenced her mediumship. Rare images and artifacts will be shared from the private family archive held in the Libbet Crandon de Malamud Collection. A new perspective on the famous July-August 1924 séances with the magician Harry Houdini will also be shared.

Channeled Visions: Hildegard, Hilma and The Coven of Creativity, with Jessica Hundley

A visual journey into the alchemical magic of creative manifestation - spirit expressed as art, music and words. Delving into the ecstatic works created through meditation, mediumship and direct dialogue with the divine, we’ll explore the history of channeled visions, from ancient petroglyphs to transcendent works by contemporary artists. Led by Jessica Hundley, Author and Editor of Taschen’s The Library of Esoterica, a multivolume encyclopedia series on the art of esoteric traditions, we’ll weave our way across time, exploring the lives and works of visionaries such as Medieval mystic Hildegard von Bingen, the Swedish seeker Hilma af Klint, and the Surrealist coven of Varo, Fini and Carrington. We’ll dive into the vast catalogue of ecstatic works born of Theosophy and Transcendental philosophies and sacred psychedelic exploration. Join us in celebrating the alchemy of the creative, of dreaming transformed into cathartic realization, a magical communion between spirit and form. 

The Mysterious Fires of Spontaneous Human Combustion, with Larry Arnold

Spontaneous Human Combustion (SHC) is the sudden, sometimes thorough burning of a person that occurs without a known external ignition source amid surroundings that show little, if any, heat or flame damage. For centuries, these rare events have mystified doctors and scientists, with many denouncing SHC as superstition, pseudoscience, crackpottery, or “Impossible!” Recognized internationally as the leading researcher of anomalous fires worldwide, Larry Arnold has spent a lifetime tracking down the unexpected evidence that supports a different conclusion about this phenomenon. Arnold will discuss this eerie enigma that has haunted humankind for millennia in a presentation especially tailored for Lily Dale, exploring SHC from an esoteric and spiritual perspective.

Fifty Years' Wandering in the Spiritual Realm: Piety, Practice, and Perseverance, with J. Gordon Melton, Ph.D.

American religious scholar J. Gordon Melton— foremost expert on Scientology, author of over fifty books, and creator of a sui generis collection on the vampire—reflects on a life spent exploring the thousands of different religious groups now found in the United States. Since the late 1960s, Melton has studied the diversity of America’s free religious landscape, wandering the country to experience its extremes —from cannabis-using communes to serpent-handling congregations, to Spiritualist séances, meditations with Hindu gurus, and meals with vegetarian hippies. Beginning his career as a representative with Spiritual Frontiers Fellowship and, in a long career teaching at the University of California and Baylor University, Melton has remained dedicated to searching out America’s ways of finding God, exploring spiritual realms, and laying claims to enlightenment.

Space Brothers Among Us: The Extraterrestrial, Inter-dimensional Folk Healing Films of Unarius, with Jodi Wille

In 1954, traveling medium Ernest L. Norman and Science of Mind practitioner Ruth Norman met at a Los Angeles spiritualists convention. They soon married and cofounded The Unarius Educational Foundation. The still active organization promotes self-mastery and healing through an "inter-dimensional understanding of energy,” past life therapy, and channeled guidance from advanced extraterrestrials as well as former Earth luminaries from Pythagoras to Tesla to Will Rogers. In the 1970s, under the direction of the colorful septuagenarian Ruth Norman, Unarius students built their own DIY film and video studio, producing four 16mm and Super8mm feature films and 80 television shows, including elaborately produced past-life psychodramas. These shows aired regularly via public access airways for decades.

Part I: Jodi Wille, director of the new feature documentary Welcome Space Brothers, will take us on a deep dive into the Unarius archive and present an overview of the group within the context of metaphysical groups and popular culture trends of the 20th Century.

Part II: A rare screening of the self-produced Unarius magnum opus / origin story, The Arrival (Dir. The Unariun Brotherhood and Prince Uriel, 1980, 50 minutes, new digital xfer from 16mm).

Artists-in-Residence 2024

Sponsored by Sacred Grounds Coffee House @ Lily Dale, with thanks to the Southern Comfort Guest House.

Gabi Abrão

Los Angeles based writer, spiritual theorist, internet artist, and author of Notes on Shapeshifting Gabi Abrão joins us for a live event and to share work focused on developing a language with the invisible.

Live Event: Wednesday, July 24th, 4pm - 6pm, Gabi Abrão in conversation with Stacy Schuerman Kopchinski 

Tim Kerr

 

“Self-expressionist” DIY polymath, American punk legend, musician, producer, photographer, skateboarder, artist, and Texas Music Hall of Famer Tim Kerr joins us from Austin for an exhibition of paintings of Spiritualist heroes created especially for Lily Dale.

Live Event: Thursday, July 25th, 4pm - 6pm, Exhibition Opening and Musical Performance

AFTER PARTY

Saturday, July 27 @ 7pm

Spoon bending and more! Free entry for 3-day event ticket holders! Secret venue outside of the Lily Dale gates. Co-sponsored by Illuminated Brew Works.

 

WITH GRATITUDE

Thank you to everyone listed above for making this event possible, and also to Ed & Lauren Thibodeau of The Bird House at Lily Dale, Charles & Penelope Emmons, and Ralph Smith for their support.

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