Apr 15 2012
Florida Town Attracts Visitors For It’s Psychic History
By Patrick Mc Calister
Cassadaga is a quaint town – Old Florida. Most of the houses date to the early- to mid-20th century. The roads are narrow – they were laid out for horses, not cars. With no fast food, convenience stores, or other signs of the 21st century, Cassadaga could be as quiet a little town as there ever was.
Except for the tens of thousands of visitors who flock there every year. They walk on a metaphysics fault line probably most never notice. Some are seeking alternative healers, such as Reiki practitioners who claim attunement to direct universal life energy that promotes health. Others are seeking metaphysical classes to expand their psychic horizons. But most probably go for the multitude of psychic and medium readers.
“I just loved it from the second I came the first time,” said frequent visitor Denise Williams of Satellite Beach. “There’s an energy about the place. There’s a different feeling – a different feeling than anywhere else.”
And, yes, she visits the readers when in Cassadaga.
A lot of people went into making Cassadaga Florida’s metaphysical mecca. Of course, there’s George Colby, the Spiritualist trance medium who believers say followed spirit guides from New York to found the Southern Cassadaga Spiritualist Camp. It occupies 55 acres, or about half, of the town. Mr. Colby arrived in Volusia during the 1870s.
About a century later, in 1970, the late Ernie Sekunna followed his spirit guides to the town and opened the Universal Centre of Cassadaga, now Brighid’s Well and owned by his son, Matthew Sekunna.
“(Cassadaga) used to be more about the Spiritualism itself,” Mr. Sekunna said. “When my father opened this store, it opened up more of the psychic sciences here. He was the first one with tarot cards, palm readers, and other forms of metaphysics, not just dogmatic Spiritualism.”
Spiritualist mediums eschew psychic devices such as tarot cards for doing readings. They’re typically not interested in forecasting people’s futures, but rather in facilitating contact between physical and spiritual beings.
County Road 4139, Cassadaga Road, is essentially the dividing line between the two approaches to metaphysical readings. In addition to Brighid’s Well, there are five other places on Cassadaga’s north side to get tarot card, and other, readings. Mr. Sekunna said his father was unpopular with many of the Spiritualists at first. But, attitudes softened, because his business was getting more visitors to town and everyone benefited.
Anne-Marie McCormack is co-owner of 6th Sense Connection, a more recently opened metaphysical shop in Cassadaga. The sixth-generation psychic medium said many readers are attracted to the town for the same reason Mr. Colby was – the energy.
“The veil between the worlds is at its thinnest here,” she said.
Cassadaga has had an unwanted energy over the years, too: a power to evoke fear, superstition and rumors. And attract thrill seekers. Perhaps the most famous rumor is about the “Devil’s Chair.” That’s the one that draws a lot of thrill seekers, too. The legends vary, but they all have the same basic spooky element: There’s a seat in the Cassadaga Cemetery called the Devil’s Chair, and if one sits on it at midnight, he or she will see Satan.
What none of the legends account for is that there is no cemetery in Cassadaga. There is a cemetery in neighboring Lake Helen, home of several Christian churches and a pretty good pizza parlor.
Since the 1800s, many sermons were preached in local pulpits against Cassadaga. They included warnings against demonic activity and declarations of God scattering the Spiritualists elsewhere. Some of that still exists. Rev. John Ferro built a church, Dunamis Community & Outreach Center, about a mile from the Spiritualist camp. According to the church’s website, the Lord told him, “it was time to possess the land in Cassadaga.”
In a 2006 “Charisma” magazine article, Mr. Ferro attributed psychic and mediumistic readings found in the town to demonic entities.
“(Readers) are working in the area of familiar spirits,” he told the magazine. “A familiar spirit can give you some really true information about your life because they are following your life. If people are not biblically grounded they can easily be seduced.”
Ms. McCormic said that the only demonic entities antagonists find in Cassadaga are those they have with them.
“I’ve always felt Cassadaga is what you bring to it,” she said. “You bring love and light, you’ll find love and light. You bring scary things, you’ll find scary things.”
Despite rumors, sermons and metaphysical competition, the Spiritualists have held on, and Cassadaga is the oldest active religious community in the Southeast. That probably has a lot to do with folks such as Lylia Brachin, from Morriston. She enjoys visiting Cassadaga and getting readings, but said many of her neighbors would disapprove if they knew.
“I like the town and believe in Spiritualism,” she said. “(My neighbors would) probably burn me at the stake for coming to a place like this.”
Article source: myhometownnews.net
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