It's Cassadaga's 130th anniversary: 12 things to know about Florida’s spiritualist community
One hundred and thirty years ago this year, a medium from New York took the advice of his spirit guides and founded a wooded area next to what is now Lake Helen where he established Cassadaga, the south's largest spiritual community and the self-proclaimed Psychic Capital of the World.
Here are 12 things to know about Cassadaga, a small, bucolic village full of mediums, psychics and healers in an unincorporated area in Volusia County home to the Southern Cassadaga Spiritualist Camp Meeting Association (SCSCMA).
Where is Cassadaga?
Cassadaga, a community of about 57 acres and 13 city blocks, is on incorporated land near Lake Helen in Volusia County, between DeLand, Orange City and Deltona and about 30 miles north of Orlando. Many of the residents are mediums and healers who offer their services from their homes or apartments," according to the camp's website.
Several of the original buildings are still there, including Harmony Hall, built in 1895, Brigham Hall (1898) and the Andrew Jackson Davis building where the bookstore is, built in 1904 to replace an earlier structure built in 1895, according to the National Register of Historic Places. Thirty-three of the 55 houses in Cassadaga were built between 1895 and 1915, the NRHP said in 1991.
What is the religion of Cassadaga?
The basic beliefs of spiritualism are that personal identity lives eternally beyond the end of the physical body, and that it is a scientifically-proven fact that some people called mediums can communicate with the dead and classify manifestations of Spirit. Spiritualists consider spiritualism to be a religion, a philosophy, and a science.
Spiritualists do believe in God, whom they refer to as Infinite Intelligence; Jesus, whom they consider "one of the greatest teachers and spiritual leaders that the world has ever known;" and the Christian Bible as God's truth, but they do not believe in the concept of the devil, falling from grace or sinning.
What is the difference between a psychic and a medium?
Everyone is psychic to some degree, the SCSCMA believes. But mediums are those people capable of receiving information and assistance through spiritual energy that ultimately comes from God, according to the organization's fact sheet.
Healers are people who can become "a channel to convey God’s healing energies to others, whether for physical, emotional, mental or Spiritual Healing."
Do the people in Cassadaga believe in witchcraft or black magic?
"Absolutely not," the SCSCMA said. Witchcraft and black magic are not part of Spiritualism.
Who founded Cassadaga, Florida?
George Colby homesteaded Cassadaga in 1875, according to the association's history, but didn't found the camp until 1894.
Born in Pike, New York, in 1848, Colby was baptized in a frozen Minnesota lake in 1860 and claimed afterward he could talk to spirits, much to the dismay of his devout Baptist parents, according to volusiacountyhistory.com. He began traveling the country as a medium, offering private readings and séances. During one séance, one of his several spirit guides, a Native American named Seneca, directed him to found a spiritualist community in the south.
Colby followed Seneca's instructions, met a spiritualist named Theodore Giddings in Wisconsin, and then he and the Giddings family came to Florida. After stops in Jacksonville and Orange City, Colby walked alone into the West Volusia woods north of Deltona and found what would later become Cassadaga, where he built a part-time home and helped acquire land. He was joined by other spiritualists from around the country.
The Southern Cassadaga Spiritualist Camp Meeting Association was formed 20 years later and Colby deeded 35 acres to the SCSCMA the next year.
In 1991, the SCSCMA was designated a Historic District and placed on the National Register of Historic Places.
What does 'Cassadaga' mean?
Many members of Lily Dale Assembly, a spiritualist camp in New York, came down to join the community. The camp was named after the Cassadaga Lakes near the Lily Dale camp.
It was especially fitting: "cassadaga" was a Seneca Nation word meaning "rocks beneath the water."
Not everything in Cassadaga is part of the Southern Cassadaga Spiritualist Camp Meeting Association
Cassadaga is often used to refer to the entire area, but the SCSCMA consists solely of the 57 acres south of Cassadaga Road which includes the Andrew Jackson Davis Educational Building and Bookstore, two halls, the Colby Memorial Temple, the Ann Stevens House bed and breakfast, several other buildings, seven parks and around 50 homes. The grounds also include two alleged vortexes, or energy centers.
The Hotel Cassadaga is not affiliated with the camp. Neither are the various psychics and gift shops around it, such as the Haunted History Museum or the various buildings offering readings and gifts scattered up and down on the other side of the street where you can get, among other things, Tarot card and crystal readings that the SCSCMA doesn't do.
The Hotel Cassadaga is haunted by 'friendly spirits'
Right in front as you arrive is the Hotel Cassadaga at 355 Cassadaga Road, a timeless building of early 20th-century design. It's not officially associated with the Spiritualist Camp, having been sold during the Great Depression and gone through different owners since then, but it remains an integral part of the community.
Old-world charm, vintage furnishings and mystical offerings surround you as you enter. You can shop in the book and crystals store, get psychic readings, attend seances or lose yourself in the meditation areas. For more prosaic needs, there's the onsite Sinatra’s Ristorante.
However, if you choose to stay in one of the hotel's 14 rooms, keep your eyes, ears and mind open for ghostly visitors. "Yes, you read correctly," the hotel's website says. "Our beautiful Hotel is home to many friendly spirits!"
Floating orbs have often been sighted, the Hotel Cassadaga says, and regular visitors have recognized some personalities. Florida Haunted Houses reports a mischievous ghost named Arthur, a cigar-smoking ghost named Gentleman Jack, and two young girls, Kaitlin and Sarah. (The restaurant does offer an "Arthur's Burger.")
There is no cemetery in Cassadaga
For years, wide-eyed people would tell tales of the Devil's Chair in the Cassadaga graveyard. It was said if you sat in the big stone seat, Satan would communicate with you and bottles of beer left there would be empty by morning. Residents were annoyed by eager ghosthunters and drunken students roaming the land at night, especially on Halloween, hoping for a glimpse.
There are a couple of problems with that legend.
There isn't a graveyard in Cassadaga, it's a couple miles away in Lake Helen.
Spiritualists don't believe in the Devil.
The beer had a more down-to-earth destination.
Local medium and historian the Rev. Louis Gates told Weird U.S. that the chair was built by a widower who visited his late wife's grave in the 1920s. "The man had arthritis real bad in his legs," Gates said, "and the walk was hard on him. He needed something to sit on, so he built that big, brick chair so he could rest beside his wife’s grave."
And the beer? That wasn't thirsty demons, Gates said. It was thirsty locals.
"We knew at Halloween we'd get all kinds of beer," Gates told The News-Journal in 2021. "Especially if we made noises, they'd take off running and leave the whole six-pack."
Cassadaga is fun to walk around
You are welcome and encouraged to attend workshops and seminars, check out the bookstore and there are walking tours including one on the history of Cassadaga and an "Encounter the Spirits" night tour.
But Cassadaga is a wonderfully pleasant, peaceful place to wander around to enjoy the tranquility, the colorful houses and the numerous cats. (But be respectful, you're walking through someone's neighborhood.) The community has seven parks ranging from small, quiet coves with meditation benches to Seneca Park next to Spirit Pond, where benches and a gazebo let you relax as you look out over the water.
A new stone waterfall is currently under construction on the edge of Seneca Park, behind the Colby Memorial Temple.
The biggest park around is nearby Colby-Alderman Park on Lake Colby. A playground, volleyball court and picnic pavilion face the lake, while a 124-acre wooded area offers a shady walk through the trees.
Horseshoe Park & Fairy Trail, at 490 Palmer St., includes a rock labyrinth, a massive chair for selfies, short trails through largely untouched Florida wilderness, whimsical bursts of fairy decorations, hanging beads, troll houses, and more. Also, great big wings.
You can find Erica Group wings in Cassadaga
The chalk wings DeLand artist Erica Group drew while working at the Dressed Boutique became so popular she made a more permanent version on some big green doors in the alley between Woodland Boulevard and Artisan Alley, where they became famous. So many people traveled to take pictures in front of them that she partnered with the West Volusia Tourism Advertising Authority to create Wings of the West, five more sets of different wings at places around the county.
In 2018, the Horseshoe Park Fairy Garden was gifted a set of pastel fairy wings, perfect for posing in front of. They've since been moved closer to the front of the park.
Cassadaga is in movies, books and songs, including one by Tom Petty
The psychic capital has inspired or appeared in multiple pop culture items. Tom Petty's song "Casa Dega" talks about "this town in Florida that has about 35 acres of weird people," he said when playing it live for the first time in Santa Monica, California in 1978. He got the name wrong, though, and may never actually have gone there.
The Bright Eyes have an album called "Cassadaga" with a mention of the town in the song "Four Winds."
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Carl Hiaasen's novel "Lucky You," about a bizarre and violent battle over two winning lottery tickets, has characters set in the fictional community of Grange, Florida, where miracles happen. Hiaasen has said Grange was based on Cassadaga.
Cherie Priest's novel "Brimstone" takes place in Cassadaga in the 1920s. The community also makes appearances in "Unhallowed Ground" by Heather Graham, "George Mills" by Stanley Hayes, and the story "Cloudland" by Amy Hempel.
Cassadaga has been in multiple documentaries and podcasts and was featured in a 2010 episode of "The Glades."
A 2013 horror film "Cassadaga" was partially filmed in and around the community, to the consternation of some residents who didn't want their beliefs mocked or confused.
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Cassadaga, Florida, 'Psychic Capital of the World,' is 130 years old
