Lily Dale is a spiritualist community of the Modern Spiritualist movement located in Chautauqua County, New York. It’s a place of pilgrimage for many Spiritualists and others interested in the paranormal. A large population of Mediums and Spiritualist Healers reside in Lily Dale. So when “Running Russell Simmons” star and animal rights icon Simone Reyes lost her beautiful, beloved dog Stevie, she tripped here for a lesson in healing. Here’s her story;
The single most important relationship I have in this life is the bond I have with my animals. I have tried to be the best Mother to them, but have always been haunted by things I could have done better (blaming myself for waiting too long to euthanize, blaming myself if a euthanasia wasn’t as peaceful as I had prayed it would be, blaming myself for anything I can get my hands on.. Perhaps that’s my Catholic upbringing, who knows). I have prayed hard that they could hear me talk to them after they passed and held onto the desperate hope they will all be waiting for me when it’s my turn to cross at The Rainbow Bridge. Faith is based on the concept of not needing proof. That’s what faith is. But still we all want proof don’t we? We all want to know for SURE.
My quest for proof to ease my grief over my recent losses (a few weeks ago I lost my souldog at the age of 16 and a half) led me Lily Dale, NY. Perhaps you have seen the HBO documentary filmed there called “Nobody Dies In Lily Dale”. If you haven’t its worth watching. The Lily Dale Assembly of Pomfret, New York, was established in 1879 as a gated community for members of the Spiritualism religion. To this day, Lily Dale is residence to mediums, healers and members. During the summer season, Lily Dale welcomes visitors with thousands of people making the pilgrimage to make contact with the deceased. Of course when I watched the documentary, I was intrigued to say the least. A town of mediums? A town that speaks to The Dead? Sounded like it was made for me. So, I called my bff Cathy, who had lost both her parents, to go with me and find our family. The drive took about eight hours from Brooklyn but it was an adventure. We found a lovely place to break up the ride in Scranton PA called “Eden” which served 100% vegan fare. I blasted the oldies from my ipod and by the last line of “Jessie’s Girl” we were there.
Tired and excited we arrived at Lily Dale, paid the ten dollar gate fee and entered into a world that would forever change who I was. We didn’t stay on site which I now regret but did spend all day and most of our nights there.
Everyone said visitors return year after year because once you experience it, its simply hard to leave. We enjoyed the laying of hands at the Healing Temple and watching the mediums “serve Spirit” by handing out free messages from beyond to visitors at Inspiration Stump (which is as it sounds like, an old tree stump- a fixture in Lily Dale society since 1898. It is believed to be an energy vortex where mediums since the beginning have gathered before such notables as Susan B. Anthony, President Abraham Lincoln, Mae West and Houdini). We loved the pet cemetery, fresh with ashes of companion animals scattered about, we walked The Fairy Trail and bought crystals at the town gift shops..we even found vegan options at the cafeteria! There were cats everywhere..of course I asked if they did TNR and it appears they do..many were owned and friendly ..most seemed healthy and well fed.
At Inspiration Stump, many visitors were reduced to tears in the presence of their long lost grandmother, uncle, father etc. I often looked around and saw people so close to their grief it appeared to be a heavy weight they carried along with their backpacks and handbags. The storm of their loss had clearly knocked them around and battered them. They traveled from near and far to find answers and to receive comfort. Most seemed to leave with that. We certainly did.
The Lily Dale Assembly offers workshops on everything from spoon bending to past life regression, celebrity speakers come to share their gift and visiting mediums give messages at Inspiration Stump. I did a reality TV show called “Running Russell Simmons” and became used to having a camera invading my space but it still felt odd to be trailed by cameras from the OWN network who are doing a piece on Lily Dale. It made me realize that this tiny town would soon be world famous and I should savor the quiet moments I had there. We signed up for The Spirit Walk where we were encouraged to take photos guaranteed to get orbs as the town seemed to come alive with spirit activity after the gates closed. Sure enough my photos had more orbs than I could count.. This was cool but I had done my research and understood that digital cameras often got orbs in them which could be dust particles, pollen etc. That said, the orbs in my photos seemed to be very specific in their placement and definitely got me in the ghost frame of mind.
I met with quite a few mediums and got bits and pieces of accurate info but nothing blew me away. Nothing made me SURE. Then I came across one medium that changed my life. She seemed to be bringing in the Spirit of my neighbor Millie. I never knew any of my grandparents so growing up Millie was a familiar presence in my life. She had a hearty laugh and medical issues the medium described. She also saw scripts around me and said I was “controversial”. Um, well that’s for sure. Animal Rights Activists usually are. And then the session was over…she began to close it with a prayer. But before she did she asked “Is there anything you wanted to cover that we didn’t?” I got the word “Well……” out of my mouth and was going to say I had really hoped to reach any my animals to know they are ok … But before I could, her eyes widened, her head tilted and she made a confused, even a bit alarmed face. She sat staring at something over on my left and then began to speak “There’s a dog coming through around the corner but… Why….(Her expression still looking puzzled).. What happened? Why does she have only three legs?!?… At this point I burst into tears. My beloved beautiful girl, Pikachu had seen an opportunity and taken it. Born with a deformed fourth leg that made her a tripod dog.. A three legged bundle of pure joy.
I adopted Pikachu as a special needs senior. I was in the market for a special needs dog (even though my other animals weren’t thrilled with the idea at first, soon they all lived in harmony together) and went to ses her at Ramapo shelter in NJ. In her cage was another dog who went crazy when I took her out so what else could I do? I took them both. Now my last surving dog is alone- all my other babies, his sisters and brothers gone up to Heaven. The medium continued “your dog in Spirit is hopping all around..she never had trouble with just three legs”..and she was right. She never did. She was clearly handicapped but she could do stairs and keep up with the others fine until she became a senior. Then, “she says you have another living dog.. He sleeps with you”. Yes. “She wants to apologize.. He falls off the bed and she says she visits him and startles him, she doesn’t mean to”. All true. And then finally Pikachu made a statement answering the medium’s question to me that came up in the reading about children. Pikachu said to her “Mom’s kids aren’t human, they are animals WE are her children”. I couldn’t have said it better myself.
I left knowing this wasn’t a guess or a generalization. Pikachu was there. All my animals are… in Heaven waiting. Perhaps at the legendary Rainbow Bridge. They walk among us here on the earth plane. Since receiving this
validation I have come to find many more signs from my animals. Just recently I attended a Stevie Nicks concert (the last minute tickets freely falling into my lap given to me by Cathy).. I had asked my dog to send me a
sign by allowing me to hear the song “Gold Dust Woman” so that I would know she was still with me. Instead of making sure I heard it on the radio, Stevie Nicks sang it to me in person. Before this visit I may have dismissed
this as coincidence but never again. I have always heard that if we open our senses the signs are all around us.. And I believe that they are.
I am forever changed by Lily Dale and my experience there. I will return there next summer and probably every summer thereafter. Until then I go there in my mind, I return there again and again, always with the same whisper from my lips “thank you..thank you…thank you”.
All photos by Simone Reyes. Simone Reyes is Russell Simmons’s Executive Assistant. An avid animal rights activist and rescuer, Simone shed her clothes for PETA’s “Rather Go Naked” demonstrations. Simone literally allows the stars to be her guide; she never leaves the house without consulting her planetary charts. When this devout vegan is not working hard as an activist, she’s performing at burlesque shows. She lives both in New York City and California. Please follow her @simonereyes on twitter.
