Here's a blog article by Jason Mankey, who writes about his visit to Lily Dale. He went to the stump, and described two methods of message delivery that he saw there. The first method he describes is a perfect example of what I call message casting. In my view, message casting is poor form that should be avoided, but it does not necessarily affect the message. Last year, I wrote about this during my visit to Lily Dale as well. Lest you think that it's specific to Lily Dale, understand that message casting is a medium's thing, not a Lily Dale thing. The second method, which I suppose you could call classic message delivery, is where the medium just talks to the seeker, and it is much better form.
One medium told an individual that he could picture that person “dancing.” The person getting the reading replied through gritted teeth “I’m in a wheelchair.”
I think this is interesting because it offers some interpretations and perspectives to think about, even though it doesn't appear to. The default interpretation is that the medium/spirits are crazy, because the person is in a wheelchair and probably couldn't dance if their life depended on it. But the spirits often use symbols, symbolic references, and metaphors. For example, they may well might have been telling the seeker that better times are coming. Or perhaps it really did mean something physical - that some time in the future, the seeker may be out of their wheelchair and capable of moving about on their own. Which interpretation is more accurate, which one counts? It's hard to say for sure, and your perspective is bound to be part of it as well. From the spirits' point of view, maybe it was "better times are coming". The medium's perspective is unknown, but it would be interesting to hear about. Assuming you could ask the medium, there's no guarantee that the medium will remember that particular tidbit of the overall message, let alone have anything more about it. Mediums typically transmit the message and don't necessarily remember a lot about it. Another way to say this is that mediums are more like phone lines that transmit the message, as opposed to a recorder that captures it all for playback at any time. As for the seeker, well, I'd say he or she took the default interpretation. The audience's interpretation is fairly unknown, but is probably in line with Jason's view that it was awkward. Does all this invalidate the message? Not necessarily. I've seen messages look meaningless when they were received, were forgotten, and then years later rang through as clear as a bell. So I wouldn't count this one out, especially so soon. Unfortunately, I'd bet that everyone, except me, has already dismissed the message.
Jason goes on to say that after his visit, he started giving people "readings" for the rest of the week. I hope that the recipients were all people that he knew, and more importantly knew wouldn't freak out by getting such a "reading". It wouldn't be a good thing to scare somebody that way. And during one of these "readings", something legitimate might just pop in, and that might freak both of them out. You never know. ;-)
But anyhow, even if you don't care about messages and mediums, and message casting means nothing to you, Lily Dale has things to explore and think about. You can learn about the Fox sisters, see the peddler's box and the slate writings in the museum, attend the healing temple, and listen to lectures in the auditorium. It seems that Jason's friend Lauren went with him and she had a good first-time experience. I hope others do too.