Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Advice on my inner child and stock market in psychic capital of the world
IN these crazy uncertain times, it can somehow help to find yourself in a place that’s, well, not of this world.
And many may say the timewarped town of Cassadaga – between Daytona and Orlando in the hot, swampy heartland of Florida – is certainly a tad off the planet.
But it also draws a multitude of curious earthly visitors who flock here to be reconnected with the past, have incurable ailments cured, and see into their future.
Because when it comes to mediums, Cassadaga goes large.
And, shortly before the state’s coronavirus lockdown, I found myself sitting in front of one of its other-worldly inhabitants.
“I’m getting the word Apple,” says Gypsy Phoenix mysteriously, her trance-like eyes rolling back from the tarot cards and crystals spread across the table.
Then she says I needed more lavender in my life, which was being guarded by a group of spirit guides – and told me I was already looking forward to retirement.
The spirits, she added, were very strong during my “reading”…
LEGEND
And so they should be in a town billed as the Psychic Capital of the World – with its 55 or so rickety painted wooden houses home to more than 60 mediums, healers and psychics. Since 1875, Cassadaga has been a sanctuary to the mystic – and, some would argue, the downright crazy.
Its Spiritualist Camp was founded then by a New Yorker who had been instructed by his Native American spirit guide Seneca to start a spiritual centre.
So George Colby made the long trek south and found the ideal spot in Florida’s wilderness, buying up 35 acres.
After a bout of tuberculosis, he claimed the area’s spring water healed him. The legend goes that when he died in 1933, the waters started to dry up, which many saw as an omen.
But that only made it a bigger draw – and it’s been on the US National Register of Historic Places since 1992 .
Now holidaymakers who forgo the delights of Mickey and Minnie 50 miles further south are free to wander around its attractions, such as the Spirit Lake and Fairy Trail, and sit on the Devil’s Chair – in the local cemetery, of course.
Cassadaga is split in two, separated by a single street and around 100 years.
On one side sits the town’s church maintaining the traditional spiritualist belief system Colby established in the 1870s. On the other, 1970s New Agers have their centre of worship in and around the Cassadaga Hotel which, as you’d expect, is haunted with “friendly” spirits – one an Irish tenor called Arthur who leaves a scent trail of cigars and gin.
Most rooms have no phones or TVs so as to not interfere with “spiritual pathways” and there’s no hot water after 10pm. But step beyond its doors and visitors are promised they’ll “embrace the energy of the many spirits who reside in this enchanted inn”.
They’re also told: “Don’t forget to bring your camera. Many of our guests have gotten unbelievable pictures of Spirit Energies in and around the hotel.”
The owners claim it is a “respected Spiritual Sanctuary” and add: “It is our mission to help those who are seeking guidance from the Highest Angelic Realms, and it’s truths.” Walking into the foyer, visitors are welcomed by a board naming the mediums on shift – Gypsy, Misty, Doreen, Inez, Kat and Ron – and their price list, cash only. African voodoo dolls and handmade potions “starting from 20 bucks” can be bought from hotel receptionist DJ.
CYNICISM
When I arrived and asked if she had sensed I was going to turn up, she looked at me blankly – clearly not a possessor of the pricey psychic powers.
But any unsurprising hints of
mockery or cynicism simply wash over Cassadaga’s inhabitants.
Clairvoyant Jotte ‘the divine unicorn’ Schaffer, 42 – who works in the Psychic Shop – assured me the “positive vortexes” in the town only brought good energy.
“People need to come with no expectations and an open mind,” she said. “What I do with my readings is plant seeds and harvest guidance.”
Usually, up to 100 people a day visit the shop, but coronavirus has seen numbers plummet.
“We have been predicting ‘the great awakening’ for many years, and it is finally here,” she said.
“It is an amazing time to seek spiritualism. We hope this helps recalibrate humanity.”
The shop offers a crystal healing bed treatment – it costs a dollar a minute and is said to relieve stress, soothe anxiety, and reconnect people to themselves.
For $35 you get an “aura report” which found I had a blue-indigo air about me indicating a “communicative, loving, loyal, sensitive and helpful” person –
yet one who was suffering stress and read as if I may be on my way out. Which brings me back to that table in the hotel with Gypsy.
I handed over a wallet-recalibrating 65 bucks for a half-hour consultation in a room decked out with crystals, trinkets, pictures and various dolls.
The smell of incense hit me like a train. She dealt the tarot cards quicker than a Las Vegas croupier. Within seconds she was on the scent of the inner self I didn’t know. “We want you to work with things like lavender and get a lavender pillow,” she said, adding that I loved ice cream.
Before I could reply: “Doesn’t everybody?” she revealed I have five spirit guides in my life. Most people only have two, apparently.
“There is one Irish and one’s Welsh. They’re cousins,” she said. “Like they’re sort of jokesters, but you know, sometimes you’re just sort of closed off to it, and you’re, like, focused on the serious.
“And they’re like, ‘Come on man, open up, you know, you know, be happy’.
“There is also an older woman somewhere, like in her nineties. Almost like a grandmother’s spirit guide. Not your grandmother. She helps calm you and soothe you when you are feeling overwhelmed.”
APPLE
Then she told me the other two were a brother and sister both under 10 “helping balance the male and female aspects of your inner child”.
Her best advice was about my financial future – and that “on your way out” verdict I’d had.
“I hear you’re looking forward to retirement. You’re not quite there yet,” she said. Phew! “You’re still sort of very young, but spirit guides recently have been really on at people about saving money and the stock market.
“So wait until this panic is sort of over and about a month or two and start sort of buying the cheaper stocks, all the stocks that have fallen watch them bounce.”
All this time I’d been wondering just what she meant by her trance-like uttering of the word “Apple”. Now, the big reveal.
“Play it smart. Apple stocks are going to be super grabbable. Just grab a whole bunch and watch it go up,” said Gypsy.
“And if that fails, buy Samsung.”
People need to come here with no expectations and an open mind
CLAIRVOYANT JOTTE ON TOWN’S ‘GOOD ENERGY’