One of the assignments for my east and west spiritualities class was to go to a spiritualist service in Cassadaga. I had never actually been to Cassadaga so I thought it would be interesting to go and check things out especially since I've always sort of wanted to visit there anyways. So I dragged Helen along with me today, I was somewhat reluctant to go there alone...there is safety in numbers. We find the place easily enough but I start to get this eerie feeling. Anyway, we go inside and get a seat. I look through the hymn and realize they have a "Declaration of Principles" inside the front cover. I read through them and stumble across this one, "We affirm that communication with the so-called dead is a fact, scientifically proven by the phenomena of spiritualism." Yes, you read that right, a scientific fact. Now I'm a science major as you all know, so this little principle caught me a little off-guard. How in the world do you prove talking with the dead is a scientific fact...We haven't even proven evolution as a scientific fact, it's still a theory as are most things in the realm of science. I wish this were the only disturbing thing we encountered in Cassadaga.

The service began with a hymn, the lighting of some candles (there were candles all over the place), and the reading of the Declaration of principles and the prayer for spiritual healing to which everyone in the service, except for Helen and I, read aloud. It was almost like some sort of cult chant of something to that effect. It was freaky. Then begins the healing/meditation to which were asked to envision becoming the color yellow. After what seemed like an eternity, we were aloud to open our eyes and stop being the color yellow. A speak then proceeded to tell us that we are all made of energy and vibrations and that we give off different thoughts, hatred, happiness, etc. Also, that whatever energy we give off will eventually come back to us so we must be careful what we send out into the world. This was followed by the speaker stating that awhile back he got pneumonia and the reason he got pneumonia, listen to this kids, because he thought that he was going to get it and didn't ward off those thoughts. He said the same thing about people who get cancer. They think about getting cancer, and eventually they get it because they've thought about it so much. Yes, I wanted to leave after this statement but we stayed. The last little bit of the service was where the speaker provided psychic readings to people in the congregation. The main thing I noticed about all of these so-called readings was that they were so vague, they could have applied to anyone. Anyway, that was a little rundown of our experience in Cassadaga. I still have to attend a Pentecostal service, any takers?