The religion of Cassadaga is Spiritualism, a religious movement rooted in nineteenth-century Christian anxieties concerning the ascendancy of science as a master interpretation of the world.
Spiritualism seeks to reconcile religion and science by empirically demonstrating the survival of the human personality after the death of the physical body. The Spiritualist God is an impersonal being of infinite intelligence whose footprints can be discerned in the phenomena of both the material and spiritual worlds.
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The central religious figure at Cassadaga is the medium, whose sensitivity to spirit vibrations enables her to relay messages from spirit beings and to manifest physical phenomena such as table-tipping, levitation, spirit photography and automatic writing. Cassadaga's religion also focuses on emotional and physical healing through the laying-on-of-hands and positive affirmation.
The community's healers act as conduits through which vital, curative force is brought to bear on conditions of disease and disharmony. The ethics of Cassadaga's religious system are summed up in the Golden Rule and in the acceptance of personal accountability for all actions. The religion of Cassadaga offers therapy for the body and spirit and consolation in the face of death's terrible mystery.
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