In Sarasota, there is a community surrounding a litany of roadside psychics and more than 100 mediums and spiritual guides. Why?
On a recent Sunday, Phyllis Town, 66, and more than 40 congregants rotated in and out of Sunday service at the Sarasota Center of Light, founded 68 years ago as a nondenominational church that wed Christianity and metaphysical spirituality, and where all ministers are mediums, to receive their own individual “vibrational healings.”
With Ms. Town seated, Rev. Jim Toole, 60, took a breath, closed his eyes and positioned his hands just above the top of her head. For about 10 minutes, Reverend Toole moved his hands around Ms. Town’s upper torso and head mere inches from her face, careful not to touch her. As she sat silently, carefully breathing, he explained that he was channeling energy. When Reverend Toole was finished, he softly whispered in Ms. Town’s ear as a grin stretched across her face.
“I come here because it’s the only time I get touched,” a woman told Ms. Town during one session.
The sentiment of missing someone’s touch resonated with Ms. Town, whose husband “transitioned,” because “it never occurred to me that I was going through that as a widow.” Nearly six years ago, in the wake of his death, she devoted herself to the Center entirely.
Reverend Toole and Ms. Town are part of a dense spiritual constellation concentrated among two neighboring cities, Sarasota and Bradenton in Florida, that also encompasses the Spirit University, a litany of roadside psychics and more than 100 mediums and spiritual guides. Unlike other American spiritual outcrops like Lily Dale, N.Y., and Cassadaga, Fla., Sarasota wasn’t founded as a spiritual community. And its wealth of spiritualists isn’t billed as an attraction.
As Americans search for means to cope with loss, and even though interest has grown immensely in the past century, the stigma of fortunetelling fraud, psychic scams and skepticism still haunts the practice.
“I thought I was a witch,” said Ms. Town, who is an associate minister at the Sarasota Center of Light. “Spirits would come to me — dead relatives and things like that.” It took the community in Sarasota to bring her out of her shell. And like any community, Town’s story demonstrates the value of a room full of people on any given day, the kinship, the warmth, the sense of being less alone in the world.
As a native, I’ve heard stories about Sarasota’s energy grids, vortexes, a Calusa force field that prevents hurricanes and the 99-percent quartz-crystal sand at Siesta Key. All of it helps draw the metaphysical community. “You don’t move to Sarasota; you’re called,” a man told me. When I was growing up, the string of roadside psychics along Route 41 was as omnipresent as the car dealerships and pawn shops with their neon signs burning late into the night. It is where many psychics live and work today. In retrospect, it seemed absurd not to be more aware of the deep spiritual community here straddling the line between the physical and metaphysical worlds, but throughout my childhood, it was unclear what was simply Southern lore or if Sarasota truly held spiritual significance, what was real and what many deemed a “scam.”
Nationally, Americans increasingly consider themselves “spiritual but not religious,” according to a Pew Research Center survey, a metric that spiked to 27 percent from 19 percent in the last five years. While American spiritualism is often depicted as rooted in Native American, Caribbean, Latin American or African cultures, spiritualists today span a vast racial spectrum, and Southwest Florida represents a mere sliver of the broader spiritual diaspora.
Among the earliest evidence of a metaphysical adviser in Sarasota was on January 18, 1912, in the Sarasota Times, when advertisements for a tropical tree nursery and farm seed flanked the first mention of a “Clairvoyant Palmist" by the name of Princess Gladys. The ad appeared once a week for a month then vanished. That same year, John and Mable Ringling of the Ringling Circus bought their home along Sarasota Bay and in 1927 would move the Circus’ headquarters to Sarasota. A slew of fortunetellers and palm readers followed.
In the 1930s, the word “psychic” was mentioned in Sarasota newspapers 116 times. By the 1970s, it appeared 1,555 times over that decade.
Catherine Rosenbaum followed her parents south when they retired from Philadelphia to Longboat Key in Sarasota. After a divorce in 2008, she turned to the stars, culling numerology, astrology and intuition to make a living as a reader, or as she would say, “a reflector.”
“The angels filled my books,” she said.
At 13, Ms. Rosenbaum would trace the constellations with her finger outside her home in Philadelphia. She took so strongly to the night sky that at 14, her mother would take her for weekly lessons with an astrologer after school. Ms. Rosenbaum, 64, has been a full-time medium for 10 years, but noted, “I was born like that.” She added: “I always felt what everybody else was feeling, but I never had a sense of myself.”
Now she does readings seven times a month at a shop called Elysian Fields in central Sarasota. While she often meets with private clients in person, much of her time is devoted to phone readings with people as far away as Taiwan.
As for the process, “it’s not something I can explain,” Ms. Rosenbaum said. She starts with someone’s name and birth date and uses numerology, astrology and symbol-based systems; then she enters her clients’ auric field (a descriptor for the layers of energy that surrounds the body and correspond to chakras as stated), allowing their energy to envelop her. “Everything has information in it,” she explained, noting the presence of their fears, traumas and desires. “There’s no hiding.”
Ms. Rosenbaum believes that most people are looking for peace in their lives — whether it’s the courage to take risks, pursue a dream or just fend for themselves. She and other mediums try to teach people to “stop living like other people.”
“I’m more evolved,” said Ondrej Zouhar, 37, a client. In 2017, he moved to Sarasota and began to see Ms. Rosenbaum regularly. He said he felt pressure to find fame and be perceived as wealthy, but with Ms. Rosenbaum as a guide, he felt like he could finally trust himself, and the external pressure fell away.
Ultimately, it comes down to listening — a prosaic pursuit with profound outcomes: “It’s a beautiful thing to watch people become themselves.”
Victoria Ackerman, 57, the founder of Spirit University, echoed Ms. Rosenbaum’s sentiment of becoming oneself. After abruptly coming off the drug Cymbalta, prescribed for the pain and depression associated with fibromyalgia, she found herself in an emergency room. “All of a sudden, everything stopped,” she remembers.
In what she calls her “near-death experience,” Ms. Ackerman made a promise to herself to recalibrate her life’s compass.
It began with a book, “Dream Healer” by Adam McLeod, a self-published memoir about a proposed connection between hard science and forms of healing that aren't taken seriously by the western medical community.
After devouring it and others, she began practicing Reiki. With clients, she said, visions would come to her as if she were sitting in front of a movie screen. At first, she shrugged them off but as the visions returned, she began to poke around online about psychic development.
Piece by piece, she assembled a curriculum.
In 2011, Ms. Ackerman began holding classes in a vacant storefront in the Gulf Gate neighborhood — the soft opening of the Spirit University. Devoted to the teaching of mediumship, the school offers classes including Tarot and telepathy. According to Ms. Ackerman, more than 10,000 students have enrolled in classes according to records she keeps since the Spirit University was founded.
“I felt safe in that environment,” said Elodie Tarantino, 45, a practicing medium. She said the university provided a space where no one was ridiculed or felt abnormal.
Ms. Ackerman often encounters skeptics who suggest that mediums are nothing but roadside frauds. She said that the program’s key is its focus on providing evidence, details and validation — specific information like names of those who have died or details from their past — in order to gain a client’s trust. The sweet spot is for a medium to offer six pieces of evidence for a reading of three to six minutes, and 30 pieces for an hourlong private reading. “That’s my litmus test to whether I’m myself connected, and for the client to know that you’re truly connected.”
Ms. Tarantino said of Ms. Ackerman’s ability: “She shows me she is connected.” She added that when it comes to communicating with those outside the physical world, “that connection needs to be proved.”
“I don’t go with the intent of proving life after death,” Ms. Ackerman explained. “I’m not here to do battle with anyone’s belief system.”
For her, sustained engagement with questions of love, death, mortality and identity imbue her life with meaning. “It teaches me to be much more understanding and empathetic to others, as well as myself.”
Ms. Ackerman notes that clients lean toward bigger questions like how to find peace or love. “How can I best improve my life?” is the main question. While many come for personal or professional validation, the vast majority come for closure.
Barbara Leighton, 68, did. After her husband died, she looked for ways to keep the thread between them intact. “It’s just a connection I miss having with him,” she said. By using mediums like Ms. Ackerman as a conduit, “I feel like I’m having a conversation with him,” she adds.
Ms. Ackerman said she believes that most people cannot see energy or spirits because modern culture is saturated with scientific pragmatism. But for those willing to consider what lies beyond the physical perception of the world, “it’s there,” she says.
(Source: NYT)
On a recent Sunday, Phyllis Town, 66, and more than 40 congregants rotated in and out of Sunday service at the Sarasota Center of Light, founded 68 years ago as a nondenominational church that wed Christianity and metaphysical spirituality, and where all ministers are mediums, to receive their own individual “vibrational healings.”
 |
| Phyllis Town, associate minister and board member of the Sarasota Center of Light, receives a vibrational healing from Reverend Jim Toole at the Center of Light on Tuesday afternoon. Michael Adno for The New York Times |
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| The stained glass window of the sanctuary at the Sarasota Center of Light. Michael Adno for The New York Times |
“I come here because it’s the only time I get touched,” a woman told Ms. Town during one session.
The sentiment of missing someone’s touch resonated with Ms. Town, whose husband “transitioned,” because “it never occurred to me that I was going through that as a widow.” Nearly six years ago, in the wake of his death, she devoted herself to the Center entirely.
 |
| The Sarasota Center of Light, formerly the Shrine of the Master Church. The church's former symbol is still visible on the exterior of the sanctuary facing Tuttle Avenue.CreditMichael Adno for The New York Times |
As Americans search for means to cope with loss, and even though interest has grown immensely in the past century, the stigma of fortunetelling fraud, psychic scams and skepticism still haunts the practice.
“I thought I was a witch,” said Ms. Town, who is an associate minister at the Sarasota Center of Light. “Spirits would come to me — dead relatives and things like that.” It took the community in Sarasota to bring her out of her shell. And like any community, Town’s story demonstrates the value of a room full of people on any given day, the kinship, the warmth, the sense of being less alone in the world.
 |
| A cabinet used for the practice of physical, trance, among other forms of mediumship by mediums and psychics at the Sarasota Center of Light. Only certain members of the Center are granted access to this part of the campus. Michael Adno for The New York Times |
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| Here, the remnants of a medium’s trance are scrawled on the cabinet walls. Michael Adno for The New York Times |
 |
| Siesta Key’s public beach, lauded as America's Number 1 beach by Dr. Beach in 2011 and 2017, in part because of its finely textured white sand.CreditMichael Adno for The New York Times |
Nationally, Americans increasingly consider themselves “spiritual but not religious,” according to a Pew Research Center survey, a metric that spiked to 27 percent from 19 percent in the last five years. While American spiritualism is often depicted as rooted in Native American, Caribbean, Latin American or African cultures, spiritualists today span a vast racial spectrum, and Southwest Florida represents a mere sliver of the broader spiritual diaspora.
Among the earliest evidence of a metaphysical adviser in Sarasota was on January 18, 1912, in the Sarasota Times, when advertisements for a tropical tree nursery and farm seed flanked the first mention of a “Clairvoyant Palmist" by the name of Princess Gladys. The ad appeared once a week for a month then vanished. That same year, John and Mable Ringling of the Ringling Circus bought their home along Sarasota Bay and in 1927 would move the Circus’ headquarters to Sarasota. A slew of fortunetellers and palm readers followed.
In the 1930s, the word “psychic” was mentioned in Sarasota newspapers 116 times. By the 1970s, it appeared 1,555 times over that decade.
 |
| A collection of bells within the chapel at the Sarasota Center of Light that are used by mediums and to teach the practice of mediumship. Michael Adno for The New York Times |
 |
| Many of the bells belong to the founder of the Sarasota Center of Light, Reverend Dorothy Flexer, as well as two of the three trumpets, with one belonging to Reverend Jim Toole. Above the table, two photographs depict Russell Flexer, left, and Reverend Dorothy Flexer. Michael Adno for The New York Times |
“The angels filled my books,” she said.
At 13, Ms. Rosenbaum would trace the constellations with her finger outside her home in Philadelphia. She took so strongly to the night sky that at 14, her mother would take her for weekly lessons with an astrologer after school. Ms. Rosenbaum, 64, has been a full-time medium for 10 years, but noted, “I was born like that.” She added: “I always felt what everybody else was feeling, but I never had a sense of myself.”
 |
| An entrance to the healing garden at the Sarasota Center of Light.CreditMichael Adno for The New York Times |
As for the process, “it’s not something I can explain,” Ms. Rosenbaum said. She starts with someone’s name and birth date and uses numerology, astrology and symbol-based systems; then she enters her clients’ auric field (a descriptor for the layers of energy that surrounds the body and correspond to chakras as stated), allowing their energy to envelop her. “Everything has information in it,” she explained, noting the presence of their fears, traumas and desires. “There’s no hiding.”
 |
| Catherine Rosenbaum, 64, a reflector and medium based in Sarasota who followed her parents here after they retired from Philadelphia.CreditMichael Adno for The New York Times |
“I’m more evolved,” said Ondrej Zouhar, 37, a client. In 2017, he moved to Sarasota and began to see Ms. Rosenbaum regularly. He said he felt pressure to find fame and be perceived as wealthy, but with Ms. Rosenbaum as a guide, he felt like he could finally trust himself, and the external pressure fell away.
Ultimately, it comes down to listening — a prosaic pursuit with profound outcomes: “It’s a beautiful thing to watch people become themselves.”
 |
| A moribund tree trunk sits next to farm equipment as the sun sets. In Myakka City, a litany of ranches marches East from Sarasota harkening back to the area’s agrarian roots before palmetto bundles gave way to lawns. Michael Adno for The New York Times |
 |
| Parking at a roadside psychic along US 41 in Bradenton, Fla. Michael Adno for The New York Times |
In what she calls her “near-death experience,” Ms. Ackerman made a promise to herself to recalibrate her life’s compass.
It began with a book, “Dream Healer” by Adam McLeod, a self-published memoir about a proposed connection between hard science and forms of healing that aren't taken seriously by the western medical community.
 |
| Victoria Ackerman, 57, founder of the Spirit University, on the grounds of the Ringling Museum along Sarasota Bay. CreditMichael Adno for The New York Times |
Piece by piece, she assembled a curriculum.
In 2011, Ms. Ackerman began holding classes in a vacant storefront in the Gulf Gate neighborhood — the soft opening of the Spirit University. Devoted to the teaching of mediumship, the school offers classes including Tarot and telepathy. According to Ms. Ackerman, more than 10,000 students have enrolled in classes according to records she keeps since the Spirit University was founded.
 |
| A large classroom is filled with chairs at The Spirit University, an institution founded in 2011, devoted to the teaching of mediumship and the development of psychic ability. Michael Adno for The New York Times |
 |
| A palm reader sign along US 41 in Bradenton, Fla. Michael Adno for The New York Times |
Ms. Ackerman often encounters skeptics who suggest that mediums are nothing but roadside frauds. She said that the program’s key is its focus on providing evidence, details and validation — specific information like names of those who have died or details from their past — in order to gain a client’s trust. The sweet spot is for a medium to offer six pieces of evidence for a reading of three to six minutes, and 30 pieces for an hourlong private reading. “That’s my litmus test to whether I’m myself connected, and for the client to know that you’re truly connected.”
Ms. Tarantino said of Ms. Ackerman’s ability: “She shows me she is connected.” She added that when it comes to communicating with those outside the physical world, “that connection needs to be proved.”
 |
| A psychic shop along Route 41 in Bradenton, Fla.CreditMichael Adno for The New York Times |
For her, sustained engagement with questions of love, death, mortality and identity imbue her life with meaning. “It teaches me to be much more understanding and empathetic to others, as well as myself.”
Ms. Ackerman notes that clients lean toward bigger questions like how to find peace or love. “How can I best improve my life?” is the main question. While many come for personal or professional validation, the vast majority come for closure.
 |
| Salt crystal lamps line the edge of a room used for Yoga classes at the Power of One, a shop in Venice, Fla., that offers a variety of spiritual outlets such as readings. Michael Adno for The New York Times |
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| Sherry Lord, 57, a psychic, moved to the Sarasota area following a divorce when she began to practice mediumship full-time. Michael Adno for The New York Times |
Ms. Ackerman said she believes that most people cannot see energy or spirits because modern culture is saturated with scientific pragmatism. But for those willing to consider what lies beyond the physical perception of the world, “it’s there,” she says.
 |
| Palm readers and psychics punctuate the litany of car dealers, auto parts stores, gas stations and restaurants that line Route 41. Credit Michael Adno for The New York Times |
One must be very careful when navigating spiritual guidance. There's a lot of spirits that are not of God,yet will mimic or encroach on your life when invited. The occult and demonic spirits are just as real as the Holy Spirit gifted to mankind by God. The Bible warns us of this and actually informs us as to what the fruits of the Holy spirit are.Don't be fooled or exploited by money grabbers.Do your homework first.
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