Sedona, a lovely little tourist town in Arizona, is right up there with Stonehenge and the Bermuda Triangle for creating unseen mystical energies that enhance consciousness. Because these so called vortex zones are so prolific in the red hills and mountains surrounding it, Sedona continues to be extremely popular among psychics and new agers. You hear the buzz of vortex stories as soon as you get into town.

What is a vortex you ask? A vortex is energetic movement created from the spiraling motion of air or liquid around a center of rotation. Dust devils, tornadoes, or whirlpools in rivers are just some examples of a vortex. You’ve probably seen at least one of those. Also, think of the bath water in your bathtub, how it swirls in a circular motion just as it’s about to go down the drain.

Those who believe in spirits and the netherworld will tell you that a vortex is also a place where the tender little threads separating our physical and spiritual worlds is stretched very thin, creating the perfect in-between place in which to recall past lives or communicate with space beings.  I guess if there are enough vortexes around in any one spot, the possibilities are endless. Anyone interested in these things? Then this is your spot to visit when or if you come west.

Having heard all these stories even before my first visit to Sedona, naturally it was one of the first places I wanted to see. We chose one of the easier ones to climb, passing some Indian children hoping to sell us some trinkets on our way. When we got to a flat place where a lot of others were sitting in meditation poses, we stopped and I soon found a place to sit and experience the vortex while Hubby found the perfect place to take a picture (above). Soon there were many others lined up on the red rock beside me, so there we all sat in near-perfect silence waiting to experience the vortex.

One of the women in my group, whose name I no longer recall, was a very creative person who was a great believer in all things metaphysical, so she began to feel something right away and was completely enthralled. On the other hand I, skeptical as always, felt nothing but the gentle wind tickling the downy hairs along my forearm. 

I wasn’t thinking of this at the time, but now as I think back on my Sedona vortex experience, I’m reminded of the movie “A Man for all Seasons.” Precisely at the crucial moment the ax meets the neck of Sir Thomas More, right after I’d turned my head away, someone in the dark theatre noisily passed wind. That same type person was there on the mountain that day and apparently felt a great need to, shall we say, lessen what must have been for him a particularly stressful moment?

Talk about spoiling enchantment! From that moment on, I’ve never been able to think of either without thinking of flatulent pranksters. Wait a minute! Do you suppose moments like these are just an example of a different derivative of a vortex? We could be on to something here!