The Space Between Things: Sedona & Everywhere
Sedona is an extraordinary place. It’s visually and viscerally striking and rich with spirit. The people are warm and welcoming. They’re interesting and stimulating. The air is crisp and wholesome. And these words, by the way, don’t even come close to the experience I had at Sedona. Words cannot do this place any justice. I know this is a tired cliche, but there are no other words to articulate my sense of no-words-being-able-to-capture-the-experience-of-this-place. It needs to be experienced.
Sedona is known for being a great big energy ‘vortex’. Moreover, it is suggested to contain various sites of focussed vortex energy. What is a vortex? In this context, they are known to be unique locations that produce special kinds of energy flow, generally energy upflows or inflows, that have the capacity to connect those in its proximity to, not only the four conventionally known dimensions of time and space, but to the other six that superstring theory suggests exist but cannot fully explain, as science does not yet have the technology to measure them. Superstring theory states that we exist in these ten dimensions, but cannot readily access them. Yet, we can experience these dimensions through certain practices. In Sedona, it is suggested that energy flows in and through these deeper dimensions and that vortexes ‘turbo-boost’ our intentions through them.
Drawn to Sedona after learning of this energetic epicenter and being on a spiritual pilgrimage, slightly skeptical but open to all and everything, I went and explored directly. Like almost every place I’ve visited here in the U.S., it was usually after talking to a friend, old or new, and listening to my body. And then researching and saying yes. I am playing with energy of late, experientially. Exploring mine and that of this universe that I am one with. Attempting to more finely tune and tap into my own energy centers. Attempting to get closer to self, to soul and divine.
As soon as I got a glimpse of Sedona’s terrain, driving north from Arizona’s capital of Phoenix in the U.S. southwest, I felt the excitement in my body…and then in my mind. After pulling into the first gas station on approaching the town’s limits, that’s when I knew I was somewhere special. A monolithic stonehenge of giant red sandstone rock seemed to encase the place. It had a warming and tingly effect on me. From the gas pump I marvelled at the view around me, becoming more and more curious and drawn to these striking rock formations that seem to have purposefully emerged from the depths of earth's core or deeper.
And then there’s the twisty trees. Within Sedona one finds juniper trees with severely twisted trunks and branches — an effect attributed by conspirators and enthusiasts to the vortex energy. I’m not sure if this is exclusive to Sedona, if it is but local mythology, but they are definitely there.
I bought a vortex guide book at a local metaphysical supply store, one of those types of places I am usually drawn to to peruse in but rarely purchase anything from. The book: Scientific Vortex Information: An M.I.T.-Trained Scientist’s Program, by Pete A. Sanders Jr. There were two main guide books available, which one of the staff explained the aforementioned to be too scientific for them, while the other more woo woo one was much more accessible. I was drawn to the more scientific of the two. Not that I am averse to woo woo. Yet, I benefit most from the coming together of science and woo woo. That intersection of rational and intuitive, spiritual and scientific, heart and mind, is where it’s at for me.
The book explains vortexes, Sedona’s spiritual and vortex history and describes the different main vortex sites in the region and their individual qualities and locations. It explains the different functions of upflow and inflow vortexes for one’s spiritual development (simplifying it: upflows are for manifesting and connecting to higher planes and the divine; and inflows are about reflecting inwardly and inner healing). It provides practices to get the most out of one’s vortexing exploration. And it connects all of this to soul connection. Yes! That’s where I’m at. So I read and visited and practiced and meditated and explored: the sites and their energy, myself and my energy, and where they intersect and are one. And, with each visit to the vortex locations, I experienced extraordinary energetic openness and insights and clarity and movement within. I learned more about my body and my energy language. The vortexes all have different personalities and I interacted with them all differently. The last one I visited, Bell Rock, was the place I was most impacted by.
Now, there was, and usually is in this area of life, a part of my mind that says, ‘This Sedona vortex thing is simply the placebo effect…it is because I believe that there’s something special here that something special actually happens’. And then there’s the part that wants to believe in the magic and power inherent in the narrative. I can’t be absolutely certain either way. But I have learnt to more and more trust my gut. It is not always crisply clear, but becoming more and more so. I am also learning that questioning which one is more true is a fruitless exercise. Placebo or not, if it is working, I allow it. Although I am also aware I need some semi-rational or at least plausible basis for a belief. Where the rational, metaphysical and mystical meet, there is power there for me.
Bell Rock, interestingly, was the first big red rock I visited on arriving in Sedona. I only initially experienced it from afar though, from the car park, as I was hungry and tired. But as I took it in I knew I would return…was compelled to return…as I sensed something powerful about it, intimately. And it turned out that it would be the last vortex I would visit on the day I left Sedona.
I walked the track to the base of Bell Rock and spiralled upwards, meandering back and forth, tuning into my energetic sensations...sensitising to them, mapping them, listening to the messages that arose in the swirling quiet within. The book I bought talks about the different experiences one could expect at different areas of a vortex site. According to Sanders, Bell Rock is a strong upflow vortex and the higher up you go, the more intense the upflow energy can become. And that higher is not necessarily better or worse, but that one needed to find the right energy flow for them at the time. I experienced this, played with it, explored it. I found a spot to do a meditation practice Sanders suggests, to connect to and open the soul’s energy field. I went higher until the energy was so strong I was giddy and a bit nauseous, albeit, energetically high. I came back to a more balanced space, that was right for meditation. I found myself humming, chanting, singing. I played with my emotional, thinking and spiritual parts. I walked slow, ran, danced, climbed. There was someone drumming on the other side of the mountain, and I was drawn to it. I spiraled my way to them, up the sometimes precarious rock inclines. We talked. There was learning there. I would be drawn to different spaces on the rock, guided mostly by energy, by the rock. I sat and contemplated. I listened. Bell Rock was communicating with me, occasionally guiding me, warning me of potential dangers at times. We were ‘in commune’. It was an energy theme park! And it moved me. And shifted things. And opened me up some more, from the inside out. I spent at least two hours on Bell Rock, which felt like a few moments.
As I sat and contemplated on the mountain I thought about the vortexes and how they might work, because I now had some direct experience of them. I observed that a common factor of the vortex sites, particularly the upflow ones, was the proximity of these extraordinary masses of rock protruding out of the earth to each other. There would be at least two close to one another, and often a cluster. The whole town was a series of big red rocks in close proximity to each other. With my science hat on, I wondered if it was the gravitational pull between them that creates the vortexes? Just like planets’ gravitational pull to each other being determined by their mass and size. It got me thinking about the energy I felt in my body while placed in between these masses of iron rich rock. Which got me thinking further afield. Maybe all things create energy vortexes, to lesser or greater degrees, varying in intensity based on mass (physical and spiritual?) and the nature and power inherent in the things. Perhaps it is the relationship between the rocks that create zones of physical and spiritual ten dimensional activity. When caught or placed in between powerful relational dynamics, there is powerful energy. Later, a fellow traveler I met in Sedona recounted a story of the tantric energy they had with a former partner, creating a vortex that was impromptuly experienced by a third party. I reflected on the times I have related to and interconnected with other conscious or aligned-to-me beings, where I suspect powerful vortexes had been created. Like being in love, like being connected...co-creating something out of seemingly nothing but relationship.
Whether placebo or something more tangible...maybe just a symbolic ritual, perhaps something more metaphysical and mystical…regardless...I needed to come here to experience it directly. Maybe places like Sedona are just vehicles to access these parts of myself and to have these mystical experiences. Either way I don’t mind, because the journey is incredible and awe-inspiring and connecting and transformative. My heart and mind and spirit are more open and interconnected than ever.
I am a vortex, intermingling with other vortexes, co-creating vortexes.
