By Robert Samuelsen

It’s hard to think about Arizona’s beautiful Town of Sedona without thinking about shopping, resorts, and hiking. Nestled on the edge of the Mogollon Rim, it’s red rocks with forested backdrops and volcanic caps make it an outdoorsman’s paradise. It’s this same scenery that defines it as a spiritual place – a place that a person can meditate uninterrupted from worldly cares in a place of unworldly beauty. In fact, Sedona claims to be an area of swirling life force including four specific vortices of highly focused enlightenment.

Some people claim to grow their faith in solitude much like Moses did on Mt. Sinai but in the case of Sedona, there is no recorded history of remarkable revelation amongst its pinnacles. In fact, it’s the absence of evidence in which proponents have capitalized, labeling some Sedona’s most prominent peaks as sacred and worthy of worship. With Sedona’s abundant water from the perennial flow of Oak Creek, its moderate climate, and fertile floodplains, one would think of an abundant archaeological record of human habitation. Instead, the Sinagua settlements are memorialized by National Monuments just twenty miles east and west of Sedona at the Montezuma’s Castle and Tuzigoot ruins. One hypothesis is that the Oak Creek Valley was a recognized common land, shared by all native people for divine purposes. Another theory is that it was feared land because of the burning red buttes as if it were possessed by the deity of fire!
There are other proclaimed vortices around the world including the Egyptian pyramids, Stonehenge, Glastonbury Tor and Abbey, and Mayan Ruins – all heavily inhabited by ancients. And, like Sedona, there are uninhabited sites such as Mt. Shasta, Es Vedra, and the Haleakala Volcano in Hawaii. Some claim a magical quality of limestone and others claim power from igneous rock or minerals. In fact, there appears to be no obvious physical commonality between these locations leaving meta-physicists to believe in “ley” lines – undetectable, unmeasurable random lines of natural energy made up from the Earth’s electromagnetic field. At the convergence of these ley lines are the vortices that emit swirls of wisdom.
There is a mixed report of scientific evidence of enlightenment in the area. It’s abundance of iron ore, volcanic basalt, quartz seem to interact with some metrology devices but this magnetic combination of rock isn’t unique to just Sedona nor is there scientific evidence of swirling energy emitting from the earth or to the earth from atmospheric origins. Furthermore, there is no direct evidence of human benefit outside of metaphysical spirituality. Not to dismiss the healing power of faith, the human being can grow from prayer and meditation and being in beautiful places always inspires me regardless of the message.

Some things may be best left unknown. There are things we can’t describe with science – at least yet! We see the future with Deja-vu. We feel promptings by the spirit. We receive answers to prayer. We have vivid dreams that advise us. And the small hairs on the back of our necks warn us against danger. Maybe we have angels overhead or portals to the afterlife. Whatever it might be, receiving enlightenment and taking the time to embrace it is a beautiful thing. Maybe all of us need more of it.

Rob Samuelsen is an executive and adventurer supported by his long-suffering but supportive wife!

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