Uhr

Searching in Sedona

1838 words

By

Tim Uhr

Id heard about Sedona, Arizona and for years I have wanted to go there.
I had read about the famous Vortexes and the flow of energy there. The Internet makes the place sound almost magical. A place where psychics, medicine men, gurus, healers, masters, and maybe an E.T. or two might be found.

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Was this a bunch of new-age psycho-babble, or was there really something going on there? By my best summation a Vortex is an area of invisible, swirling energy emanating from the planet Earth and producing an uplifting, rejuvenating sensation. In Vortexes it is said that trees bend and twist, objects roll up hill, and also appear smaller inside them. Vortexes are focal points, culminating to an invisible bubble-like structure where energy swirls inside them, like tornados of force and essence. It is said there are masculine and feminine Vortexes, but Im not sure what those terms really mean. Reports at night of lights in the atmosphere that shoot across the sky, and then stop on a dime, hovering for a few seconds, making no noise and then magically disappearing at the blink of an eye, were common. There were also other reports of things like instantaneous healing of incurable diseases. This all had me intrigued. This was a good time to get away, so finally I booked a flight to personally discover if all the hubbub was real.

It was a long trip, but the flight went smooth, although when I arrived at the airport I encountered the trap of time zones. It seemed that I was going by Eastern Time, so when I went to pick up my car at the airport in Flagstaffs Pulliam Airport, the car rental place, Hertz, was closed. Maybe I was a little confused for I thought that booking a car was just a matter of timing it to one of the incoming flights. There was a three-hour time difference I am not exactly sure how that factored in. But it left me factored out. What to do? Spend the night at the airport so that I could get my car in the morning? But I was anxious to get to Sedona and it was still over an hours drive away!

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So I bit the bullet and called a cab. It cost me about fifty-five dollars for a ride from the Grand Canyon area down to Sedona, where I already had a hotel rented. The cab driver was a nice enough black male who had no problem being engaged in conversation the whole trip. I had enough silence on the long flight here so I was glad to have some verbal communication. He talked about his favorite sports teams, and I, not a sports fan, was pleased to have him explain different aspects and strategies of the various games he was knowledgeable about. About halfway into our trip there was a lull in our conversation, so I took the opportunity to ask him his opinion of Sedona and, more specifically, the Vortexes. Yes, he said slowly. I know about them. Do you believe in them? Belief is a strong word. With beautiful scenery on both sides, we headed down a canyon, and I thought about my beliefs. What did I believe in? Sometimes I had to fight away the prevailing feeling that the only constant in the Universe is aloneness. I had made my whole life about connection, and I was slowly coming to realize that was what this trip was really about. Trying to find someone with whom to connect. Chasing a dream, or running from solitude was there a difference? Well I thought for a minute. What do you believe about the Vortexes? First of all, I am a born again Christian. I am a Baptist originally from the Bible-belt

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I thought about his religious beliefs and figured that they probably didnt mesh too well with the whole new-age feel of a place like Sedona and the energy Vortexes, yet I was waiting in anticipation for what he had to say. Maybe it would be good to have a different opinion than the buzz that was common on the Internet. There are at least two sides to every story and from the Internet I seemed to only be getting one side. He spoke slowly, but clearly. Places have different energy signatures. You cannot convince me that there is no difference in the energy of a church or of a correction facility. Energy is real. There is negative energy and positive, just as there is good and bad in the world. It cant be a coincidence that all of these Vortexes are beautiful, breath-taking places. To experience the splendor of the Divine Creator all one has to do at these places is to look around, breath and take in the majesty that is so evident. The beauty is inspirational and it leads you further along on your individual motivational path. He paused for a moment, giving me time to take in his words. Then he said, Its a matter of personal perspective whether one calls it a place of Gods grandiose glory, a place of spirit, a convergence of true self, a place where all comes into oneness, or a place of magic and other-worldly happenings. But dont many of these beliefs go against each other, in actuality canceling each other out? I asked. With a whimsical glint in his eye, he glanced back at me and said, Or perhaps they could all be true. Maybe the real difference is in the eye of the beholder. One mans belief is another mans science is another mans magic.

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We continued to talk, but I was a little lost in thought over what he had shared. I was now more intrigued than ever. He told me that he had experienced these Vortexes many times and they had always left him feeling closer to God. Perhaps that was the miraculous thing about energy - it drove whatever engine you were running. Maybe it's sacrilegious but I was hoping for more of a close encounter, not with the divine - or even of self but, of the third kind. The human experience was fine, but I was looking for an otherworldly experience. I can't say I was tired of mankind or witnessing the general inhumanity of humans - but I was looking for more. I wanted there to be more. More to this world ... More to the Universe ... More than man ... I didn't want to ... to feel so alone.

As he drove I was very aware of the scenery. It started off with huge green pine trees lining the way as we headed down route 89 towards Sedona, but then as the trees withdrew the sheer drops into the canyon below became visible. The greenery was still there but it had faded into the distance, discretely set against the multicolored rocks. The rocks seemed to change from a yellow to a deep orange, finally becoming red as we neared Sedona. The car was going down the whole way as the cabbie expertly navigated his way down the multiple switchbacks. I could sense that our climb down was from probably over two thousand feet.

It may have been stupid, and inappropriate - but with tears in my eyes I hugged the cab driver at the end of our trip and walked off alone into my hotel room.

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On such a populated planet, with such nice friends around me, why did I feel so alone? It was a vastly huge Universe, so why was I always looking for more? Searching, always searching. Looking for something to fill this vast emptiness of space without and within ...

I rented a car in Sedona so that I could have better access to the Vortexes. I spent a little over a week in Sedona. Feeling the emotions, basking in the energy. Doing an inner search as well as an outer. Looking within, questioning these feelings of seclusion. Looking to the heavens, not for a sign from God but for lights. Keeping my eyes peeled for anything unusual. During the day the sky was the deepest blue I could imagine possibly it was the way the red rocks were set off against it. I went to the various Vortexes starting with Sugarloaf, and then walked the trailhead to Thunder Mountain. In my short stay I went to Boynton Canyon, Tibetan Stupa, Airport Mesa, Bell Rock, Cathedral Rock, and I even lit a candle at Chapel of Holy Cross to honor my fellow sojourners. I drove to f few of these Vortexes that were accessible by car, but there were many I could only hike to, but these excursions were not difficult. Telepathically I called out to anything alien. I spent nights alone in the desert. I wandered aimlessly down little worn paths. I searched without looking - fearing I would scare away anything not of this world. I was confidently vulnerable. I reached out without grabbing away expectations.

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Yes, I felt the energy as I went from one Vortex to another. By the end of the week I was an emotional wreck from feeling all the energy around me with still no contact. I felt that my wandering had become aimless and pointless. I had doggedly searched for either something that wasn't there, or for something that just didn't want to be found. I was still alone.

On the last day I abandoned the rental car in the parking lot of the hotel and called for a cab. When the cab finally came I hurried over to it, but when I opened up the door I immediately saw that it was not the same cabbie who had brought me. The energy in this cab was much different than the first. We rode the long journey to the airport in silence. I was alone with my thoughts... again. He dropped me off at the airport and I paid him without exchanging a word.

From the airport, it wasn't too long of a hike. More than the hike, I dreaded the long, lonely flight home. I tried to clear my thoughts on the walk, trying my best not to dwell on how empty and alone I felt. The Grand Canyon was not far away, but I feared it would be just another lonely sojourn. No, it was time to head home ...

My craft was still there, covered discretely in the brush, in a secluded void between Flagstaff and the Grand Canyon. I climbed inside and fired up the eletrosyn

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injectors. I put on the cloaking device and lifted off - headed to the stars. Back to my desolate, devastated home. I squirmed in my chair, preparing for the long journey home, knowing that I had to bear the sadness that I had not found another like me, on that huge populated world the locals called Earth.