By Robert Scheer

Even if Sedona didn't have its vortexes, this Arizona city would still be a wonderful place to visit, with its clean air, agreeable climate, abundant activities and spectacular scenery. But, for many spiritually-minded visitors, it is the vortexes that make the area truly magical.

Since prehistoric times, native Americans from distant parts of the continent knew Sedona as a sacred place to go for spiritual practices such as cleansing, healing and meditation. In the mid-20th century it was discovered by Hollywood movie and TV location scouts, and countless westerns were filmed in its picturesque canyons. Artists such as the surrealist painter and sculptor Max Ernst began arriving in the 1950s, and they soon discovered there was something special about the place that stimulated creativity.

That something special was named by the trance medium Paige Bryant. There were several sites that had become popular places for meditation: Bell Rock, Airport Mesa, Cathedral Rock and Boynton Canyon. Bryant dubbed them "vortexes." No scientist has been able to measure their powerful energy, but I know it is real because my partner and I were there and experienced it first hand.

We arrived rather late on a spring afternoon, but after checking into our lodgings we had time for our first vortex experience before dark. We chose Airport Mesa, the most easily accessible one. It is widely held that juniper trees are good vortex indicators. The more twisted the juniper branches, the closer you are to an energy center. When we located the most twisted junipers, the last thing I felt like doing was sitting down and meditating. My partner felt even more energized, saying she felt "tingling waves" vibrating in her body.

Our experience at Cathedral Rock the following day was completely the opposite. The atmosphere felt calm and nurturing. If Airport Mesa gave off a masculine, yang vibration, then Cathedral Rock was its feminine, yin counterpart. I felt as if being comforted by Mother Earth herself.

Besides the four vortexes identified by Paige Bryant, there are at least three other, well-known energy centers: Oak Creek Canyon, Rachel's Knoll and Schnebly Hill. I found the energy at Rachel's Knoll similar to Airport Mesa. My partner said that by the time we had finished our walk to its medicine wheel I was "hopping around like a jumping bean."

Although my experiences at most of the vortexes could best be described as mood variations, it was at Schnebly Hill where to me the energy was literally tangible. We were walking on a pleasant but not particularly dramatic hiking trail when I suddenly felt a burst of energy zapping from the base of my spine up to my scalp. I looked around for the source of the jolt, but there was nothing remarkable to be seen. We continued our walk to the end of the trail and then returned along the same path. All of a sudden I felt another zap. We were in the identical spot where the energy had hit me before. My partner didn't feel it, but neither had I experienced the same buzz she felt at Airport Mesa. Whatever the Sedona energies are, clearly they can have different effects on different people.

Experts disagree about where the energy comes from. Some say the rock formations are aligned to matching stellar constellations. Others say it's underground rivers, geological fissures and a high concentration of iron in the soil. A local guide told me it's because the sandstone buttes are rich in quartz, the same mineral used to make computer memory chips. Quite possibly it's a combination of all three.

Whatever the reason, a journey to Sedona has been a life-changing experience for numerous visitors. There are claims that the vortexes can be used as portals into other dimensions of time and space. The area is one of the world's hot spots for UFO sightings. Most encounters are less dramatic. I met a women from New England whose first trip to Sedona had been planned as a two-week vacation. Somehow those two weeks stretched into more than a month. She told me she had just signed a real estate contract and might never see New England again.

A spiritual group tour of Sedona including the vortexes, Hopi Prophecy Rock and a medicine wheel ceremony is happening Thanksgiving weekend, November 23 to 27, 2011. The tour is with Body Mind Spirit Journeys, a leader in pilgrimage travel and sacred places group tours. For details on Sedona vortex tours. Please visit http://bodymindspiritjourneys.com