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Phoenix :
Features
On the 10th anniversary of the Phoenix Lights, one of the most famous mass UFO sightings in U.S. history, up! managing editor Eric Rumble and photographer Jared Sych explore 13 of Arizona’s weirdest attractions. Masculinity-stimulating vortex, anyone?
SEDONA’S VORTEXES
Imagine looking down the centre of a long, spiral staircase. Now imagine that those stairs are an invisible corkscrew of spiritual energy rising out of the ground, and if you let yourself feel this swirling metaphysical vortex, its subtle spiritual charge might actually infuse your own. The intended result? An indescribable feeling of euphoria, focus and self-awareness—one that draws the majority of the 4 million tourists who roll through this quirky city of 11,000 annually.
Four easily accessible vortex sites frame Sedona within the gorgeous rusty buttes, spires and mesas that surround it. Meditating here is said to induce various healing processes, depending on which spot you choose. The Airport Mesa Vortex stimulates “masculine” energy (strength, self-confidence, reason). Cathedral Rock stimulates “feminine” energy (goodness, compassion, patience, foresight). Boynton Canyon promotes balance between the masculine and feminine energies, fortifying emotions and making relationships healthier. Bell Rock, where the energy is strongest, enhances all three. Vortex seekers are told to look for twisted, tangled juniper trees as evidence of manifestation.
This August marked the 20th anniversary of the event that turned Sedona’s vortexes into a famous pilgrimage for New Age disciples and skeptics alike. The Harmonic Convergence was heralded by its architect, José Arguelles, as the dawn of a new era of human awareness and a global transition from conflict to cooperation, as foretold by the Mayan calendar. Although world peace is still elusive, in the two decades since, Sedona has become a Mecca for speculative personal health services, from reiki to past-life regressions to aura photos and videos.
Maps and pamphlets outlining vortex sites are widely available around Sedona, located about 185 km north of Phoenix. Guided tours are offered by several companies, including Earth Wisdom (
earthwisdomtours.com), Spirit Steps (
spiritsteps.org) and Sedona Vortex Tours (
sedonaretreats.com).
JEROME
The term “ghost town” usually implies a once-thriving community whose buildings and streets have been left for dead. And while Arizona is replete with abandoned main streets, the town of Jerome survives by selling the ghosts that have kept its creaky buildings and narrow passages alive with intrigue.
Once Arizona’s most famous copper-mining town, Jerome is built into the side of Cleopatra Hill, overlooking the resplendent Verde Valley, Sedona’s stunning red rocks and the San Francisco Peaks on the horizon. The charm and char of a tumultuous past—including the closing of a lucrative mine (twice), a wicked Spanish flu bug (during the 1918 epidemic) and plenty of flames (including the whole town burning down in 1898, 1899 and 1900)—are artfully compressed into a few switchbacks.
From Jerome’s ashes and tragedies has emerged a steady stream of resident ghosts—or, at least, uncanny encounters by both locals and visitors. Among them:
A dusty, wayward cowboy’s spectre washing up in a local inn’s restroom. Former bordello madam Belgian Jenny, preceded by her perfume and accompanied in the afterlife by her cat. Phantom rows of beds, squealing wheels and disembodied coughing and wheezing reported at the Grand Hotel, once the town’s hospital.
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