Sedona

During the last quarter of the twentieth century, Sedona, Arizona, a small city south of Flagstaff, emerged as a center of the New Age Movement, and in the 1990s, as the New Age waned, it has become a major center of the successive focus upon ascension and human transformation. Sedona has been touted as a remnant of the ancient mythical continent of Lemuria, and contemporary psychics have claimed that it is the center of various energy vortexes that make it a place especially accommodating to psychic/spiritual awakening and channeling work.

Sedona's present role as a metaphysical center can be traced to the late 1950s when Mary Lou Keller moved to the area and opened the Sedona Church of Light. The church became a center for disseminating metaphysical teachings both by Weller and the many outside speakers who came to Sedona. She was joined in the early 1960s by Evangeline and Carmen Van Pollen, two teachers who led the Ruby Focus of Magnificent Consummation, an independent "I AM" group. The Van Pollens operated as messengers of the ascended masters, much as had Guy W. Ballard in the 1930s, and their work continues under the name Rainbow Focus.

As the New Age Movement began to identify different significant locations as power spots, places where the Earth's configuration creates a spiritual energy vortex, Sedona was touted as such a location. As the image of Sedona developed, New Age writer/publisher Dick Sutphen joined the chorus of Sedona supporters and in 1986 published a new book, Sedona Psychic Energy Vortexes. He built his discussion both upon the ancient designation of sacred spaces by Native Americans and the more modern mapping of the lines of magnetic forces on the earth's surface. The area around Flagstaff has been noted as an area of deviation from the expected pattern of the Earth's magnetic field. Sutphen argued that Sedona is a sight at which several vortexes, peculiar places where energy is emitted on the Earth's surface, are located. He identified these particular locations (while offering practical advice on visiting the more remote spots that require hiking through the snake-infested countryside). He also explained the power vortexes on the Earth as similar to acupuncture points on the human body. Others tied Sedona to UFO activity.

During the 1990s, many holistic healers and channelers settled in Sedona, while others visit regularly. Around 1989, Emergence—a Journal for the Golden Age began to feature the people, organizations, and events in the larger New Age community of Sedona. In the mid-1990s, renamed Sedona: Journal of Emergence,it became the voice of the new generation of channelers across North America and around the world, and has established Sedona as the vocal center of the post-New Age vision of the ascended life. Light Technology Publishing also publishes and distributes a wide range of channeled material both from the Sedona channels and other like-minded channels around the world.

Sources:

Dannelley, Richard. Sedona Power Spot, Vortex, and Medicine Wheel Guide. Sedona, Ariz.: R. Dannelley with the Cooperation of the Vortex Society, 1991.

——. The Sedona Guide Book of Channeled Wisdom. Sedona, Ariz.: Light Technology Publishing, 1991.

Dongo, Tom. The Alien Tide: The Mysteries of Sedona II. Sedona, Ariz.: Hummingbird Press, 1990.

——. The Mysteries of Sedona. Sedona, Ariz.: Color Pro Graphics, 1988.

Sutphen, Dick. Sedona: Psychic Energy Vortexes. Malibi, Calif.: Valley of the Sun Publishing, 1986.