‘If you want to see a vortex just flush the toilet,’  joked John at dinner last night. John and Heather own the sweet little house in the Coffee Pot district that I’m renting. Like most Sedona locals, they are suspicious of all the talk about vortices. Ask a local for vortex directions and they will roll their eyes (ie another idiot who believes all that new age crap). But even John admits there is crazy energy coming out of the earth here. When he took his aunt on a hiking trip, her compass just started to spin and spin.

I suspect a lot of people who live here don’t feel the vortices, because they are already high from years of imbibing the ambient energy. But there might be another reason. Earthing author Clint Ober had his big ‘Aha!’ moment here in Sedona. He spotted how our bodies need direct contact with the ground to run smoothly (we are energy beings after all and we walked bare foot for millennia). Ober says people don’t feel the natural energy of the earth nowadays because we all wear insulating rubber soled sneakers or boots.

In my 10 days here I’ve gone from not being able to feel the Bell Rock vortex, to becoming a bit of a vortex whisperer. I can spot them easily and immediately whip off my shoes and sit down (as a result my white shorts are now powder puff pink). My ‘Aha!’ moment came when Kay and I were hiking up Cathedral Rock. We were both longing to find a vortex and no-one we asked was any help. Then we both suddenly stopped  (just off the path in the saddle of the hill) and went ‘Wow! Do you feel that?’   It was the most calming and empowering feeling. We stayed for over an hour. Kay was literally cuddling the ground. She returned the next day for another 2 hour session. Why not? It is like a free energy spa.

So here’s how you find them. I noticed at Cathedral Rock (and everywhere else) little man-made stone cairns near the vortex (like mini Andy Goldsworthy art pieces). This is how local energy gurus mark the vortices.  Sadly the park rangers knock them down just as quickly as they go up. The other clue is all the juniper trees growing in spirals nearby.  After 10 days of sitting on vortices  I am so deliriously happy I wake up yelling ‘yippee!’ ‘yippee!’ every morning  like a five year old. Yesterday I found myself doing a version of Laura’s funky chicken dance (butt out, elbows out, head shaking and stomping the ground). Odder still, for once in my life I don’t mind that the locals are so chill they drive EVERYWHERE at 25mph.  Whereas on day one I was chewing on my steering wheel shouting ‘Come on people. We’re in the country. This is where we can let rip!’