Have you ever been to gorgeous Sedona, Arizona? I was there recently on the Airport Mesa Vortex. Being in Sedona is like living in a postcard; the scenery is so beautiful it feels surreal. As you probably know, Sedona has various spots spread out around the valley among the rock formations that are designated as Vortexes. A Vortex is a place exhibiting unique geological energies that can increase and enhance intuition, insight, intention, vitality, and even wisdom.
Whether you believe these Vortexes actually exist or not depends on you. Many people come to Sedona to meditate, pray, and perform rituals on the Vortexes. These people have deep and profound experiences at these sacred spots and absolutely validate their existence. Others come to Sedona with an open mind and visit the spots out of curiosity just to see if they experience anything; some do, some don't. And others have no interest in the Vortexes, believe they have no power or existence in the real world, and that they are the made up fantasies of people slightly "off their rocker."
You don't have to have an open mind and believe in the Sun to validate its existence; anyone can look up in the sky and see the brightly burning ball of light. Hello! There it is! So what is it about a phenomenon like the Sedona Vortexes that results in a wide variation of human experience - from those who discover a profound reality, to those who believe it is all a ridiculous made up fantasy?
The first reason there is a wide variety of experiences when it comes to some elements of life has to do with how easy, or difficult, it is to experience something. Some elements of life are easy to validate as "real," and some are more subtle. Note: this doesn't mean they're less powerful, just more subtle. Because of that, they're more difficult to access and experience.
Many things in life are very easy to experience: the sun, a cloud, the temperature of the air, the hardness of cement, the smell of a rose, the sound of a symphony. To experience these things as real, we use normal and established senses. If we can see, touch, taste, smell, or hear something, we say it's "real," it "exists in the real world." On the other hand, if we cannot, most people would have no experience of it and would say it does not exist. But is that really true?
To know if something exists or not, we need to have SOME experience of it, beyond the thought in our head. Otherwise it's really just a made up fantasy that has no existence in reality for us. So, HOW do we experience the more subtle phenomenon in our world? How can we validate their existence? Answer: we need to either enhance the power of the senses we do have, or develop new ones.
Examples of the first method are very common in today's scientific world. Take the electron microscope. This is a man-made enhancement to our sense of sight. With it we can see things that we normally cannot see with the naked eye. Both the microscope and the telescope, enhancements to our sense of sight, have opened up whole new worlds of experience (and reality) to us.
At this point I want to point out something very important: just because you initially cannot experience something with your normal senses, does not mean it does not exist. Just because you can't see an atom, doesn't mean atoms do not exist. We know they do. Also, with your normal senses while on earth you cannot see that the world is round, yet I bet you believe it is round. Obviously, things can exist in reality that we cannot experience with our "normal" senses. All you can truly say is "I have not experienced it" or "It does not exist FOR ME." From there, determining whether something is real or not for you, becomes more about seeking the experience of it.
So, back to our question of HOW do we experience the more subtle phenomenon in our world. The first is by man-made enhancements to our senses, which we just talked about. The second is by naturally enhancing our own normal senses and developing new ones (e.g. the sixth sense). How? Mostly by paying attention to them. Where attention goes, energy flows. You can expand your senses just by paying more attention to them. We've all experienced this before. For example, you can enhance your hearing by really listening to someone. Really listening is paying attention - bringing your awareness to a focused point. You can do this with all your senses. You could say this is a "presencing" practice - the practice of being fully in the present moment. When you are fully in the present moment, all of your senses are enhanced and you come alive. You see things you didn't see before, hear things you didn't hear before, and feel things you didn't feel before - LIKE A VORTEX!
You see, the main barrier to experiencing the more subtle aspects of living is being up in the head thinking, analyzing, and judging (this is Human Doing vs. Human Being). If you're up in your head, you are not in your body and you're not open and fully present; you are doing-thinking and not being-here. Therefore, you cannot access the more subtle aspects of the present moment. Heck, most people are not seeing, hearing, and feeling most of the NON subtle aspects, never mind the very subtle aspects! If you wolf down your food at lunch, barely tasting a thing, then race out to this vortex-thing in the desert, chances are high your experience will be no more than one of simply standing on a rock and naturally you will conclude "There is nothing going on here."
In addition to this natural tendency towards doing-thinking, we've been trained by "normal life" to need explosive experiences to experience anything at all. Look at the Hollywood movies today - the experience is like being hit over the head with a two-by-four with 10 million watts of surround sound blasting out and 3D images practically punching you in the face. Many people have become so accustomed to this "in your face" level of experience, that unless life is coming at them at this level they have no experience at all and "nothing is happening."
I've been practicing presencing for more than 10 years now. I drop down into my body, out of my head, and fully open up to the present moment. I bring my awareness to my breath, relax, and open every cell in my body. When I first got to the Airport Mesa Vortex I was awed by the view, but I was not having any "profound" experience of energy. However, as I found a place to sit - away from others - and slowly moved into my state of full presence, I experienced an amazing energy moving through my body, illuminating and opening all my chakras, and became so resonant with joy that it brought tears to my eyes. I experienced an extraordinary integration with nature and everything around me. I was one with all and very happy to be there. I felt dizzy after the experience and somewhat floaty, it was like walking on air. For me, there was an unusual and very powerful energy available at this Vortex spot, but only experienced when I became fully present, open, and available to it. For me, the Vortex was and is a profound reality, something that actually exists in the real world.
So do God, or your Higher Self, or Vortexes in Sedona exist or not? Are they part of the real world, or are they a made up fantasy? The answer is up to YOU. You get to say what's true and real for you.
Try This:
Take a moment and reflect upon HOW you determine what's real for you and what's not. How much do you rely upon what others say? Think about the more subtle and "hard to believe" aspects of your life and living. Do you automatically dismiss the possibility that something exists if you have not experienced it yourself? Or are you more open to the possibility and willing to say "I have not experienced it so it does not yet exist FOR ME."
For those areas of your life that you find hard to believe, see if you can adopt the more open-minded perspective of "Just because I have not experienced it, does not mean it does not exist," and exercise your willingness to explore these subtle and harder to experience aspects of your life. This is the first step to actually experiencing them and making them a reality in your life! What an adventure!
Developing your access to the more subtle energies in the world and tapping into the extraordinary power they have to offer is a major key to your mojo!
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