I went to one of my favorite places a few days ago with a dear friend who came out from the East Coast to visit me. I live in Sedona, Arizona, a place that is surrounded by vortexes, swirling centers of subtle energy coming out from the surface of the earth. If you are sensitive, you may feel it as a vibration that seems to be coming from inside your body. Even if you are not at one of the vortex sites, even if you can’t detect it, this subtle energy will still have an effect on you, and it may manifest in any number of ways. You may feel better, in general. Calmer. You may have a vision. People who are seeking a deeper spiritual life seem to be called here. I know I was.

This is a place where the air resounds with stories of the ancient ones, Native Americans who made this their home, a place where the beauty of the earth, the colorful rock formations, and the immense sky give the word “awesome” a more sacred meaning.

Back to one of my favorite places – it is a great divide in the earth, or a canyon. It is sometimes called the Canyon of the Holy Beings. You have to make your way over its top, and down through an arroyo of stones to get to a high overlook, where the Verde River can be seen below and the canyon wall on the far side can be seen in its entirety. It is not an easy walk, but the reward is great, for it is in the far canyon wall where the Holy Beings reside. You can see them in the formations, standing side by side, silent and still, as they have for millions of years. My friend and I went there with a shaman as our guide. How lucky can you get?

The Hopis, who lived here, (their name means “peaceful people”) believed that a spirit resided in each stone. Other Native Peoples believed that spirits resided not only in the stones, but in the trees, and in the plants that grow from the earth’s floor. They believed that the plants revealed their medicinal properties to them. And the plants were used – effectively – as balms for injuries and cures for illnesses.

With great technological prowess, we have invented instruments that can measure magnetic energy. We have “discovered” that plants are capable of generating electrical impulses that work like the nerve cells of animals. We can measure and record their reactions to life around them. Every day we are “discovering” plants that possess amazing curative powers. Science and technology have provided us with “evidence” of the existence of all manner of unseen, unheard things. But Native Peoples and other peoples from back of beyond history knew many of these things naturally. Unfettered by doubt and shiny technologies, they had the gift of perception. I think we all have it. Gifts like these are never the province of a select few. A gift from the Universe is a gift from the Universe, and this one belongs to all of us.

Since God knows when, we humans have known that there was something in us, something about us, that was more than we could see or touch, something we may call Spirit. We could feel it; it was present within us so powerfully that we downloaded it into our religions, our philosophies, and our practices.  We could feel that…something… that life that is more than, greater than the body. We can feel that something that lives in the stones, and the trees, and the plants, and in our hearts, something that tells us the great truth that Nobody’s Gone for Good and that life is all there is. Some of us have seen or received evidence of this truth. Some of us need no evidence to believe it. Sometimes, we just know it.

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Read The Messenger: The Improbable Story of a Grieving Mother and a Spirit Guide by Helen Delaney. Find it at www.Amazon.com or www.themessenger.space.