A skeptic finds inner peace in Sedona

Sedona, Arizona (CNN) -- The three psychics -- call them "intuitives," please -- crowd around the "aura" photo. The Polaroid print supposedly captures the energy field surrounding a person, and this one is deep blue, with some purple and magenta. It looks like a 1960s album cover -- but to these spiritual guides, it's pure magic.

"You're psychic," Anita Dalton says. "Look at all that blue halo." Maria Carmella Montano agrees: "You're an old soul."

"You've had many past lives," Jocelyn Buckner chimes in.

Ah, but there's trouble on the horizon. A big, comma-shaped red cloud of energy looms off to one side, and it's messing with the mojo.

"It's like you're guarding yourself," Dalton says. "Yes, she is blocking something," Montano agrees.

And so it was that a self-described "fact-based person" embarked on a spiritual journey, Sedona style. Such an odyssey requires a suspension of disbelief and a willingness to go with the flow as the talk turns to UFOs on bumpy rides along rutted dirt roads in search of vortexes -- said to be gateways to the earth's energy -- and portals to other dimensions. (Note to the grammar police: People in Sedona do call them vortexes, not vortices.)

Sedona and its nearly 12,000 earthbound souls can be found on 19 square miles of Martian-looking landscape about 100 miles north of Phoenix and 30 miles south of Flagstaff. Named in 1902 after the postmaster's wife and incorporated in 1988, Sedona sits 4,500 feet above sea level, neither desert nor mountain, which makes the climate sublime.

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Eons ago, Sedona was under the sea. As the water receded, it left lines of color on the scenic, iron-rich spires and rock formations. "Our bathtub rings," the locals proudly call them.

The area was discovered centuries ago by Native Americans who made homes in the red cliffs -- the Paleo Indians, followed by the Anasazi, then the Hohokam and the Sinagua Tribe, who are believed to be ancestors of the Hopi.

The early European settlers came in the 1850s, followed 100 years later by Hollywood filmmakers, who in turn were followed by hippies, New Agers, artists and retirees.

At night, Sedona is so dark, the stars seem to leap out of the sky. The city limits outdoor lighting -- so much so that the McDonald's at the center of town doesn't have the usual glowing golden arches; they are painted the Southwest's signature color, turquoise.

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