On every continent there are places, sometimes called vortices, that have gained a reputation for being the sites of frequent UFO sightings and paranormal events.

In the United States, there are several of these "anomaly zones". The best known is probably the area off the coast of Florida that is known as the Bermuda Triangle, but there are others that are well-known to students of ufology and of the paranormal. Some of the better known ones are Sedona, Arizona; the San Luis Valley in Southern Colorado and Northern New Mexico, Pine Bush and the Hudson Valley in New York, and the Uinta Basin in Eastern Utah.

Sedona, Arizona sits in a valley surrounded by red rock canyons, buttes and spires that give it an almost otherworldly look. Local landmarks have names like Boynton Canyon, Bell Rock, Cathedral Rock, and Airport Mesa. There are cliff dwellings of the vanished Anasazi near here, and the large Anasazi settlements of Chaco and Four Corners are not far away. It is said that the Native Americans believed that Sedona was the center of the universe and that to them it was sacred land to be used only for special rites and ceremonies. To them, and to the New Agers who flock there today, Sedona is a place where the energies of the Earth converge, a place of power or a vortex.

In 1876, the first white settlers arrived Arizona's Verde Valley, of which Sedona is a part. The Native American inhabitants of the valley were not happy with the encroachment of the whites and fought back strongly. They could not prevail against the U.S. Army, however, and were finally forced to move south to the San Carlos Reservation.

By 1902, there were still only 20 families due to the remoteness of the area and to the lack of water in sufficient quantity. In a few years, a postal station was opened by T.C. Schnebly, who began delivering the mail. His wife's name was Sedona, and in her honor he named his new post office, Sedona.

In 1947, the water problem was solved by a man named Carl E. Williams, a geologist and well driller from Oregon. Williams had developed painful arthritis and had been advised by his doctor to move to a warm, dry climate. Everyone told Williams that there was no water under Sedona, but Williams refused to listen. From studying the geological evidence, he believed there was a large water table at 500 feet and, in 1947 he proved it, changing Sedona forever.

In the 1930's, many artists were attracted by the beauty of Sedona, including the surrealist Max Ernst. Richard Dannely, who has written extensively about the "vortices" at Sedona, says he learned that Ernst had published a book in French that relates his unusual experiences at Sedona during the time he lived there in the 1930s.

Dannely also says that the earliest date he can place on the "discovery" of the Sedona vortices is 1963, when the founders of the Rainbow Ray Focus established their center next to the Airport Vortex.

Gary Hart of Bloomington, Ill., an investigator of "hyperdimensional" phenomena, has investigated the Sedona area extensively, and he believes there is an "interdimensional doorway" there, as well as at other U.S. locations and elsewhere in the world.

"People in Russia say they're very clear that we are contacting other civilizations and they say that we as humans need to open up to this. We have to get past the fear factor," Hart said. "There are places like this where people can actually see into the next dimension. Some of this is very angular in nature. If you stand in one spot, you see things out around it that you cannot see 100 feet away."

During the 1970s and 1980s, Sedona's image as a center of New Age activity grew, and it burst onto the national consciousness at the time of the "Harmonic Convergence" in August, 1987.

In recent years, Sedona has become known as the site of frequent UFO sightings. The objects seen most frequently there are the "ball of light" type UFOs rather than those that resemble metallic craft.

Some of the local residents have seen so many lights and helicopters at places like Secret Canyon that they believe the military has built a secret base in the area. Some folks claim the secret base is operated by the United Nations.

Glenn Campbell, the Desert Rat of Area 51 fame, made a visit to Sedona in 1997 to check it out, and he found beautiful countryside surrounding a city in which:
The free-wheeling entrepreneurship in Sedona also reminds of a busy market in the Third World, just outside a holy shrine,where fakirs, soothsayers and vendors of religious icons hawk their services. Nearly every business selling crystals, tours and psychic services is a mom-and-pop operation. Money flows freely, but competition is intense and every vendor works very hard to talk the New Age talk that will make the sale. Most of what is being sold is hokum, of course, but that only adds to Sedona's charm.

There don't seem to be an exceptional number of traditional UFO sightings on record for the Sedona area, but there are numerous sightings of mysterious "balls of light".