Bana
Appearances
Otherworld
Episode 121: The Vortex
So a little backstory about me. I lived in L.A. for 12 years and was a musician. I lived on the east side of L.A., And so I kind of knew that vibe and I had moved to Sedona a little less than a year before that. All their gaffers gear and all that stuff and looking like totally out of place. Yeah. I mean, I wasn't expecting anything either and just wanted to show them the best time.
Otherworld
Episode 121: The Vortex
But I remember Reese was, um, He came up to me. I host concerts. I host these sing-alongs, these sing-along events. And some of the crew came to the event. I think it was their last day in Sedona. And we went outside, and he kind of pulled me aside, and he's like, hey, man, I didn't want to tell the rest of the crew, but some crazy shit happened to me.
Otherworld
Episode 121: The Vortex
And I was like, well, welcome to Sedona, and welcome to this event.
Otherworld
Episode 121: The Vortex
Get to the place where you were doing these tours So I've been a musician my whole life and like I said, I was living in LA for about 12 years and
Otherworld
Episode 121: The Vortex
and i was i considered myself fiercely agnostic i didn't believe in anything like supernatural or anything like that and i basically had like a as it goes in la i think for a lot of people i had a huge breakdown and then i my life kind of grinded to a halt And I felt like I needed to look for some answers within myself. And that kind of exploded into what I call like a spiritual awakening.
Otherworld
Episode 121: The Vortex
So I started meditating and my whole journey has been sober. I didn't use like any drugs or like plant medicines or anything like that. So when I first went to Sedona, I went with some friends and I was still living in LA at the time. And we went out on the land and you could just feel it.
Otherworld
Episode 121: The Vortex
I mean, L.A., I was an indie kid. I moved there because Death Cab for Cuny sang about Silver Lake and, you know, and the local natives, the Silver Sun Pickups and... I wore black skinny jeans and flannel and shit. I was fully in, man. I wrote songs about heartbreak.
Otherworld
Episode 121: The Vortex
Actually, as that started to take off, I got more stressed and more miserable. a failed relationship was a catalyst. It slowed my whole life down and then quarantine happened. I started meditating a little bit. I always been into yoga, but not really the spiritual aspect of it, just the physical aspect. I remember someone talking about vortexes in Sedona.
Otherworld
Episode 121: The Vortex
At first I was like, we don't need vortexes, we just meditate, it's all in our minds. And then I met a friend in LA. She was from Sedona. She just moved from Sedona. And she's like, let's go to this trip to Sedona together. And we went. And I had a super magical time. And as it goes, Sedona calls you. You just keep coming back. Yeah, it was towards the end of my time in LA.
Otherworld
Episode 121: The Vortex
And I felt totally out of resonance with the city. I did the sound bath at Sheffa Yoga in Venice. And the girl, Amber, was like hitting the drum, going around. And she's saying something like really intense. And I was like, oh, that's nice for the class. And she put the drum right over me. And she's like, you need to completely go for it and follow your intuition. And she hit the drum super hard.
Otherworld
Episode 121: The Vortex
And my whole body was like, you need to go to Sedona right now. And I was like, oh, fuck. So I just went. The rest is history? Yeah. I guess. Yeah.
Otherworld
Episode 121: The Vortex
No. Yeah. Not that long ago. And then like, I'd never worked as a psychic and I walked into the top psychic center basically in Sedona and I was like, well, they're psychic. They should just know I'm going to work here. And the owner looked at me and she said, I'm psychic. You're going to work here. And I was like, okay. She said, I don't need to interview you or anything.
Otherworld
Episode 121: The Vortex
Yeah, so I've heard a lot of things. Essentially, they're concentrated energy points. I think essentially the idea is you literally get these swirling pockets of iron and crystal that create basically an energy pattern. And there's two types of vortexes in Sedona. There's positive, which people would consider masculine, and that's updraft.
Otherworld
Episode 121: The Vortex
very updraft like the higher you go up on the rocket more it feels like it's floating through you and you feel like you feel like you're like ungrounded like you want to float off the rock and it's like it's a very exciting place like I've seen many times people that are that are kind of like timid and fearful when they get on Bell Rock all they want to do is like run around like a big kid and like jump up and down and Then there's the feminine vortexes, which is a downdraft and
Otherworld
Episode 121: The Vortex
You know, that can have a bit more of like a calming, grounding, kind of introspective feel to it. And Cathedral Rock is probably the most famous one. And then if you go to a place in Boynton Canyon, which is my favorite place, there's places have both and they kind of act like a like the ends of a battery. So you can kind of play back and forth between the two, which is pretty cool.
Otherworld
Episode 121: The Vortex
So whenever I do a tour, I always tune in to see where the best place to take the person is. And so every experience is a little bit different. And because I'm a musician, I always would bring my guitar. And then I would play and sing and And kind of channel the moment, per se.
Otherworld
Episode 121: The Vortex
I tell you this. There's a certain kind of person that... How do I put this? It seems like people are in a certain mindset or energy, you could say, that would be guided to a place like that. Because I've spent a lot of time even just hanging out in the vortexes. And the... And you meet people who are really open.
Otherworld
Episode 121: The Vortex
People just seem so happy and open and that kind of like normal shield we have in the city. You know, like the don't fucking talk to me shield. Like that's drops because it's almost like the whole environment, the whole room feels really magical. Like it's a fresh bed that is... Yeah, it's ready to sprout magic there. I don't know if that helps.
Otherworld
Episode 121: The Vortex
I wouldn't say that exact thing happens to people often, no. That's definitely a more... A bigger jump. Yeah. I'd say that's a bigger jump than most people have, yeah.
Otherworld
Episode 121: The Vortex
Yeah. Two seconds into a meditation, you know, like... Well, it was pretty crazy for him because I just met them.
Otherworld
Episode 121: The Vortex
I just met them, and we went from the parking lot, and I knew I wanted to take him to this place called Baby Bell, which is, yeah, which is...
Otherworld
Episode 121: The Vortex
very very small and right next to the parking lot so we probably took a five minute walk and they took some footage and then we went to the top and then and this was just me kind of you know like i said channeling the moment i said oh let's all form a circle and i and then this is very specific and i was like we should face outwards And then we should all clap and yell.
Otherworld
Episode 121: The Vortex
That's why I kind of gave the preface about following intuition and having full trust in the way it feels and like what I'm guided by, how it feels to me. Like I, I knew that's like what I was, I don't want to say supposed to and put air quotes. Like, you know, that was my part in it. I knew that was my part in it as it was happening. I don't know why.
Otherworld
Episode 121: The Vortex
And so we did that and we clapped and I was like, huh, something just happened. And then that's when he told me days later, oh, by the way, I was like,
Otherworld
Episode 121: The Vortex
left my body and like flew into the rocks and saw a bunch of blue beings and i was like cool welcome to sedona that's crazy uh what did you think when he told you that i mean i think that's really beautiful to be to be opened up to that like i guess i can't really comprehend like how profound that is for him i can only like equate it to my own experiences
Otherworld
Episode 121: The Vortex
And when he told me at the end of the trip, like, oh, yeah, like, I'm not... I think he said he was, like, I'm not going to be the same. And at the end, he's like, he told me, you're in the right place. You need to be doing this. And that was, like, a really great message for me. And then, you know, and then two months later, I left Sedona.
Otherworld
Episode 121: The Vortex
I think that you should either do both or definitely go on your own adventure. Sedona is a wonderful place to let that happen and unfold. But I wouldn't deter you from taking a tour for sure. I don't really know much about the other tour guides there. I think that you can have a magical experience either way. That's why I always try to tell people, trust your own gut. What does your own gut say?
Otherworld
Episode 121: The Vortex
I would say it's more important for you if you're like, Everything in me is saying like I this person needs to be my guide or I need to go here or I should do this or kind of thing. Sedona is like one of the best places to do that, you know, because it will just be amplified there.