The small town of Sedona in Northern Arizona has had a marked influence on late twentieth-century American religious culture. Characterized by its red rocks, and boasting a population of 15,000 people, Sedona is the New Age capital of the world. It is home to UFO enthusiasts, New Religious movements, New Age philosophers, and devotees of paranormal phenomena. Located in the high desert 120 miles north of Phoenix, Arizona, Sedona is on the edge of the Colorado Plateau, surrounded by a landscape of hellfire cliffs, buttes, and spires, and enjoys a climate that is described as near-perfect. Tourism and a thriving community of artists form its economic base. That more people do not live there is a surprise.

Like most Western tourist towns, Sedona is really two places: one where more than four million tourists a year stop to gawk and buy crystals; the other where the real Sedonians...