NOTICES, DISCLAIMERS and COPYRIGHT:

NO AFFILIATION. Please note that except as otherwise stated, this web site does not represent nor does it have any formal or other affiliation with Bryce Resort, the Basye family, the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia, Shrine Mont, the U.S. Geological Service, the Église Saint-Sulpice, or other organizations or entities, public or private, that may be mentioned herein. The ideas expressed on this site do not speak for the views of the entities or persons referred to above and nothing in the materials or writings on our web pages should be construed as doing so. We also do not speak for the Virginia Indian cultures which are still thriving in Virginia today.

NO WARRANTY. The information on this website is provided "as is" for the reader's personal use without warranty of any kind. Because of the likelihood of human and mechanical error as well as other factors, Studios St-Sulpice and/or its associates are not responsible for any errors or omissions in the information. We make no representations and disclaim all express, implied and statutory warranties of any kind to the users and/or any third party, including any warranties of accuracy, timeliness, completeness, merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose. Please also read the "USE OF THIS INFORMATION" paragraph, below.

USE OF THIS INFORMATION. Please note that: 1) We strongly disclaim any responsibility for use or misuse of the information on this web site and any acts or deeds of third parties who might have been influenced by the information or drawn conclusions from it whether correct or incorrect. 2) While we encourage meditation on and aesthetic contemplation of Shenandoah Valley's heritage, we explicitly repudiate and condemn any "treasure hunt" mentality and any project involving potential damage to public lands or any infringement on private property whatsoever. Some of the vortex locations, known or yet to be discovered, may be on private property, or adjacent to or along a right-of-way through private property and if so, the full rights of the owners must be respected. 3) The Basye Vortex is located in a karst area, and such terrane, because of its characteristic topography of extensive caverns, sink holes and networks of underground waterways, can contain fragile formations and is notoriously quick to become contaminated. 4) As far as we know the waters of the springs and pools referenced herein, such as those in Orkney Springs, have not been recently tested for potability, and in our opinion you should not drink the water. 5) You should not immerse any person or yourself, or seek to perform any ritual at the pools in Orkney Springs, without explicit permission from the management of the properties in question.

ORALLY TRANSMITTED INFORMATION. There is a strong element of oral transmission in many systems of belief, and the historicity and factuality of such information, even when it refers to physical or historical events as opposed to events on some higher plane (purported events in the realm of mythology, theology or creation narratives), are often impossible to establish. No definitive translation of the name "Shenandoah" is known. Information on the original native inhabitants of the Shenandoah Valley including the Senedo (or Shendo) Indian tribe is scant and as referred to herein is largely based on references to be found in the writings of the venerable Julia Davis or on anecdotal, second or third hand reporting. There is a difference between history and anecdote. While it is believed that these native inhabitants may have had a highly developed culture, and the Senedo creation history provides interesting parallels to Judeo-Christian accounts of the Fall from paradise, in fact it is anecdotal; there are no historical artefacts to prove that such an account existed except as attributed to the Senedo by later settlers. In a similar vein, although Ms. Davis reports that burial mounds, silver objects or artworks were discovered by the early settlers in the Shenandoah Valley, these are not attributable to the Senedo specifically; and regardless of which tribe left them, as far as we know none of these artefacts are in present day museums, collections or sites that can be visited.

VORTEX SCIENCE AND SPIRITUALITY. The current scientific concept of vortex dynamics applies primarily to fluids and air, but the notion of "vortex rotation" exists apart from the media in which vortices can be empirically observed; hence the idea of an "energy vortex" is a coherent if theoretical proposition. The reality of "vortex energies" in subtler media (such as mental energies) is under dispute. Students of the emerging field of "mind-as-substance" and of spiritual energies, a.k.a., "subtle energies," may attribute vortex dynamics to fields of mental or psychic substance, but such phenomena are rarely observable, at least not without access to highly focused states generally associated only with visionary experiences or advanced knowledge of meditation. Please note that this site does not argue for the existence of subtle energies or vortex experiences, but rather explores the fabric meanings posed by accounts and beliefs about them. We personally believe that the phenomenon described as "vortex energy" refers to cognitively valid experiences not yet accounted for by science, but the contents of this site should not be viewed as an attempt to prove the foregoing to anyone. Out-of-body experiences have now been scientifically demonstrated and can be induced in controlled settings, but in non-laboratory settings they are not a proven fact, nor do we advocate seeking such experiences or engaging in Kundalini or other yoga practices in vortex locations. Reports by psychically sensitive individuals or their followers notwithstanding, the very existence of energy vortices, ley lines, the planetary grid or supra-magnetic energies at any given location, must remain an unscientific assertion dependent on personal experience, sensibilities or inclinations. To the degree that the representations herein rely on verifiable fact such as the existence of the St-Sulpice Meridian, the theories of Descartes on space as composed of vortices, or the former existence of seven springs at Orkney Springs, these assertions may be thought of as having factual substance. The rest is a matter of metaphysical conjecture, theoretical proposition or subjective bias, and needs to be subject to the reader's personal criteria for verification.

COPYRIGHT NOTICE: "The Cartesian Dreamtime™" is a Trademark of "Studios St-Sulpice" (sometimes spelled "Studios Saint-Sulpice"). Photos and written content copyright © 2002-2010 Studios St-Sulpice, All Rights Reserved to the full extent protected by state, U.S. and international laws, except for items whose rights are owned by or licensed to third parties; or itmes in the public domain, or as noted next to or below the item. We thank Wikipedia for materials in the public domain or licensable for re-use; and also want to express our appreciation to the Creative Commons for their licenses. For permission to use materials that appear on this website (except those that are in the public domain or owned by third parties and licensed for use herein), please contact us via email at basyevortex | at | yahoo |dot| com

Copyright notice: The image of the interior of the Église Saint-Sulpice whenever it appears on this website in the green panel on the right, is modified from a photograph provided to the Wikimedia Commons courtesy of Cesary Piwowarski, under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 3.0, Attribution ShareAlike 2.5, Attribution ShareAlike 2.0 andAttribution ShareAlike 1.0 License. In short: you are free to share and make derivative works of the file under the conditions that you appropriately attribute it, and that you distribute it only under a license identical to this one. Official license.