From Stonehenge to Sedona, why are we drawn to mystical places?

Sacred sites have long lured travelers seeking a connection to something bigger. In a world grappling with digital overload, these pilgrimages are on the rise.

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/article/the-magnetic-pull-of-mystical-places

Turning to nature for connection

In a world grappling with disconnection and digital overload, there has been a steady rise in spiritual tourism and pilgrimages. People are turning to sacred places not just to see the history, but to experience something bigger than themselves.

“Humans believe that the sacred is an energy that inhabits particular places or buildings,” says Jeffrey Kripal, the J. Newton Rayzor Chair in Philosophy and Religious Thought at Rice University and author of How to Think Impossibly, among a dozen other books. “It’s innate in human nature to return to these sacred places. We somehow need this as human beings.”

“Mountains, large bodies of water, and canyons frequently inspire this reverence,” says Susannah Crockford, an anthropologist specializing in religion, ecology, and political economy. She adds that such geographical features often stir deep emotional responses in the human brain. “They are very vast, very affecting.”

The importance of storytelling

Once a place is considered sacred, that feeling tends to linger, even if the use or message shifts. That’s why we are drawn to ancient sites and why sacred places are often built upon one another, both literally and symbolically.

While many of these places are extraordinary on their own, it is often the stories we tell and the rituals we repeat that make them sacred. “People make places sacred,” Magliocco says. “We create place through space personally.” We do this in our everyday lives, for example, by becoming regulars at coffee shops. It’s our way of saying ‘I belong here.’

The lens of our viewpoint matters

Why we’re drawn to these mystical places often depends on whom you ask, says Crockford. Religious people might say the experience is due to God or a divine presence there. A psychologist might say the feeling is simply your brain’s response to awe. An anthropologist will tell you it’s society projecting itself onto its gods.

“There isn’t one answer as to why these spaces are sacred. When someone tells you an answer, the answer tells you more about the person you’ve asked, rather than the space itself,” Crockford says.

That relationship can be self-reinforcing. The more people who report spiritual experiences at a location, the more others come seeking that same connection. That expectation, Crockford says, makes it more likely they will experience something spiritual.

Spiritual and mystical experiences are deeply personal

That doesn’t make it any less real. “These experiences are personal and individualized. You can’t run a replicable experiment to prove someone’s mystical experience,” Crockford says. “But that doesn’t invalidate it.”

Science, by its nature, destabilizes sacred stories. It offers a grand, cohesive narrative—like the Big Bang or evolution—that leaves less perceived room for myth.

This tension has the potential to undermine the meaning of sacred places. And yet, countless people continue to experience profound, unexplainable moments at these sites. That sense of being connected to something larger than us, something enduring, is appealing and can feel rare in modern life. Sacred places meet this very human need, offering a moment outside of time and a space where the constant search for proof dissolves.

The good news, Magliocco says, is that sacredness isn’t limited to Machu Picchu or Stonehenge. “We can make a meaningful place out of anywhere,” she says.

“The real mecca,” Kripal adds, “just might be in the heart.”