In 2002, a shaman “confirmed” what longtime West Loop gallery owner Peter Mars has known for some time: An energy vortex lies beneath his namesake gallery at 1139 West Fulton Market. Mars says he regularly experiences the vortex—a type of paranormal phenomenon, with purported healing or creative properties, that will be familiar to anyone who’s spent time in New Age meccas like Sedona, Arizona—as a soothing low-frequency hum in his basement studio. The shaman claimed to have pinpointed its epicenter underneath a spot in front of the gallery’s loading dock (pictured). Now marked by a battered plywood sign, it is known to local artists, who have left spray-painted messages and trinkets as offerings over the years, but the bargoers and tech workers who prowl the neighborhood today mostly just pass it by.