The Integratron in Landers, CA. Photograph copyright 2016 by Anna Boudinot.
Coachella isn't the only reason to head into the desert.
Just a two hour drive from Los Angeles lie all sorts of desert treasures that take on the aura of the weird and the wonderful. Whether you want to see the natural beauty of rare plants, bizarre rock formations, and stunning sunsets, or you want to experience art and kitsch in the best ways possible, the Joshua Tree area has it all and then some. While it's not in Los Angeles County, I've decided to include it in this Los Angeles blog because it's a part of California that every Angeleno should see. Visiting LA for just a few days? Squeeze a desert adventure in as a day trip. I promise you won't regret it.
This post and the three after it will describe some of the best things to do in the desert -- flower crown optional.
Let's begin with the weirdest (and I mean that in the best way): the Integratron.
The Integratron is many things. It’s an acoustically perfect structure, meaning when you sit inside and whisper someone on the other end of the room can hear you. It is, some say, a source of healing and rejuvenation thanks to the convergence of electromagnetic fields that it sits upon. It’s also the labor of love of one George Van Tassel, who was guided by a space traveler from Venus to build it in order to save the human race.
Van Tassel was a UFO fanatic prior to his extraterrestrial encounter. He was a successful aircraft mechanic who had taken up residence in a house built underneath a massive boulder (aptly called Giant Rock) and founded an “interplanetary airport” there where fellow Ufologists held “spacecraft conventions.” In 1953, Van Tassel was visited by a Venusian who had some bad news: human beings were messing up the planet and shortening their own life spans due to silly human activities such as building hydrogen bombs. But the good news was that Van Tassel could construct a special apparatus, an Integratron, which would allow humans to restore their cells and live longer.
“The space people… have given us the detailed information on how to construct the apparatus to manifest this [rejuvenating] force. It is simple in its construction, although precision measurements must be maintained. It must be housed in a building which they have also given us the data on to construct,” explained Van Tassel in his book The Council of Seven Lights.
Van Tassel set out to build the Integratron – “an electro-static magnetic generator for basic research into rejuventation, anti-gravity, and time travel” – three miles away from Giant Rock. A placard inside the Integraton today explains it as “a revolutionary design, all wood construction – sixteen glued and laminated spines held together like a Chinese puzzle by one ton of concrete in a ring at the top.” It took 18 years to build and was financed entirely by private donations, including a hefty sum from Howard Hughes. (Another fun fact: its Douglas Fir wood beams were sourced from the same place as the Spruce Goose.) After the exterior structure was completed, Van Tassel continued to develop and experiment with the apparatus inside until his death in 1978. The apparatus is no longer in the building and there is no explanation as to where it might be.
While the present owners of the Integratron don’t tout its X-Files-like connection as much as they boast about its healing properties, Van Tassel is treated with reverence there. Now, the Integratron is a popular site for musicians who want to record in its beautiful-sounding dome and for visitors who luxuriate in sound baths.
A sound bath is an intensely relaxing experience meant to invigorate and inspire. Sound bathers lie on the wooden floor of the Integratron, heads together and bodies pointing out like the rays of the sun. In one corner of the room, a set of nine quartz bowls are played, much in the way someone might run a finger around the rim of a wine glass to create an undulating sound. The sound fills the entire space with a vibration that is mysteriously soothing. Hardcore Integratron-goers believe that the noise enables the listeners to travel through time and space. Others describe it as the sensation of being not totally asleep and not totally awake. “It sounds super ooga-booga New Age but is really amazingly powerful,” Vanity Fair wrote in February 2012, and they are right.
Regardless of your level of spirituality or the degree to which you believe in aliens from outer space, a sound bath at the Integratron will impress you with its solemnity and power. It’s definitely a ritual, one to be experienced at least once in a lifetime.
Tickets for a sound bath at the Integratron sell out fast and it’s recommended to book them a few weeks in advance. You are welcome to visit the site and enjoy its chill vibe but you are not permitted inside the Integratron without a ticket. While you’re in the neighborhood, stop by the Gubler Orchid Farm down the street for another lovely experience.