So on our mini tour through California, we took a day trip out to the desert to check out this place called The Integratron. My fiance had told me about this place and we decided, after hearing the story, that it would be a great experience. The story goes like this,
" George Van Tassel, creator of the Integratron, was a legendary figure, an aeronautical engineer and test pilot who worked for Lockheed, Douglas Aircraft and alongside Howard Hughes at Hughes Aviation . He was also one of the leaders in the UFO movement who held annual "Spacecraft Conventions" at Giant Rock for 25 years. Van Tassel said UFO channelings and ideas from scientists such as Nikola Tesla led to the unique architecture of the Integratron. He spent 18 years constructing the building.
In 1947, after an exemplary career in aviation, Van Tassel moved his family to Giant Rock in the Mojave Desert near Landers, California and opened Giant Rock Airport and a cafe called The Come On Inn. He leased four square miles of land from the government, including Giant Rock, a 7-story high, freestanding boulder formerly sacred to the Native Americans who lived in the area.
Van Tassel learned of Giant Rock from Frank Critzer, a prospector and desert dweller, who had excavated under the massive boulder to construct a dwelling of several small rooms protected from the fierce sun. Critzer had been killed in a explosion of the dynamite he kept stored in his rooms, the circumstances of which are still a mystery. The gutted rooms became storage for the Van Tassel family, but they slept outside the Rock and during the day tended the airport and their small cafe.
George Van Tassel began conducting weekly meditation sessions in 1953 in the rooms underneath Giant Rock which, he claimed, led to UFO contacts and finally to an actual encounter with extra-terrestrials when, in August of that year, a saucer landed from the plant Venus, woke Van Tassel up and invited him onto the ship. There the aliens gave him the technique for rejuvenating living cell tissues. In 1954 he and his family began building a structure they called The Integratron to perform the rejuvenation. George described his creation this way, "The Integratron is a machine, a high-voltage electrostatic generator that would supply a broad range of frequencies to recharge the cell structure."
His annual Spacecraft Conventions were attended by tens of thousands across two decades, featuring speakers that included high profile UFO contactees and pioneers in the fields of antigravity, primary energy research and electromagnetics. Van Tassel led weekly meditations in the rooms under the rock from the 1950's to the 1970's, which he claimed led to UFO contacts.
The family hosted their UFO conventions at Giant Rock for almost 20 years to raise money for the Integratron project and asked supporters for donations. In 1959, 11,000 people attended the spacecraft convention, and Van Tassel continued to work on the Integratron while writing a number of books on time travel and rejuvenation. Van Tassel died suddenly in 1978, after which the buildings at Giant Rock were vacated and gradually vandalized until the Bureau of Land Management found it necesary to bulldoze the remains.
Today, the Integratron, with its amazing architecture, sound chamber and high energy, still stands and is maintained by a group that offers public tours, special events, "Sound Baths," and rentals of the property to a variety of groups spanning many interests. Many visitors experience the Integratron as a very powerful vortex for physical and spritual healing. Scientists who study the building call it "a mass battery" and a "magnetic room."
Adapted from 1997 Visitor's Guide and Service Directory, published by the Landers Chamber of Commerce www.integratron.com
We drove out into the California desert along with Phil, from the dubstep/moombahton duo TROWA and Derek Allen, vocalist and engineer for Mad decent Studios to see if the stories were true. We arrived at about 4:28, 2 minutes before our scheduled appointment for one of the Integratron's more alluring attractions, a Sound Bath. We walked into a comfortable courtyard area, complete with hammocks and gardens that seemed to fit the aesthetic of the mountainous desert landscape. We were greeted by one of the 3 Women that own the place. She gave us a quick tour and talked about the crazy event that lead to the inception of this place. After the tour, we made our way up to the wooden dome area, where we experimented with the acoustics of the room and settled in for our sound baths. As she started the singing bowl ritual, my eyes were awash with colors and patterns that changed with each tone. I felt completely at peace. All the anxiety i had been feeling over the trip was alleviated and when the ritual was over, I felt much better. We made our way out, smoked a fat joint on the patio, and made our way back to Los Angeles. If you are around that area, i highly recommend this experience. next time, psychedelics may be in order.
