The Integratron
- Shanghai Brown
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- Aug 15, 2018
- 2 min read
The Integratron
2477 Belfield Boulevard, Landers
(760)364-3126
Open by appointment, check website for upcoming public sound baths and events
Admission varies
The Integratron is one of the leading attractions of the Joshua Tree Gateway Communities. As is the norm for desert attractions, its origins are rather unusual. Today, the Integratron is known for its soothing crystal bowl sound baths inside the acoustically resonant dome, as well as a variety of events.
George Van Tassel was working at his uncle's garage in Los Angeles in the 1930s when he met a German immigrant by the name of Frank Critzer. Critzer was eking out a living in the desert and had dug himself a home under Giant Rock. Critzer was either lucky or unlucky, depending on how you look at it, because he had been a fan of the Amos & Andy radio show, and one of the stars of the show had given him a radio and antenna to be able to listen to the show better from out here in the Mojave.
When World War II came along, the story goes that there was talk Critzer was a German spy, and part of the rationale for that suspicion was his radio antenna. The police went to Critzer's home at Giant Rock and the end result of that encounter was Critzer was blown to bits inside his home under Giant Rock. Some say the police threw a teargas canister through the window and it ignited a box of blasting caps in Critzer's home. Others say Critzer blew himself up. Either way, he was most definitely blown up.
After the war, Van Tassel and his wife came to the desert, set up their home under Giant Rock, opened a cafe and serviced private aircraft that landed on the dry lake nearby. Van Tassel began communicating with aliens, and the Venutians invited him on board their ship.
This was followed by the Venutians giving van Tassel the plans for a cellular rejuvenation machine that could keep people biologically young. In 1957, he began building the Integratron, a wooden domed structure which, when finished, would be a giant negative ionization generator.
The Venutians may well have provided Van Tassel with the plans, and the science was advanced, but they didn't provide him with any money, so more than 20 years later, George Van Tassel died just as the Integratron was nearing completion.
By that time, Van Tassel had been hosting large UFO conventions at Giant Rock, with tens of thousands of "contactees" and UFO-curious making the pilgrimage to the desert to exchange stories and look to our brilliant night skies for signs of the mothership.
Book your sound bath, or learn more about the Integratron HERE.
There's a succinct timeline of the development and history of the Integratron HERE.
George Van Tassel with a model of the Integratron.
The Integratron, by Jessica Albano.
The bottom floor, and dome, of the Integratron, by Christopher Michel.
In 2005, the Ancient and Honorable Order of E Clampus Vitus, Billy Holcomb Chapter, dedicated a historical monument at the Integratron.
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