The Integratron

George Van Tassel, a former aircraft mechanic who had worked for Lockheed and Howard Hughes, claimed that in August 1953 he was taken aboard a flying saucer near Giant Rock, California, and given telepathic instructions by a Venusian visitor for building a machine to recharge human cells and reverse aging. He began construction of that machine's housing, the Integratron, in 1958. It is an all-wood dome built with no metal fasteners, designed, he said, to combine the proportions of the Biblical Tabernacle of Moses with Nikola Tesla's electrical theories. Its owners give its height as 38 feet; the National Register nomination measured 33.

Van Tassel funded the project partly through annual UFO conventions he hosted at nearby Giant Rock, which drew thousands of attendees and reportedly private contributions from figures including Howard Hughes. He intended the finished structure to function as an electrostatic generator capable of cellular rejuvenation, anti-gravity research, and even time travel, sited on what he and later owners have described as a desert geomagnetic vortex.

Van Tassel died of a heart attack in 1978 with the high-voltage internal machinery never installed, leaving the building's intended function permanently untested. No peer-reviewed research supports the rejuvenation, anti-gravity, or time-travel claims associated with it. After decades of disrepair, three sisters purchased the property in the early 2000s and now operate it as a sound-bath venue using quartz crystal bowls; the building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2018, recognized for its mid-century UFO-contactee cultural history and distinctive timber-dome architecture rather than for any verified physical effect.

Sound bath sessions run by reservation only and fill up well in advance, and the building opens only for them; the owners do not run tours. Public sessions admit ages 14 and up. The courtyard and gift shop are open without a reservation most Wednesdays through Saturdays, and calling ahead to confirm hours is worth doing.