Editor’s Note: We visited before COVID but they are back open in 2021! You’ll need reservation due to the limited capacity so be sure to check their website and plan ahead!

Sometimes you just need to get your chakras aligned and clear out some energy, right? Well if you’re in Southern California and can’t make it to Sedona, you can get some proper energy vortex action at the Integratron in the Yucca Valley. Visitors flock here to experience the hour long healing sound bath which the site accurately calls “kindergarten naptime for adults.”

Located about 2o miles north of Joshua Tree in Landers, California (the sticks), the structure itself was built at a spot where the earth’s powerful geomagnetic forces intersect. Its dome shape and materials (it’s made entirely of wood) concentrate and magnify that energy to help with cell rejuvenation. According to their website, “magnetometers read a significant spike in the earth’s magnetic field in the center of the Integratron.” My own meter felt an abundance of peaceful and calm energy in the midst of the sweltering August desert sun.

We got there early enough to relax in their hammock garden and I fell asleep and almost missed our appointment. Be warned! Each sound bath session is by appointment, it’s best to book well in advance because it’s quite popular for SoCal folks and tourists.

When you enter the dome, you climb up a set up wooden stairs to go into a loft type space where there are numerous quartz crystal bowls set up, and a semi-circle of “beds” and blankets on the floor. (Note: that this will likely be an issue for those with limited mobility.) The facilitator shares some history of the Integratron and the founder, George Van Tassel, and explains that each of the bowls corresponds to a music note. She also told us not to snore. Apparently because of the shape of the building, sounds from the person across from you are intensely magnified. So as participants it was our duty to nudge any snorers next to us. Kinda hilarious and a little anxiety producing!

More importantly, she asked us to set an intention for the experience, perhaps something we want to work on or receive from the sound bath. Once we are centered in that intention, she started playing the crystal bowls. At first the sound was jarring. It was so boisterous filling the entire room and I could literally feel it permeating my body and shaking things up. After a few minutes, I got used to it and seemed to melt into it. After about 25 minutes of intense quartz healing sounds, there was another 30 minutes or so of meditative music to relax the mind and body, and to let the experience sink in.

Take your time to chill and don’t rush to get up and leave. Just be open to what comes whether you consider yourself a spiritual expert or a skeptic. There’s something for everyone.

Once you leave the upstairs healing space, make sure to spend some time downstairs where there’s tons of historical information about the Integratron and the founder. Apparently, the founder was a brilliant aeronautical engineer turned UFO advocate which made him a controversial figure.

Since it was time for the next group to come in, we headed back outside to the desert heat for the next leg of our journey. However, we took some time to visit the gift shop where I got some amethyst, and we chatted with the lovely transplanted New Yorkers now working there.

There’s also some interesting art around the site and furniture utilizing recycled license plates, skis and other random metal and glass trinkets.

I can’t recommend the Integratron enough. I’m one of those “woo-woo” types who loves any opportunity to connect with nature and spirit so it’s totally up my alley. Nonetheless, I encourage those who don’t particularly identify as “spiritual” to visit just for the experience and the experiment. Maybe the healing is in our minds because we set the intention and believe it to be real. That doesn’t make it untrue or less powerful. And if you don’t feel rejuvenated on a cellular level, at least you’ll get it good nap.