A New Kind of Tourism in Joshua Tree
Visit one of the darkest skies in America.
Haitong Yu/Getty Images
It appears that Landers, California (population, tiny) near Joshua Tree in the Mojave Desert is all set up for a little celestial tourism. Most recently, it was a star party for the Perseid meteor showers.
Landers’ biggest selling feature? Lack of artificial lighting to interfere with dark skies. Sure, yeah, that’s cool. But the Integratron, a 38-foot wooden dome that’s part sci-fi contraption, part New Age rejuvenation machine, is a pretty big show stealer.
Dreamed up by aeronautical engineer and UFO nut, George Van Tassel (legend has that extraterrestrials provided him with the geometric design), the interior is a sound bath, where quartz crystal singing bowls “keyed to the energy centers of the body” play while visitors relax on the floor. You can have a go at this for a 60-minute session.
Where else in the world can you get a sound bath? Please let us know.
