All language subtitles for ancient.aliens.s15e08.720p.web.h264-trump_track3_eng

NARRATOR:
In the Mojave Desert,
there is a structure

built to bestow
everlasting life.

BARBARA HARRIS:
People were supposed
to walk in one door

and come out the other
and be healed.

NARRATOR:
And according to the architect,

it was designed
by otherworldly beings.

He could communicate
with distant ancestors

or even time travelers
coming and going from the Earth.

DAVID CHILDRESS:
They showed him the future,

and this was his destiny.

JONATHAN BERMAN:
In your wildest imagination,

you wouldn't come up with
something like the Integratron.

The dome was taking
many different scientific ideas

and melding them together.

NARRATOR:
Could this strange
domed building

really provide
the key to immortality?

GIORGIO A. TSOUKALOS:
If we could figure out
the Integratron, then,

for all intents and purposes,

we could live forever.

NARRATOR:
There is a doorway

in the universe.

Beyond it is
the promise of truth.

It demands
we question everything

we have ever been taught.

The evidence is all around us.

The future is
right before our eyes.

We are not alone.

We have never been alone.

Aerodynamics engineer
and inventor George Van Tassel

is in his hotel room
preparing to reveal

his latest
scientific discoveries

in a television interview

when he suddenly
and unexpectedly dies.

Friends and family members
are shocked

when it is reported that he
suffered a fatal heart attack,

since Van Tassel,
at 67 years of age,

was in perfect health
and had shown no warning signs.

His sister, Peggy Manyo,

became suspicious
when she discovered

that the body had been cremated

before she was
even notified.

And perhaps most curious of all,

his wife Doris claimed that,
during her husband's funeral,

their home was ransacked

and George's papers stolen.

As soon as he passed away,

mysterious vans and trucks
showed up,

and all of his equipment

and plans and drawings

and a lot of his writings were
loaded up into these trucks‐‐

supposedly government trucks‐‐

and hauled away,
never to be seen again.

If the government found
all this stuff important enough

to show up right after he died
and haul it away,

then at least some people
within the government believed

there was something
worth studying,

something worth looking at.

NARRATOR:
But what was George Van Tassel
working on

that would elicit
so much interest

from the United States
government

and even prompt family members
to speculate

that he may have been murdered?

While Van Tassel
had been working

on a number
of intriguing projects,

including an antigravity device,

his masterwork
was a machine he built

in the Mojave Desert
called the Integratron.

It was a machine designed
to extend life

and perhaps even lead
to immortality.

George Van Tassel often quoted

Corinthians 15:26.

"The last enemy
to be destroyed is death."

George believed
that our lifespan is too short

and, in order to get wisdom,

we should live longer.

And that was part
of his motivation

to create this machine,

to bring wisdom to people.

'Cause just as you're getting it
together,

boom, you die.

If you could walk through
this machine counterclockwise,

come out the other side
and be 30% younger,

what more could you do
with your life?

TSOUKALOS:
It's in the middle of nowhere.

It's incredibly flat.

And there you see
this white, round building

with a half dome on top,

and it's got these 16 sections.

MICHAEL MASTERS: The Integratron
was made in a way that

is very ideally suited
for capturing energy

and the way George Van Tassel
thought of the Integratron

as a battery charger,
a way to prolong life.

TSOUKALOS:
The basic idea
behind the Integratron

was to introduce a machine,

through harmonics,

with which you
then can rejuvenate your cells.

Because
if we could figure out a way

from preventing
our individual cells

from deteriorating
or getting older,

then, for all intents
and purposes,

we could live forever.

NARRATOR:
At the time of his death,

George Van Tassel
had just announced

that the device he had
been working on for 24 years

was 95% complete

and would be fully functional
within weeks.

When his house was ransacked
during his funeral,

the core of the Integratron
and other critical components

also disappeared,

leaving no question as to what
the intruders were after.

Those papers and that equipment,

none of that
has ever been seen again.

NARRATOR:
Could this unusual structure

located in the middle
of the Mojave Desert

really hold the key
to immortality?

While it may sound farfetched,

many who have studied
the incredible story

of George Van Tassel
are convinced

that he might actually have
succeeded

in a quest for eternal life

that has endured
for thousands of years.

BERMAN:
We took a bite out of that apple
in the Garden of Eden.

We had knowledge.

But the price of that knowledge

was that we were aware
of our own mortality.

And since that day,

we've been looking
for that fountain of youth,

that way to extend our lifespan
or maybe even live forever.

NARRATOR:
In 2018,

archaeologists
excavating the tomb

of a Han dynasty noble family
in Luoyang, China,

unearthed some of
the earliest evidence ever found

of human efforts to cheat death.

Recently, in an archeological
dig in a Chinese burial chamber,

an ancient 2,000‐year‐old
bronze pot was recovered

with the remnants of a substance
that was later determined

was probably an elixir
of immortality.

NARRATOR:
Ancient Taoist texts confirmed

the liquid substance
to be a legendary potion

brewed by Chinese alchemists,

granting eternal youth
to those who dared drink it.

Lab results revealed
the potion is largely made up

of potassium nitrate
and alunite,

which, while not poisonous,

are used in pesticides,

fertilizers
and rocket propellants.

FISHER:
It's a powerful reminder

of the fact that humans,

probably
for thousands of years,

have had this sort of desire
to‐to extend our lives.

NARRATOR:
The Han dynasty elixir

is just the latest of many
ancient attempts at immortality

discovered by archaeologists
over the years.

But what drives humankind
to seek eternal life?

Is it merely self‐preservation?

Or could there be
another force at work,

one that may be connected
to the fact

that every ancient culture
on Earth

described the gods as immortal?

In ancient Greek myths,

we learn of the food
of the gods,

which they called ambrosia,

an immortality food.

These beings possess some form
of a‐a liquid or an elixir

that, ultimately,
somehow altered their blood

and promoted immortality.

TSOUKALOS:
Some of the stories that we hear

about this drink, ambrosia,

is when the eyewitness
is taken up into the sky.

There are actual
ancient Greek mythologies

that describe
these shiny star islands

that descended from the sky

and then,
under their own propulsion,

moved around.

The entire Greek pantheon
of gods

is based
on visiting extraterrestrials.

NARRATOR:
Is it possible

that humanity's centuries‐old
quest to attain eternal life

is fueled by a desire to become
like the otherworldly beings

that our ancestors
actually encountered?

Curiously, there are a number of
stories from the ancient world

presented not as fiction
but as historical record

that describe people
of an earlier age

living
extraordinarily long lives.

In the Old Testament,
the Book of Genesis,

we learn of figures
like Noah and Methuselah

who lived for hundreds of years,

800 and 900 years.

The Bible never tells us

how they were able
to live that long.

TSOUKALOS:
There is an artifact

at the Ashmolean Museum
in Oxford, England,

that is called
the WB 44 Kings List

of ancient Sumeria.

On there,
you have a chronology of kings,

and the combined years

of when these rulers
were in charge

is 241,000 years.

And on that WB 44 list,

you have
so‐called historical figures,

where you actually have
archaeology

corroborating existence
of those people.

So, in my opinion,

the WB 44 list

is a list of extraterrestrial
space travelers,

and the entire Kings List
is correct.

NARRATOR:
Could it be
that George Van Tassel

and many others like him
have been driven

by a deep‐seated memory
of a time

when our ancestors existed
alongside extraterrestrials

who seemed to live forever?

Perhaps the answer can be found

by examining the events
that led to the construction

of the Integratron

and George Van Tassel's
alien encounter.

NARRATOR: Standing alone
in California's

barren Mojave Desert

is a towering seven‐story
boulder called Giant Rock.

It is here that George
Van Tassel's strange journey

began in the 1940s,
just three miles

from where he would
eventually build

the Integratron.

MASTERS: Giant Rock
is a 25,000‐ton boulder

that takes up 5,800 square feet,

and is, until recently,

the largest freestanding boulder
in the world.

NARRATOR:
This massive boulder has

long been held sacred
by local Native American tribes,

who believe it to be
a site of great power.

HENRY:
Spiritual vortexes
like Giant Rock are known

to be places
where people can have

extraordinary
spiritual experiences,

healing experiences,
deep states of meditation.

And what we find out
at Giant Rock is that the local

Native American Indian tribes,
the Serrano and the Chemehuevi,

would do their ceremonies
at Giant Rock.

But only the chief was allowed
to get close to Giant Rock.

NARRATOR:
In November of 2019,

ancient astronaut theorist

David Childress traveled
to the site of Giant Rock

to meet with local historian

Barbara Harris, and learn
more about the inception

of the Integratron.

‐Hello, Barbara.
‐How you doing?

Hi. Thank you for coming.

Thanks for having me here.

So, please tell me
the story of‐of Giant Rock.

Well, they say it is
millions of years old.

And, uh, basically this whole

area here is made up of granite.

And, many, many years
ago there's a,

a volcanic eruption.

And, of course,
this is a product

of that volcanic eruption.

What is the early story
of, of Giant Rock, then,

with Native Americans?

Well, this ground was considered

very sacred
by the Native Americans.

And they would come here
and use it seasonally.

But they considered it
so sacred that only

the shamans and the chiefs

were allowed to stay

here at the rock.

At the turn of the 19th century,

the homesteading and

the white man
started to come in.

And that has to do with this

early prospector,
who lived under the rock.

Frank Critzer,
and he was responsible

for building the roads
to Giant Rock.

NARRATOR:
In 1930, George Van Tassel

had a chance encounter
with prospector Frank Critzer

at his uncle's auto repair
shop in Santa Monica,

which led to him investing
in Critzer's mining operations

in the Mojave Desert.

Critzer was known in the area
for his eccentric behavior,

which included using mining
dynamite to blow a hole

in the bottom of Giant Rock...

one big enough to live in.

Van Tassel's initial ties
to the area stem

from a friendship forged
with Critzer over the years.

CHILDRESS:
He lived under this rock?

HARRIS:
Yes, he was actually

a guy who was
looking for people

to come and visit him
under his rock.

However, Frank, he also
had a dark side to him.

So, in July of 1942,
the U. S. government

had the Old Man's Draft.

And, and it required people
between the ages of 18 and 64

to register for the draft.

And so he got caught up
in that, did he?

‐Yeah, he was 54.
‐Okay.

And the‐the local sheriffs

came out here, who happened
to be friends with him,

and offered to take him
into the local town

to register for the draft.

He walked into a back room
and came out

wearing a pair of binoculars
that had wires attached.

And he basically said,
"Leave me alone,

or we're all gonna
go to hell together."

And he took the two wires,
put them together and...

‐Right under here, then?
‐Yes.

Okay, wow!

And he blew up
into little pieces.

And, uh, one sheriff‐‐ actually,
one of his rib cages

came off and impaled into a‐‐
the other one.

‐And the other sheriff
came flying
‐Wow.

‐out of the bottom of the rock.
‐Yeah.

And the other sheriff,
who stood out here,

stood in shock
while it all happened.

NARRATOR:
Frank Critzer's bizarre

and violent action

shocked the local community.

Many questioned if he may
have been influenced

by the energy
of Giant Rock itself...

which the local
Native American tribes

had warned was only meant
for sacred purposes.

And, according to geologists,

Giant Rock does,
in fact, produce energy.

The interior
of the rock is white,

because it is primarily
composed of quartz‐‐

a mineral that generates

an electrical charge
when under stress‐‐

as it would be

inside a massively heavy rock.

Giant Rock is also believed

to be located on top

of a natural earth energy line,

also known as a ley line.

George Van Tassel said

the Integratron needed
to be in a special place,

full of energy.

We have a gold mine
right nearby.

This area has ley lines
and aquafers.

There's actually a mountain
of quartz right here.

And you can feel the energy
when you're here.

NARRATOR:
Could electrical energy

emanating from Giant Rock
have had

a deadly effect
on Frank Critzer?

Despite the horrific event
that occurred at Giant Rock,

one man was still
drawn to the site...

George Van Tassel.

Over the course of his many
visits to Critzer's rock home,

he had become convinced that it
was a place of unusual energy.

Now, you have a vacancy
under the rock!

‐Van Tassel told his wife,
"Pack the girls..."
‐Santa Monica to‐‐

"...we're moving out to live
under a rock!"

So, did the Van Tassels

‐live underneath this rock then?
‐No, actually,

most of their living quarters
were outside.

The underground area

was primarily used
for his channeling

and meditations, so,

as the story goes,

Van Tassel had an experience.

NARRATOR:
Before his death,

Frank Critzer had transformed
the nearby ancient lakebed

into a small airport.

According to George Van Tassel,

on the night of August 24, 1953,

a craft landed on the runway
that was not of this world.

He described the encounter
in a 1964 television interview.

INTERVIEWER:
What did you see?

A bell, a bell‐shaped, uh, type

of, uh, anti‐gravity, uh, ship

that they operate
as a scout ship

out of their big carriers.

How big?

Uh, this was 36 feet
in diameter

and 19 feet high.

And where was it, on the ground?

No, it was hovering
ten feet off the ground.

And, uh, a man got off
of the ship

and approached me.

INTERVIEWER:
Did you go into this ship?

I walked with him to a spot
underneath it,

and, uh, an anti‐gravity beam
took me up

through a hole in the bottom.

NARRATOR:
While skeptics were quick

to write off George Van Tassel

as some kind of delusional
mad scientist,

many who knew him,
or have studied his work,

believe he was
nothing short of a genius.

George was super smart.

At 14, he drops out of school.

At 17, he becomes
a certified pilot.

Moves out west,

and worked for Howard Hughes

and then became friends.

They both had a calling
to, let's say, higher

or mystical
or psychic experiences.

CRAIG HODGETTS:
The parallels would be Edison,

who thought in this
realm of electricity

that nobody could understand,
but he somehow channeled.

Or Nikola Tesla.

He was so sensitized to
the electromagnetic spectrum

that many of his inventions
just came naturally.

And that may have been

someplace where
George Van Tassel came from.

NARRATOR:
George Van Tassel claimed

that over the course
of his life,

extraterrestrials communicated
with him many times.

And the most important
message he received...

was to build the Integratron.

An eclectic group
of several hundred travelers

descend upon the Mojave Desert
to gather at Giant Rock.

It is here that George
Van Tassel holds his annual

Interplanetary Spacecraft
Convention.

And while there are no paved
roads or facilities of any kind,

it has attracted
enough attention

to garner a feature
in Life magazine.

So, George has the idea‐‐
he's gonna do the first

intergalactic spaceship
convention.

Couple hundred people show up.

It's a beautiful event.

Two years later,

there's 11,000 people there.

The 1950s and 1960s, uh,

Giant Rock ended up
being the nexus

of the most highly attended
UFO conferences

that has ever happened
in the United States.

NARRATOR:
The Giant Rock convention

was largely responsible
for fueling interest

in the UFO phenomenon.

But for George Van Tassel,

it served a more
important purpose.

George goes on to give
these conventions for 23 years,

collects donations,
and uses that as a way

to help fund the dome.

NARRATOR:
Van Tassel claimed that
the extraterrestrials

that had communicated
with him at Giant Rock

gave him instructions
for building a machine

that could rejuvenate cells
in the human body

to extend life...

perhaps indefinitely.

At the peak

of the Giant Rock Spacecraft
Convention attendance...

he gets an architect
to draw up the plans

for this vision that he has,

this vision of a white dome
in the desert

that he's going to build
near Giant Rock.

And in 1958, they break ground
and they begin work.

NARRATOR:
While many in the mainstream
scientific community

paid little attention
to Van Tassel's project,

some believe he was a visionary
on the level of Nikola Tesla,

who also claimed to be
in contact with alien entities.

MASTERS:
George Van Tassel was

very clearly influenced
by Nikola Tesla,

a Serbian‐American researcher

known throughout the world
as a genius.

Contributed so much to science
and electricity and innovation.

VALONE:
Nikola Tesla published

an article in 1898,

and Tesla states in his article,

when you're exposed to
high voltage for a short period,

say 15 minutes or less,

you get beneficial effects.

Tesla was an inspiration
for rejuvenation,

and this is what George
Van Tassel was very attuned to.

And, in fact,

Tesla announced that he
had been receiving radio waves

from extraterrestrials,

specifically messages
from Martians.

So this is very similar
to George's experiences.

And both of them were interested

in the effect
of high voltage on humans.

NARRATOR:
Both men were derided
by the scientific community

for their claims
of alien contact.

But today, it is well known
that electromagnetic waves

have a number of beneficial
effects on the human body,

including nerve regeneration,
wound healing, pain management,

and even treating diabetes.

And like Nikola Tesla,

George Van Tassel
did attract the attention

of at least
one government organization

during his lifetime‐‐ the FBI.

The FBI's involvement
with George Van Tassel,

which was considerable,
started in the 1950s.

The Feds were interested
in the technology

that George was working with and
uncovering at the Integratron.

NARRATOR: Declassified
FBI documents confirm

the Bureau did, in fact,

conduct surveillance
on many of Van Tassel's speeches

and presentations for years.

ERIC RANKIN: He was
definitely monitored by the FBI.

They were aware of what
he was doing out in the desert.

If you go back into the early
'50s to the early '60s, that was

the high point around the world

of people seeing
extraterrestrial craft.

NARRATOR: During this time
of increased UFO activity

in the late 1950s
and early '60s,

Van Tassel finally had
the resources necessary

to begin constructing
the Integratron.

It is the circular plan,

two‐story, hemispherical,
umbrella dome structure,

43 feet in diameter
and 33 feet tall...

designed to facilitate
cell rejuvenation

by means of the manipulation
of electromagnetic waves.

INTERVIEWER:
Let's talk about this picture.

This is a picture of the, uh,

machine we're building
down there.

This structure's actually up.

We're working now on the parts

on the equipment
that operate it.

This rim around here has
armatures 57 feet in diameter,

which would be better
than four times bigger

than the biggest armatures
ever made before.

LAYNE:
The incredible thing
about the construction

is there are no nails.

Every piece is fit together.

All the wood,

it's formed, it's shaped.

A little glue,

and then there's
the fiberglass shell.

NARRATOR:
Construction of the building

was completed in 1960,

but Van Tassel would manufacture

the technology to power it
himself.

Over the next two decades,
he worked on the apparatus

to achieve his goal
of cell rejuvenation

through
the controlled manipulation

of electromagnetic waves.

HODGETTS:
Because it's all built of wood,

it's unable to conduct
electricity back to the Earth,

and so there's simply
this kind of swarm

of electromagnetic energy

within the vessel

that essentially can't get out.

And so in theory, your cells,

which are also
electrical impulses within them,

may be rejuvenated and recharged

so that
their electrical component

is not fading away
as you get older.

NARRATOR:
While the Integratron
was never finished,

one man who worked closely
with George Van Tassel

has managed
to build a working model

that represents the device
at 95% completion.

Is it possible

that the key to activating
the immortality machine

is still within reach?

NARRATOR:
Continuing his investigation

of the Integratron,
David Childress has arranged

to meet with Bob Benson...

‐Hey. I'm David Childress.
‐How you doing?

NARRATOR:
...a protégé of Van Tassel's,

and one of the only men alive

known to have worked directly
with him.

‐You knew George Van Tassel.
‐Sure did, yeah. And I got

some things
I'd like to show you.

Oh, good. I'm looking forward
to seeing it.

Yeah. All right.

NARRATOR:
In Van Tassel's final years,

Bob Benson helped him to publish
various writings

on the scientific principles
behind the Integratron.

BENSON:
So I was living here,
at his house.

‐CHILDRESS: At his house?
‐At his house.

‐Which was at the Integratron.
‐Right.

And what was he like then?

Very down‐to‐earth,
but he was very intelligent.

He was wonderful.

NARRATOR:
While Van Tassel

never disclosed the full details

for building
his rejuvenation machine,

Benson attempted
to create a model of it

based on what he learned.

BENSON: He didn't leave
takeover instructions

for anybody,
so nobody knew what to do, so...

I looked for the research,
and I couldn't find anything.

So I had to go on my own.

And what I did, I said, well,
I'll start by building a model.

I incorporated
the things that I knew.

This spoke thing you see here,

that's an actual
electrostatic generator.

It's 58 feet in diameter,

it weighs 1,500 pounds,
and it's lifted up

with air jets
that are around the bottom.

‐Uh‐huh.
‐And there's brushes on them,

and what they do is
they generate electricity.

NARRATOR: The electricity
generated by the brushes

travels through a wire

that connects to a capacitor.

The capacitor is designed
to discharge when it reaches

a certain level of electricity.

It starts off very low,
like this.

As it goes,
it builds up to a part.

It builds up, builds up,
builds up, builds up, build up.

Builds up‐‐
Bang! And then this comes on.

This is the spark gap.
This is the regulator.

See? Boom.
Now it's regulated.

You walk through
this little door right here,

you walk around the back of it
and out the other end there.

And you're rejuvenated
instantly.

It's a rejuvenation machine,

sent by extraterrestrials
to help human beings.

CHILDRESS:
So how close

do you think
that George Van Tassel was

to completing the Integratron?

Well, he says it was 95% done.

NARRATOR: Doctor of
Engineering Physics Tom Valone

is an expert in what is called
"bioelectromagnetic healing"

and has spent years studying
both Nikola Tesla

and George Van Tassel.

Based on his research,

he believes the Integratron
was decades ahead of its time.

I would say that
the genius of George Van Tassel

is very evident in the design
of the Integratron.

He integrated
a number of technologies

that were slowly being evolved
over the 20th century.

The spark in the middle is
an actual Tesla coil,

and this is designed
by Nikola Tesla

to not only provide
for the study of high voltage,

but also biological benefits
of being exposed

to just Tesla coil frequencies.

The design we have here
is the, um,

best current knowledge
that we have

of finishing
the Integratron design.

NARRATOR: Considering
what scientists now know

about how electromagnetic
frequencies and ions

can benefit the human body,

is it possible
that George Van Tassel

really was just weeks away

from completing
a working immortality machine?

While Van Tassel
was ahead of his time,

he claimed
to be tapping into knowledge

from the ancient past.

VALONE: He constantly referred
to the Old Testament

in regards
to the references for angels

and for God

and the construction
of the Integratron.

But he was convinced from
his extraterrestrial experiences

that angels were space people.

CHILDRESS: And Van Tassel
said that the instructions

that he was given
to build the Integratron

were very similar
to the instructions

that Moses was given
by the God Yahweh

to build a tabernacle.

So Van Tassel believed

in ancient extraterrestrials
and UFOs,

and he saw all of these things
as connected.

NARRATOR: Van Tassel
was particularly intrigued

by the Great Pyramid of Giza,

which he believed
was built to utilize

the piezoelectric properties

of the quartz contained
within its granite blocks.

In the piezoelectric effect,

electrical energy accumulates

in rocks
and otherwise lifeless matter.

VALONE:
We see even in George's writings

that the pyramids were, to him,

a powerhouse made of granite,
and therefore piezoelectric

and very high energy
accumulators.

George was convinced
that the pyramid structure

was designed
to rejuvenate people.

Van Tassel had computed
that the site of the Integratron

was also in line
with the Great Pyramids

and that this area
was a rare vortex

where energies from beneath
and above the Earth

made it possible
for us to be in contact

with intelligences

that we usually weren't able
to easily reach.

NARRATOR:
Could the Great Pyramid

have once acted
as a fountain of youth

that enabled people to live
for centuries,

as is described
in both the Hebrew Bible

and the Sumerian Kings List?

If extraterrestrials really did
give George Van Tassel

instructions
for building the Integratron,

is it possible that
they were providing humankind

with a technology
that existed on Earth

thousands of years ago?

Perhaps further clues
can be found by examining

newly discovered aspects
of the Integratron

that may reveal it had a second

and perhaps
even more profound purpose.

NARRATOR:
In the year 2000,

many of George Van Tassel's
followers were dismayed

when the new owners
of the Integratron

decided to use the structure

to house sound baths.

But others believe
it brings to light

a key element
of Van Tassel's intention.

The Integratron
was made in a way

that is very ideally suited

for capturing energy
and especially sound energy.

It has
tremendous acoustic properties,

and the way
the sound moves about

and reflects off
of the domed structure

is really unique
to this building

and comes back
to the way it was constructed

and the way it was made

and the materials
that went into producing it.

HENRY:
The dome of the Integratron

enhances
the acoustic experience within.

This is very much like
ancient temple sites

like Newgrange
that are somewhat domed

and also focus
on the acoustical experience.

RANKIN:
It's a real mystery that it has

all these
beautiful sound qualities

and properties to it.

But it's interesting
to consider that all along,

maybe the Integratron's design

really was
as a sound frequency machine

more than an electrostatic
generator of some sort.

It seems odd that there would be

so many amazing
acoustical properties to it

if they weren't
supposed to be there.

Maybe it could've been both,
both sound

and using electromagnetism
in its design.

NARRATOR:
Although Van Tassel's
direct work at the Integratron

ended more than 40 years ago,

its unusual architecture

continues to produce
scientific revelations.

But if the structure's acoustic
and geometric properties

serve a technological purpose,
what could it be?

RANKIN:
The Integratron is
a beautiful geometric building

divided into 16 parabolic arcs
in the dome up top,

and then it's an octagon
on the bottom.

So it seems to be functions
of eights, fours, 16s.

All geometrics have a sum total
of their angles.

Well, it also means

that we are living
in a harmonic system.

HENRY:
The sacred geometry

of the Integratron
is very unique.

It is a 16‐sided building.

We don't see those very often.

We did see one
in a painting by Raphael,

The Marriage of the Virgin,
where he shows a 16‐sided tower

that is thought
to be Solomon's Temple.

This is very important
because Solomon's Temple

was the permanent home
of the Ark of the Covenant,

and maybe this is what
Van Tassel was hinting at

with the construction
of the Integratron.

The Ark of the Covenant
is a device

that opened up a blazing portal

through which Moses
or an Israelite high priest

could communicate
with an otherworldly being.

NARRATOR:
The Ark of the Covenant?

The sacred object
that was described in the Bible

as a device with which
to communicate with God?

Is it possible
that George Van Tassel,

who sometimes referred
to the Integratron

as the Tabernacle,

was building a machine

that would not only rejuvenate
the human body

but would use
acoustic frequencies

to connect
with otherworldly beings?

RANKIN:
It is allowing us

through our mental state,

without ever having
to make actual contact

with an extraterrestrial,

that there is some latent design
built into us,

possibly intentionally,

that we have
a little transceiver

that when we get
everything right

and we start playing these tones

according to these exact codes
and keys left behind for us,

that we might open
this portal of communication.

Perhaps this is ultimately what
Van Tassel envisioned

the Integratron doing,

was being able to open up
a portal or a gateway

so that he could communicate
with extraterrestrials

coming and going from the Earth.

NARRATOR:
If the incredible story

of George Van Tassel is true

and he was carrying out
an alien agenda,

could the Integratron be more
functional than we know?

Could it be used to reconnect

with the very beings

he claimed to be in contact with

and thereby recover the key
to completing it?

NARRATOR:
More than four decades
after his death,

George Van Tassel's Integratron

still stands
in the Mojave Desert.

While the device
was never finished,

many still see it
as commemorating

a genuine
extraterrestrial encounter.

When you come
to the Mojave Desert,

there are a couple of places
you have to go.

You have to go
to Joshua Tree National Park.

Then you have to go
to the Integratron.

And people come
from around the world to see it.

The Integratron is the center,

historically, of UFO culture.

There's talk of trying
to reengineer the Integratron

at some point in the future

to have
the spinning armature outside

and generate
this electronic field.

Many scientists and physicists
and experimenters

have been going out there
for a couple of decades now,

and there definitely is
something subtly going on

energetically
at the Integratron.

It is still a frequency machine.

NARRATOR:
If extraterrestrials

really did give
Van Tassel instructions

for how to build
the Integratron,

might the same alien beings
one day choose

another human conduit
to finish the project?

Could it be that humanity

simply was not ready to possess
such powerful technology?

If so,
it would not be the first time.

Throughout history,
we have individuals

who claim to have been
mysteriously given information

that would lead
to the advancement of humankind.

In the 1400s,

Leonardo da Vinci
said that ideas

came to him during meditation.

He sketched things like
helicopters and tanks.

All sorts of devices

that couldn't be realized
in his lifetime.

In the early 20th century,

the Indian mathematician
Ramanujan

credited a Hindu god
with giving him theorems

that mystified everyone
at the time

but which now form the basis
of string theory.

And then we have Nikola Tesla,

who claimed that he was
communicating with aliens

and that he had the key

to wireless energy.

But he died before he could give
this technology to humankind.

So it may be
that in each of these cases,

we were given information
we weren't quite ready for

but that would be realized
at some future time.

HODGETTS:
I feel very confident

in the fact that this is

the work
of pure inventive genius.

And if it's not aligned

with, uh, contemporary values,

that doesn't invalidate
its genius.

But there's no question
that something,

some catalytic event,
shifted his focus

from being a...

you know, a‐a businessman,
an engineer,

to having this vision

for something
almost extraterrestrial.

Because of George Van Tassel's
mysterious death in 1978,

the Integratron
was never completely finished.

But it's fascinating to think

that George Van Tassel did meet
with extraterrestrials

and they showed him the future.

POPE:
Some people have speculated

that the extraterrestrial agenda

is all about a continuous
process of evolution

to improve us.

To make us more intelligent.

To civilize us, perhaps.

To bring us to a level

where perhaps, one day,
we'll be fit to take

a‐a wider role
on the galactic stage.

This phenomena
that's taking place today

is as old as our history,
as our civilization.

This isn't anything new
that's occurring.

They're walking among us
on the Earth all the time,

and we don't realize it.

NARRATOR:
Is it possible
that the Integratron

provides a glimpse
into humanity's future?

Was George Van Tassel chosen

to plant the seed that will
give rise to the next giant step

in humankind's evolution,

one that will lead to lifetimes
that are measured not in years

but centuries?

Perhaps the Integratron is
more functional than it appears,

and only when we are able
to activate it

will we be empowered to fulfill

our alien destiny.

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