Looking to experience time travel or just a departure from everyday noise? Try a sound bath in the Mojave Desert’s acoustically perfect Integratron, designed by a ufologist—after an encounter with extraterrestrials from Venus, of course.

“No phones. No shoes. Only one of you on the ladder at a time.” The tall staffer who appeared to double as the property’s security guard pointed across the circular room, towards a narrow wooden ladder leading to the second floor.

I was inside the Integratron, which its owners describe on their website as “a resonant tabernacle and energy machine sited on a powerful geomagnetic vortex.” To me, though, describing it as a spaceship-like dome in the Mojave Desert seems to cover the bases just fine. I was there for what was supposed to be a wellness ritual, but I admit, some part of me wondered whether I was about to be robbed or put under some kind of cult-like spell at the top of the ladder. The scent of rosemary and Palo Santo grew stronger with every rung I climbed.