Scientology 'Alien Space Cathedral'
New photos of the Scientology "alien space cathedral" Trementina Base in the desert of New Mexico have emerged, showing scientologists' lair for a post-Armageddon world to find their scriptures when “they come back from space after a nuclear catastrophe wipes out the human race.” Google Earth

After months of speculation, the Church of Scientology's “alien space cathedral” called Trementina Base has come to light, with a new report showing pictures of the Scientologist refuge for a post-Armageddon world.

In the desert outside Las Vegas, N.M., sits a multimillion-dollar three-story house with an underground vault on about 60 acres. According to The Daily Mail, which snapped the first aerial photos of the Scientology fortress from a helicopter, the compound also has tunnels dug hundreds of feet in the rock leading to the vault. The vault is believed to contain writings by the founder of the Church of Scientology, L. Ron Hubbard, either engraved on stainless steel tablets or gold discs inside titanium capsules.

News of the “space cathedral” first emerged in January when satellite images showed a bizarre sight in the desert: two overlapping circles with diamonds inside carved into the ground. According to The Mail, the giant symbols, nearly resembling “crop circles,” are “return points” meant for Scientologists to find their way back after Armageddon when the universe is destroyed and all humanity is lost. These markers will allow members of the church to find the works of Hubbard when “they come back from space after a nuclear catastrophe wipes out the human race.” The Mail alleged the circles with diamonds in them are a trademark of the Church of Technology, which is one of many branches of Scientology.

The Daily Mail reported that the “fallout shelter” appeared uninhabited during a flyover except for a dog guarding the compound.

While the site remains a mystery for many, The Mail found one non-Scientologist who has seen the “alien space cathedral,” Tim Gallagos, a Las Vegas Sheriff’s Department officer in the 1990s.

Gallagos said the lair contains machines to copy the works of Hubbard to share post-Armageddon and described the vault as a “giant time capsule” where all the scriptures were being kept. He said there was a one-bedroom house near the vault but it had no technology, adding he “wouldn’t want to live there.

“I was suspicious of it, the whole thing,” he said of the guided tour he went on in the '90s. “It did feel like they were hiding something. I wasn’t allowed to go into certain areas. I know when people are lying to me, I can tell from their body language and voice they were concealing something.”

John Sweeney, who investigated the church in 2007 for the BBC television documentary “Scientology and Me,” said the “alien space cathedral” was built by the church in the 1980s to protect the church’s teachings. In his book "Church of Fear: Inside the Weird World of Scientology,” he said the lair “houses the lectures of church founder L Ron Hubbard on gold discs locked in titanium caskets sealed with argon. The cathedral is H-bomb proof, protected by three 5,000lb stainless steel airlocks.”

Scientology, a controversial religion practiced by celebrities like Tom Cruise and John Travolta, was created by Hubbard in 1952 and “offers a precise path leading to a complete and certain understanding of one’s true spiritual nature and one’s relationship to self, family, groups, Mankind, all life forms, the material universe, the spiritual universe and the Supreme Being,” according to its website. “Scientology addresses the spirit—not the body or mind—and believes that Man is far more than a product of his environment, or his genes. Scientology comprises a body of knowledge which extends from certain fundamental truths. Prime among these are: Man is an immortal spiritual being. His experience extends well beyond a single lifetime. His capabilities are unlimited, even if not presently realized.”