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SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) — Did you know there’s an almost 30-foot-tall pyramid in Salt Lake City, right next door to an otherwise normal residential neighborhood? And, yes, there is at least one human mummy inside that pyramid.
The building — which was constructed more than 40 years ago — serves as a sanctuary, a temple, and a winery, all for a Utah-founded non-profit religious organization called Summum.
Despite the pyramid’s geographical and historical proximity to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (whose members are colloquially known as Mormons), the pyramid is unrelated to the sphinx in Salt Lake with the face of the founder and first president of the LDS church, Joseph Smith.
Here’s what ABC4.com has learned about the pyramid and the organization it was made for.
Yes, there really is a sphinx in Utah with the face of the first LDS leader
About the pyramid
FILE — UTAH – MARCH 8: Corky Ra, founder of Summun Mummification and the patented Permanent Body Preservation System, shows off a fake mummy inside his pyramid where he also holds church services and live web casts March 8, 2003 in Salt Lake City, Utah. Ra claims to have signed up 1400 people who want to be mummified after death for a fee. (Photo by George Frey/Getty Images)
The Summum pyramid is said to be 26 feet tall and 40 feet long at the base, and each side of the pyramid faces “the cardinal points of the universe,” according to the organization’s website. There are crystals within the pyramid’s corners and apex, which “creates a highly sophisticated resonant chamber,” Summum explained.
Construction of the pyramid began in 1977 and concluded in 1979. At first, the pyramid was covered in grey roofing tiles (as seen in the image at the top of this article), but was later covered with copper-colored metal.
Summum wine, aka ‘Nectar Publications’
In the Summum pyramid, the wines they create are known as “Nectar Publications.”
“Within the pyramid, they are left in a creative state for seventy-seven days, then aged from one to fifteen years,” the website explains. “The nectars are called ‘publications’ because they contain spiritual concepts and information.”
In addition to containing concepts and information, the wines also grow crystals when stored inside the pyramid. Summum said nine Nectar Publications have been created so far, with the total number expected to reach 27.
Some of the created wines include the “Nectar Publication of Sexual Ecstasy” (a red wine) and the “Nectar Publication of Nothing.”
Public classes at the pyramid
Every Wednesday evening, Summum offers classes on its philosophy in the pyramid from 7 p.m. until 8 p.m. Mountain Time, and the classes are also streamed online.
To register for a class at the pyramid, Summum asks for a patron’s name, email address, and three dates someone wishes to attend. The registration form can be found online.
Summum beliefs explained (briefly)
The mission of the religion is to “help you liberate and emancipate you from yourself and turn you into an Overcomer,” according to its website.
The religion is based on seven “Principles of Creation,” according to its website. Those principles are psychokinesis, correspondence, vibration, opposition, rhythm, cause and effect, and gender.
Summum said that, before receiving the Ten Commandments, Moses received the Seven Aphorisms. Summum’s website also explains its relationship to “The Kybalion,” Gnostic Christianity, and Freemasonry.
The founder of Summum was once a member of the LDS church, according to Summum’s website. The founder of Summum also believed that he was a tree once, as was God.
Summum believes in God and believes that God created the universe. The organization says the creation of the universe was a sexual act, and says the term “Big Bang” — which is often used to refer to the creation of the universe — is “a sexual innuendo that is more than coincidence.”
“The universe was created with a Big Bang through the Masturbation of God,” Summum explains on one of its web pages.
Summum has a website that partially explains the religion’s sexual beliefs. It also sells its own oil-based lubricant (called Merh) and a book called “Sexual Ecstasy from Ancient Wisdom.”
“Summum treats sexuality as a divine and integral part of spiritual evolution and defines ‘ecstasy’ as ‘the state of union with God,’” Summum explains.
Modern mummification offered through Summum
FILE — (Original Caption) Embalmers of the ‘Summum’ organization, based in Utah. (Photo by Ted Soqui/Sygma via Getty Images)
You can become a mummy for a starting donation of $67,000, within the continental United States — but Summum also recommends making “alternative plans in the event [they] cannot accommodate you.”
“Please note, we only accept your donation for providing our rites to you at the time of your passing,” the mummification website reads. “In addition, we make no guarantee that we will provide these rites when the time comes.”
After Summum receives a body for mummification, no family members will be allowed to see the body again. Once a body has been mummified, it is put in a “Mummiform” or sarcophagus and buried.
According to Summum, it is “the only organization in the world to offer this remarkable and distinguished tradition” today. Its mummification practice was reportedly recognized as tax-exempt in 1986.
How was Summum started?
FILE — UTAH – MARCH 8: Corky Ra, founder of Summun Mummification, stands outside his church/pyramid March 8, 2003 in Salt Lake City, Utah. Ra claims to have signed up 1400 people who want to be mummified after death for a fee. (Photo by George Frey/Getty Images)
In 1975, Claude Rex Nowell — who later legally changed his name to Summum Bonum Amon Ra (“for spiritual reasons,” according to Summum) and was often called Corky Ra or Amen Ra — said he was visited by capital-B “Beings” after hearing a ringing in his ear.
“I know how it feels to touch Beings not of this world — what they look like, how they smell, and how it is to be with them. I know how they behave, where they come from, and why they contacted me,” he wrote while recounting the “First Encounter.”
Corky Ra wrote that he had a vision of a pyramid and another structure, and while having that vision, he walked through a wall. He encountered a group of individuals (the Beings) in the vision and said they communicated with him telepathically before he learned of the concepts that became the basis of the Summum religion.
Corky Ra died in 2008 and became the “world’s first modern mummy,” according to Summum. His sarcophagus is said to be stored inside the Summum pyramid.
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