Murray Hidary

There’s lots of research that sound — or music — has the ability to influence or even alter our emotions. And in 2015 we begin to see sound as a wellness tool pick up steam through sound baths and through another experience, Mind Travel, the brainchild of Murray Hidary.

Sound Baths aren’t new, but the coverage and attention is, with the New York Times shedding light on two of the more well-known sound bath studios in Los Angeles, The Sound Space and Temple of Intuition.

Do they really work? Well, you’d have to experience it for yourself, but Dr. Helen Lavretsky, a psychiatry professor at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at the Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA told the New York Times that participants will often experience “deep mental and physical relaxation” that would “increase the parasympathetic autonomic nervous system tone” and decrease the stress response.

And then there’s Mind Travel, an experience like no other. Imagine a concert pianist improvising beautiful, peaceful music with imagery in the background that matches the beauty of the music — combined, it is almost meditative or trancelike. Well, that’s Mind Travel and it’s exploding. Going into 2016, Hidary plans to take his live show on the road to New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, New Orleans, London, Berlin, Tel Aviv, and Istanbul, among others. He also has a Headphone Concert Series (pictured), which he’ll be taking to Santa Monica Beach, Central Park, and San Francisco Bay.

Hidary says, “The abstract nature of these musical compositions and patterns act as a canvas for the listener to lay their personal details on to. In this way, it becomes a very intimate yet universally connecting experience. The healing occurs for the individual at both the level of their personal details as well as reuniting them with their infinite nature.” - MindBodyGreen