MindTravel

MindTravel is a live piano meditation experience created by composer and pianist Murray Hidary. The format is simple: Hidary improvises on a grand piano while audiences sit, lie down, or close their eyes. Visuals play on screens behind him. The music draws from mystical traditions and theoretical physics, though in practice what you hear is long, flowing piano passages that drift between classical and ambient. Shows happen in theaters and outdoor spaces, and the Austin events tend to carry the word "silent" in the title, meaning attendees wear headphones for the outdoor versions.

The effect is hard to describe without sounding like a brochure, so here is what actually happens. You show up. You find a spot. Hidary starts playing, and within about ten minutes most of the room has gone very still. The music is genuinely good, not background spa stuff but real piano playing with dynamic range and emotion. People cry sometimes. Others fall asleep. Both seem fine. Jason Wachob, founder of MindBodyGreen, called it "almost meditative or trancelike," and that is about right. It sits in a space between a concert and a guided meditation, closer to the meditation side.

Hidary is not a guru or a wellness coach. He is a musician who found that his improvisational piano work puts people into a particular mental state, and he built a touring experience around that observation. There is no talking during the performance, no prompts to breathe a certain way, no spiritual framework you need to buy into. The piano does the work. This makes MindTravel more accessible than a lot of meditation offerings. You do not need any experience with meditation. You just need to be willing to sit and listen.

The Austin shows typically run about 60 to 90 minutes. Some are seated in traditional theater settings. Others happen outdoors with wireless headphones, which creates a strange and interesting dynamic where hundreds of people are lying on blankets in a park, completely silent to any passerby, all listening to the same music privately. The headphone events have a communal quality that the indoor ones sometimes lack, because you can see other people having the experience alongside you.

MindTravel tours nationally, so Austin dates come around periodically rather than weekly. Their events tend to sell out or get close to it, which says something about the appetite for this kind of thing. If you have tried sitting meditation and found it boring or frustrating, the musical component here gives your brain something to hold onto while the rest of you relaxes. It is meditation with training wheels, in the best possible sense.

You can find upcoming dates and more about Hidary's background at mindtravel.com.