Lets Mind-Travel
When I first saw MindTravel’s post on my Instagram feed, I was intrigued.
Groups of people with headphones on, gathered around a piano. Some were playing in the sand, others sat in a meditative trance.
“This isn’t just music, it's a journey.”
It promised a live meditation and music experience, one that takes you inward, all at Jennings Beach in Fairfield.
MindTravel, the company leading the event, offers similar experiences throughout the country, including meditative walks and live piano performances in nature. Naturally, I purchased a ticket.
The day of the event was a beautiful, breezy Saturday. I did not anticipate the traffic into the beach, and became anxious waiting in line.
“I should've left earlier.”
I was supposed to meet with Murray Hidary, the man behind MindTravel. After quickly parking, bringing my beach bag with fig newtons as a snack, I tried to find the piano on the beach. It wasn't hard to miss, along with the two faux light-up trees, encompassed by a series of tall white flags. Are we surrendering today? I was met with friendly staff, who guided me to Hidary. He was already speaking to a small group of people, I’m sure seeking his esoteric wisdom. Wearing a blush linen shirt and sunny disposition, he warmly greeted me, guiding me to a bench to presumably talk about the power of music.
I wanted to know how his journey with MindTravel began.
Murray Hidary at the piano as night falls on Jennings Beach | Photo Cred Paola Benedetto
“I always found music to be just the most connective way to express myself since I was little. Then I found meditation when I was a teenager. And suddenly playing at the piano became a meditative experience for me.”
This passion, he explained, eventually evolved into performances in theaters and concert halls.
“But I always dreamt of bringing the audience from the seats that they're stuck in, in the theater to the ocean,” he said.
Looking out at the crowd, I saw his vision had manifested. Hundreds of people were starting to gather, some alone, some with their spouses or families. They toyed with their wireless headphones, where ambient music flowed, preceding the performance.
“So you have the ingredients of music and nature in community,” Hidary said.
In discussing his journey with meditation and music, I was deeply appreciative of his perspective.
“Within everything we see - within matter, right - you have molecules, atoms, subatomic particles, corks. They're all vibrating at rapid rates, and to me, that's music.”
“And so, by using the language of music, I feel like I’m in a way able to have a conversation and connect with the universe.”
The group was settling around the piano, completing its circle. My last question was what he hoped someone might gain from a MindTravel event.
“I can report on what people tell me in the field,” he answered. “They tell me things like, ‘it’s exactly what I needed and I didn't even know it yet.’”
L to R: Chris and Paola Benedetto (IAFM Founders) with their daughter, and Erika Avellino (Writing Intern).
I thanked him for his time and found my place on the outskirts of the group on my small beach towel. His arrival received applause from attendees. He explained that the special headsets enabled us to move the whole length of the beach, and we weren't confined to our spots. Yipee!
Each live performance was guided by a particular theme which in this case, was “freedom”.
The first piano notes came through, but trying to sink into the feeling of relaxation was hard.
This all felt so foreign to me. I rarely listened to piano or classical music. The energy of the crowd, although calm, felt suffocating to me. Am I sitting normally? Am I moving too much? I tried to breathe. I lay down on my beach towel, just in case my hunched over torso impeded the vision of those behind me.
I observed the sky. Okay, it's blue, a few clouds.
I felt frozen. I needed to get up.
After gaining enough confidence to stand, my feet shuffled towards the waves. Movement seemed to help, and my anxious introspection migrated into observations of the people around me. I noticed individuals, their gaze soft ahead of their steps, a couple embracing on the shore, children playing in the sand. Murray's voice, soft and calming, occasionally broke through his ocean-influenced piano melodies.
“I used to think freedom was the falcon. . . flying above it all. But what if freedom is not the flight, but the homecoming.”
Some tears escaped, falling onto the sand. My sudden emotional reaction surprised me.
“What if freedom is not escape, but embrace?”
Those words sunk in, given the freedom to arise through the silence of the outside world. I continued walking along the shore, greeted by the warm nightfall.
Then, I plopped down on the sand near a pile of pebbles. As if almost by instinct I started observing them, feeling them, placing them down in a circular pattern. Then, tossing them in outward rays, they seemed to magically land in alignment with the other rocks. I chuckled thinking how silly this must have looked.
When the sun was beneath the horizon, and the music had lulled to a close, we all started converging back to our point of origin. There was a collective feeling of awe.
A microphone stood by the piano, encouraging participants to share their experiences.
“It reminded me we are human beings, not human doers,” said one attendee.
Another, introducing herself as Maddie, expressed that when the headphones were on, “The only thing I heard and saw was love.”
She had expressed perfectly what I had experienced as well. When the outside world was deafened, I had only raw visual observations, through which I more acutely observed the connection and love between people. I certainly wasn't devoid of any anxious thoughts or feelings, but that seemed to be the point of meditation, to accept, and in the words of Murray, to, “surrender consciously.”
Those searching for their own MindTravel experience, follow Murray @murayhidary and check out his upcoming events: https://www.mindtravel.com/events.
Though the fundamentals of the event- nature, music, meditation- can be experienced at any time. I encourage you to give yourself the freedom to slow down, to feel, and to be.
