C O V E R
S T O R Y PHOTOS BY LUIS CHAVEZ
Mindful Travel From art to music, Murray Hidary serves up healing experiences By Bridgette M. Redman It takes more than a singular discipline to heal traumas and open the pathways for a richer, more fulfilling life. Marina del Rey resident Murray Hidary weaves together multiple mediums of art and learning as a creator and artist to help people find connection, purpose and peace. The founder of MindTravel, Hidary is a composer, artist and meditation expert. He is also a tech entrepreneur who founded his first company when he was 22. MindTravel offers soulful experiences using Hidary’s original music paired with visuals or landscapes to guide participants through a journey that is unique to each person. Settings include theaters, beaches, parks, museums, gardens, cathedrals, and even ones where participants float on water. Travelers wear headphones through which live music is delivered, allowing for a “silent piano” or “silent hike” experience. Hidary composes the music live during the experience, allowing his own meditations to flow through the extemporaneous performance. Participants gush about how compelling, unique and life-changing the experiences are. Hidary pointed out that everyone has various levels of pain and trauma that they experience individually. His travel events help people manage and handle the pain and stress they encounter. “If we simply distract from it or repress it as so many of us do, it finds its way out and
creates trouble for us in an unhealthy way,” Hidary said. “Ideally, we want to be able to process and dissolve whatever stress and pain arises in our experience. It turns out some kinds of music are incredibly powerful modes to address pain and stress. It can connect us to our sadness and our pain, really feeling it fully through music. We can feel through it and then it is behind us, and we are fresh and open to the next experience.”
Transforming tragedy to assist others
Intimately familiar with intense grief after witnessing the death of his beloved younger sister, Hidary is committed to sharing the healing he discovered with others who need it. “I would sit and play the pain out of me,” Hidary said. “That is the only way through something as difficult and challenging as intense grief — to go through it and feel your way through it. Music can be a wonderful companion that more easily allows us to open the heart and feel what we are feeling.” From a very young age, Hidary played and created music, and as a teenager was introduced to the Eastern philosophical tradition. “The two of them started to speak to each other, the Western classical music with the Eastern sensibilities,” Hidary said. “I created this fusion of a musical language. I eventually studied the Zen music of Buddhist monks from Japan and the Zen flute music that was specifically
PAGE 14 THE ARGONAUT JULY 8, 2021
Composer and pianist Murray Hidary is the founder of MindTravel, an experiential music company that guides participants through unique journeys that help them find connection, purpose and peace.
