Waking up in a luxury hotel for a spa day is always a thrill. But I was particularly excited while approaching the Fairmont Grand Del Mar Spa in San Diego, California, because I knew a few things to be true: that I had just spent the night driving for hours in my small Volkswagen Jetta, that the spa had been recently renovated, and that I was moments away from experiencing a “Meditation Massage.” What that was, I had no idea. But I also knew I needed it.
As one does, I changed out of my athleisure and into my spa robe before following the practitioner into a studio, where I met the first sign of unorthodoxy: A glowing, water-filled mattress with oversized headphones laying on top. As instructed, I lay down, covering my ears with the headset. My massage commenced.
A vibroaccoustic treatment from high-tech spa company Gharieni. Photo: Gharieni
But it wasn’t really a massage at all. The noise-canceling headphones played calming sound bowls and gongs. My masseuse lightly pressed her hands on different areas of my body, tactfully applying pressure for a few minutes at a time – which to be honest, was mildly frustrating for someone who’d just driven three hours and expected a deep-tissue massage. But after about five minutes, I’d forgotten about any tissue-related irritabilities and had completely surrendered to the water bed beneath me.
Returning to the “Women’s Lounge,” I reflected on the experience, likening it to a particularly-effective, guided body scan meditation. How the practitioner described it, however, was different: “as a transformative treatment using restorative vibroacoustic meditation, color therapy and compression to decrease muscle tension and calm the nervous system.” Obviously.
Delta waves on demand
Photo: Fairmont Grand Del Mar
I sipped on some hot tea for a few minutes before being summoned by another practitioner who led me toward the Binaural Vibroacoustic Meditation — which is what the spa calls its fancy, state-of-the-art Welnamic chairs, meant to activate the brain’s delta and theta waves in providing the benefits of rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. In other words, it makes your brain think it’s sleeping for about 20 minutes. Attached to the chair was a screen, prompting me to select one of five settings. I hadn’t gotten a full night’s sleep in days, so I selected the “Power Nap” program. Equipping an audio headset for the second time that day, I listened to the sound of more relaxing ASMR (autonomous sensory meridian response) spa music. As the name suggests, the sounds alternated between my ears, sensationally massaging my brain.
“It is suggested that 20 minutes of delta is equivalent to a full night’s sleep in its restorative effect on your nervous system,” Kyra Bradley, the spa’s director of experience and wellbeing, told me. “Personally, I’ve taken the ‘stress release’ meditation in a moment of feeling stress, and then feeling literally completely stress-free just 22 minutes later.”
Out with facials, in with brain frequencies
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Though it may seem a bit out there, this wasn’t just a quirky, California indulgence. It actually reflects a growing shift in spa culture: the rise of neuroscience-inspired, high-tech therapies in the wellness industry, from your traditional massages and facials to a total pivot in the direction of treatments reminiscent of The Jetsons.
According to Caline Assilian, Wellness Director and Analyst at TLEE Spas, this evolution was set in motion when working around restrictions inflicted by the COVID-19 pandemic, and boomed thanks to opportune advancements in technology and research.
“People need wellness, and spending $300 on a massage is not necessarily feasible for everyone, nor is it the answer to everything,” Assilian says. “So people need different types of options in order to be able to incorporate wellness into their lives. But wellness is not going away. People are going to be on this path, definitely for the long term, and people need other tools and modalities to be able to achieve that wellness — and this provides that.”
Globally, the spa industry was valued at around $136.8 billion in 2023, with overall wellness tourism booming to $830.2 billion. It represents a jump of more than $20 billion over 2019 (the most recent year for which non-COVID spa data is available), coinciding with guests increasingly seeking calibrated services like red-light therapy, IV drips, and biometric testing alongside traditional massage therapies. The appeal is accessibility, speed and efficiency, supposedly backed by science.
“It’s a clear evolution from novelty to expectation,” Bradley said. “Guests are very intentional about their time and their wellness investments. They want to leave feeling a measurable shift.”
Still, Bradley admits that the “experience factor” maintains a critical influence, noticing that many Grand Del Mar visitors try something new and novel while on vacation. That’s part of the reason why more and more luxury wellness services are starting to be centered around not only brain health, but general technological advancements. There’s even a company that makes virtual reality headsets for this purpose, claiming they can reduce anxiety, discomfort, blood pressure, and heart rate.
Services like this are not always wildly expensive. Kohler Waters Spa in the Midwest offers VR headsets to pair with their manicures and pedicures. Spa-goers can pick out the color of their polish and then totally tune out while watching a sunset fade over the ocean, lulled to sleep by the sound of the waves while they get their nails done. There are entire companies dedicated to creating VR-assisted spa services, and spas that use VR programming to help guests relax before their treatments begin.
“The industry is just at the point where it was ready for something new,” Assilian says of why this technology may be catching on in the world of wellness, “since massages and facials were really kind of just the standard for so many years.”
The new sci-fi spa menu
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Now, travelers or wellness enthusiasts can get all kinds of sci-fi-esque treatments. At Grand Del Mar Spa, guests can try a dryfloat massage. It’s a combination of Swedish massage therapy and hydrotherapy meant to decrease muscle tension and calm the nervous system. During the service, spa-goers lie on a waterproof layer in a float tank. The massage is via water jets, applied while the guest feels weightless, like they’re floating in a pool.
This technology has become so popular that next year, Bradley plans to introduce the Zestos DryFloat treatment — a water-powered jet massage with all the benefits of floating without ever getting wet.
And if you want to get really futuristic, the Ritz-Carlton Spa at Grande Lakes Orlando offers robotic massages. According to spa director Tony Angel, the mechanical option is ideal for guests who don’t feel comfortable being touched by a masseuse. During the “Aescape” massage, guests lie on a special table, letting its mechanically-jointed arms, set to the temperature of human skin, do the work. Pricing starts at $40 for 15 minutes.
An Aescape robotic massager at work. Photo: Aescape
“It’s filling a void for people who need some kind of bodywork but don’t necessarily have the time or the money to go and get a full 60-minute, $300 massage,” Assilian said. “So it’s really kind of a quick fix, which is great for all the people who need that.”
Science-based services are also popping up in Greece, where holistic wellness resort Euphoria Retreat begins the treatment before arrival. Guests are sent an at-home biomarker test to collect urine, blood, stool, and saliva samples to measure everything from stress hormones and nutrient levels to gut health. After the retreat is over, Euphoria staff regularly check in on guests for up to two months, ensuring there’s no regression on any progress made.
The fine line between healing and hype
The benefits of light therapy have long been studied in medical settings. Photo: Dragon Images/Shutterstock
What the wellness industry is seeing is an evolution in hyper speed. Those who once visited luxury spas to feel pampered now want more, seemingly seeking treatments they’re convinced will provide benefits beyond an ordinary foot rub. As popular as these psycho-spiritual resets are becoming, experts say to be wary of pseudoscience and unproven claims. Assilian offers a very honest approach to the services offered: “I mean, this is all relatively new, right? So nothing’s really backed by years and years of science and research in terms of these specific pieces of equipment.”
What there is, however, is research on the benefits of specific therapies, even if the research isn’t there yet on whether these spa services necessarily provide them. Photobiomodulation (light therapy), for instance, has undergone years of scientific research. And it’s well-known that lowering one’s stress levels improves everything from indigestion to headaches to anxiety.
Assilian points out that as of 2025, there’s not a lot of regulation or oversight on high-tech spa treatments or equipment, so you’ll want to do your research before choosing a provider or spa. She likens the industry to “the Wild Wild West, when we’re talking about whole performance technology and biohacking or [longevity],” she says. “So it’s important that there is someone who is an expert and understands both science and wellness to make a professional opinion.”
Even without science, high-tech spa treatments are worth your attention
As for my high-tech spa experience, I might not have the expertise required to truly understand the impacts, or even understand the descriptions, of some of my treatments. Even so, I left the Meditation Massage feeling more relaxed than I had in years. And though it may sound wacky, I swear the Binaural Vibroacoustic Meditation literally activated a show of light and color in my brain, as if a lava lamp was positioned in front of my closed eyes.
Fully conscious, I watched the colors dance, allowing my mind to rest for 30 minutes. Though I was supposed to be relaxing, I was instead thinking about how the future of spa travel might not be about robes and tea, but about understanding how we feel — and why we feel it — at a truly neurological level.
