You’re standing in a darkened Roman ruin, with your arms extended, chanting, and heart pacing. As you look to your right and your left, the profiles of those surrounding you are lit solely by the glow of a futuristic blue “S” beaming from headphones that are directing them about what to think, how to move, and what to feel. No, this isn’t a post-apocalyptic scene; it’s post-blasé wellness—Sanctum, to be exact—come to rescue a sea of sameness in the United States in partnership with Auberge Resorts next year.
Sanctum is a wellness-meets-workout modality that is best summed up as Taryn Toomey’s The Class meets an EDM rave dome. Founded in 2020 in Amsterdam by Gabriel Olszewski and Luuk Melisse when loneliness was peaking mid-pandemic, the method is meant to connect our minds to our bodies and get us out of the habit of putting our lives into autopilot. “Our main purpose is to drive reconnection when the world is constrained by connection and loneliness,” Olszewski tells me.
Everything about the experience is purposefully crafted to be a vibe, starting with the locations, which are often candle-lit Gothic churches, Roman ruins, or art galleries. “We only host our classes in the most unique locations with the soul,” says Olszewski. Much like the early aughts of SoulCycle, the stage is set for you to have a spiritual experience. Rather than music blaring over a loudspeaker, you’ll put on headphones so that you can tune into yourself and drop deeper into your emotions as you do the resistance-based workout that seamlessly blends from classical music to Dutch techno to spoken word of Buddhist scholar Alan Watts to high-vibe Whitney Houston.
The headphones are significant for two key reasons. The first, practical. “You can release a lot of tension, stress, and anxiety through voice release,” says Olszewski. “People tend to release easier when they know the other person doesn’t hear them.” The second, scientific. Research shows that people feel more connected and have a more emotional response when wearing headphones as opposed to when music is simply projected over speakers. This allows hundreds and thousands to gather and reap the ultimate benefits of their own individual experience.
While mega-experiences with flocks of participants helped put Sanctum on the map in Europe, the ability of Melisse and Olszewski to help connect others in tailored, curated settings is driving their expansion to the United States with Auberge. “With Sanctum is that opportunity to be able to pause, to move, to get back into our bodies,” says Vivianne Garcia-Tunon, Vice President of Wellbeing, Auberge Resorts Collection.
