[Albuquerque, NM] – January 10, 2025
Military personnel at Kirtland Air Force Base weren’t just training their physical bodies on Friday, they were also training their minds.

Kirtland hosted a ribbon-cutting event for the newest addition to the Crafts Outdoor Recreational Entertainment center — the Lumena MindGym. The gym, which is less of a gym and more of an out-of-body experience, is designed to provide military members with the right tools to focus on their mental health.

“MindGym is a fully immersive environment that combines lights and sound to put you in an altered state of consciousness where you can access different brain states like focus, attention, relaxation,” said Brandon Murphy, chief revenue officer of Lumena. “We train people on mental skills like how to use your visual focus system to become more attentive or using tactical breathing skills to modulate and regulate our stress response.”

Members at Kirtland Air Force Base can begin their mental training by simply opening the black MindGym box, which unveils a small room filled with wall-to-wall mirrors and bright blue LED lights. With the touch of a button and a pair of headphones, users can transport to a world of rest and relaxation.

MindGym has already proven its effectiveness in pilot programs at other installations, according to the company. A study at Hill Air Force Base in Utah reported a 29% improvement in reaction time under stress and a 46% increase in accuracy under stress. These results have paved the way for MindGym’s expansion across all nine major Air Force commands.

“We have all kinds of different pathways on here, whether you want to work on your cognitive performance or if you’re trying to reduce your stress, or whether you want to explore things that have to do with philosophy; that’s all on this system here,” Murphy said. “People can pick through different categories and find which of the 31 different sessions that are available on the MindGym work best for them as an individual.”

A standard session begins with a guide who prompts users through an exercise of breathing. As users breathe, the box seemingly comes to life, breathing with you and changing the room to create a deeper sensation. With a biosensor headband that monitors guests’ brain range and heart rate, people are able to view their progress with each session and see how their brain and heart are affected by the MindGym.

Staff Sgt. Joshua Hardy of the 377th Maintenance Squadron said that the box had unexpected effects from the first trial.

“With the lights, there’s a really disorienting feeling because as the lights move, it gives you the sense the box is moving with it,” Hardy said. “It was impressive enough that I’m going to set up an appointment for a full session. It was just a demo, but I do feel slightly more relaxed.”

Col. Michael Power, 377th Air Base Wing and Installation commander, said he believes the MindGym is a much-needed addition to Kirtland and he’s excited to see how participants improve from each session.

“I think there will be a lot of use with it once we start getting people over here and using it,” Power said. “All of our missions that we do here are high pressure and we’re always trying to make sure we give everyone the right tools to take care of themselves physically, mentally and socially. It’s important to have that balance of mental health so that when we do come to work, we can be totally focused on the job at hand.”

 | Albuquerque Journal

“I think there will be a lot of use with it once we start getting people over here and using it,” Power said. “All of our missions that we do here are high pressure and we’re always trying to make sure we give everyone the right tools to take care of themselves physically, mentally and socially. It’s important to have that balance of mental health so that when we do come to work, we can be totally focused on the job at hand.”

– Col. Michael Power, 377th Air Base Wing