What do we actually want from a massage? Is it the relief of physical tension, the correction of some bodily ill for greater comfort or flexibility? Or is it more about a mental process: the signals your brain releases, when you smell the palo santo, hear the babbling brook soundtrack, the promise that you’re going to relinquish some discomfort that has been ailing you, even if that annoyance is in your hippocampus more than your hamstrings—the body keeps the score and all that.
On a very sweaty Monday, I made my way to midtown to the Lotte New York Palace (location for Serena van der Woodsen’s haunts; there were still a few Gossip Girl devotees taking pictures in the lobby) with more than a little stiffness in my shoulders. It has been 500 degrees in New York for about 100 days; sweating in the subway, does not a sauna make. I was there to try Aescape, a new machine that bills itself as “the world’s most advanced massage” and is entirely delivered by giant robotic arms.
The idea conjured memories of sitting in the massage chairs at Brookstone at the mall, those full-body experiences that once seemed so novel but have now migrated to airport lounges and highway rest stops across America. I remember at the time thinking, as the panels gently compressed my calves, that this was nice, I could get used to this. If I were to grow up to be the kind of millionaire who could furnish their house with such extravagances, I wouldn’t mind a chair like this. After all, that’s what a massage—robot-enabled or not—is: indulgence.
Or maybe not. Aescape is ostensibly built on the opposite premise: that massage should be accessible, affordable, predictable, and personalized. No millions needed. “You book it like you’d book a car-hailing service,” says Eric Litman, the founder and CEO of Aescape. The friction or awkwardness that is often part of the experience (do you leave on your underwear or not?) has been subtracted from the equation. (More on the outfit in a moment.) It is also customizable, physically but also in all other ways. “If you want to listen to soothing piano sounds, that’s great,” says Litman, “but if you want to fire up Kendrick Lamar, you absolutely can. Maybe you’re not in the headspace where you want to zone out.” A heavy strand of empowerment and optimization tech-speak is part of the Aescape DNA: This is a massage that “empowers you to give your body the attention it deserves without compromising your schedule.” No more lingering on the table: The Aescape programs purport to deliver the benefits of a 60-minute massage in just 30 minutes.