­How Submersive Is Rewriting The Future Of ‘Immersive Wellness'

Forbes

25-03-2025

Submersive Rendering - Subversive is a space for expanding aliveness.
Submersive is the world's first immersive art bathhouse—a new kind of wellness space that blends immersive art, science, and traditional bathing practices to support healing and transformation. Founded by one of Meow Wolf's co-founders, Corvas Brinkerhoff, it's designed to awaken the senses and expand states of consciousness through environments that combine light, sound, temperature, architecture, and water. With its first location set to open in Austin, Texas in 2026, Submersive introduces what Brinkerhoff describes as immersive wellness: experiences that are not only beautiful, but measurably beneficial to our well-being.
Corvas Brinkerhoff's journey from co-founding the immersive art juggernaut Meow Wolf to launching Submersive was anything but ordinary. 'Where to begin? A world bathhouse tour, heartbreak, a dream team of visionaries, getting off the rocketship, leaping into the unknown,' Brinkerhoff recalled. After fifteen groundbreaking years with Meow Wolf, Brinkerhoff began to feel something new calling him—something more intimate, purposeful, and healing.
While pushing boundaries in immersive art, he was quietly envisioning a new kind of wellness space. 'I fantasized about taking time between ventures to explore the world's great bathing cultures,' he said. That dream became real as he traveled to 16 countries and visited over 75 of the world's best spas, bathhouses, and hot springs to understand the human tradition of communal bathing. Inspired by those research trips, Brinkerhoff brought together a think tank of world changers and visionaries to help shape the vision for Submersive—among them best-selling authors, prominent neuroscientists, spa industry experts, artists, and designers. These experiences, combined with a deep personal journey, laid the foundation for Submersive.
Corvas Brinkerhoff, Founder of Submersive
'In my life I have experienced a lot of magic and wonder, but I've also been touched by addiction and depression,' Brinkerhoff shared. 'Through a lot of support I have received tremendous help and healing. Now my personal mission is to create experiences that support healing and transformation for others.' This mission, paired with his love for communal bathing, became the heartbeat of Submersive—what he calls the world's first immersive art bathhouse.
At its core, Submersive fuses cutting-edge multi-sensory design with traditional wellness practices to produce what Brinkerhoff calls 'measurable, repeatable, therapeutic benefits.' The experience combines elements like lighting, sound, video, and interactivity with saunas, cold plunges, hot baths, and steam rooms—integrating these with the latest scientific discoveries and processes. The goal is to create environments that actively elevate your state of being, using art and technology not just for stimulation, but for real, evidence-based transformation. The vision isn't just about physical relaxation—it's about holistic change on a neurological, emotional, and energetic level.
Brinkerhoff believes the future lies in what he terms Immersive Wellness. 'Immersive Wellness will far surpass existing immersive experience offerings, which tend to be based on novelty and entertainment value. That value typically wears off over time,' he explained. 'Wellness offerings have lasting value, but what's available now tends to be minimal, sterile, and clinical.'
Immersive Wellness, by contrast, offers dynamic, artful experiences designed not to distract, but to heal and elevate. 'Immersive Wellness leverages the inherent draw and dynamism of immersive experiences and deepens it with direct benefit to your well-being,' he said. 'Entertainment can give you a wonderful, albeit temporary reprieve from your day-to-day life. A wellness experience can make your life forever better. Immersive Wellness can not only capture the best of both, but unlocks new and transformational capabilities.'
The death of fellow Meow Wolf founder and close friend Matt King two years ago brought Brinkerhoff painful clarity. 'In the immense pain and loss I found clarity that it's time for me to take the leap and go create what I'm really here to create, things that have great benefit to our species and to our world,' he said. Submersive is the manifestation of that clarity—a space meant not just to awe, but to transform.
Submersive Rendering
Brinkerhoff sees Submersive as part of a larger shift toward what authors Joe Pine and James Gilmore have called the Transformation Economy—an evolution of the Experience Economy they first described 25 years ago. 'They predicted the rise of groups like Meow Wolf long before it happened,' he noted. Now, as experiential businesses move beyond offering just memorable moments, the next wave is about creating experiences that catalyze lasting personal growth and well-being. 'If Meow Wolf is the poster child for the Experience Economy, I believe Submersive will be that of the Transformation Economy,' Brinkerhoff said. In this new paradigm, businesses aren't just entertaining—they're helping people change their lives in meaningful ways.
That kind of impact, Brinkerhoff believes, requires more than inspiration—it demands a foundation in science. 'The emotion of awe, through art and music, lowers your blood pressure, makes you more open to change and connecting to others,' he explained. Heat and cold exposure provide wide-ranging benefits to the circulatory, nervous, muscular, digestive, and immune systems, while also supporting the production of mood-regulating neurotransmitters. Specific wavelengths of light can enhance cellular function and energy production. Certain sound techniques have been shown to improve cognitive performance, memory, and reaction time.
'We all have these phenomenal sensory systems that go so much further than just sight and sound,' he said. 'We have deep awareness, intelligence, and sensitivity within our bodies, facilitated by hundreds of millions of nerve endings.' That depth is often overlooked in experience design, but when engaged intentionally—especially through multi-sensory environments—it offers powerful leverage over the internal state of the individual.
'You can think of an immersive wellness experience as a giant state-change device,' Brinkerhoff said. Submersive is intentionally designed to harness those systems—using light, sound, temperature, architecture, and water—within a framework guided by the emerging field of Neuroaesthetics, which explores how multisensory environments affect us physiologically, neurologically, and behaviorally. Advisors Ivy Ross and Susan Magsamen, authors of Your Brain on Art, are helping guide Submersive's science-informed design process to ensure each experience is not only beautiful, but truly beneficial.
Submersive Rendering
Submersive's model is ambitious and research-driven. The company plans to incorporate wearables like mobile EKGs and heart rate sensors to track the real-time effects of its environments on visitors. The resulting biofeedback data will inform both audiovisual systems and future designs, effectively turning each location into a living R&D lab.
The company's first flagship location—a 25,000-square-foot indoor/outdoor facility—is set to open in Austin, Texas in 2026, featuring otherworldly baths, waterfalls, saunas, grottos, and immersive art installations.
While Meow Wolf embraces surrealist escapism, Submersive takes a more intentional, therapeutic approach. 'Our offering will be extremely novel, but our aim is to be the opposite of an escapist entertainment experience,' Brinkerhoff emphasized. Submersive uses many of the same creative tools—light, sound, architecture, and art—but applies them with a different purpose: to initiate meaningful emotional and physical shifts. Rather than offering escape, it aims to guide visitors into deeper states of awe, wonder, euphoria, transcendence, and connectedness.
As Submersive moves closer to launch, Brinkerhoff encourages others to follow the journey as the vision continues to take shape. With its ambitious blend of art, science, and wellness, Submersive isn't just introducing a new kind of space—it's helping define a new era of experiences designed to transform how we feel, connect, and heal.