Acutonics: The Sound
of Healing
By
Elizabeth Eidlitz
In ancient Greece, the pain of sciatica
and gout was eased with flute playing; in
Biblical times David treated King Saul's
depression by playing the harp. Today,
growing recognition that certain
sounds influence health, character, mood and
consciousness has given rise to the new
field of Acutonics, an energy-based therapy.
It is part of the larger field of harmonic
medicine, which effects healing through
vibration and sound.
 In
this noninvasive treatment, precisely
calibrated tuning forks, representing a
natural harmonic series based on the orbital
properties of the Earth, Moon, Sun and
planets, are applied directly to acupressure
points, trigger points, points of pain and
chakras to access and open the energy
pathways in the body. Acutonics is being
increasingly incorporated into spas, and is
also appropriate for massage therapists in
private practice to use.
"Every cell in our body is a sound
resonator," says Donna Carey, who co-founded
the Acutonics technique and the Kairos
Institute of Sound Healing in Llano, New
Mexico. "Every cell lives in a rhythmic
pattern. Each organ has its own cycle and
its own pulse. Each and every system has a
cycle, rhythm, pattern and pulse that exist
in resonant harmony and sympathy to the
cycles of the Earth and the heavens."
When we lose connection to the rhythms and
cycles of nature and the interconnections to
all things in the universe, this
alienation manifests itself as imbalance and
disease. Acutonics seeks to harmonize and
balance the body, psyche and soul and to
reconnect clients with the cycles of nature
and the cosmos.
The philosophy of healing tones
The belief in sound as vibration, a link
between spirit and life force that affects
every aspect of creation, is evident in all
cultures and mythologies. Sumerians and
Taoists, observing nature, inferred that
each interlinked piece of the universe is
part of divine harmony with humanity at the
center. Pythagoras documented the "music of
the spheres," which represents the supreme
interconnecting harmonic intelligence of the
cosmos. In the 17th century, Johannes Kepler,
examining the elliptical orbits of the
planets, calculated velocities and
demonstrated the relationship between
planetary motion and musical ratios, which,
three centuries later, Hans Cousto
translated into musical tones.
Carey, a licensed acupuncturist and
herbalist, educator and poet, was awakened
to the power of sound after a near-death
experience in which she said she heard "the
music of the spheres." She began integrating
a variety of sound-healing tools into her
clinical practice, including
planetary-symphonic gongs, tuning forks,
Tibetan bowls, drums and didgeridoo. Carey
concluded that custom-calibrated tuning
forks would be the most versatile and
transformational tool for achieving the
alchemy of outer medicine, used to cure
illness and prolong life, and inner
medicine, used to transcend being and enter
into non-being.
According to practitioners, Acutonics
balances, grounds, builds, expands and
releases energy in the body.
Patty Evans studied Acutonics after
receiving it from Carey. She now
incorporates the technique into her
Hellerwork practice in Llano, New Mexico.
"Even weeks after my first treatment, I felt
the impact of this powerful work on
physical, emotional and spiritual levels, as
though I were suddenly in tune and touch
with the inner vibration in my body, while
totally conscious of how everything in the
universe vibrates," she says.
"It felt as if [Carey was] improvising a
symphony on my body," says Justin Bailey of
Taos, New Mexico. "I ended up having an
out-of-body experience and found myself in
a place of utter peacefulness."
The training
Learning to work with middle-, low- and
high-frequency tuning-fork sets, as well as
with essential oils and a variety of
sound-healing tools, such as Tibetan bowls
and tinchas, gongs, bells and drums, is part
of the Acutonics practitioner-certification
program at the Kairos Institute. Students
also learn how Acutonics blends traditional
Chinese medicine theory, Western science and
cosmic-music theory into a variety of
healing settings. There are seven levels of
training, from beginner to advanced. Many
certified practitioners of Acutonics
continue their training and become certified
teachers. According to the Kairos Institute
more than 40 certified teachers are
spreading the teachings of Acutonics around
the globe, and there are 2,000 certified
practitioners.
 "I
added it in because it complements massage
very well, bringing another dimension into
the body along with touch. In some cases it
has helped set the stage for a much more
effective massage while in others it creates
access to levels of the body and
consciousness that massage can't reach,”
says Carol Tiebout, a therapist at the
Hot House Spa in Seattle, Washington.
"Most of my sessions include at least some
Acutonics,” she continues. "I've used it to
augment massage by accessing craniosacral
rhythms, and working with points that help
decrease physical pain and muscle tension.
I've used it to help calm the nervous system
and to help bring clients out of the
thinking realm and into the language of
their internal oceans and currents. I've
[also] worked with [chronic fatigue
syndrome, fibromyalgia], fertility,
depression and chronic sinus infections.
"For clients who feel that in some way they
do not fit quite right in this world, this
is a particularly profound experience,"
Tiebout adds.
Acutonics is finding a home in spas across
the country. At
Lake Austin Spa, in Austin, Texas, it is
applied with Tibetan bowls.
The Living Spa at Monte Sagrado resort
in Taos, New Mexico, uses the Acutonics
tuning forks to provide a complete
energy-balancing treatment.
“My use of the tuning forks has been adapted
to bodywork for trigger-point release on
muscles and joints, and revitalization of
connective tissues to release tension and
stagnation," says Alex Rentz, a massage
therapist at the spa. "Acutonics tuning
forks are a wonderful tool for energy
balancing in conjunction with more subtle
bodywork like polarity, craniosacral and
visceral therapies. I have also incorporated
Acutonics into working with
hot
stones and
gem
stones."
 Mary
Elizabeth Wakefield, a massage therapist at
Chi-Akra Spa in New York City, uses
Acutonics for facial treatments, to balance
the hemispheres of the face.
"This pairing of masculine and feminine (the
right relates to yin, Venusian archetype;
the left to the yang, Martian principle) not
only restores the equilibrium of brain
chemistry but also promotes an inner sacred
marriage that manifests outwardly as a
lifting and toning of the face," she says.
Infinite treasures of the heart
Susan Stone, founder of Stone Health Center,
in Southborough, Massachusetts, and a
certified Acutonics teacher, outlines
reasons for massage therapists to
incorporate Acutonics into their
repertoire: "It saves the practitioner's
thumbs, fingers and hands. It expedites the
pain-releasing process. It affords wider
access to clients' pain - emotional
sources beyond the physical. It provides
therapists with a fundamental understanding
of traditional Chinese medicine and new
approaches and techniques for working with
the energies of the body without having to
become acupuncturists."
For clients, the results from the
combination of massage or bodywork and
Acutonics are powerful and long-lasting.
"While I was aware of what [the therapist]
was doing to me [and] there was some pain
involved, I started to feel better and
better as the tuning fork vibrated and [her]
magic touch worked the kinks and stress out
of my body,” says Judi Ritchie, a London
resident who has received Acutonics
treatments at
Canyon Ranch spa in Lenox,
Massachusetts. “After this session, I felt
more energetic than I had felt in six
months.
"On my return to Canyon Ranch this year,
with a digestive problem, some aches and
pains, and very low energy, [the therapist]
used shiatsu techniques and also the tuning
forks," Ritchie continues. "I could feel the
vibrations travel through my body as she
applied the forks to my pressure points,
sending energy to parts of my body where I
was in need of it."
"Sound is the mysterious key of memory -
cellular, muscular, emotional and
spiritual," Carey says. "It helps us to
unlock the infinite treasures of the heart.
Acutonics speaks to the work of the heart,
reminding each soul of its attunement with
the harmonies of the universe, where true
healing happens."
Elizabeth Eiditz is a free-lance
writer, newspaper columnist, writing teacher
and a studio potter in Hopkinton,
Massachusetts. |
