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 WHO WE ARE Speaking Out Articles BiographiesCreating a Sacred Healing Space: The Creation of Sound Temples By Ellen Franklin Have you ever walked into a place where you just felt calm, or reassured as though the cares of the world just drop away from you? It's the sort of place that strikes a deep chord, providing an elusive sense of something remembered, something deep, something that you can't quite find the words or sense of wonder to describe. Yet, you feel at home, peaceful, embraced by the energy of this sacred space. When I've passed through the doors of ancient cathedrals, churches, temples, and monasteries I've experience this sense of awe, wonder or tranquility, something that reaches so deep within yet extends far beyond me alone. Sometimes I find this from a walk in nature, listening to waves crash against the sand or when I stumble upon an ancient grove of trees. There is a deep silence, serenity and sense of being at one with nature. This is the kind of energy or at-one-ment that I experienced when I had my first Harmonic Attunement®. This treatment modality, which was developed by Donna Carey and Marjorie de Muynck uses Acutonics® Tuning Forks, Planetary Gongs, ancient Tibetan healing bowls, the didgeridoo and other sound healing tools applied on and over the body. I was initially resistant to going for a treatment. I was looking for an acupuncturist to help me with my allergies and asthma and I wasn't sure that sound therapy was the answer. A good friend convinced me to try it, and I am forever in her debt. I was fortunate to be able to schedule a treatment with Donna Carey. I spoke with Donna for about 45 minutes before my treatment, discussing my general health, what medications and herbs I was taking and what I hoped to achieve through working with her. Donna is a licensed acupuncturist, herbalist, and sound healer; she also worked as a massage therapist while attending Acupuncture school. Over time she finds herself using less and less acupuncture and more sound. She believes that sound works more quickly and deeply than acupuncture alone, is non invasive, and is able to reach places that acupuncture or bodywork can't. I had been suffering from allergies, asthma, chronic sinus problems, and exhaustion for what seemed like a very long time. My work schedule wasn't getting any better, I was living on airplanes, and my frustration at feeling ill, and tired was at an all time high. Donna took me into a beautiful treatment space. Just walking into the room, I felt at ease, comforted in some way. The space felt sacred, the walls glowed with a warm light, and the room was surrounded with softly glowing metallic spheres, which I later learned were fourteen planetary gongs. The extraordinary sound and vibration created by these gongs represent the orbital properties of the Earth, Moon, Sun and other Planets, which has been described as the Music of the Spheres, by poets, writers and visionaries as far back as Pythagoras. A treatment table was positioned in the center of the space. In addition to the gongs, ancient Tibetan healing bowls were placed around the room, some on tables, some under the treatment table. A beautiful hand carved didgeridoo, was in one corner and a painted one stood in a stand near the table. These beautiful instruments are made by Australian Aborigines, and many believe they have been used for healing since the beginning of time. Hand painted drums hung on the walls, a very large conch shell sat on a table surrounded by multi-colored tuning forks. Donna asked me to get comfortable on the table and left the room for a few minutes. I settled in, face down, covered myself and took a deep breath of anticipation as I placed my head into the face cradle. It seems on reflection, that with that deep breath I let go of fear, anticipation, and any expectations and just settled in to enjoy the serenity of this sacred space. My treatment lasted for about fifty-minutes and what I experienced is the most amazing sense of inner harmony, stillness, and light. When the tuning forks were applied to my body I could feel energy traveling down the energy grids, into the Chakras and meridians of my body. It felt as though I was having a deep internal cleanse. When the gongs were sounded I was bathed in sound and light, like a warm embrace. I drifted in and out of my body feeling a strong sense of well-being and a connection to something that extended well beyond me and at the same time enveloped me. Something huge shifted within me in this treatment and set me on a transformational journey toward health. I felt a sense of inner harmony, peace and light, an at-one-ment with myself and the world around me. When I asked Donna about her treatment space, she said, "Creating a sacred healing space or Sound Temple, helps us to reunite and reconnect to the Music of the Spheres. It is this awareness and ability to hear the universal harmony that helps us to connect with our souls purpose and to recognize the interconnectivity and sacred relationship between all people and all things in the universe. I truly believe that it is this unified vision and increased ability to hear the sounds of the cosmos within ourselves that helps bring us to health and wholeness." As a poet and writer, (her undergraduate degree was in creative writing) she has always been aware of the power of sound. Both, Marjorie and Donna are the visionaries who founded the Kairos Institute of Sound Healing and creating the sound healing system, Acutonics®. When they met, Donna was Clinical Dean at the Northwest Institute of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine (NIAOM), and Marjorie was on the faculty teaching Shiatsu. They were frustrated with the forms of healing that they'd worked with and knew the power of sound to heal and transform people. They had both worked with sound in their clinical practice for many years. Donna initially used chromatic tuning forks, Tibetan bowls, and elemental gongs in her Acupuncture practice and then purchased a set of Planetary Gongs. This was her first step toward trying to replicate and integrate the Music of the Spheres in a treatment modality. Marjorie worked with the Native American flute, didgeridoo, and tuning forks in her healing practice. They were both disappointed with the results received from the existing tuning fork products and believed that forks tuned to the cycles of the Universe would have enormous healing potential and may be able to replicate on the body what the gongs did over the body and to physical space. Their early work planted the seeds for what would become their treatment modality known as Harmonic Attunement. Marjorie, a bodyworker, educator and professional musician, came from a musical family and was playing music before she could walk. "My parents were on tour with my father's Jazz Band the Charlie Fisk Band when I was conceived." Her life has been filled with music, as a composer, teacher and a founding member of the Billie Tipton Memorial Saxophone Quartet she has played music around the world and witnessed first hand the power of music to heal and transform people. Donna is a self-taught musician and has been working with gongs in her Acupuncture practice for more than five years when they met. They've both worked in community clinics, schools, rooms in their home and their own clinics. They knew that when they created their first clinic together that the energy of the physical space was critical. From their first discussions about how to make the space work they envisioned a Sound Temple. "This would be a space that housed our sound healing tools and sacred healing instruments and it needed to be warm and inviting," Marjorie stated. Marjorie and Donna also wanted to find a way to translate the power and vibrational frequency of the gongs into tools that could be used on and over the body, Donna who had transported the gongs a number of times knew that the tools they created had to be easy to move. "You have no idea how complex it is to take down, pack and move fourteen heavy gongs and their stands," Donna said with a laugh. "We wanted to create something easy to use that could be taken into a small treatment space." Dissatisfied with chromatic tuning forks they began prototyping a new kind of tuning fork that is based on cycles, the cycles of the Universe. It was from this early development work that the Acutonics® Sound Healing Tools and Educational System was created and introduced in their private clinic and the clinics where they both taught at the Northwest Institute of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine (NIAOM) in Seattle. Marjorie acknowledged, "We were very fortunate to be working in a school that is innovative and understands the spiritual as well as the scientific component of healing and was willing to bring new tools and educational systems into the study of Oriental Medicine." Students and faculty at NIAOM were able to learn their new integrated system of healing that fully complements the study and use of Acupuncture. In addition to creating the Acutonics Healing System, Donna and Marjorie developed a prototype for the first Sound Temple and are in the process of planning a second one in Northern New Mexico. They've also worked with Acutonics practitioners and individuals to help them replicate Sound Temples in their clinical space or home. Donna, "We are living in a time of deep unrest, perhaps at no time in our personal and planetary history has there been such a great need for people to be in harmony, as individuals we need to hold the sound and energy for peace. Sound has the power to heal our wounds, ignite our spirit, change consciousness, and re-unite us with the divine harmonies and rhythms of the universe." Donna continued, "Marjorie and I believe that by seeding the planet with Sacred Sound Temples we can help create and hold the energy for Universal Harmonic Attunement". "A sacred healing space can be used not just to heal individuals or families but can be integrated into the very fabric of our lives, communities and planet", de Muynck explained. "We can work with the existing space in a home, clinic, or office and transform a room into a sound temple. We also plan to create a new sacred Sound Temple in Northern New Mexico, that is currently in design". If you are interested in creating a sacred space in your home or office Marjorie, Donna and other people in their organization can work with you to help you plan your space. As for me, I can attest to the power of Acutonics and the extraordinary feeling that comes over you when you are treated in a sacred healing space. The health problems I originally went to see Donna for are gone. Donna advised me on foods to avoid and other forms of self-care and after several treatments I was able to stop using my inhaler. I also learned how to do self-care on my lung points, to ease my breathing, and to apply the Acutonics® Ohm Forks directly to my sinus points. This work radically changed my life, after twenty-years on the corporate fast track I decided to go to graduate school and study Organizational Management, my studies focused on Organizational Transformation and Healing. I also joined the board of advisors for the Kairos Institute of Sound Healing and this summer became CEO. My dream is to create sound temples around the planet, in homes, businesses, schools and healing centers, I believe deep in my soul that sound has the power to create Universal Harmonic Attunement and bring peace to the planet.
If you'd like more information about Acutonics products, educational
programs or creating Sound Temples contact the Kairos Institute
of Sound Healing at 575-587-2689 or write to us at info@acutonics.com
©2001
Ellen F. Franklin, all rights reserved.
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