Donna Carey, LAc and Ellen F. Franklin, PhD
California Journal of Oriental Medicine, 2003
Nourishing, Enhancing and Tonifying the
Three Treasures with Sound Therapy
Ancient cartographers and physicians believed that there was nothing on earth that did not reflect a parallel patterning and correspondences in heavens.
The power of sound to heal and transform can be traced to almost every culture and every cosmology across time and history. Ancient Aboriginal cultures of Australia believe the didgeridoo was used to sound the world into existence; ancient Hellenic culture has a record of the flute being played to cure gout; and in the bible, the harp is played to ease depression. Music can lift spirits, ease depression, settle people down, deepen meditation and get things moving. In East Asian Medicine and Daoism, inner alchemy and the use of sound to heal can be traced to its early shamanist roots, and was fervently embraced by Lu Yen (Ancestor Lu).
This article will discuss the use of sound to treat the essential part of our nature, exploring aspects that go beyond the physical, access and relationship to spirit, and how this connection relates to the physical imbalances associated with illness. Treating original essence unites people to the source, the undifferentiated whole, the very basis of East Asian Medicine. This article will also cover treatment protocols that apply specific sound frequency to the huato jiaji and the sacred bone, or baliao, which are direct and pre-meridian links to the Kidney source and original essence.
Synthesizing theories, philosophies, and mathematical calculations, a coherent and integrated system of sound, healing and education was developed that integrates both Eastern and Western science. This approach to sound healing draws on philosophy, mysticism, music theory, and theology, and initiates students, practitioners, and clients into a way of life that is in concert with the great harmonies—the life that the soul already knows but has forgotten. The music of the spheres is recognized for its unique healing power, and made accessible through a system of education and tools (such as tuning forks) that enables these cosmic frequencies to dance into the body via acupuncture points.
This energy-based, non-invasive treatment places precision calibrated tuning forks on specific acupuncture points to access the body’s meridian system. The tuning forks represent a natural harmonic series based on the earth, moon, sun and planets. The velocities of the planets travelling around the sun were originally calculated by Johannes Kepler in 1627, and in the twentieth century, they were translated into musical tones, or hertz, by Hans Cousto, a Swiss scientist. Donna Carey and Marjorie de Muynck expanded on the work of Kepler and Cousto by calculating additional frequencies for the system that they work with to create their system of cosmic tunings.
These cosmic sounds provide a vibrational link that helps souls, minds and bodies connect back to their divine harmonies and destinies. This modality is especially effective when dealing with the elderly, chronic illness, and debilitating conditions, where needles may not be tolerated, or may not touch the essential or emotional nature of the illness. Sound bridges the outer medicine with the inner medicine and activates a cellular remembrance of undifferentiated wholeness.
Daoists refer to the study of mindbody health as the “science of essence and life.” The science of essence deals with the mind; the science of life deals with the body. Their goal is to nourish, enhance, and unify the three treasures of existence: energy, vitality, and spirit, and restore original wholeness and health of the human being. The outer medicine is used to cure illness and prolong life, while the inner medicine is used to transcend being and enter into non-being. When the inner medicine and the outer medicines are united, we have what is known as the golden elixir, or the immortal embryo, and are on the way to discovering our authentic story. Sound provides a powerful access point for this alchemy.
The concept of the three treasures was expounded on by Ancestor Lu, progenitor of the School of Complete Reality, and one of the great figures of Daoism. He developed the means and methods of inner medicine, inner alchemy, and was considered an immortal. Ancestor Lu understood that the music of the spheres must exist within, and that the three treasures must be harmonized to go back to the One. “Using real knowledge, harmony, and awareness, combine them with the three treasures. When the three become one the great elixir is made.”
The three treasures are known as the three bases, or the three elixir fields: Vitality is associated with creativity and sexuality, energy with movement, power, breath, and magnetism, and spirit with the essence of consciousness, and with thought and reflection. Spirit makes its home in the chamber of heaven, energy in the central chamber (the microcosmic orbit in humanity), and vitality in the chamber of earth.
“This modality is especially effective when dealing with the elderly, chronic illness, and debilitating conditions, where needles may not be tolerated, or may not touch the essential or emotional nature of the illness.”
The three treasures also represent the triplex unity, the bond of heaven, earth, and humanity and the shared inheritance of heaven and earth, the basis for life and the promise for health and longevity. In the human body, vitality refers to the sacrum and coccyx, energy to the midspine, and spirit to the back of the head or brain. These three centers interact, and relate directly to the total state of mental, physical, and spiritual well being. The Taoists believed that one must refine vitality into energy, energy into spirit, and spirit into openness, where we merge with the source, the place of origins, the place we come from and go back to.
How does one cultivate these treasures, create balance, harmony, longevity, wholeness? How do we call our own hearts, and the hearts of those we are honored to serve, back to life to deal with the physical, emotional, and spiritual disconnection so prevalent today. By going to the source, to the kidney. Many of the conditions seen in clinical practice today—chronic fatigue, infertility, renal failure, arthritis, diabetes, hypertension, living life in fear, and an inability to harness our personal will to the divine will—have a direct relationship to the kidney. And one of the most effective ways to treat the kidney and promote core healing is by working on the Huatou jiaji and the Immortal Bone.
Sound vibration delivered through tuning forks enables one to work more deeply and agilely with the huatou jiaji and the immortal bone. The huatou points are located on either side of the spine between the vertebrae. Each vertebra is associated with an organ or other energetic nexus within the body, so these points can be used to balance, tonify, and renew the entire system. The vertebrae are rich in marrow and have a strong connection with the kidney, which rules bone and essence (marrow), and opens into the ear, and so is connected with hearing, orientation in space and time, memory, history, and cellular memory. The kidney is shaped like a fetus, and has a deep and eternal connection with our original embryonic energy, and with the more universal forces of the water element. The human body is nearly 80% water, and as sound travels four-times faster in water, it makes a perfect resonator for sound. When one applies specific frequencies, one gains access deep into the essence and marrow. By applying sound to the huatou jiaji, one can access both the bones and the nerves, greatly enhance the flow of qi and open up the spinal energy. This expands the spaces between the vertebral discs and creates energy cushions that protect the bones and the nerves, and harmonize, nourish, and provide life force for the entire system. It is in those spaces in between, in the still-point, that true healing occurs.
Working in the sacrum, or what the Taoists call the immortal bone, and the baliao, or eight immortal caves, one generates qi and connects to the original source, which can help individuals in crisis. The sacrum also connects the spinal marrow to the small brain (brainstem), the upper brain, and to the marrow within the brain. The spine and the sacrum connect the terrestrial branches (twelve meridians) to the celestial stems (the meridians of higher law) and help to unify the three treasures within.
Applications:
Applying the Ohm (gold) tuning forks (approximately a C#) (1) bilaterally along the spine from the neck to the tailbone creates relaxation, general balance, grounding, and tonification of organs and systems, especially kidney qi and jing. Applying the Ohm forks at the kidney shu points and mingmen further supports the kidney and adrenals and increases vitality. Continuing down the spine into the sacrum, apply the Ohm forks bilaterally in the baliao. Next use the New Moon 5th Interval tuning forks (approximately a G#) on the baliao to open and release pain, trauma, and emotional toxicity. Continue into the sacral hiatus and coccyx to liberate unresolved issues from the past. The New Moon 5th interval combines the gold Ohm Fork and the New Moon Fork and represents a 5th in music, and allows for emotional release and provides greater access to spiritual teachers. End the treatment with the Ohm (gold) forks on Ki 3 (Great Abyss) and KID 1 (Bubbling Spring).
This simple and powerful treatment begins the process of nourishment and enhancement of the three treasures and the balance and tonification of all body systems. It provides access to the physical, emotional and spiritual parts of self that are often out of alignment. When we apply the frequencies and intervals of these tuning forks, our bodies and souls remember these ancient cosmic tones. Treating the original essence unites people with the source, the Wu Qi, the undifferentiated whole, and the very basis of East Asian Medicine, inner harmony and unity.
(1) The Ohm Fork is approximately a C# and the New Moon Fork is approximately a G#. Approximate is the key here as they are not chromatic but represent cosmic tunings calculated originally by Kepler, with other frequencies developed by Donna Carey and Marjorie de Muynck.
References:
D. Carey, M. Muynck, Acutonics: There’s No Place Like Ohm, Sound Healing, East Asian Medicine and the Cosmic Mysteries (Devachan Press: Vadito, NM 2002)
M. & M. Chia, Awakening Healing Light of the Tao (Healing Tao Books: Huntington, NY, 1993)
T. Cleary, Vitality Energy Spirit, A Taoist Sourcebook, Transl. (Shambhala: Boston 1991)