In our work with sound vibration known as the Acutonics methodology, our intention is to help people remember on a physiological and psychological level what it is to be whole.
Regardless of our cultural differences, country of origin, or approach to the intentional use of sound and music to promote health and wellbeing, we share a common planet. The actions we engage in on one part of the Earth impact all parts of the Earth. Watching world events, increasing levels of natural disasters, and living for the last two months with extreme drought conditions, fires, and smoke I cannot help reflecting on what it takes to live in harmony, balance, and resonance with the natural world and each other.
The Los Alamos fire, which was across the mountains from us, made the international news because of the high levels of nuclear materials that are stored at Los Alamos National Labs (LANL). Although LANL appears to be secure and people have returned to their homes the fire moved onto Pueblo land, damaging the watershed and some of the sacred native sights. Back burn techniques currently being employed by the fire response team to manage the fire are still generating smoke. Many other fires broke out in New Mexico some man made, others caused by lightening, or downed power lines from high winds. 
Our situation is not unique. Earthquakes, tornadoes, flooding, and fires are increasing around the globe. We are living at a time of rapid environmental change and witnessing dramatic acceleration in these disasters. We need to stop looking at these events as individual occurrences, or deny their significance as a frightening number of people do.
In the literature regarding natural disasters the tendency has been to examine these disasters as singular events, rather than cumulative, or to deny that these events are accelerating with deep implications for all life. An examination of the disaster numbers published by the Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disease (CRED) cites increased earthquakes, floods, landslides, and extreme weather conditions. More than 17,000 disasters have been tracked from 1900 to the present. Their EM-DAT global database records information on both natural and technological disasters. Disasters that require international assistance, declare a state of emergency, impact more than one hundred people, and report ten or more deaths are tracked. The stated goals of CRED include the gathering of information to aid in humanitarian efforts, decision-making, disaster preparedness, and measurement of vulnerability to support the setting of priorities. Examining the statistics CRED released for 2010, there were 373 natural disasters, impacting over 200 million people, with 300,000 reported deaths, resulting from earthquakes, floods, landslides, and extreme weather conditions, such as hurricanes and tornadoes. By comparison, in the entire period from 2000 to 2009 there were 387 occurrences of natural disasters (2010).
In our work with sound vibration known as the Acutonics methodology, our intention is to help people remember on a physiological and psychological level what it is like to be whole. Rooted in Oriental Medicine and philosophy we utilize tuning forks and symphonic gongs tuned to the planets. Tibetan bowls, bells, drums, and rattles may also be incorporated into a session. Connecting body, mind, and soul in the journey toward optimal health, harmonic attunement or at-one-ment with all things in the Universe. Acutonics is rooted in Taoist spiritual traditions, a deep understanding of the cycles of nature, and the way in which the planets, earth, moon, and sun influence human physiology and psychology— the integral way, undifferentiated wholeness, is the essence of Tao. We hold a strong vision for holism and a deep belief that none of us can be separated from the whole - each and every single one of us - each and every single thing is an integral part of the great theme - created within nature and a part of nature— as above so below, as within so without, there is a deep connection between each of us, our planet Earth, and the greater Universe.
These ideas are also explored in the works of C.G. Jung through his examination of the Tao Te Ching and the I Ching. In his studies of Eastern philosophy Jung found validation for his beliefs that you cannot just examine individual events, you must look to the whole to attribute meaning. Similarly if we reach back to Plato to examine the concept of anamnesis, which speaks to remembering the whole, rather than our western perspective, which since the time of Descartes has focused on breaking things down to their smallest component, might we discover keys that help us to deal with the environmental realities of our times?
The risk factors and emotional fallout from these events is vast and far-reaching, resulting in psychosocial distress, physical, and emotional ill health, including anxiety, depression, anger, guilt, and emotional numbing. This crisis is so enormous that our very survival depends on our ability to find new ways of joining together in proactive small communities.
In his powerful book, Empathic Civilization, Jeremy Rifkin writes:
“Our dawning awareness that the Earth functions like an individual organism requires us to rethink our notions of global risks, vulnerability and security. If every human life, the species as a whole, and all other life-forms are entwined with one another and with the geochemistry of the planet in a rich and complex choreography that sustains life itself, then we are all dependent on and responsible for the health of the whole organism. Carrying out that responsibility means living out our individual lives in our neighborhood and communities in ways that promote the general well-being of the larger biosphere within which we dwell…the old science views nature as objects; the new science views nature as relationships. The old science is characterized by detachment, expropriation, dissection, and reduction; the new science is characterized by engagement, replenishment, integration and holism” (2009, pp.598-600).
Cultures, which are based on community, kinship, and family often use narrative, music, and sound to retain important traditions and memories, and to promote wellness. 
In the Acutonics approach we are working with the cycles of nature, archetypes, myths, and the stories people tell or resonates with, which provides a vehicle to examine and support the shifting of unhealthy patterns. What are your stories? What legacy do you wish to leave? How do you want to be remembered?
Within the Acutonics community our teachers and practitioners are engaged in identifying ways to share this work. Senior faculty members Alicia Villamarin has worked with Acupuncturists Without Borders, bringing Acutonics to Ecuador, and Nepal, independently she has also introduced it in Guatemala, Bhutan, and Spain.
Katie Mink has trained people in India to offer this work in a free community clinic and hospital, and Sylvia Pelcz-Larsen has established a foundation to work with the Maya people, offering Acutonics clinics in the Yucatan, Adona Bay has assisted at these clinics. Here in the rural mountains of Northern New Mexico we are also working to establish free clinics. We also just installed an 8.5 K solar electric system to power our office and home, and we are engaged in farming the land and restoring the forest—more on all of these fun projects in a future article.
If you are interested in beginning your study of Acutonics, classes and teachers can be found on our website at www.acutonics.com. Donna Carey and I will also begin a new cycle of classes offering Acutonics I: Sound Gates to Meridian Harmonics, January 20-22, 2012, in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Level II: Higher Harmonics and the Inner Nature of Tone is June 8-12, 2012. This fall a group of continuing students will be able to take Level III: Harmonic Attunement, Sept. 15-18, 2011, Level IV: Advanced Harmonic Applications, October 28-30, 2011.
Acutonics has recently been featured in two radio interviews, Jonathan Goldman interviewed us on his program, Healing Sounds Radio, http://www.healthylife.net/RadioShow/archiveJG.htm and we were also featured on Joule L’adara’s Sounding Circles Radio, which can be accessed through the following link.
