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William Morris, PhD DAOM

Will is one of the world’s leading experts on pulse diagnosis with more than 45,000 patient visits using acupuncture, herbs and nutrition with astrological considerations.

He has authored or co-authored five books including Li Shi-zhen Pulse Studies: An Illustrated Guide, TCM Case Studies: Dermatology, Reiki Hands That heal, Transformation: Treating Trauma with Acupuncture and Herbs, plus Cycles in Medical Astrology.

To see his books available on Amazon click here

Will Morris is the president emeritus of AOMA Graduate School of Integrative Medicine, a regionally accredited level IV doctoral degree granting institution. He has developed three doctoral programs in Chinese medicine and has developed two institutional review boards for overseeing human subjects research.

“My first exposure to astrology was in high school at the age of 15 by my Unity church leaders who introduced me to their astrologer friends. As a drummer on the road playing jazz, there was much time for reading and scoured the astrology texts landing upon Dane Rhudyar. Mouni Sadhu’s Tarot was also an important influence. By 1977, a conversion took place, and after performing accurate tarot readings and my first professional astrology reading, the crossroads arose and I left the road to rely solely upon readings for my living. Furthering my compulsive learning habit, studies began with the Church of Light and Marion March.

In 1979, my interest in the intersection of consciousness, music and astrology heightened. I played music on flute based upon the astrological chart. The musical connection to the chart was at the time based upon what I thought to be an Egyptian method. Later research led me to the conclusion that it was most likely a post Renaissance expression of the Neo-Pythagorean movement. The client would experience uncanny feelings related to the difficult aspect. Using the Church of Light methods, I would take the dynamic focus of an astrological chart (the tightest orb hard aspect) and approach it from the opposite planet or from a planet supplying a harmonious aspect. The difficult emotional state would resolve into a more harmonious and coherent place. The method is as follows: C# Aries, D# Taurus, F# Gemini, G# Cancer, A# Leo, C Virgo, D Libra, E Scorpio, F Sagittarius, G Capricorn, A Aquarius, B Pisces. Sun – Ionian , Mercury – Dorian, Venus – Phrygian, Moon – Lydian, Mars – Myxolydian, Jupiter – Aoelian, Saturn – Locrian.

By 1980, Jyotish studies began with monks at the Krishna temple in Los Angeles. A parallel course of study emerged with flower essences, homeopathy and Daoist herbal medicines. A job opportunity at Cedar Sinai office towers opened for me managing Chinese herbs, western herbs, nutritional supplements and making homeopathics. While this took place I continued doing readings. Upon studying with Eileen Nauman, she told me that doing medical astrology required the study of medicine. I then pursued premedical education and graduated from Emperor’s college in 1986.

During the 1990s, I was an early subscriber to Project Hindsight – focusing upon Greek, Hebrew and classical form, studying with Rob Hand and horary methods with Olivia Barclay http://qhdc.org/barclay/. During this time, I did David Frawley’s Ayurveda and Jyotish program. This led to time studying Jyotish with KN Rao and Dr. Charak. I did heavy focus on novel relocation techniques as a medical therapy at that time and we can share this approach after the humoral discussions. My more recent studies are in the area of Jyotish, Cosmobiology, and Evolutionary Astrology as taught by Marc Jones. My most intensive focus at the moment, however, besides teaching and writing on the work, is the study of Vibrational Astrology with David Cochrane. It is a post Uranian focus upon midpoints and harmonic charts.
For me, astrology has been an intrinsic portion of my clinical practice. This led to more than 15,000 astrological consultations. As a result, there arose in me, novel approaches to medical astrology using acupuncture, herbs, diet and astrocartography. I have been teaching those methods, some contrary to classical and Renaissance methods, for the Astrological Society of Austin on multiple occasions, at Wildflower School of Herbal Medicine, Ohlone School of Herbal Medicine, online and through intensives.

Herbal Background

My herbal studies began in 1980 with a Daoist form of herbal medicine focused upon nourishing the three treasures of spirit, vitality and and essence. It is a wellness model that I continue to use to this day. Following that encounter, I took a position managing the natural products pharmacy in a clinic at Cedar Sinai office towers in Beverly Hills. There, I studied western herbal medicine and made the decision to study acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine. Continuing my practice, after earning my credentials to practice in 1986, I earned my doctoral degree in Chinese medicine in 1988.

In 1991, I had my first encounter with Leon Hammer, MD who was a psychiatrist who abandoned psychiatry for Chinese medicine. I had long shared patients with his mentor, Dr. Shen, a now a legend who held lineage in the famous Ding family lineage. I then spent seven years co-teaching the work of Shen with Hammer who was my mentor for that time.

During this time I developed two-year herbal programs qualifying acupuncturists to sit for national examinations and 100% of my graduates passed. During that time I put together the Comparative Materia Medica as a study tool for my students.

I encountered Dr. Gu Neiqiang in 2000. He is the descendant of the famous Shanghai Gu family. They specialized in external disease conditions which included dermatology. I spent five years with Dr. Gu and they shaped my experience. Since that time of study, I have taught dermatology in advanced herbal medicine courses.

In connection with my early herbal studies, I studied the physiomedicalist herbal stylings of Dr. John Christopher. remaining in contact with the practice of herbal medicine in the west, I began teaching for the American Herbal Guild and at schools of western herbal medicine such as Ohlone School of Herbal Medicine and the Wildflower School of Herbal Medicine.

After completing a book on pulse diagnosis for People’s Medical Publishing House, they requested that I do another project. It was TCM Case Studies: Dermatology.

Homeopathic Background

While managing the natural products pharmacy at Cedar Sinai office towers, I was introduced to homeopathy and learned to make the remedies. This was 1980. From that time, homeopathy has been a feature of my practice, and especially for hard to crack cases and pediatrics. During the early 1990s, I attended the New England School of Homeopathy. More recently, I was certified through a two-year program with Rajan Sankaran through Essential Homeopathy. I have followed the homeopathic thought of cosmobiologist, Reinhold Ebertin and am in the process of developing novel concepts in the use of homeopathy in conjunction with astrology”

To schedule an appointment, please email wmorris33@gmail.com

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Article about Will published in the Acutonics Newsletter September 2018:

Will Morris comes to Acutonics from his work at the intersection of medicine, astrology, and music. He has a history of using the astrological chart to select sound frequencies for the healing process, so the Acutonics approach was a perfect fit.

As an educator and practitioner, he participated in the development of three doctoral programs in acupuncture and Oriental medicine. He also developed two institutional review boards for oversight of research in acupuncture and Oriental medicine. As president, he led AOMA Graduate School of Integrative Medicine to a level IV doctoral degree-granting institution within the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.

Versed in the astrological traditions of early Greek, Medieval, Renaissance, and Vedic Astrology, he also uses contemporary astrological methods such as cosmobiology and Vibrational Astrology as a centerpiece of his practice.

Will is both a writer and musician. His books include Cycles in Medical Astrology, Transformation: Treating Trauma with Acupuncture and Herbs, Li Shi-zhen Pulse Studies an Illustrated Guide, TCM Case Studies: Dermatology, and Reiki: Hands that Heal. Will’s musical projects include Helios Rising and Helios Attunement, both works from the mid-1980s when he also performed flute on Steve Roach’s Quiet Music project. His current musical projects include ambient contemplative works to be released soon under the Helios project, planetary musical journeys following the Acutonics system and interspecies art projects with human-plant improvisational soundscapes.

Morris recently retired from his role as president of AOMA Graduate School of Integrative Medicine to the Kootenays of British Columbia to join his wife Theresa Lee in sound healing adventures, plus teaching and writing about pulse diagnosis, medical astrology, sound healing and herbal medicine.

Roots: I was born in Wiesbaden, West Germany in 1955. We lived in France until I was three. We then moved to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; then Stillwater, Oklahoma; then Mobile, Alabama, then Stillwater, then Dayton, Ohio for high school. At the age of 19, I left to play music for a living in Los Angeles.

My father was an Air Force intelligence officer and a rocket fuel engineer. In addition to remote viewing intelligence gathering, he served on the project Blue Book study of UFO technology. His last rotation was commander of the rocket lab at Edwards Air Force Base, where he oversaw the launching of the first GPS satellites.

My mother earned her master’s degree in interior design at Purdue University. After becoming an alcoholism and drug abuse counselor, she was exposed to Reiki and became a Reiki master in 1980. Her lineage went from Usui to Hayashi to Takata to Samdahl to Joyce Morris. She combined her studies in fengshui with interior design to provide fengshui counseling services.

Outside the Lines: My mom encouraged us to think differently. And my dad taught us to work hard. I remember a teacher once gave me a lesser grade because I hadn’t stayed inside the lines for a drawing assignment. And my mom told the teacher, Let him draw outside the lines. That seemed to go for my brother too. He’s now in Peru, where he runs an ayahuasca church.

Only Slightly Alienated in Ohio: Even though I couldn’t wait to get out of Ohio, and fled there at 19, it was very progressive at the time. My senior year of high school I was in an experimental program taking place out of Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio. It was called Omega Community High School, and we were given the graduate competencies for the senior year of high school and designed our own programs. I didn’t realize at the time that this work foreshadowed my involvement in running and designing programs in acupuncture and Oriental medicine.

Departure for California: Finding myself in California, I attended Dick Grove’s School of Music and studied with Mitch Peters, lead percussionist for the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra. I also studied music at Valley Junior College, where the big band served as a holding tank for players in the TV and recording industry. I had planned to study music at Cal-State Northridge but left school to play professionally.

On July 7, 1977, I was working as a musician in Lake Tahoe and was meditating on a dock. It hit me like a ton of bricks that music was not the path for me as a sole expression. I had studied psychic healing at a place called The Fourth Center. That year I was gifted with my first tarot deck and a copy of the Yi Jing. Having studied astrology for a few years on the road, that fall, I performed my first professional reading.

Music + Astrology = Healing: I studied with the Church of Light, which used astrology and tarot as keys to enlightenment. Then with Marion March, who’s one of the great teachers of astrology. And also Ron Teeguarden. And around then I started doing healing work, while also correlating music with astrology. I set up a synthesizer with a pitch. And I’d play and flute along with aspects of the astrological chart. It was pretty cool.

Music on Hold: As I got more into medical studies, music went to the back burner. But astrology remained top of mind. After graduating, from Emperor’s College and earning an OMD at SAMRA University, I moved to Massachusetts to practice and study with Leon Hammer, MD and his teacher the late great Dr. John H.F. Shen. I cotaught Dr. Shen’s work with Leon Hammer for about eight years. During that time, I also developed two-year herbal programs for the acupuncture societies of Massachusetts and Florida. A new calling arose with Uranus opposing Uranus, then I went back to Los Angeles, where I served as Dean of Emperor’s College, earned a master’s degree in medical education from USC and a DAOM at Emperor’s college. AOMA Graduate School of Integrative Medicine offered me a role as president and I served in that role for 10 years, leading the institution to accreditation as a Level IV doctoral degree-granting institution. During my time at AOMA, I pursued a PhD in Transformative Inquiry at the California Institute of Integral Studies, where I focused on qualitative research and design in service to the acupuncture and astrology communities.

First Forks: I was first exposed to the tuning forks in 2001 while serving on the board of AAAOM. We were running a conference in the Washington, D.C. area and Acutonics had a booth there. In the midst of vendor hall clangor, the vibrations of the tuning forks and gongs reached me. I found it fascinating. It was like finding the midpoint of my varied interests in medicine, music, and mysticism.

I remember thinking that the work was in the lineage of the Pythagoreans and the Neo-Platonists. As I looked further, it became apparent that basing the frequencies on the orbital speed of the planets was actually a Post-Keplerian view, since he was the one who identified varying orbital tendencies for planets. At the time, my thought was, “I get this.”

During my first year in Texas, serving as president of AOMA, I was allowed to supervise in the clinic as a guest professor. The acupuncture board lost my documentation of education, and through a series of adminstrative trivia, it took a full year for me to get my license in Texas. I used the tuning forks based on my background in classical Chinese medicine and astrology for my practice. It worked like a charm.

The Deepening Spiral: At first, I used Acutonics as a replacement while I worked out my licensing needs. The intersection of astrology and medicine with music was too great a coincidence for me to ignore.

In my practice, Acutonics has progressively taken center stage as they are the actual expression of the planetary forces in the astrological chart and can be used as tools for healing the early wounds of this life and even the ancestral wounds of the bloodline throughout history. As an example, I will take planetary frequencies from a focal point in the astrological chart related to the client concerns. I will tune a synthesizer to these frequencies and leave them going in the background while providing Acutonics treatments. When my acupuncture treatments begin to arc towards resolution, I use the forks to touch the needles lightly, sending the treatment into a deepening spiral.

Back to the Vibrations: Musically, I am working on a project that takes a single planet and creates a triptych for that planet, using the planetary gong as a tonal center or substrate for the musical creation.

Acututonics are infused into my practice, my daily life and my spiritual life as I build rituals, performances and learning experiences rising up from the depths of cosmos in vibratory expressions.

Will lives in British Columbia at the east shore of Kootenay Lake with his wife, Theresa. He is available for courses, mentorship, consultations, and treatments in between music and writing.