At spas across North America, Acutonics is the latest buzz word. MedSpaPress, a news and educational website designed for medical spa owners, calls it one of the top 10 trends to watch.

Acutonics, also known as sound healing or sonopuncture, applies tuning forks to specific energy or pressure points on the body. It is based in part on traditional Chinese medicine and in part on New Age speculation involving the harmonic properties of our solar system.

Vancouver acupuncturist Brian Farlinger, a former dentist and musician, has been using Acutonics in his acupuncture practice for the past year.

"It's not difficult in terms of technique," he says.

"You use different tuning forks set to different tones and you get them resonating by hitting them on an activator, and then you apply them to certain pressure points on the body. Or you circulate them above the body."

People claim they feel the difference. Like Stanley Picken. He isn't the sort of guy who would normally volunteer to lie on a table while tuning forks are waved over his body.

But sinus problems left him desperate for relief. CT scans, visits to numerous specialists and $700 worth of prescription drugs all failed.

Seeing an acupuncturist at a friend's suggestion "was a last resort for me," says Picken, a 41-year-old tugboat operator and former commercial diver living on a remote island off the northern coast of British Columbia in Canada.

Picken says he doesn't know the science behind the therapy, but his sinus problems are gone. While he's not sure if it's the acupuncture or the Acutonics, he still gets regular