A History of Attunement
Lloyd Meeker
Lloyd Arthur Meeker
The technique we call Attunement originated with Lloyd Arthur Meeker, who wrote and taught under the name Uranda.  Records show that he began to share attunements in 1929.
 
Meeker had previously explored various spiritual teachings and, in his search for meaning and truth, he realized that it ultimately could only be known within oneself.
 
The Early Days
Around 1936, Meeker's correspondence course gave understanding to the early days of Attunement.  The treatments Uranda mentions in it (laying-on-of-hands applications) are very similar to treatments described in a correspondence course entitled Professor S.A. Weltmer's Mail Course of Instruction in Magnetic Healing, dated 1901.  There are a few differences here between the approaches, but it is evident Uranda had incorporated this type of material into his approach.  He stipulated the differences:
 
"This method of treatment by the use of the Life Essence is very different from the ordinary 'Magnetic Method' in that what is usually termed 'Magnetic Healing' depends upon the personal magnetism of the individual giving the treatment.  This form of treating depletes the vital energy of the person giving the treatment and will finally produce a state of nervous exhaustion which is difficult to overcome.  Also, the results of such treatment are usually temporary and as a rule do not permanently help the patient.  The Naacal System of Healing, through control of the Life Essence, is very different from the old method, in that the practitioner may be tired at the beginning of the treatment and be fully restored at the end of the treatment."
 
Here he is referring to the responsive, or "listening" mode of Attunement in contrast to the "willing" or "sending" method that was characteristic of much of the mesmerism and magnetic healing of the period.  Uranda does use the word directing in several instances, but it does not seem to be describing the projecting of "personal magnetism" as is so frequently mentioned by other authors.  So there was an aspect of willing in this earliest phase of Attunement but it seems conditioned by his inner listening attitude.
 
The Naacal Sage Influence
The Naacal System refers to "the ancient Naacal Sages, who were the Teacher-Priests of Lemuria, the Motherland of Man [who] gave the world the First Great Teaching."  The Naacal Sages are mentioned in Col. James Churchward's series of books on the lost continent of Mu, an ancient civilization that flourished in the Pacific before its destruction in a cataclysmic upheaval.  Uranda felt he was resurrecting the Naacal System of healing that had been lost because of "the selfishness of mankind."  He further stated:
 
"These wise Sages revealed the Laws of Life and all the fundamental principles of Being.  But the Carnal Mind of man has gone astray in fields of its own fancy and conceived false ideas that have buried these Laws and Principles under a mass of nonessentials and bound them about with myriad warped concepts.  This applies to the subject of this lesson, which is THE ART OF HEALING."
 
Developing Associated Elements
Meeker's system also incorporated breathing exercises to control the Life Essence.  These resembled yogic pranayama exercises and included such practices as alternate nostril breathing.  The Laws of Diet were something that needed to be harmonized with so that the body had the proper elements to be responsive to Life Essence in the form of Cosmic Rays.  He also recommended using the "herbs of the field" to eliminate body poisons, colonic flushes (enemas), prayer and meditation, and had developed a very effective technique for cleansing the liver through laying on of hands.
 
Overall the most important part of his teaching was entering into Oneness with the Master within.  This was known by being still and abiding in the Silence.  This practice of entering the Silence finds its counterparts in the biblical phrase: "Be still, and know that I am God," and the teachings of the Twenty-Third Psalm: "The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want..."  This phrase, "Entering the Silence," was not original with Uranda and can be found in the literature of the time.  How to Enter the Silence, by Helen Rhodes Wallace, was published in 1920, for instance.
 
The Master Within - Inner Knowing
It is likely that the healing and meditative practices described here, learned from books and practitioners, formed a beginning place for his healing philosophy.  He is quite clear in his writings about the differences between other teachings and what he was presenting. 
 
His work was inner-directed, under the inspiration of the Master within.  Books and teachers therefore had only a confirmational, or educational, role.  His whole purpose in presenting Steps to Mastership was to teach the Way of inner knowledge to those who were ready to accept it.  In this way the individual was not subject to the rule of authority or tradition.  He felt the Way of inner knowing was a way for each person to become free and acquainted with the Master Self within.  This Master Self knows what is true and what is not.
 
A Distinct Practice Developed
Attunement, then, is a distinct practice, and only parts of the technique bear any resemblance to magnetic healing and other techniques of esoteric healing of the past.  Attunement practitioners who have studied other energy techniques have found some similarities, but there is a unique body of technique and philosophy that can't be found anywhere else.  Therefore, Attunement can be considered a creation of Uranda and his associates.
 
Uranda had many influences in his personal growth and his own steps to mastership.  It is clear that he studied many philosophical and healing systems that were available to him through literature and various teachers.  Some of the teachings he probably encountered were New Thought, Theosophy, Spiritualism, Naturopathy, and a host of other esoteric and healing arts schools that were prevalent at the time. He only found partial solace in those teachings and felt there was more.
 
A Spiritual Revelation Experience
In the autumn of 1932, Lloyd Meeker had a spiritual revelation in which he became aware of the presence of his Higher Self.  This occurred over a three-day period; September 13, 14 and 15, 1932.  By constantly dwelling in this Presence, his deepest questions about life were answered.  Eventually he felt no separation from his Higher Self and became aware that he had another name - Uranda.
 
Teaching and travelling as Uranda, Meeker developed a spiritual ministry in the 1930s.  At that time he was in his mid-twenties and had developed study groups, classes, etc.  he wrote a number of articles for metaphysical magazines.  He naturally drew to him those in need of healing in body, mind, emotions and spirit.  The word irresistible has been used to describe him.  As word of his teaching and healing successes, spread, he was like a magnet in drawing people from all walks of life who sought his ministrations.
 
Uranda named his school "The Third Sacred School" and eventually incorporated as a church: the Emissaries of Divine Light.  He was primarily concerned with spiritual education, and the Attunement service was a natural extension of the process of harmonization with Source.  During this period his laying-on-of-hands treatments were temporarily superseded by his ministry.  Although he continued to offer healing treatments, his focus had shifted to classes and lectures.  There was simply not enough time to do everything.
 
Extending the Attunement Process
As early as 1932, Uranda had performed a number of "experiments" in healing that went beyond his initial treatments of 1929.  He found that by standing across the room from someone he could effectively share a treatment with them and the person could feel it if they were sensitive to life energy.  This was deemed a radiant release of the spirit of God through the life force, rather than a simple projection of healing energy.  He also experimented by holding his hands from one to six inches above the client's body.  At one memorable lecture in Pittsburgh in 1941, he shared an Attunement before an audience of a hundred people and demonstrated in front of a blackboard how the release of radiation through the hands could be visible to the human eye.
 
He eventually established a communal farm in Loveland, Colorado in 1945.  This farm's purpose was to create an atmosphere where spirit could more easily manifest and spiritual principles could be practiced.  This remarkable place, called Sunrise Ranch, is still in existence today and is one of the oldest spiritual communities in North America. 
 
Uranda died in a plane crash in 1954.  His thoughts on spiritual matters and Attunement are concisely expressed in his classic small book The Triune Ray, which he wrote in 1936.
 
The Evolution of the Attunement Technique
Attunement evolved out of Uranda's early work with the life force and his ability to communicate a life energy through his hands.  His concern was to take life force healing beyond therapy and the passing of "animal magnetism" to another person for the cure of symptoms.  This became more of a reality as he found a number of practitioners who were interested in something beyond physical healing.  He also moved away from the principles of "occult healing," characteristic of his time period, and emphasized the natural and universal qualities of Spirit as it finds focus in the human experience.
 
Attunement has never ceased to evolve.  It has never been a static system.  Uranda from the very beginning had a large bag of therapeutic strategies, but their use was conditioned by the impulse of Spirit as he sought to serve anyone who came before him at their highest level of need.  Because of this underscoring, Attunement has never been formulaic.
 
Using the Endocrine System
Uranda's first work was similar to magnetic healing and laying on of hands and included non-touch radiation under the inspiration of God.  Like many operators of the period, he focused on the spinal "centers," or nerve plexes, mostly through touch.  He discovered through personal experience that the endocrine system played a far more important role than the nervous system as a primary translator of invisible spirit into form.  He had revised his initial thinking on this subject since he, like other magnetic healers, presumed that the nerves were the principal carriers of the life force.  It appears he never worked with chakra healing, although he was quite aware of yoga and its many practices.
 
According to those who were present, Uranda taught the system we know as Attunement, including the endocrine system work and the vibrational reflexes and contact points, in the first Servers Training School in 1952.  He had fully developed these techniques, which he later taught in the classes, long before meeting the G.P.C. chiropractors in 1949.  The chiropractors were still focusing on the nervous system at the beginning.  They provided the response and interest.  Uranda certainly understood the polarity of the hands and use of contact points in his earliest efforts.  Sometime between the late 1930s and the late 1940s he began specifically working with the endocrine system.  At some point he had encountered foot reflexology and the idea of body reflexes relating to vibrational gateways.  We will probably never know for sure when these events took place and it is likely that they unfolded over a period of years.
 
Integrating and Going Beyond Technique
Uranda, as we have mentioned, placed more emphasis on the endocrine system and felt the endocrine system (positive) and nervous system (negative) were in polar relationship to each other.  Uranda also developed a way to work with the cerebrospinal fluid that parallels and was independent of the cranial osteopathy that was emerging in the 1940s and 1950s.  We can only wonder what Attunement might have looked like if the osteopathic profession had responded to Uranda rather than the chiropractors.  The same might be said in the case of acupuncture and oriental healing.  If those practices had existed in the West in his era, Uranda would have extrapolated and refined the essences present within them.  The aspects amenable to transmitting the divine light would have been emphasized beyond the technique and cultural milieu.  Uranda also did a lot of light-touch work with Attunement.  He felt he could work with greater numbers of people using a light contact than by working with his hands off the body.  Some of his associates worked in the same manner.  So there is a precedent for working both on and off the body with Attunement.
 
Teaching and Mentoring
It is clear that from the beginning Uranda saw that a major part of his ministry was the teaching of healing.  His vision of creating an intentional spiritual community included an organic farm and a healing sanitarium.  This would have been a school of sacred healing and a place people could go to be healed.  The healing school would reflect the further restoration of what he termed the Naacal System of Healing, a lost ancient art.  In 1940, for instance, he had the Third Sacred School organised into several groups.  This included different levels and groups of students, to some of whom he imparted higher teachings.  He also organised a specific group of people to work with and focalize healing in the Third Sacred School.  This evidently went by the wayside or never fully developed at the time.  But there is record of him beginning to teach healing to a group in about 1940.  It is likely the all-important matter of response was the reason this went no further. He also mentored individuals in the Attunement healing art.  After the appearance of Albert Ackerley on the scene and the initiation of the first Servers Training School, the cycle that had been put on hold in the late 1930s and 1940 reemerged.
 
Many of the people Uranda trained began to develop their own approaches to Attunement.  Albert Ackerley was a tireless experimenter and generated a number of new techniques.  The Millers began to work with radiation to the eyes.  George Shears developed a system of "Innate Analysis-Innate Adjustment" after he met Uranda and studied Attunement.  It was a type of Attunement that did not work with the endocrine system but, rather, focused on the nervous system.  This technique involved treating various reflexes in relation to the spine and the innate, or intuitive, sensing of vibrational patterns of imbalance.  It was non-touch work.  The beauty of this type of approach is that each individual receives exactly what they need rather than a formulaic treatment.  This alternative system of Attunement was never widely used.
 
Distance Attunement Development
Roger de Winton developed long-distance Attunement to a fine art during the late 1950s and throughout the 1960s.  Usually an Attunement server would contact Roger about a situation or person with health problems and get on Roger's "list."  The Attunement Server, and often others, would work with the person over a period of time.  Many, many people received remarkable healing in this way.  Roger also evolved his own unique style of Attunement and was in charge of the Attunement program for many years.
 
Personalizing Approaches
A number of personalized approaches have been created by individual Attunement practitioners over the decades.  These methods have arisen because of individual ability and particular sensitivity to aspects of the life force.  No two Attunement practitioners work in exactly the same way.  Once again, it is Spirit working through the individual consciousness of each person that shows the way.  Because of this fact, new techniques are appearing.  Some Attunement practitioners have integrated chakra work.  Others use stones, crystals, metals, feathers and other objects.  Some have integrated Attunement with music and sound healing and use tuning forks, instruments, toning and overtoning in their work.  New techniques have been developed to work with the immune system, lymphatics, circulatory system, hypothalamus and nervous system.  With these techniques comes the unique insight and integration afforded by working within the Attunement current.
 
In any consideration of technique we should always come back to the basics.  Uranda said:
 
"The force that is at work, then, through attunements is not something mysterious or difficult to understand.  It is not something that is a figment of fancy, because it can be definitely felt by those individuals who have trained perception, and it can also be felt by those who have a natural tendency toward perception with respect to the working of the life force.... But the results of the working of the force can be seen and recognized in any individual who allows himself to respond thereto.  It is not necessary that the individual be able to perceive the working of this force through feeling in order for it to be effective in relationship to his own state of life....The server does not at any time, under any circumstance, attempt to treat or heal the servee... The server recognizes that all healing must come from God."
 
Note: Profound thanks to Laurence Layne for this information which can be found in his book "Keepers of the Flame - A History of Attunement" Health Light Books 2008.