Reiki is a healing modality popular amongst holistic practitioners and recently in the past few years has been taken more seriously in some practices in the UK with 'some' areas of the National Health Service (NHS) as well as many parts of the world. Its important to note that although studies have shown it is not an alternative to medicine, it can over time help. diminish diseases of the mind & body, or at least lessen the illness or problem.
It has also been used recently in many health care settings too, such as hospitals, care homes etc. Its purpose in these settings is to reduce anxiety, pain to help relax, relieve fatigue and easing depression.
Reiki is a hands-on healing modality, hands-on body healing or in person around the body. Otherwise known as laying-on-of-hands. It is to utilise the healing process within the energy body, such as the meridians & chakra system which are semi-physical energy centres and pathways which connect the energetic to the physical. This healing process then affects the physical body, by re-balancing the Qi/Chi and meridians energy flow within the body of the recipient.
The word Reiki comes from both Japanese and Chinese words.
Rei = the spiritual or supernatural
Ki = the vital energy or living force
Reiki “Rei-ki” is the energy directed to the receiver through the healer, not from the healer.
This vital energy is channelled through the healer and into the body of both the healer and the client to support the body’s natural healing ability, of the mind, body and spirit. With ancient roots, the practice of Reiki goes back hundreds of years, around the late 19th or 20th century. Made famous by the Buddhist Japanese monk - Mikao Usui. in the 1920s but emerged much far back in the late 1800s. Usui born in 1865 was a monk who had strong connections and interest in psychic abilities.
Usui renamed the practices in which he took methods and techniques from the Asian and Indian practices used in Eastern medicine, which states that disease in the body is caused by an imbalance of the vital energy in the body. Reiki helps to correct these imbalances and promotes healing. Reiki does not have any religious or doctrine principles and is accepted by people from all walks of life around the world. Usui taught more than two thousand people during his lifetime.
It is not the Reiki that heals, but it’s like a fine-tuning to the receiver’s body to heal itself once again. The term disease used to be spelt as dis-ease, an imbalance of the body.
It was by a practitioner of Usui’s Reiki by the name of Hawayo Takata that introduced Reiki and its practices to the west. Being half Japanese and American he had his connections in America. This was around the year 1937 which Usui taught Takata. There are 3 levels of Reiki.
Reiki 1 - Attunement for healing ourselves and others
Reiki 2 - Attunement for healing symbols to use in distant healing
Reiki 3 - Attunement for the master level to pass on the attunements to others.
Reiki was spread to America & Hawaii in the 1940s and then came to Europe in the 1980s.
There are many forms of Reiki but the one that Dr Mikao Usui and the most common he called Usui Shiki Ryoho.
Some say that Reiki works by balancing the electromagnetic field, allowing it to be grounded and allowing the energies of both the spiritual and magnetic, to merge and flow better. Although it is hard to prove if Reiki works, some research has used double-blinded placebo studies. Where purposely done Reiki sessions were performed without the intent or "giving" Reiki and others were. The ones have given Reiki where volunteers experienced much more benefit from areas of pain, anxiety and depression to be eased.
Reiki is energy medicine, which helps the flow of energy to remove blockages, in a very similar way to acupuncture or acupressure. People often feel a sense of relaxation, faster healing, reduced pain and other symptoms of illness.
Reiki is not meant to promise miracle healing, but to ease the pain or issue. There are however some amazing feedback and experiences people get from Reiki, but this is usually down to how well the client is able to receive the energy. For example, Reiki is not meant to heal the tumour within cancer, but it can lessen the risk of injury or further issues. However there are some instances where miracle healings can happen, like my previous teacher and healer, was able to fully heal a client with lung cancer. This took many months by many visits and eventually his client was physically sick, allowing the body to heal cancer and dispose of it by vomiting, allowing the body itself to heal and discard the illness. Another example was me in many experiences, where a lady had a problem with major cramps during sleep. When I placed my hands on her leg, her calf muscle started to twitch, this was a sign that the energies were taking place to allow the body to heal faster, which she slept very well after then. This wasn’t me healing her, this was her healing herself. I was merely just channelling the energy to allow the energies to flow.
According to the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Healing (NCCIH)
Reiki is used to support that natural healing ability to heal itself.
Reiki is a safe and gentle therapy, that through studies has seen healing activate the parasympathetic nervous system to heal the mind and body. Helps to reduce the heart rate and reduced blood pressure. Repeated sessions were shown to change the environmental demands and overall maintained a state of balance or homeostasis. This process primarily mediated by the parasympathetic nervous system via the vagus nerve. The vagus nerve playing a huge role in balancing the interactions of the brain and body, but regulating the health of inflammatory responses, glucose regulation and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal function and improving mood and quality of life.
There are also many other forms of Reiki and other healing modalities, such as Seichem. Unlike Reiki which uses a very warm energy, usually felt through the hands of the healer, such as myself, many people report very hot hands. This is the energy pulsing through me, with Seichem it is usually a cooler feeling from the hands and its roots come from Egypt. If you were to touch my hands with yours, you would feel a normal temperature. It is when the energy starts to go through the body, you would then feel the energy more subtle and building up.
Many people report my hands hot like a hot water bottle, and intense deep penetrating heat, warm and soothing.
1935 gives an account of an Japanese woman and in need of surgery, however listening to her instincts was healed by Reiki.
Some history of therapeutic touch, in 1971 Dolores Kriegar a nurse was taken back by an dying patient with a gallbladder condition, so Kriegar decided to try laying on of hands, passed down and taught to her by two psychic healers Dora Kunz and Oskar Estebany. With successful results, Kriegar started teaching this method to other nurses.
A 2010 study done by Friedman et al found that when nurses gave Reiki to 12 patients recovering from acute coronary syndrome, a disease involving the blockage of the coronary arteries, the vagus nerves became more active. Inducing a relaxation effect.
A study done in 2011 found that chemotherapy patients well-being were improved
A study in 2014 states that Reiki mainly helps aid with depression and anxiety
Reiki is used more often for aftercare and in acute settings for cancer support centres, alcohol & drug rehabilitation centres, and hospitals to aid after major surgical procedures. Reiki was found by one study in an Indian Hospital for 7 days which improved the vital signs of temperature, pulse, respiration, blood pressure and pain.
Other conditions that Reiki can be used to treat are:
- Cancer
- Heart Disease
- Anxiety
- Depression
- Chronic pain
- Infertility
- Autism
- Crohns disease
- Fatigue
Wardell and Engebrestson (2011) measured the biological effects of Reiki in ANS (the motor system for emotion and found that there was a significant reduction of anxiety and systolic blood pressure.
Although studies have been taken place, we know from experience that sometimes miraculous healing is often very random and spontaneous. Many studies have been done with smaller groups. Personally, for me I would like to see more studies done with Reiki and other forms of healing.
What can you expect to experience from a Reiki session?
Peoples experience is always different, it depends on the moment, and also more importantly what they are going through in that time. I have experienced people crying, laughing, sadness, feeling bliss, happiness. The list is endless. No one client is the same. What they usually feel, is very relaxed, much better, more mobile, if they have an issue with their shoulder, for example, they feel less tension, headaches subsided etc.
Laying on of hands can be different from many practitioners, usually, the laying of hands is lightly on and over areas of the head, torso, and limbs. Sometimes staying in one area for 5-10 minutes, sometimes alternating.
My teacher the late Bill Harrison (a spiritual healer in Wedmore, Somerset) taught me many things, one of them being that healing is like the flow of water when the plug from a bath is removed. While the bath is empty, wherever you pour the water, it will go to that place where there is the problem. Until you learn to locate the problem, you can just plug it and the healing will flow and fill you up.
To stop the flow of bleeding, he said to place your dominant hand first then your other hand on top of yours, over the wound. Although I have not yet tried this, there was much I learnt that I still remember.
Becoming a Reiki practitioner, like everything takes time and dedication, like me if you have a natural healing ability, it can enhance your energy body and allow for a greater understanding of healing in a professional way. Some adapt the practice with other tools such as crystals, sound healing etc.
My experience of using Reiki, during Reiki 1 attunements back in 2006. I was attuned and had to do 21 days of self-healing, then come back and report to my teacher. Day 1 - involved me going to my roundhouse, because it was raining I decided to light some candles and do the self-healing for 30mins. I remember blowing out all my candles, the next 19 days was beautiful weather. So I found a nearby oak tree during my care-work break, and sat under it and gave myself healing. On day 21 it rained, i found myself going back into my roundhouse, finding one candle still lit. I was shocked. I kept it lit, and on the last day in the roundhouse, I did self-healing and blew the candle out. After then I found that I understood the healing energies much better, and continued to practice and reached a master level in 2011.
Although there are many studies and accounts done on Reiki, and healing, you must have the experience yourself. Nothing is the best evidence than experiencing first-hand, always do your research by attending a local practitioner.
