What is Reiki?

Reiki is an ancient healing technique, promoting your health by balancing the life force energy running through and around you. Since it approaches your vital “energy,” Reiki relates to the healing techniques generally called “energy medicine,” “energy healing,” or “energy work”. The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine classifies Reiki as Biofield Therapy, affecting the human energy field. This includes Therapeutic Touch, Healing Touch, Qigong, so on and so forth. Reiki is, perhaps, the most popular modality within this category in the U.S. Reiki could be considered as an alternative or a complementary remedy, but not legally authorized by governments.

Basic Features of Reiki

A Reiki therapist calls in a vital life force for healing, flowing into you through hands of the therapist. Such a vital energy is called variously among the traditional healing schools; “Chi” in Chinese, “Prana” in Sanskrit, or “Mana” in Hawaiian. All of these traditions commonly believe that a human is constantly receiving and returning the life force from and to the surrounding field, in order to sustain liveliness in cells, organs, and a whole system of the body. If there is any restriction in this energy flow, your body parts will be less nurtured energetically, thereby you become more vulnerable to illness. The energy flow is, in many cases, blocked by “tension,” which is often associated with emotional and mental issues such as anger, fear, loneliness, guilt, depression, resentment, etc. These are also correlated with physical diseases. Reiki is believed to be effective to reduce those blocks, and bring back the balance into the life force in its flow, its volume, and its vibration. When your energy system is normalized, it would eventually help to restore your inherent ability to maintain stability in your body.

Effectiveness of Reiki

Reiki works very profoundly toward your inner potentiality. Reiki initiates release in subconscious, unconscious, and much deeper spheres. Hence, emotional and mental relaxation is the most prominent effect of Reiki. Through the Reiki session, most recipients find themselves deeply relaxed, as if they awoke from the deepest sleep. They have often noticed a sense of inner peace and tranquility.

When the mind relaxes, the body begins to unwind. This has significantly positive effects on physiological processes in the body. In this sense, Reiki is more than a simple “relaxation” technique. There is an inseparable body-mind juncture. When emotionally or mentally strained, it alters blood flow and stagnation results in oxygen deprivation in various tissues, nerves and organs. Oxygen is a crucial substance for the normal function of cells. Oxygen starvation leads to various symptoms such as muscle aches, dizziness, fatigue, circulation problems, poor digestion, etc. When Reiki works toward the underlying cause of these physiological stagnations, it could lead to significant relief from those symptoms. Relief from chronic pain is a widely acknowledged effect of Reiki. The normalized physiological flow also contributes to releasing toxins out of the body.

Reiki could help to maintain internal stability, and to strengthen the immune system. Reiki could prevent infectious diseases like cold and flu. If one gets a cold or the flu, Reiki will aid to healing quickly.

Below are examples of the effects of Reiki commonly reported by Reiki therapists. Reiki possibly alleviates the following conditions:

• Physical Effects: pain (headache, muscle ache, arthritis, etc), digestive problems (diarrhea, constipation, anorexia, etc), body fatigue, wounds (shortening the healing period), asthma, etc.
• Emotional or Mental Effects: anxiety, depression, loneliness, sadness, etc.
• Spiritual Effects: heightening self-worth, releasing Karmic attachment, viewing the self and others positively, connecting to the Divine

As mentioned in the above, the potential effects of Reiki are enormous. However, Reiki may not always be the best energy frequency to alleviate your issues or illness. This is the problem in matching energy frequency. A certain issue or illness requires a specific frequency of energy to heal. When that requirement falls within the range of Reiki energy, the outcome will be significant. When it falls out of the range, the result will be moderate.

In order to make the Reiki session more effective, a Reiki therapist requests your voluntary commitment to release the issue. When your issue is resilient and stubborn, it is because, in many cases, you subconsciously or unconsciously perceive a benefit from it. Interestingly, your ego does not care whether your body is healthy or dying. Your ego concerns itself only about its own safety. When the ego feels safer by holding on to the illness, there is little room for a therapist to help. Thereby, each of the Reiki sessions requires your willingness to release the issue.

Safety of Reiki

Reiki is safe, because it is calling the life force energy that is innate for every human. Reiki approaches the innermost potentiality of a human to let the body heal itself. You can combine Reiki with any other treatments; for example with allopathic or homeopathic treatments, body therapies, counseling and psychological therapies. Any side effects or contraindications of Reiki have not been reported anywhere in the health care community. The potential risk with Reiki may be, however, on those who rely on electrical medical instruments like a pacemaker. Reiki may energetically affect such a device, if the hand placement is too close to it.

Although Reiki is safe, it should be noted that you may experience some kind of discomfort as a response to Reiki. Reiki is promoting “healing,” and it is not necessarily promoting “pleasure” or “comfort.” The healing process is sometimes associated with discomfort. For instance, you get a high temperature when being healed of cold. High temperatures are surely uncomfortable, but it is necessary for the body to fight against the virus of a cold. Like that, the healing process initiated by Reiki sometimes calls in a certain discomfort because it is necessary. For example, when a client with joint pain receives Reiki, the pain may be worsened momentarily, and then followed by significant relief. When you encounter such a discomfort after the Reiki session, please do not be panicked, and just let it go. If concerned, please consult with a Reiki therapist.

Procedure of Reiki Session

You will have a consultation before and after the treatment to discuss your issue, your concerns in receiving Reiki, etc. Through the treatment, what you need to do is just to get on the massage table, fully clothed, and to relax. Before getting on the table, you need to take off metals like jewelry and a watch that possibly affects energy flow. A therapist will touch various parts of your body (e.g., over eyes, shoulders, knees) very gently to transfer the energy. A therapist will not touch any part of your body that makes you uncomfortable. The treatment itself will take about an hour. Thus, the whole process will take approximately an hour and a half.

Brief History of Reiki

Reiki was developed by Mikao Usui (1865-1926) in the early twentieth century in Japan. It is said that he was struck by strong divine energy during his spiritual practice (fasting) at Mt. Kurama, Japan, in 1922. His experience could be called enlightenment. He instantly grasped how to activate that energy for healing and how to transfer its capability to others. He opened his clinic in Tokyo and served more than one hundred thousand people. Reiki waned in Japan after World War II, because most of his direct successors were naval officers.

Reiki in current Western societies is originated from Ms. Hawayo Takata (1900-1980), a second generation Japanese-American, who lived in Hawaii. She had suffered from numerous illnesses, including a tumor, gallstones, appendicitis, and asthma. She was miraculously healed with Reiki, receiving it in Japan. She began learning Reiki under Dr. Chuzabro Hayashi (1879-1941), who was a direct successor of Usui. She opened her clinic in Hawaii, and trained twenty-two Reiki Masters who gradually spread it all over the world. It is now estimated that there are more than five million Reiki practitioners worldwide.