“Reiki is love, Love is wholeness, Wholeness is Balance, Balance is well being, Well being is freedom from disease.”
– Dr. Mikao Usui
Sometimes people have a sense of fear, wariness, or mistrust about a wellness & healing practice they haven’t been familiar with, or they do not know or understand much about; especially if it is based on energy healing.
While skepticism or lack of faith is okay; and acceptable – to each his own; fear in something as gentle, as pure, as harmless as Reiki can be outright illogical, & ludicrous. Reiki is highly spiritual & pure. It flows only from God, nature, the source-whatever one may wish to call it, since it is a secular practice that is neither confined to any particular religion, nor bound by any dogma. It neither is, nor can be made or manipulated by humans.
There are those whose lives Reiki has touched irrevocably; commonly during times of deep physical or emotional distress & hopelessness, & who can not imagine how things would have been for them had they not received Reiki. But, there are also some who harbor, or spread misconceptions about Reiki without having truly interacted with it, or simply based on deep rooted biases, or some abstract notions like the myth that it can interfere with someone’s energies, or be ‘forced’ upon them etc. Such completely baseless thinking can only stem either from genuine ignorance of the very nature & meaning of Reiki, or from a willful intention to mislead. Nothing could be farther from the truth, & even the hint of such suggestions is surprising for those who have truly experienced the powerful benevolence of Reiki.
Reiki, as I also explain, under the ‘Reiki Healing section’ of my website, is simply pure universal divine energy. It is a combination of 2 Japanese words – ‘Rei‘ which refers to the higher universal intelligence and ‘Ki‘ which means the divine life force energy. It is pure spiritual energy. In Indian spirituality, it is generally understood as Prana; in Chinese, as Chi; and most people are certainly very aware of those terms! Reiki is omnipresent & infinite. It is the very basis of our existence & powers our very life breath! And, now imagine this energy from its source, being channeled into one as if through an IV tube!! What could be purer than, or work more for our purest good that that?! Reiki is even sent out for global peace!
Major ancient healing traditions which are making a huge comeback in modern times for their wisdom & due to the inability of modern medicine to provide personally empowering healing solutions, have always been based upon the existence & flow of this universal life energy. These include Ayurveda, & Chinese herbalism, & acupuncture. Pranayama or yogic breath control exercises are also based on the systematic regulation of this life flow or prana, for promoting our wellness.
Universal life energy flows inside us & around us at all times. Our ability to be whole is directly dependent on our ability to constantly tap into this infinite divine reservoir & draw from it. Often, during the course of us living our mortal lives, this ability gets compromised, affected, or weakened. The Reiki practitioner is just an instrument to help channel this life energy into you which is guided by your own self healing power! The energy that flows in abundance to one in a healing session is neither the receiver’s nor the sender’s personal energy. And since, as said, it flows from God, it is always in perfect harmony with our needs.
The beauty of Reiki is that it doesn’t need a diagnosis for it to flow. The beauty of it also is that it respects free will, & shall not flow to you unless you wish to accept it, which is often why many people who might be otherwise resistant to Reiki with their over analytical, calculating waking minds, have been seen to respond so well to it when they receive it while sleeping. Their sub conscious mind usually knows better & does very much wish to receive this healing energy! Reiki flows with perfect intelligence & wisdom exactly where it needs to flow on every level of you- physical, mental, emotional, & spiritual. It works exactly as it needs to. All the receiver needs to do is to be open to receiving it, & to trust that it always flows only for your highest good, whatever that be as per your individual karmic purpose & the need of your higher self. And, it can not be intended for, or directed for anything negative! It will simply NOT work for that intention! If someone claims to be using Reiki for that, then, simply put, that is not Reiki. Period.
A magnificent fact about Reiki is that it can be given hands on, or sent across any distance, whether a few inches away or across the globe from the receiver! Coming now to a very important understanding about Reiki; one can not control the outcome of receiving Reiki, which simply means that Reiki will flow the way it has to, for your highest good, even if that is in a manner you don’t find ideal or comfortable! Another way of explaining this is through an example. Say, you start receiving Reiki for emotional pain caused due to a relationship, with a partner, parent, offspring, anyone. The sense of pain, hurt, or bitterness associated with it might feel lighter OR actually intensify for a while, causing one to feel heavier! This, is to allow coming to the surface all that needs to be released for your healing. After a while, or with further sessions, the raw emotions might start becoming lighter & a new sense of balance, & peace might start being experienced. The healing shall eventually work for what it is truly needed for, at the core. However, how this healing happens is something that can neither be determined by the receiver or the practitioner. So, in this case, you might find that healing comes through either the relationship developing a new, higher, renewed level of understanding & trust, OR by it completely falling apart. In the latter case, healing will come to you through the realization & true acceptance of the fact that the relationship was in fact, blocking you, & is something you need to let go of for your own higher good & in order to allow the bigger & better plans the universe has for you to unfold.
Similarly, though varying degree of physical wellness/healing often accompanies Reiki, even when that was not something being directly sought, sometimes some physical issues might continue to remain totally unresolved. In this case, it is almost a given that the physical issue etc. is something that you truly have to go through & experience fully due to the nature of your personal life lessons. Reiki will respect this; as said, Reiki will not interfere with your soul purpose. But, even in this case, just by its flowing, it shall bring you healing in many different ways- greater acceptance; deeper spiritual insights into what you are facing, & what it wishes you to ‘see’ & learn from it; & greater sense of peace, & divine protection. And often, through Reiki, one might even be guided to other avenues of physical healing such as a different holistic modality that will work for you & that you were not aware of earlier; or a new medical specialist who’s more tuned in to your condition, or the perfect diagnosis/medicine/procedure that does wonders for you, & so on!
In fact, Reiki does not interfere with conventional treatment & works great when used along with it. It is not surprising that it has today, joyfully grabbed the attention of so many patients & caregivers that it has found its way inside many hospitals, across the world, especially for its marked ability to reduce post operative anxiety, & support greater post operative healing; pain relief in chronic illness; pre natal wellbeing etc. There are nurses, and even doctors who offer it to their patients within the clinical setting. New York- Presbyterian Hospital; The California Pacific Medical Center; Memorial Sloane Kettering Cancer Center; Cleveland Clinic; The John Hopkins Integrative Medicine & Digestive Center; Boston Children’s Hospital, Mayo Clinic are just some of the many top hospitals in United States alone, offering Reiki as part of an integrative approach to their patients.
“In 2014, The Washington Post stated that: “more than 60 U.S. hospitals have adopted Reiki as part of patient services, according to a UCLA study, and Reiki education is offered at 800 hospitals” – https://www.humanfrequencies.com/reiki-hospitals/
The golden key with Reiki is to always remember that whatever serves you & your highest good will strengthen through Reiki, whatever doesn’t, will fall apart. Usually a Reiki session brings deep relaxation, even sleep, but one should never try to analyze a Reiki session simply by what physical sensations one feels or doesn’t feel during it. Each individual can have an entirely different experience; from feeling a host of strong or subtle sensations to feeling nothing! But, through it all one shall find exactly the cleansing & healing that their higher self knows they need & deserve at that point.
So, when we set an intention to receive Reiki, we also need to surrender completely to its divine wisdom, & let go. Know that even in being guided towards Reiki & making a choice to embrace it, it is spiritual grace working…
(Suggested Additional Reading: An article on the increasing inclusion of Reiki in the clinical setting, in America)
“At hospitals and clinics across America, Reiki is beginning to gain acceptance as a meaningful and cost-effective way to improve patient care. Personal interviews conducted with medical professionals corroborate this view…”
Extract from: Reiki In Hospitals
by William Lee Rand, The International Center for Reiki Training
(Full article)- https://www.reiki.org/reikinews/reiki_in_hospitals.html
DISCLAIMER: This blog is based on the personal experiences/opinions of the author. Also, none of the information on this blog/website is intended for diagnostic, healing, or prescriptive purposes; or to replace the medical advise of your doctor.