Many of you will be familiar with Feng Shui, the Oriental art of placement, where you arrange your living environment to allow smooth flow of chi through your home, eliminating areas where chi will stagnate, and slowing down the speed of fast-rushing chi. So what has that to do with Reiki? Well they both deal with chi, but what I am really thinking of is applying the basic principles of Feng Shui to our practice of Reiki. This may seem a little strange, but please bear with me…

The basic principle of Feng Shui, the first thing you have to do before you do anything else, is to get rid of your clutter, because a cluttered environment leads to a cluttered life. Only once you have rid yourself of your unnecessary bits and pieces should you move in to apply the other more specific principles of placement. So could we de-clutter our practice of Reiki, what would that be like, and how could we achieve that? Is our Reiki cluttered now? How could we pare it down to the essentials and leave the unnecessary stuff behind?

We do seem to have a tendency in the West to make things endlessly complicated, almost on the basis that if it’s more complicated then it’s better. We like to introduce rules and regulations and restrictions and dogma, maybe because rules make us feel supported and safe, or maybe because we just can’t leave a simple thing alone! Yet the system that Usui Sensei taught to his surviving students wasn’t complicated. It wasn’t cluttered. It was simple and elegant and profound, and I think that we’ve drifted away from that in many ways. We’ve introduced rules and restrictions and dogma into many aspects of Reiki practice: connecting to the energy, treating someone, hand positions, distant healing methods, situations where you ‘should not treat’. This is all clutter and we can do without it. Freeing ourselves from this burden of technique and method and limitation would be a great and beneficial clear-out. We don’t need it. It holds us back. Let’s look at a few examples of unnecessary clutter…

A while ago I was contacted by a poor girl who had been taught that she needed to go through a fifteen-stage ritual in order to ‘connect’ to Reiki. She and the other students on the course were quite worried, obviously concerned that if they didn’t get all the stages right then the energy wouldn’t come through properly and their treatments would be ineffective. Naturally they wanted to do the very best they could for the people they were working on, and they were focusing hard on getting all the necessary stages right.

Yet ‘connection’ with Reiki is simply a state of mind; you connect when you intend to connect. Some people will hold their hands in a particular position (hands above them with palms uppermost to the sky, hands to the sides with palms face up, hands in the prayer position, hands in their lap with palms up, hands folded over the Dantien). Maybe they will say a set form of words, but all these are optional. Bring the energy through your crown to your Dantien and bathe in the light, flood the energy through your body, be still; you are connected when you intend to be. It is a matter of focus, a matter of where your attention lies.

Some people are taught that they must always keep one of their hands in contact with the recipient when they treat, based on the idea that if you take both hands off then you have lost your connection to the recipient and the energy will not flow properly. But your connection to the recipient is a state of mind too: you focus your attention on them, you merge with them and become one with them, and that is sufficient no matter what you are doing with your hands. In fact your treatment starts as soon as you are standing by the table with your attention directed towards the person. Your treatment has already started when you are scanning, or feeling the energy field. Reiki works just as well when you have your hands off the body, though Reiki is basically practised as a hands-on method.

Some Reiki people are taught rigid ‘standard’ hand positions that have to be used every time you treat, and there is the view that if you are not using ‘the’ hand positions then you haven’t been taught properly. Some even have a rigid time limit that has to be followed, so you can only keep your hands in each position for so many minutes… you can buy Reiki CDs which make a little ‘ping’ sound every three minutes (or whatever), and everyone changes hand positions like a robot. Yet what if your hands are going like crazy, what if there energy needs to flood into a particular area for a long time and you need to keep your hands there for 5 minutes or 10 minutes or 15 minutes? The answer would seem to be that you follow the system rigidly and ignore your hands. How sad.

Now standard hand positions are useful when you first learn Reiki: it’s reassuring to have some sort of system to follow. But we can move beyond those standard hand positions in a couple of ways. When we ‘scan’ the body we night discover areas that are drawing lots of Reiki, but they aren’t covered by the ‘standard’ hand positions… we can alter our hand positions accordingly, or add extra positions, to make sure we’re directing the energy into the areas that are drawing the most Reiki. We can use intuition, too, to control our hand positioning, and this has great benefits for the recipient because we are directing the energy into just the right combination of positions for each person we are working on. We might feel inexplicably ‘drawn’ to a particular area, we might just ‘know’ that we ought to be treating a particular area, or we might be practicing “Reiji Ho” from Japan, where our hands are drawn by ‘invisible magnets’ to the right areas to treat. Again we are leaving the rigid standard positions to one side and going with the flow. That was Usui’s way: there were no real standard positions. You simply put your hands where they wanted to go.

Distant healing is another area where lots of rules and regulations have crept in over time. Some people are taught quite complicated rituals that they have to carry out when they perform distant healing, with a set form of words that ‘have’ to be used in a particular way, and with various required visualisations. Yet the bare bones of distant healing are to know where the energy is to go – to set a firm intent – to use the distant healing symbol maybe, and to merge with the recipient, allowing the energy to flow. Anything beyond that is optional. People have different styles: some like to actively visualise and develop a detailed ritual, and that’s fine, but it’s not actually necessary. Others like to keep it simple, and that works just as well. Even the use of the distant healing symbol is optional, though it does help us to focus on merging with the recipient, a way of experiencing ‘oneness’ with the person you’re sending the energy to. Distant healing is perfectly possible at First Degree level, too: it’s simple a matter of intent, of focusing your attention in a particular way. The energy follows your thoughts, it follows your focus.

The final area where we could give our Reiki a big ‘clear out’ is in the rules and restrictions that can control who we should and should not treat. Some people are given a long list of ‘contraindications’: situations where you should not give Reiki because it might be dangerous. Some contraindications that I have come across include: pregnant women, babies, people with pacemakers, diabetics*, people undergoing an anaesthetic, people wearing contact lenses, people with cancer, people suffering from stress, people with broken bones, people taking homoeopathic remedies, people undergoing chemotherapy, people with a torn muscle. There will be many more examples taught in different lineages. These restrictions are nonsense, they have no basis: there is no proper evidence – even anecdotes – to back up the restrictions that are taught in some lineages. Reiki is safe, the person’s body draws it to the right areas to treat, and Reiki is seen as divinely inspired, intelligent, it is seen as pure unconditional love. That view hardly sits too well with the suggestion that you can hurt someone using Reiki. We think too much, we worry too much, and we create problems where there are none.

So a practice of Reiki that follows the first principle of Feng Shui will be a simple practice, free from rules, restrictions and self-imposed limitations. Feng Shui’d Reiki will be free from dogma, and free from rituals that you ‘must’ follow for Reiki to work effectively. It will be a practice that is based on simple intent and intuition, where you merge with the recipient, where you become one with them, and where you let the energy guide you. Let’s get rid of all that clutter and free up our practice, and just let the energy flow.



[ * There is some anecdotal evidence that some diabetics may experience a short term alteration in blood sugar levels following a Reiki treatment. They should be made aware of this possibility and monitor their sugar levels accordingly. However, this does not mean that you should not treat diabetics using Reiki, as is suggested in some quarters. It just means that diabetics should keep an eye on their blood sugar levels following a Reiki treatment or a course of Reiki treatments. They should be checking their blood sugar levels routinely in any case.]

How to position your hands when practicing Reiki in thisfree alternative medicine therapy video clip. Expert: Eileen Dey Contact: www.reikitrainingprogram.com Bio: Eileen Dey, MA is the founder/director of the only vocational school of Reiki that is licensed by the state of WA. Filmmaker: Daron Stetner

 

People end up on First Degree courses for many reasons and come from an amazing variety of backgrounds, all attending for their own personal reasons. Reiki courses in the UK present a whole variety of approaches, some “traditional” Western-style, some more Japanese in content, some wildly different and almost unrecognisable, some free and intuitive, others dogmatic and based on rules about what you should always do and not do. Reiki is taught in so many ways, and students will tend to imagine that the way that they were taught is the way that Reiki is taught and practised by most other Reiki people.

What I have tried to do in this article is to present a simple guide to the essence of First Degree: what it’s all about and what we should be doing and thinking about to get the most out of our experience of Reiki at this level. My words are addressed to anyone at First Degree level, or anyone who would like to review the essence of First Degree.

First Degree is all about connecting to the energy, learning to develop your sensitivity to the flow of energy, working on yourself to develop your ability as a channel and to enhance self-healing, and working on other people. There are many approaches to doing these things, and I wanted below to touch on each area and to dispel some myths that may have been passed on.

Connecting to the energy

On your Reiki course you will have received some attunements or some empowerments. Attunements are not standard rituals within the world of Reiki and take many forms, some simpler and some more complex. They have evolved and changed greatly during their journey from teacher to teacher in the West. There is no “right way” to carry out an attunement and the individual details of a ritual do not matter a great deal. They all work. Equally, there is no “correct” number of attunements that have to be carried out at First Degree level. The number four is quoted often as being the “correct” number but this has no basis in Reiki’s original form, and whether you receive one, two, three or four rituals on your course, that is fine.

On your course you may have received some “empowerments” rather than attunements, though these are less common. The word “empowerment”, or “Reiju empowerment”, refers to a connection ritual that has come to us from some Japanese sources, and is closer in essence to the empowerment that Mikao Usui conveyed to his students. Again, there is no correct number of empowerments that has to be carried out. One is enough but it is nice to do more.

What we experience when receiving an attunement or an empowerment will vary a lot. Some people have fireworks and bells and whistles and that’s nice for them; other people notice a lot less, very little, or even nothing, and that’s fine too. What we feel when we have an attunement is not a guide to how well it has worked for us. Attunements work, and sometimes we will have a strong experience, but it’s not compulsory! Whether we have noticed a lot, or very little, the attunement will have given us what we need.

Since in Mikao Usui’s system you would have received empowerments from him again and again, it would be nice if you could echo this practice by receiving further empowerments (or attunements) and perhaps these might be available at your teacher’s Reiki shares or get-togethers, if they hold them. But it is possible to receive distant Reiju empowerments and various teachers make them freely available as a regular ‘broadcast’. This is not essential, and your connection to Reiki once given does not fizzle out, but it would be a beneficial practice if you could receive regular empowerments from someone.

Developing your Sensitivity to the energy

People’s experience of energy when they first start working with Reiki can vary. Some people notice more than others, particularly in the early stages, and if we perhaps notice less going on in our hands when compared with another student on the course we can become disillusioned to an extent: that little voice in your head says “I know Reiki works for everyone… but it’s not going to work for me. I knew it wasn’t going to work for me”. Well if this describes your situation then I can say to you that Reiki will work for you, and is working for you, and the vast majority of Reiki people can feel the flow of energy through them in some way, though your particular ‘style’ of sensing the energy may not involve the more usual heat, fizzing, tingling, pulsing etc. that many people experience. There are a few Reiki Master/Teachers out there who feel absolutely nothing in their hands, but this is not common, and Reiki is still working for them.

Sensitivity to the flow of energy develops over time, with practice. Some people are lucky enough to be able to feel quite a lot in their hands and in their bodies to begin with, but others have to be patient, trust that Reiki is working for them, and perhaps focus more on the feedback that they receive from the people that they treat, rather than what they feel – or don’t feel – in their hands.

It would be worthwhile if all First Degree students spent some time regularly practising feeling energy: between your hands, around your cat or dog or your pot plant or a tree, around someone else’s head and shoulders, over someone’s supine body, noticing any differences in the sensation in your hands as you move your hands from one place to another. Don’t expect to experience a particular thing or a particular intensity of feeling. Be neutral and simply notice what experience you have and how that experience might change from one area to another.

On some First Degree courses this process will be taught as “scanning”, where you hover your hands over the recipient’s body, drift your hands from one place to another, and notice any areas which are drawing more energy. This can provide some useful information in terms of suggesting additional or alternative hand-positions to use when you treat, and can suggest areas where you are going to spend longer when you treat.

Working on yourself

It is vital that after going on a First Degree course you establish a regular routine of working on yourself in order to develop your fledgling ability as a channel and to obtain the benefits that Reiki can provide in terms of balancing your life and self-healing. Most people decide to learn Reiki because they are looking for some personal benefits as well as looking to help other people, and the way to get the most out of the Reiki system is to work on yourself regularly.

On your First Degree course you will have been taught a self-treatment method, perhaps a Japanese-style meditation but more likely the Western “hands-on” self-treatment method. You will most likely have been given a set of hand-positions to use, but please remember that these positions are not set in stone and, particularly if some of the hand positions are quite uncomfortable to use in practice, you will develop your own style. It is fine to change the hand positions based on what feels right from one self-treatment to another, and you should do what feels appropriate. There is no “correct” set of positions that you have to use, and each hand-position does not have to be held for a particular period of time. Treat for however long you have time for, and however long feels right for each hand-position you decide to use.

Many people are taught that they have to do a “21 day self-treat”, and some people have the impression that they then do not need to self-treat any more. The “21 day” period has no real basis, and I can say that you ought to be thinking in terms of working on yourself long-term. To gain the greatest benefits from this wonderful system you need to persevere and make working with energy a permanent feature of your life with Reiki, a basic background practice, the effects of which will build up cumulatively as you continue to work with the energy.

You may have been taught a series of energy exercises and meditations called “Hatsurei ho” which comes from Japanese Reiki, and I can commend this practice to you. It is a wonderful way of grounding, balancing, and enhancing you ability as a channel, and should be a regular part of your Reiki routine.

Treating other people

First Degree is also about starting to work on other people, a process which also benefits the giver, so plus points all round really! A few students may have been taught not to treat others at First Degree, or for a particular prescribed period, but this is an unnecessary restriction and Reiki can be shared with other people straight away.

There are many different approaches to treating others, and we should not get bogged down with too many rules and regulations about how we ‘must’ proceed. Reiki can be approached in quite a regimented way in some lineages, and students may worry that if they are not remembering all the stages that they ‘have’ to carry out then they will not be carrying out the treatment properly. This is an unnecessary worry because treating other people is simple.

So here is a simple approach that you can use: close your eyes, maybe put your hands in the prayer position, and take a few long deep breaths to calm you and still your mind. You should have in mind that the energy you will channel should be for the highest good of the recipient, but there is no particular form of words that you need to use when commencing your treatment. Now we are going to focus your attention on connecting to the energy. Imagine that energy is flooding down to you from above, flooding through your crown, through the centre of your body, down to your Dantien (an energy centre two fingerbreadths below your tummy button and 1/3rd of the way into your body). Imagine the energy building up and intensifying there. You are filling with energy. Now direct your attention towards the recipient and imagine that you are merging with them, becoming one with them. Feel compassion and enjoy the moment.

You may now begin your treatment, and maybe it would be nice to rest your hands on their shoulders for a while, to connect to them and to get the energy flowing. What hand positions you use will vary depending on what you were taught – there are many variations – and they are all variations on a theme, a way of firing the energy from lots of different directions to give it the best chance of getting to where it needs to go. Hand-positions for treating others are not set in stone and do not have to be followed slavishly. They are just there as a set of guidelines to follow to build your confidence when treating others, and with time and practice you will start to leave behind these basic instructions and gear any treatment towards the needs of the recipient on that occasion, perhaps based on what you picked up when you were ‘scanning’ and perhaps based on intuitive impressions, where you feel drawn to a particular area of the body. Don’t try and work out ‘why’ you have felt drawn to a particular area of the body: just accept your impression and go with it.

Reiki is basically a hands-on treatment method, though for reasons of comfort and propriety you will choose to hover your hands over the recipient in some areas rather than resting on the body. I do not plaster my hands over the recipient’s face or throat, for example, because I think that this is uncomfortable and unsettling for the person you are working on.

You do not have to hover your hands for every hand position, as some people are taught, and equally you do not have to keep at least one hand in physical contact with the recipient’s body at all times, for fear of ‘losing’ your connection: your connection to the recipient is a state of mind, and where your hands are is irrelevant!

As you treat, you should aim to feel yourself merging with the energy, becoming one with the energy, to imagine yourself disappearing into the energy, and this can give you a quite blissful experience. Your mind may wander, particularly in the early stages of your Reiki practice, but you do not need to worry about this. If you notice thoughts intruding, pay them no attention; let them drift on like clouds. If you make a big effort to try and get rid of your thoughts then you will have in your head the original thoughts and then all the new thoughts about getting rid of the first lot of thoughts… you have made things worse! Just bring your attention gently back to the recipient, to the energy, feel yourself disappearing into the energy, merging with the recipient, and let the energy flow; your treatment can become a wonderful meditation.

It is not acceptable to chat to other people while giving a Reiki treatment. If you want to be an effective channel for the energy then you need to direct your attention to the work at hand and make sure you are not unduly distracted. For this reason, conversation between yourself and the recipient should be restricted. Reiki works best of you are still and focused, merging with the energy, in a gentle meditative state. Developing this state takes practice and you can’t do it properly if you are chatting.

You do not need to stay for a particular set amount of time for each hand position. Though it would be probably be best to stay for a few minutes in each position, if in a particular hand position you feel a lot of energy coming through your hands then you can stay in that position for longer – sometimes a lot longer – until the sensation subsides and you can then move onto the next area. Your hands can guide you. Work from the head and shoulders, down the length of the body, and it is nice to finish with the ankles. Many people are taught to smooth down the energy field at the end of a session, and that is a nice thing to do, but remember that you do not have to follow any rituals slavishly, particularly in terms of any sort of ‘closing’ ritual; you do not need to touch the ground, you do not need to say a particular set of words, you do not need to visualise anything in particular, and you do not need to make any ‘set’ movements of your hands or body.

The Reiki Precepts

On your First Degree course you will have been introduced to the Reiki Precepts, or Reiki Principles, Mikao Usui’s “rules to live by’”. Just in case you have been given a slightly distorted version of the precepts, here is a more accurate translation:



The secret of inviting happiness through many blessings The spiritual medicine for all illness

For today only: Do not anger; Do not worry Be humble Be honest in your dealings with people Be compassionate to yourself and others

Do gassho every morning and evening

Keep in your mind and recite

The founder, Usui Mikao

Any reference to ‘honouring your elders, parents and teachers’ is a later addition to the list, and is not what Mikao Usui taught.

The precepts were the hub of the whole system, and it is said that as much spiritual development can come through following the precepts in your daily life as would come from any energy work, so they are important. If we can try to focus on living in the moment, not forever dwelling on the past or worrying about the future (fear is a distraction), if we can remind ourselves of the many blessings we have in our lives, if we can forgive ourselves for not being perfect and if we can see things from another’s point of view, if we can be compassionate towards ourselves as well as others, then we have gone a long way towards achieving a liberating sense of serenity and contentment. This is not something to be achieved overnight, of course: it is a work-in-progress.

Finally

Reiki has the potential to make an amazing, positive difference to you and the people around you. Remember that Reiki is simplicity itself, and by taking some steps to work on yourself regularly, and share Reiki with the people close to you, you are embarking on a very special journey.

How far you travel on that journey is governed by how many steps you take.

In our modern society people are increasingly taking their health into their own hands and making their own informed choices about what is best for them, rather than relying on Western medicine alone. The current trend for increased well-being is leading people to a mixture of Western and Eastern philosophies. We now more readily accept that physical conditions often have emotional causes, stress being one of the major factors in causing poor health. Reiki is a Japanese healing system that works on the body, mind and soul, creating a natural balance between all three.

Linking the Physical and Emotional

As Reiki healers we are trained to treat the person as a ‘whole’ meaning we look at the physical and emotional bodies and their interconnection.

We have seen through our healing work that certain events in people’s lives have often triggered their conditions. Major traumas in people’s lives will generally manifest as a physical illness eventually. Even seemingly inconsequential events will accumulate over time to create a physical problem. Ailments such as lower back pain, arthritis, stomach disorders (Crohn’s, Celiac, gut permeability etc) can be aggravated and in some cases caused by emotional trauma and stress.

The Main Offender – Stress

Recognising Stress

If you are experiencing any of the symptoms below you may be suffering from the effects of stress: trouble sleeping, headaches, constipation, diarrhoea, irritability, lack of energy, lack of concentration, poor appetite or over eating, anger, sadness, higher risk of asthma and arthritis flare-ups, stomach cramping and bloating, skin problems, depression, weight gain or loss, heart problems, high blood pressure, irritable bowel syndrome, diabetes, neck and/or back pain, decrease in sexual desire.

Causes of Stress

Stress begins from the moment you are born when you are first separated from your mother. You become stressed when are you are hungry, need changing, need a hug etc. As you grow up your interactions with other people cause you stress such as: gaining parents and peers approval, succeeding at school, forming relationships, relationship breakdowns, working, not working, commuting, environmental factors (external toxins, tobacco, pollution, alcohol, food), hormonal factors, exams, driving, shopping, having children, losing loved ones, moving house, money and lack of, to mention but a few! Stress attacks us from every direction, everyday, whether we recognise it or not. In some areas stress is perceived as being a positive attribute but in reality you are subjecting your entire body to a chemical attack, creating an imbalance in your normal healthy bodily functions. It is no wonder that so many of us are plagued with so many different illnesses. Any form of change or even imagined change is stressful.

We generally tend to live fast paced lives with ever increasing financial demands. We are brought up to be ambitious and high achievers, focusing on our careers and acquiring material possessions as the answer to our problems. We associate the accumulation of goods with success and well-being. We are always striving for a bigger house, better job, faster car, bigger TV and other status symbols that demonstrate our life’s achievements. We all feel the effects of the pressure and stress we put ourselves under. Many believe that by simply joining a gym or doing a few aerobics classes, they are balancing their physical and emotional needs. To create a balance we need to spend as much time and energy focusing on our emotional needs as we do on our physical needs.

Health and vitality is not about a few token gestures like joining a class or following faddy diets it is a life style issue. Every aspect of your life needs to be considered from your diet to the way you perform every task in your daily life and your interactions with people and circumstances. Everything you do needs to be with conscious awareness of the consequences on yourself and those around you.

“If man’s vitality and energy do not propel his own will, his disease cannot be cured’ (Yellow Emperors Classic of Internal Medicine). To achieve health and well -being requires you taking a pro-active approach the same as in any work environment. If you are not prepared to take the necessary steps then it is your health that will suffer.

It is important to look for the signs indicating that your health is waning and seek guidance as early as possible; “Coming to see a doctor when you are very sick is like waiting until you are thirsty to dig a well”. (Master Kwan, The Healing Art of Qi Gong, Master Hong Liu, 1997). Remember prevention is better than cure.

Methods For the Body, Mind and Soul

Breathe Deeply

Breathing is the essence of life. When you breathe in slowly and deeply you take in large amounts of oxygen from the environment. This oxygen is taken into your circulation where it binds to red blood cells. This oxygen then provides the “fuel” to produce energy. By exhaling fully you expel as much carbon dioxide and waste products as possible. Breathing is something we take for granted but this does not mean that we are doing it in the most efficient way.

Most of us use only 10-20% of our full breathing capacity. This leaves us lacking in energy as we accumulate more and more toxins in our body. Emotional distress causes our breathing to become increasingly erratic and shallow. Breathing in this way can cause many detrimental physiological reactions such as the accumulation of waste products like carbon dioxide and lactic acid in the body.

Breathing slowly and deeply can cause many positive reactions within the body. If you slow your breathing down to eight breaths a minute it induces a meditative state, six breaths per minute stimulates your pituitary gland (which boosts the endocrine system influencing almost every cell, organ and function of our bodies), four breaths per minute stimulates the pineal gland (which helps to regulate your sleeping pattern through the release of melatonin).

You Are What You Eat

It is important to have a nutritionally balanced healthy diet suited to individual needs. Symptoms such as excessive hunger can be caused by the body screaming out for nutrients, which it is not receiving. Western dieting techniques often focus on lowering cholesterol and weight loss whereas Eastern diets often focus on nourishing the organs to foster better physical and emotional health.

We all too often associate thin as being healthy but what is more important is that your body is obtaining the correct nutrients and is the right weight for you. Someone who has an apparently healthy and fit body may not necessarily have healthy organs. Too much emphasis is placed on physical appearance as an indicator of people’s success, health and well being, even if this is achieved through pain and damage to the body’s vital organs.

Be Yourself, By Yourself

Everybody needs time to themselves, away from the pressures of work, family and friends. Having quiet time by yourself creates a stillness of mind and body and establishes a healthy detachment from your everyday existence. This enables you to give yourself the respect and consideration you and all of us deserve and allows you to think in a more clear and focused way. If you find you are unable to spend quiet time with yourself without any distractions then it is very probable that you need emotional healing.

It is important to incorporate into your daily regime methods which help you to relax and encourage your body to activate it’s own healing responses. There are many sorts of classes you can participate in (Yoga, Tai Chi, Qi Gong) that foster the individuals ability to self heal and consider their health, as well as direct healing methods such as Reiki.

The best way to maintain good health is to integrate into your life a regime that clears energy blockages and allows life force energy (universal energy and internal energy) to flow freely throughout your body. This nourishes your organs, muscles and joints as well as healing emotional traumas and giving you greater clarity of thought and insight. This enables you to lead a healthier life. By making these kind of lifestyle decisions you are empowering yourself by taking responsibility for your own well-being. We need to take responsibility for our actions before we can ever truly be happy and healed.

How Reiki Can Help You

Reiki is a form of non-intrusive energy healing originating in Japan. Reiki is used widely around the world and is offered in some hospitals in the US and the UK. Naturally occurring electromagnetic energy (universal energy) is channelled by an ‘attuned’ practitioner into the patient at the frequency of the condition being treated. The practitioner acts purely as a channel for the energy but in an active way using visualisation, intention and sacred Reiki symbols. Reiki can be used to treat yourself as well as others. Many people learn to use Reiki purely for their own self-development.

Reiki can be learned by anybody and everybody. It is not as is often claimed limited to those with a ‘spiritual’ or ‘healing’ gift. The only pre-requisite is an open mind and desire to learn how to help yourself and others. Students are attuned using a traditional method passed down from the original founder of Reiki, Mikao Usui. It cannot be learned from a book or by distance learning. The interaction between the teacher and the student is an integral part of becoming a Reiki practitioner.

What Are The Benefits of Reiki?

Reiki induces profound relaxation / meditative state which allows the patient to detach from their everyday existence and look in objectively on their lives, providing them with the sort of clarity needed to make positive, healthy decisions about their life.

Everyone picks up emotional trauma throughout their life whether they recognise it or not. Reiki heals the pain associated with past emotional traumas, which frees the patient from the constraints placed on their life by past events (e.g. bereavement, bullying, lack of parental affection etc).

Reiki also helps physical conditions by clearing energetic blockages to allow the body to self heal and by working directly on the condition using the frequency of energy required for that condition. It can be used to treat any condition but a clinical diagnosis is required. Some of the problems we have used Reiki to treat are: sports injuries, back pain, muscle damage, broken bones, allergies, addictions, cancer.

What Happens During a Reiki Treatment?

The patient lays fully clothed on a treatment couch with their eyes closed. The practitioner places their hands in various positions above the patient’s body.

Experiences of Reiki are individual but many people often comment of feeling at the very least intense relaxation, clarity and serenity. For others Reiki is a life-changing event. The treatment can last between 45 minutes and 2 hours depending on individual needs.

If You Want to Learn Reiki

Anybody can learn Reiki. It is a simple form of energy healing that requires no specific spiritual or religious beliefs. Reiki is for everyone and be wary of anybody who tells you otherwise. Ensure that the Reiki teacher belongs to an accredited association and teaches an accredited course.

Be careful of websites that offer distant attunements and treatments. These qualifications will not be recognised and you cannot guarantee the sort of treatment you will be getting. Make sure you go to a teacher who offers a certified course and gives post course support for free.

© Copyright Andrew Chrysostomou and Dawn Mellowship 2004.

In this article I thought I would set down ten things that you can do – ten principles to take account of – to benefit your practice of Reiki. This is not something that has come from Japan, or from early practitioners of Reiki: it is just something that I have put together myself. I hope that this article will be of interest to people at all Reiki levels.————————————————–(1) Reiki is all about you————————————————–Although Reiki is sometimes presented in the West as a sort of complementary therapy, a hands-on treatment technique, or a form of Japanese spiritual healing, that is not what Reiki is all about. If your practice of Reiki consists mainly of treating other people then you are missing the point because Reiki is all about you! Reiki is a personal practice for your self-healing and your spiritual and self-development. You are the priority here.In Usui’s time the treatment of others was not focused upon or emphasised, in fact treatments were a bit of a distraction from the main thrust of his teachings, which Usui Sensei referred to as a “system to achieve personal perfection”. Right from the start, the system was about personal development, not working on others.So to gain the greatest benefits for yourself through Reiki, you need to establish a decent routine of working on yourself in whatever way that you were taught. If you were taught Western-style then do your hands-on self-treatment regularly, if you know about Japanese-style Reiki then practise your Hatsurei ho; if you know about Usui Sensei’s original system then add his self-treatment meditation to your regular Hatsurei.I know that some people seem to have the view that working on yourself is in some way ‘selfish’, but if you cannot look after yourself properly then how can you help other people? By working on yourself regularly you make yourself a better channel and more effective at what you do in terms of treatments, so there are plus points all round for those who make themselves their Reiki priority.————————————————–(2) Base your practice on the precepts————————————————–Usui Sensei established a simple spiritual system that was rooted in his precepts, his ‘rules to live by’. Rather than being an interesting set of instructions to read on a course and put to one side, Usui’s precepts are at the very heart of his system, and it was said that as much spiritual development could come through following the precepts as would come through doing any of the energy work. If we are consider ourselves as ‘practising Reiki’ then we will follow the precepts.So we need to think deeply about the precepts and how they affect our lives. We need to consider each precept in turn and reflect on how that precept might impinge upon and guide our thoughts and behaviour and relationships and priorities. And we need to do this regularly, using the precepts as an ongoing source of guidance, the effects of which will make a real difference to us, and the people around us, over time.The precepts are something that you we drip-feed into our lives, something that we refer to regularly and reflect on regularly, for our own benefit and for the benefit of the people with whom we come into contact.————————————————–(3) Practise mindfulness————————————————–Although not referred to on most Reiki courses, the practise of mindfulness was as important part of Usui Sensei’s system as were the precepts, and in fact mindfulness is hidden in the precepts! Mindfulness is a form of meditation that one can perform at any time, when carrying out ordinary, mundane activities like walking somewhere or washing dishes or sipping tea, and involves becoming consciously and fully aware of your thoughts and actions in the present moment, non-judgmentally, existing in the moment.When you are living ‘in the moment’, fully engaged in what you are doing, fully aware of the present moment, then you are existing in a state where there is no anger and there is no worry. By not dwelling on the past or speculating about the future, by embracing fully the present moment, you are living the precepts, and mindfulness brings with it humility, honesty, compassion and forgiveness.So mindfulness is a way of experiencing Mikao Usui’s spiritual principles.————————————————–(4) Work on yourself daily————————————————–Reiki isn’t something that you can pick up once in a while, play around with for a bit, and then drop again… not if you are looking to receive the many benefits that are available from the system, anyway. If you are looking for consistent benefits then you need a consistent practice. The precepts say “just for today”, and that is a good starting point: just do something with Reiki today. You can manage that. It doesn’t have to be hours and hour’s worth. Just do something for 10 minutes: you have ten minutes. Do something for 20 minutes. And if you don’t have ten minutes, get up 10 minutes earlier: problem solved.Don’t worry about what you will do tomorrow: just focus on today.When tomorrow comes, do the same. Just do something with Reiki, even for ten minutes. Don’t worry about tomorrow: just do something today.————————————————–(5) Commitment is the key————————————————–There are spectacular benefits to be enjoyed through practising Reiki, and all you need to do is to work with the energy consistently, focus on the precepts and practise mindfulness. The benefits build up cumulatively, you see, and sporadic and occasional practice isn’t enough if you want the very best out of your Reiki. You will get out of the system what you are prepared to put into it, so Reiki deserves a little of your time each day. You need to plug away at a few simple things, a few simple exercises or routines, and make them a regular part of your day, as regular a part of your routine as brushing your teeth or your hair.And once you have established a regular habit of working on yourself with Reiki then you will find that it is difficult to stop: you will find that you really miss your hatsurei session or your self-treatment if you miss a day. That is the sort of position you are looking to get yourself into and by committing yourself to working with Reiki each day, even if it is a little inconvenient, you will reach that point.————————————————–(6) Don’t try too hard————————————————–While we do need to commit ourselves and establish a decent routine of working on ourselves in order to obtain the many benefits that are available to us through Reiki, we should at the same time make sure that we do not try too hard, work for too long, or take our practice too seriously. Reiki is best enjoyed in a gentle, laid-back and light-hearted fashion rather than in a fists-clenched, furrowed-brow, tense, ‘ready for a lot of hard work’ sort of way. We do not force Reiki and we do not force a fierce practice on ourselves.Reiki is rather like a flowing stream of water, and we are a rough rock sitting in that stream. The rock will become smooth, of course, but this will be achieved gently, through having the water flow consistently, and this will be done in its own time.We might read about some of the experiences that other Reiki people might have when working on themselves, or receiving attunements/empowerments, or treating others (seeing colours, feeling particular things) and we may not notice all these things ourselves; we may notice very little. We may then think that if only we tried a bit harder then we would notice these things and then we would then be ‘doing it properly’.But trying hard and trying to force things is the best way there is to put a great big block on your progress. You will progress fastest when you give up trying and just be. Stand aside (metaphorically), do the exercises, treat people, and don’t think or worry about what you do or do not experience. Be a bystander, be neutral and empty, have no expectations. That is the best approach, the approach that will lead you to progress at the right speed for you.————————————————–(7) You don’t need to be perfect————————————————–Along with the need to be relaxed and laid-back and light-hearted about your practice, you should also make sure that you are not beating yourself up for not being perfect! You do not have to be perfect in order to obtain benefits for yourself through Reiki, or to treat other people successfully. No-one else is perfect, so you don’t have to be either.So perhaps your mind wanders when you do a treatment or work on yourself. So what? This happens to everybody else. Don’t worry about it (there is something in the precepts about worrying). It you make a big thing about it and try through ‘force of will’ to have an empty mind, you have just made things worse: now you have two lots of thoughts… the first thoughts and then all the new thoughts about getting rid of the first lot of thoughts! Don’t worry. Pay the thoughts no attention. Let them go. Bring your attention gently back to what you were doing. Feel the energy flowing through you; imagine yourself merging with the person on the treatment table. Over time your mind will settle, and you’ll spend more of your time in a nice empty meditative state, but thoughts may well intrude again, and some days will probably be better than others. That’s ok. You’re human. It will sort itself out with time.————————————————–(8) Don’t keep trying to puzzle out ‘why’————————————————–To get the best out of your Reiki I recommend that you don’t spend too much time trying to puzzle out why you are – or are not – experiencing a particular thing. Don’t keep trying to work out what a particular colour that you or the recipient saw during a treatment means, or ponder the significance of a colour that you saw when self-treating. Don’t keep wondering what a particular sensation in your hand means or why you felt a lot of energy flowing into a particular area of someone’s body, or why you didn’t feel any energy flowing into a particular place. It doesn’t matter.Your head can really mess up your experience of Reiki if you keep on frantically thinking about, analysing and questioning things. Don’t think! Just be. Empty your mind, merge with the energy, if you are treating someone then merge with the recipient, and let it happen. Follow the flow of energy when you are treating, yes, and allow your hands to stay for longer in areas where more energy is coming through, but don’t start frantically trying to puzzle out what is going on: Reiki works on lots of levels and you won’t know what’s happening so you may as well give up thinking about it and let go: enjoy the process, enjoy your treatments and give up the mental effort! It makes it so much easier that way!————————————————–(9) Trust your intuition————————————————–Along with not questioning everything that you feel or don’t feel, you should also not keep on doubting the things that you are feeling and noticing. If you feel something, you feel it: you are not making it up. You cannot make yourself feel something.So if you notice that energy is flowing into you more strongly in a particular area when you are self-treating, accept that and go with it, self-treating for longer there than in other positions. The same applies when treating someone else: if you feel that there is a ‘hot spot’ or ‘fizzy area’ then accept the sensations and treat for longer there. You are not making it up.Neither are you making it up if you feel strangely drawn to a particular area of the body. You are intuitive and you can work intuitively straight away. All you need to do is to stop second-guessing and doubting yourself, be still, and simply accept what comes to you. It doesn’t need to make sense. Don’t try and puzzle it out: just accept it and treat in the way that feels appropriate.————————————————–(10) Ignore silly rules and restrictions————————————————–While we are making sure that we are not cluttering our practice with endless thoughts, questions and doubts, we should also thrown out as unnecessary the various rules, regulations and restrictions that we may have been taught. Reiki does not need to be controlled, blunted and restricted by man-made rules that have no basis. Reiki is safe and Reiki is simple, and simple approaches are usually the most effective.So we do not have to slavishly follow a prescribed set of hand positions when treating ourselves or other people and we do not need to say a set form of words for our Reiki to work. We do not need to follow ritualised sets of hand and body movements in a particular sequence to be able to treat someone and we do not need to refrain from treating people with various medical conditions. Reiki is safe and Reiki is adaptable. It allows many different ways of working that are all valid. There is no ‘one’ way that Reiki has to be used, and we should ignore admonitions that we should ‘always’, or ‘never’, do a particular thing.So, to get the most out of your Reiki, I recommend that you make a commitment to yourself to work on yourself each day as your top priority, but not beating yourself up if you miss the occasional day. Use Hatsurei ho and self-treat, focus on the precepts and drip-feed mindfulness into more and more of your daily activities. Don’t try too hard though: be light-hearted and forgiving towards yourself because you don’t have to be perfect. Try not to clutter your mind with lots of thoughts and doubts and questions: just be neutral, have no expectations, be empty and content. And make sure you keep it simple.

 

Depending on whom you trained with, you may have been given quite a long list of ‘situations where you should not use Reiki’. It seems that the only restriction that Mrs Takata taught was that you should not treat a broken bone with Reiki, but many other restrictions have been added in later on in Reiki’s Western history. I thought I would spend a little time talking about these ‘Reiki contraindications’.

Firstly, I would like to talk about the ‘broken bone’ restriction. This is made on the basis that Reiki accelerates the healing process, so you do not want Reiki to set the bone before it has been put back in the right position. Now while Reiki is an amazing energy, and has done some wonderful and breathtaking things, I think most people’s experience is that Reiki gently supports the body’s natural healing ability, and that while it may accelerate the healing process, the effects of Reiki generally build up cumulatively. I do not believe that Reiki will set someone’s bone like fast-acting Polyfilla, so that they will have to have the bone re-broken and re-set when they get to Casualty a few hours later. Breaking a bone is a shocking and painful experience (I know this from first hand experience!) and Reiki could make a real difference to someone, so I would not hold back from giving it, and I would not hold back from treating the area where the bone is broken. Suggesting that you could Reiki someone, but keep well away from the broken bone, does not stop Reiki from rushing to where it is needed (the bone), and why would we imagine that what many people see as a spiritually-guided life-force energy would mess things up for a person. Reiki is supposed to be intelligent.

Another situation where some people are taught that you ‘should not treat’ is when a client has a pacemaker. This restriction is made on the basis that Reiki energy is electromagnetic in nature, and will interfere with the proper functioning of the device. Confusingly, some say that this restriction only applies to analogue pacemakers, not the newer digital ones. There seems to be no evidence whatsoever to indicate that Reiki would cause a problem in this area, and I have not heard on a single anecdote where a Reiki practitioner treated someone with a pacemaker and the treatment caused problems. I am also not aware of any evidence to show that Reiki is electromagnetic in nature, either. If it was, you could measure Reiki easily: move your hand over a wire and you would induce an electric current, which you could pick up with a voltmeter. Some have suggested that you can solve this ‘problem’ by keeping away from the heart area, but we all know that Reiki rushes from where we put it to where it is needed. I would have thought that a person with a pacemaker needed more Reiki in the heart area, not less, and if Reiki is drawn to the areas of need then it is going to go where it wants anyway. The only solution would be not to treat someone with a pacemaker, which I think is ridiculous. Some have suggested that you should not attune someone with a pacemaker, and again I do not think that this is sensible. I am not going to restrict my practice of Reiki on the basis of unfounded supposition.

With nearly all the restrictions that are put on Reiki, there seems to be no evidence to back up any of them. I am not talking about double blind clinical trials here, but even simple anecdotes where a practitioner has treated someone and found that there is a problem that can be reasonably attributed to the treatment that has been given. I have heard that you should not treat insulin-dependent Diabetics, or people taking steroids for adrenal insufficiency. Those restrictions have been made on the basis that if Reiki produces an instant cure then the patient’s next dose of insulin, or steroids, will kill them. Again, while Reiki is a wonderful healing force, it is not my belief that Reiki is likely to cure diabetes, for example, at the click of a finger. Most people’s experience is that the effects of Reiki build up cumulatively and that if a condition has taken a long time to develop, then it is not so likely to disappear straight away. Yes, a diabetic patient’s blood glucose levels may vary after a Reiki treatment, but diabetics’ blood sugar levels vary a great deal anyway. That is why they have to keep on sticking themselves with a pin to monitor their levels, and you could only attribute this variation to Reiki if it happened consistently after treatments and their blood sugar levels were stable the rest of the time.

Having said that, there does seem to be some anecdotal evidence that Reiki treatments can sometimes cause the client’s blood sugar levels to alter after a treatment. This does not mean that you should not treat diabetics: it means that you need to keep this in mind and mention this possibility to the client, so that they can monitor their blood sugar levels accordingly.

I have heard that you should not send distant Reiki to someone who is driving a car, because they will fall asleep, and you should not send distant Reiki to someone who is under an anaesthetic, because it will make them wake up… well, which is it? This doesn’t sound like an intelligent energy to me, and there seems to be a lot of fear, and a lack of trust in the energy, underlying all these restrictions. So where is the evidence that Reiki wakes people up during surgery? Where is even one anecdote where it was clear that Reiki, rather than any other cause, led to this happening? Look for the evidence, and you find that these scare stories have no foundation.

In fact, the restrictions do not stop there. There are many more taught in different lineages. For example, you should not treat people with cancer, you should not treat people who are pregnant, you should not treat people who are depressed or who have asthma, you should not treat people who are stressed, you should not treat young children, you should not treat animals, you should not treat people who are taking homoeopathic remedies, you should not treat people who are taking medicines, you should not treat people wearing green trousers (sorry, I made that one up!).

Let’s just examine two of these. It is said by some teachers that you should not treat people who have cancer because Reiki will “feed the cancer”; there is a variation on this myth, actually, where people are taught that they should not use one of the Reiki symbols because it will “put energy into the cancer”. Let’s think rationally about this for just a second: we have cancer cells inside us all of the time and as you sit reading this, there are cancer cells in you. Your cells go haywire all the time and your immune system detects the errors and kills the cells. But if you adhere to this Reiki contraindication then you should not treat anyone at all because Reiki feeds cancer cells, and everyone has cancer cells in them, so we can’t treat people, or animals, we can’t treat ourselves, and being attuned would be a death sentence!

And if we can’t treat pregnant women then we really need to refrain from treating any women of childbearing age because of course women can be in the early stages of pregnancy and not know about it, or be pregnant and not know about it. And then of course all women of childbearing age should refrain from self-treating, and should not go on Reiki courses.



People do not think things through



I believe that Reiki is a beautiful healing energy that supports the body’s natural healing ability, and brings things into balance on all levels. It either has an innate intelligence, and knows where to go to an extent, or it is the body that is intelligent and draws the energy to where it is needed. In either case, Reiki is not going to mess up a person and leave them less well off than they were before they started, other than a temporary intensification of symptoms. Examples of these would be an emotional release or strong emotions felt for a few days after being treated, or joint pains getting worse during a treatment and then improving subsequently.

The last set of restrictions that I have heard about concern distant healing, where it is said in some quarters that you should not send Reiki to people who have not asked for or given their permission. Some people say that it is totally unethical to send distant Reiki to someone without obtaining their agreement and that it a gross intrusion. I do not agree with this, for a number of reasons:

1. Firstly, I see sending distant Reiki as rather like sending concentrated prayer. When you pray for someone you are asking for Divine intervention in another person’s life, in whatever way is right for that person according to Divine will. You are asking for things to change for the better. When you send Reiki you are sending it with loving intent and for the person’s highest good, so it is in line with that person’s destiny or karma, and many people see Reiki energy as having Divine origins. You do not ring someone up to ask their permission to pray for them, so why should if be different with Reiki?

2. If someone were knocked over by a car a few yards away from you, would you really not send Reiki to them because you couldn’t drag them into the seated position to sign a consent form? No. You would send Reiki to their highest good and let the energy do what is appropriate for them. You offer the energy: you do not force the recipient to receive it.

3. Reiki is a beautiful healing energy that brings things into balance on all levels and does not mess people up, leaving them worse off than they were to begin with. With distant healing your intent is that the energy works for the highest good of the recipient, so if it is not appropriate for that person to get the benefit of the energy then it simply will not work. You are not imposing your will and you are not imposing your preferred solution on the situation. You are simply sending love, offering the energy, making the energy available, not forcing it to be received.

For these reasons, I have no problem in sending Reiki to people who have not specifically requested it. I send the energy with the intention that it be received by the recipient at whatever time is appropriate for them. I do not see that there are any other restrictions that need to be applied to the energy, or the practice of Reiki. In the West we think too much, and come up with too many complications. Reiki is simple and does not need to be restricted. It knows what to do.

If you are wondering what Reiki is all about, here would be a good place to start. Imagine that you have gone along to a Natural Healing Exhibition and you are going to sit in on a talk about Reiki. You will find out what Reiki is and where it comes from. You will discover what it is like to give and receive a treatment. You will hear about the effects of Reiki treatments and come to understand how being attuned to Reiki can change your life. So, get yourself comfortable in your chair, and let’s listen in on the talk. ————————————————– Welcome ————————————————– Hello and welcome to an introductory talk about Reiki. My name is Taggart King, from Reiki Evolution, and I am a Reiki Master, which just means that I can teach Reiki. Over the next half an hour or so, we are going to be talking about lots of different things to do with the ‘Usui system of Natural healing’, as Reiki is also known. Reiki has the potential to bring some wonderful changes to you and the people around you, so if anything we say strikes a chord with you, if you can see yourself making Reiki a part of your life, if you feel that this is the right direction for you. then do get in contact with us later and we can maybe take things further. To start off with, we’ll talk a little bit about what Reiki is and where it comes from. Then we’ll move on to find out what it’s like to give and receive Reiki. We’ll find out what Reiki can do for you whether you have a course of treatments or whether you decide to learn Reiki for yourself. And finally, you can hear all about using Reiki to treat yourself, and Reiki as a spiritual practice. ————————————————– What is Reiki? ————————————————– Well, in the way that it is presented in the West, Reiki is a bit like a Japanese version of spiritual healing, though it has completely different origins. A man called Mikao Usui was responsible for developing it, he was a Tendai Buddhist, born in 1865 and died in 1926. Reiki is based on Channelling energy, working with energy. The energy is quite often called chi, which is the energy that underlies oriental medicine, so when you practise acupuncture and you use needles to encourage energy to flow through a person’s meridians, you are working with the same energy that you channel when you practice Reiki. If we think of Tai Chi, the energy cultivation technique, where the various graceful movements that you make serve to build up your body’s personal reserves of energy, you are again talking about the energy that you channel when you practice Reiki. You could call the energy prana, the energy that you work with when you practice yoga, but it’s the same stuff. Now, from the Oriental point of view, chi doesn’t just flow through us, but it surrounds and engulfs us too, so you’ll have heard of feng shui, where you arrange your living environment to allow the better flow of chi through your household. So when you practice Reiki you are connecting to and channelling an external source of chi that flows through you into the person you are treating. And you can also connect to and use the energy for your own personal benefit. But this isn’t the only way that the energy is viewed. Many people prefer to see the energy as having divine origins, and they see the channelling of Reiki as drawing down divine light or divine love. This ties in more with the point of view of conventional spiritual healers, who draw down divine light. And because Reiki is not attached to or allied to any particular religious belief, it should be acceptable to all people whether they have no religious beliefs or very strongly held beliefs. So is Reiki chi, or is it divine light. well it seems to be a bit of both: Reiki is spiritual chi. ————————————————– Where does Reiki come from? ————————————————– A Japanese-American lady called Hawayo Takata introduced Reiki to the West in the 1930s. And when she started teaching it, it was probably the worst time in human history to be teaching a Japanese healing technique in America, with thoughts of Pearl Harbour still fresh in everyone’s minds, and the population generally hating and despising anything to do with Japan. Along comes Mrs Takata to teach Reiki, and so she felt prompted to put together a story about the history of Reiki to make it acceptable to a potentially hostile American public. So out goes Mikao Usui the Tendai Buddhist, and in comes Dr Mikao Usui, Christian theologian, and we were told a story about him travelling the world, studying theology at various universities, to try and find out about the healing powers that Jesus displayed. This was said to culminate with a 21-day period of fasting and meditating on the top of Mount Kurama, near Kyoto, when Usui saw symbols in bubbles of light, and Reiki was born. Unfortunately most of this story is complete fabrication, put together for good reasons no doubt, but we can move on from this story now. The real history of Reiki is a lot more interesting and makes a lot more sense. Usui’s Reiki is rooted in lots of existing Oriental traditions that were carrying on in Japan in Usui’s time. Reiki draws on Martial arts and energy cultivation techniques, and Usui Sensei was well versed in both these disciplines. Reiki draws on an ancient tradition of Japanese Palm Healing, called teate. It uses empowerments (connection rituals) coming from Tendai Buddhism – a mystical form of Buddhism that’s practiced in Japan – and involves ways of controlling the energy that come from Shintoism, the indigenous religion of Japan. So Reiki isn’t new, though Usui Sensei does seem to have put together different existing traditions in a new way. He does seem to have had some ‘moment of enlightenment’ after a long period of fasting and meditating on Mount Kurama, and this moment of enlightenment does seem to have contributed in some way to the development of Reiki. But he didn’t go up a mountain and come down with Reiki, as we were first told. His various studies and experiences culminated in the development of Reiki, but it was rooted in existing tradition. Usui also did not develop Reiki in isolation. He was a member of what you might call a group of spiritually advanced people, all of whom were going in different directions but were keeping in contact with each other, swapping ideas, sharing experiences. He was good friends with a man called Ueshiba who developed Aikido, he was in contact with a man called Deguchi who was responsible for developing a new religion called Omoto kyo, there are even connections between Usui and the people who developed the spiritual system called Johrei. So Usui was one of a group of people who were all developing energetic and spiritual methods, which crystallised and as Reiki, a spiritual path / healing technique, as Aikido, a very spiritual and compassionate martial art, and in a new religion based on the use of ancient Shinto mantras. Whereas Usui’s Reiki was a path to enlightenment, with healing others as a part of what you did along that path, in the West we have been presented with Reiki basically as a treatment technique. This is because of a historical quirk. One of Mikao Usui’s students was a man called Dr Hayashi, a retired surgeon commander from the Imperial navy, a Christian. Dr Hayashi wasn’t so interested in the ‘spiritual path’ side of Reiki, and he concentrated on Reiki as a treatment technique. Dr Hayashi taught Mrs Takata, and Mrs Takata brought Reiki to the West. It is only in the last few years that Western Reiki people have had a chance to find out what Usui’s original system was all about, so this is a very exciting time to get involved in Reiki! For the first time we now have a chance to follow more the system that Usui set down, rather than the unrepresentative version that came through Dr Hayashi and Mrs Takata. This more traditional way of practicing Reiki is part and parcel of the courses that we run at Reiki Evolution. It ‘fills the gaps’ that there are in Western Reiki. ————————————————– What is it like to give and receive Reiki? ————————————————– Well, if we talk about being on the receiving end of a Reiki treatment first, while it can vary a great deal from one person to another in terms of what they feel when they’re having a treatment, you can generalise about the sort of things that most people will notice. The ‘big three’ sensations when receiving Reiki are (1) deep relaxation, (2) heat from the practitioner’s hands, and (3) seeing colours. Reiki treatments make you relaxed: deeply, deeply relaxed. Most people who receive Reiki end up drifting in and out of consciousness, they lose track of time and sometimes an hour on the treatment table can feel like only 15 minutes. Some people – particularly men – seem to fall asleep completely. It’s very common for people to feel a lot of heat from the practitioner’s hands, sometimes really intense heat. heat so intense that it’s simply not possible for hands to get that hot. It seems that the body can’t feel the energy in a distinctive way, and the best approximation it can come up with is to feel the energy as heat. Another common experience is to see colours against your closed eyelids as you are being treated. Sometimes a random rainbow light show, sometimes colours that change depending on what hand-position is being used. It is quite common to see blue, lilac, violet, purple. Now those three experiences: deep relaxation, heat from your hands, sometimes seeing colours, seem to be about the limit if men’s experience of Reiki, assuming they can stay awake long enough to notice them! All the more subtle sensations seem to be noticed by women, though of course I am generalising here. So what’s it like to give a Reiki treatment, then? Well most Reiki people will feel either heat or tingling in their hands as the energy flows; some people feel a bit of both. Some people have heat as their main sensation, and if a lot of energy comes through then they start to feel tingles; some people have tingles as their main sensation and if a lot of energy comes through then they start to feel heat. Tingling isn’t so much like pins & needles, but more of a fine ‘fizzing’ in your hands. There is a whole range of different feelings you can have though: throbbing, pulsing, heaviness, magnetic feelings, coolness, or even a breeze blowing under your hand. Giving a Reiki treatment is a lovely experience. Particularly if there’s a lot of energy coming through, you can really ‘merge’ with the energy. Your mind empties of its own accord and it turns into a beautiful meditation. And because you’re not giving out your own energy, you aren’t depleted or drained at all at the end of the session. In fact you get some benefit from the Reiki that has come through you, so you’ll feel so calm and content. It’s a lovely experience. ————————————————– What Can Reiki Do for You? ————————————————– One thing that Reiki seems to do for most people, whether they’ve come for a course of treatments, or have learned Reiki for themselves, is to produce what I call ‘the Reiki effect’: Reiki helps you to feel more calm, content, serene, it helps you to feel more positive, better able to cope, and you’re not so affected by stressful people and stressful situations. So people might come for a treatment with everything from depression to a pain in their big toe. and they all go away feeling more calm and content, more positive, better able to cope, less stressed. and this effect is also something that you should start to notice once you’ve been attuned to the energy. Not necessarily a great big overnight transformation, but usually something that builds up in you gradually, or perhaps it is something that you start to notice with hindsight. You realise that you are thinking and feeling about things differently, or maybe your family and friends start to comment that you seem to be less stressed, less bothered by things. If you read books about Reiki, or look up Reiki on the Internet, you’ll keep on reading that ‘Reiki changed my life’, ‘Reiki changed my life’. And the way that Reiki seems to do this is by giving you a sense of clarity. It helps you to cut through all the rubbish that surrounds people’s lives nowadays and focus on the things that are really important to you, your real priorities. and for some people the first stage of that can be to work out what your real priorities actually are. The energy seems to give you a ‘kick up the backside’ and helps you to make some changes if you need to, to get your life more in line with what’s really important to you. Sometimes the energy can make you dissatisfied for a while. You doubt your job, you doubt your relationships, you look carefully at different areas of your life. and sometimes you may decide that yes, you are happy with that, yes, you are going in a direction that feels right for you, but sometimes you may make some changes, and Reiki seems to give you the strength to do that too. For a few weeks after being attuned you may have a bit of a rough ride. You may have some emotional ups and downs, up and down like a yo-yo. you may feel dissatisfied with things, you may have some physical symptoms coming to the surface like a cold or some headaches. The energy can get to you all the time, and it is starting to bring things into balance, and part of the process of bringing things into balance involves releasing things: thoughts, emotions, physical things. Health benefits can come from simply being attuned to the energy, without having had any treatments at all. For example, some people I’ve attuned have found that long-term painful conditions have partially or completely resolved: the pain of scoliosis, plantar fasciitis, long-term back pain. Reiki will gently work on you in the background once you’ve been attuned, and you can increase the beneficial effects by focusing Reiki on yourself in different ways. In terms of treatments, there’s no proper scientific evidence to back up claims about the effectiveness of Reiki. They haven’t taken a big group of people with arthritis, say, split them into two groups, with half of them being treated by Reiki people, and half of them being treated by ‘pretend’ Reiki people, and comparing the results. There’s nothing like that as far as I can see, so most of the evidence is anecdotal, and as far as Western science is concerned, that isn’t enough. So although anecdotally Reiki has done some amazing and incredible things, even in very serious and life-threatening conditions, there’s very little ‘proper’ scientific evidence to back up such claims. So when I talk to people about the effects of Reiki, I talk about my personal experience of treating people, and I have found that Reiki has produced some amazing results: with long-term pain, stress, low energy levels, sleeplessness, with emotional blocks and long-term emotional issues. all those unresolved things that we keep well hidden, all that stuff that is grinding away under the surface that we don’t want to deal with. Reiki takes the lid off these things and allows us to release them, and that allows us to move forward. Reiki works on all levels. It deals with physical problems; it works on the mental and emotional levels too. It takes a person as a whole and helps to bring them into balance. So you can share your Reiki with your family members, you will be able to make a real difference to their lives by treating them, and you will benefit from the treatments that you give too. What a wonderful gift we have in Reiki. ————————————————– How Do You Learn Reiki? ————————————————– The strange thing about Reiki is that although you can find out it by reading books, you can’t actually ‘do’ Reiki until you’ve been ‘tuned in’ by a Reiki Master (teacher). The Reiki ‘attunement’ connects you permanently to the source of energy, and once you’re attuned then the ability will never leave you. You don’t have to be a very spiritual person to learn Reiki, you don’t even have to believe in it. You simply need to go on a course and it will work for you. Isn’t that wonderful? People notice many different things when they are attuned. Some people feel very little; others have profound experiences. But what you notice when being attuned isn’t a guide to how well the attunement has ‘taken’: Reiki works for everyone. Reiki is taught at different levels: you start with first Degree and then after a while you move on to Second Degree. This can be seen as ‘practitioner’ level. We do not recommend that you take Reiki first and second degree over consecutive days, because we believe that you need to have a chance to put Reiki into practice for a while. You need to do some self-treatments, and you need to get your hands on some real people so that you feel comfortable with treating before you move on to the next level. You also need to give yourself a chance to get to grips with the new energy that you are connected to, and let everything settle down a bit before moving on. Most people nowadays go on to take Second Degree level, and then a few might decide to move on to Mastership. When you become a Reiki Master, one of the things you learn is how to connect others to Reiki. To be able to pass on Reiki to others is a wonderful gift. And Mastership isn’t a final destination: it’s just the first step on an exciting journey! You can’t become a Master of anything by going on a two-day course, so real Mastery comes through dedication and practice. ————————————————– Making Reiki Part of Your Life ————————————————– Once you’ve been attuned to Reiki the ability never leaves you, but how clear a channel you are for the energy depends on how regularly you use it. Reiki isn’t something that you just learn about: Reiki is something that you practice. Now the best way to make sure that you’re going to be a strong channel for Reiki is to carry out energy exercises every day for 10-15 minutes. We teach you energy exercises called Hatsu Rei Ho, which come from Japanese Reiki. As well as doing your daily energy exercises, it is a good idea to treat yourself regularly too. This will again clear your energy channels, and it will increase the beneficial effects that Reiki has on you. Though Reiki works on you slowly and gently in the background all the time,the more you work with it, the more it will work on you. In its original form Reiki was a path to enlightenment, and this spiritual aspect has never really left Reiki, though it is usually presented to us as a treatment technique. So for many people, Reiki helps to fill that ‘spiritual void’, it can help you to find your true life purpose. It can help you to feel more connected spiritually no matter what your religious beliefs might be. And because Reiki is not attached to any religion, it is not attached to any belief system, then it should not conflict with anyone’s beliefs. To finish our talk, I want to share with you a few simple ‘life principles’ that Mikao Usui recommended his students follow, and for me these principles encapsulate some of the beneficial changes that Reiki can bring to you. These are his ‘precepts’: Just for today do not anger, Just for today do not worry, Be humble, Be honest in your dealings with people, Be compassionate towards yourself and others Reiki has the potential to make a wonderful difference to you and the people you care about, it can fill the spiritual void that so many people feel nowadays, and it helps to bring things into balance on all levels. If anything I have said feels right for you, if you like the sound of what you have heard, if you can see yourself learning a simple and powerful energy technique, then let us know and we can have a chat about it. You won’t regret it! Thank you very much for your time.

LEARN REIKI HEALING at: www.reikisanctum.com — CHAKRAS A poetic description of the chakras intervowen with the subject and process of “creation” and its reversal into the ‘cosmic embrace’. Understanding of the chakras is widely used in both yoga and in Reiki healing. The chakras can been seen as the bridges between the gross and the subtle aspects of our being, leading us into a deeper understanding of who and what we are. REIKI natural holistic healing is helpful for the process of …

How to receive Reiki attunement in thisfree alternative medicine therapy video clip. Expert: Eileen Dey Contact: www.reikitrainingprogram.com Bio: Eileen Dey, MA is the founder/director of the only vocational school of Reiki that is licensed by the state of WA. Filmmaker: Daron Stetner

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