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Reiki

Translated from Japanese, rei meaning universal and ki meaning the basic life energy within every living thing, this form of therapy (pronounced RAY-key) is rooted in the belief that every person is born with a set amount of energy that is depleted during daily routines. If this energy is not restored, eventually, it is believed to negatively impact your physical or emotional wellbeing. Low levels of this energy are said to result in emotional, mental, and physical exhaustion.

During a Reiki session, the practitioner or "Reiki giver" incorporates touch, no-touch, and visualization techniques in order to help balance the energy within your body. The energy field that your body is believed to have cannot only be weakened but can also become blocked. The practitioner's aim is to detect these blocks of energy, which can arise from emotional, physical, or spiritual levels, and increase energy flow within your body by using their own personal energy field, their thoughts, and their hands. In balancing the energy within the body, Reiki givers aim to decrease symptoms of health related conditions, pain, and stress.

According to many reiki practitioners, Reiki therapy works on subtle energy levels possibly linked with the Chakra centers of the body, which correlate with the endocrine and nervous system. Reiki practitioners deal with the energy flow within the body, but your mindset is thought to be highly important as well. Dr. Mikao Usui, who brought Reiki into the modern world, stated that in order for Reiki to have the most effect you must first want to be healed and that both patient and healer should maintain a gracious and compassionate mindset.

There is little documentation about the origins of Reiki, although stories have been passed down from Reiki teachers to their students. It is generally understood that modern use of Reiki originated with Dr. Mikaeo Usui, a scholar, Christian preist, and directory of a small university in Kyoto, Japan in the late nineteenth century. As the story goes, Dr. Usui was intrigued by the stories of Christ's and Buddha's incredible healing powers. In an effort to gain an understanding of these powers Usui began a quest in which he studied ancient texts about healing from India and from Buddhist teachings and went on an extended meditation and fasting retreat. During his journey, Usui is said to have come to an understanding of healing and developed his Reiki techniques.

Devoting his time to healing the sick for free, Dr. Mikao Usui began to establish the Reiki rules of life (see sidebar). He also validated his belief that in a person must genuinely want to be healed in order for Reiki healing to be most effective. Before Dr. Mikao Usui died he passed down the teachings of Reiki to Dr. Chujiru Hayashi who in 1938 passed it down to Hawayo Takata, who is known for bringing Reiki to the United States.

Takata was a Hawaii-born woman of Japanese descent who experienced Reiki as a patient while visiting her parents in Japan. She was so impressed with her experience that she became a grand master and popular teacher of Reiki in the United States and Cananda. In the 1970s, she established a program to train Reiki masters.

Reiki sessions vary from practitioner to practitioner and possibly session-to-session, however many are set up where you lie on your back, fully clothed, and on a flat surface such as a massage table. During the duration of around one to one and a half hours, the practitioner will place their hands over sections of the body where the organs and endocrine glands are as well as places corresponding to the Chakra center. Advanced practitioners use their knowledge of Reiki to determine what sections of the body the energy healing should to take place in.

During the session, the practitioner can use hands on, non-hands on, or visualization techniques depending on your needs. For example, visualization sends healing energy mentally, while when a patient is injured the practitioner uses the no-touch method where his or her hands are held over the body rather than placed upon it. When a patient is not injured, the practitioner places hands flat on the body and contact is felt through the fingertips. The positions that the hands are placed in are usually held for around five minutes, or until the practitioner feels as if the energy flow into you is slowing or coming to a stop. There are more than twenty possible hand positions, which can be done on either side of the body, since the person being treated usually turns over once during a session.

During the treatment both practitioner and receiver strive towards a level of awareness, caring, and openness. One important factor during Reiki is your mental attitude. Focus should be on peace, love, compassion, and the energy healing of the body. Reiki practitioners sometimes play soothing music during a session in order to create a calm and pleasant environment. Sometimes after a session there is also time to reflect upon your experience as well as ask the practitioner any questions you may have about Reiki.

Reiki sessions are said to trigger the relaxation response, which in turn aids in lowering blood pressure, anxiety, and tension; boosting the immune system; and increasing the secretion of endorphins, a hormone that acts to alleviate pain. As a result, some people take Reiki in order to decrease stress, decrease pain, aid the immune system, and relieve symptoms of health conditions. Other people see practitioners when they are in recovery from asthma, have experienced trauma, feel nausea from chemotherapy, are recovering from surgery, or just want to increase their health. Reiki has been described as a gentle and calming practice and has been incorporated in the practices at some hospitals in the U.S.

There is no formal, standardized licensing for reiki practitioners. In general, reiki students attend multiple sessions where current reiki masters teach energy healing and correct a student's technique when they feel it is necessary. These sessions are called attunements and aim to widen the student's channel of inner healing while cleansing the student both mentally, physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Frequently these sessions will be held during workshops on the weekends where students work to pass the different levels of attunement.