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Reiki: Healing Touch
The simplest translation of the Japanese word Reiki (pronounced Ray-key) is Universal Life Energy--that energy that enlivens and animates matter. It is boundless, transformational and knows no denomination. The practice of Reiki focuses this energy and directs it through the hands of the practitioner. The concentrated flow of this energy accelerates the healing and balancing of body, mind and spirit.
Reiki is not a spiritual belief system and in no way contradicts any individual religious beliefs. It is instead, a simple and gentle transfer of energy that accelerates the body's ability to heal physical and emotional disorders. Reiki energy also opens the mind and spirit to the causes of disease and pain, the necessity for taking responsibility for one's life and the joys of balanced wellness.
Healing methods involving the use of subtle energy have existed throughout time. Historically, the knowledge of this healing was carefully guarded and preserved. It was often passed on by oral tradition to those chosen for
their purity of motive and integrity of spirit.The gift of healing by the laying on of hands was rediscovered in the 1800's by Dr. Mikao Usui. Dr. Usui was a Christian minister in Japan. He devoted many years of his life to discovering how Jesus, Buddha and their disciples were able to offer healing with their hands.
Dr. Usui searched for years through Christian scriptures and Buddhist sutras. He learned several languages in the process. At last he found the knowledge he sought in a Sanskrit sutra written by a disciple of Buddha 2500 years ago.
He gave it the name Reiki. The word REIKI embodies the concept of the transformation that occurs when the REI or universal boundlessness of energy meets the KI or vital energy flowing through all living things.The Usui System of Natural Healing is also known as Usui Shiki Ryoho. A translation of that is "the understanding of healing both trancendental and physical".
Reiki is not just a healing modality, but a way of life. To help his followers to live in integrity with this energy, Dr. Usui shared some simple truths.
The Principles of Reiki Just for today
do not worry-Just for today
do not anger-Honor your parents,
teachers and elders-Earn your living
honestly-Show gratitude to
every living thing.In the years since Dr. Usui three people have held the position of steward to the Usui healing system in the world, making certain that the clarity, simplicity and integrity of Reiki remained unchanged. Dr. Chugiro Hayashi willingly took over this responsiblility after Dr. Usui's death. As Dr. Hayashi's life came to a close, he charged Hawayo Takata with keeping the essence of his teachings intact.
Mrs. Takata lived, practiced and taught Reiki for over 40 years. She died in 1980 leaving the stewardship of Reiki in the hands and heart of her granddaughter, Phyllis Furumoto. Phyllis' guidance is felt and appreciated by hundreds of Reiki Masters and practitioners in the world. Her life is dedicated to living and teaching Reiki and to guiding and supporting others. Through these people the purity and essence of Reiki have been maintained.
The ancient Reiki Initiations open the door to grace and a deepening connection with both self and spirit. They offer the gift of light. Reiki is like a powerful light that fills each person illuminating and transforming the darkness within. It has the simplicity of greatest truth. It is an energy of magic and mystery--so powerful it inspires awe and so gentle it feels like unconditional love.
The energy of Reiki accepts people where they are and moves them toward their highest good. The ability to be present with every level of life grows with Reiki. It empowers by bolstering our strengths and gives support while moving through pain and fear.
Reiki is an intelligent energy that knows where to go in the body and just how much energy is required. Trusting in Reiki takes away the fear of human error. The energy of Reiki supports the highest good of both individual and situation. Reiki supports both allopathic and holistic treatments.
A Reiki treatment is generally experienced as gentle, relaxing and meditative. People often feel peaceful, secure, loved and warm. Emotions are sometimes touched and released. Since Reiki works where and how it is needed, experiences differ.
During a Reiki treatment the receiver lies or sits in a comfortable position. There is no need to disrobe as this energy moves through clothing and even casts. A complete treatment lasts for an hour to an hour and one half. During this time the Reiki practitioner allows his or her hands to rest gently for three to five minutes or more in each of a number of positions corresponding to the major organs, chakras and endocrine glands of the body. The receiver need only relax and receive.
Reiki is a simple and natural way to offer universal life energy to yourself or another. It is also a powerful way to support plants and animals. Any one can learn Reiki with no prerequisite other than willingness, openness and the desire to learn. The original tradition of Reiki recognizes three degrees--each exponentially more powerful.
1st Degree Reiki is often taught in a weekend class and may also be done individually. The class includes four attunements which empower the natural healing channels within to awaken. Students learn to use Reiki for simple and powerful self-healing and to give complete treatments to others. Many find the Initiation process of connecting to Reiki to be one of the deepest and most moving experiences of their lives. Connecting with Reiki in this way often brings about transformation, increases intuition and accelerates personal growth. The energy moves into a person's life supporting all they are and all they do.
First Degree Reiki creates a changing, a shifting inside an individual, as he or she adjusts to the finer, brighter energy of Reiki. This shift goes to a cellular level. For some the shifting feels dramatic, for others, gentle and natural.
2nd Degree Reiki means going deeper, with Reiki and with yourself. The timing is individual, for some a few months, for others--years. It is important to honor the time necessary to complete the shifting from 1st Degree. The class involves the sharing of ancient symbols for invoking more energy, for deep mental healing and for healing through time and space. This level of Reiki often brings about profound shifts in a person's life and awareness.
Reiki Master is the third level of Reiki. To be a Master involves a life-long commitment to grow and learn--to teach and facilitate healing. The process is very individual and very deep--often taking years in process. A Reiki Master is able to initiate and open up the healing channels in others. Most Masters commit their lives to service.
Not many years ago all Reiki Masters stewarded the Usui System of Natural Healing. A person connecting with any Master would be assured of connecting with the energy through the same powerful ceremonies of Initiation used by Dr. Usui. This particular ritual, passed on painstakingly and exactly, provides the actual connection to the energy. In a Reiki class the simple truths were passed on without embellishment, in the classic oral tradition.
Today there are many expressions of Reiki in the world. Leaders of these different systems have added their own feelings, thoughts, visions and ceremonies much as religious leaders through time have created many
denominations. The form and content of both classes and Initiation ceremonies differ greatly as do the price structure and the amount of instruction received. The degree of connection, commitment and integrity of the teaching Masters varies as well. All have in common the use of touch for the purpose of transmitting healing energy.While this offers more choice, it can be quite confusing. Each person exploring Reiki is encouraged to examine the different systems of Reiki and find the one that is the best fit for them. Meet Masters with different backgrounds. Many Reiki Masters offer free introductions. Any should be willing to talk with you and answer your questions.
Look beyond a convenient date or location and an inexpensive price. Seek to be sure that the Master's level of truth and integrity in their work and life can support you in your own connection, transformation and growth. Ask if that Master offers ongoing support after the class. Honor your own inner sense of rightness and connection and let that be a deciding factor as you choose your teacher. Take your time, be clear and certain of your choice.
The Reiki Alliance is a global organization of Masters of the Usui System of Natural Healing. The purposes of The Reiki Alliance are to honor Reiki, to serve as steward of the Usui System of Natural Healing and to provide support and community for its Masters. Alliance members realize that their training and learning continue after being initiated as Masters. Growth proceeds through: teaching classes, giUploadving treatments, attending workshops and training sessions, private inner work, spiritual disciplines and the willingness to continuously open themselves to life. The prices charged by Alliance Masters for classes are standardized worldwide and have remained the same for nearly 40 years.
© 1992 Sheila King
Sheila King - Reiki Master
Sheila is a teaching Master of The Usui System of Natural Healing and member of the Reiki Alliance. Her practice is in Portand, OR. She travels to teach wherever classes are organized.She may be contacted by calling (503)244-0121
Ancient Wisdom – Quantum Healing
Reiki was brought forward for us 150 years ago. Dr Mikao Usui rediscovered
ancient secrets of energy healing in Tibet and named it Reiki. This ancient
form of healing was written about by a disciple of the Buddha over 2500 years
ago and hidden away in Tibet for safekeeping.
In "The Isaiah Effect" Gregg Braden, an earth scientist and student of
ancient texts, speaks of manuscripts of special wisdom being hidden away in Tibet to
be discovered when mankind was ready for them and needed them. Perhaps this p
articular Buddhist Sutra was one of them? I think it was.
I have been a student of Reiki for nearly 20 years, a student of quantum
physics for just a few. The practice of Reiki is such a part of me that I hadn’t
separated myself from it enough to notice the quantum qualities of Reiki in
general, and distant healing in particular.
Modern thought has proven that we need to redefine the practice of medicine
because nature simply does not work they way we used to think. We are in
process of readjusting our understanding of both ourselves and the world. Consider
these principles:
1. What appears to be so isn’t always true.
(Einstein’s theory of Relativity)
2. We cannot always know what the outcome of an illness will be. (
Heisenberg, it is impossible to know all the parameters of a quantum system.)
3. Our bodies are not mechanistic systems of solid matter. They are
oscillating energy in constant flux,
sometimes appearing as solid matter. (Einstein, E=mc2 Energy and matter are
interchangeable.)
4. Seeming opposites in a quantum system complement each other. They do not
cancel out. (Principle of complementarity.)
5. There is no objective reality. All are a part of the quantum. (the
doctor cannot be a neutral observer.)
6. The human mind is an inexhaustible resource that we can use to create
health and joy rather than sickness, poverty and war.
My thanks to Dr. Thalia Kafatou, Reiki master and physicist and
to the Reiki Magazine for the principles above.
"There exists in every person a place that is free from
disease, that never feels pain, that cannot age or die. When you go to this
place, limitations which all of us accept cease to exist." Deepak Chopra
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
We need to harvest the tremendous power of the patient’s mind and that of the
healers and doctors of the world. Health is a co-creation.
The great gift of 2nd degree Reiki is that we consciously step into the
quantum field, that place Chopra speaks of in the above quote. We quite simple
work in that place where all of us are one and all are perfect and focus the
Reiki energy
and our intention for the highest good for the person, country or situation
we are connecting with.
In the 19 years I’ve done Reiki at a distance I’ve grown to trust it
completely. I’ve often thought that I feel closer to a person sending distance Reiki
than doing a hands-on treatment, for in the quantum field there is NO
separation. We are truly one.
I am often reminded of the miracle of this connection through space and time.
A few months ago I received a picture and a card from a new mother thanking
me again for my part in the delivery of her first child.
This young woman has not taken Reiki herself. I met her in a Reconnective
workshop. She called me about 3 weeks before she delivered because she had
heard that Reiki was very helpful during labor. And, of course, it is!
I had some classes and trips coming up and told her I couldn’t guarantee
being in the delivery room with her, but I could promise to send her Reiki from a
distance. A week or so before her delivery she had a day of fatigue and
pains. We arranged a distance treatment for that night when she went to bed. She
called the next day to tell me how she had felt the treatment and felt so much
better.
Then, in the wee hours of the morning, the day before Mother’s Day, I
received a call from her husband. "It’s time for the Reiki", he said. I sent Reiki
for 30 minutes and went back to sleep. It
was 4:30 AM at the time. At 7:00 AM she called me to say she knew exactly
when I started and that the babe was born 20 minutes later. What a Joy!
A number of double-blind medical studies have been done with Reiki. In a
recent report of a study on the use of Reiki for HIV-related pain and anxiety if
was shown that self-treatment (by patients who had taken Reiki classes) were
as effective as Reiki administered by another practitioner. This is very
important.
You can do Reiki on yourself!
In another study, this one on Reiki and depression, the researcher randomly
assigned forty-six people to one of three groups. One group received hands-on
Reiki, another received distant Reiki and the third group received a "distant
Reiki placebo". None of them knew what they were actually receiving.
Participants received a 60-90 minute treatment once a week for six weeks. This study
found a significant reduction in symptoms of psychological distress in the
two treatment groups compared with the control group. AND, the differences
continued to be present one year later. Important!
Distant Reiki is as effective as hands-on. (This was written up in
"Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine" June/July 2004. www.
alternative-therapies.com)
Currently there is a federally funded Reiki study underway in the Seattle, WA
area on the efficacy of Reiki for pain in the treatment of fibromyalgia.
This study will take place at three treatment centers. Patients will receive
Reiki treatments twice a week for eight consecutive weeks. This is a double
blind study. Patients will be broken down into 4 groups.
1. Receiving hands-on Reiki by a Reiki Master.
2. Receiving distant Reiki from a Reiki Master
3. Receiving hands-on treatment by an actor
4. Receiving distant treatment from an actor
A study was completed in June 2003 by the University of Michigan
Complementary Research Center in Ann Arbor. This study was on the effects of Reiki on 200
people with diabetic neuropathy. Results are still being analyzed, to be
released later this year.
I have been a part of a double-blind medical study of the effects of distant
healing on Glioblastoma Multiforme (a type of brain cancer unresponsive to
medical protocols) through California Pacific Medical Center’s Complimentary
Research Institute. The study was begun in 2001. Results should be published in
2005. This institute is also running a parallel study on the effects of
distant healing on AIDS.
For 3+ years now some 30 of us have sent distant Reiki to
those in crisis through an e-mail notification Reiki Crisis Line.
Many miracles have been reported by the recipients. How powerful to have
many focused practitioners sending to the same person!
Many thanks to those faithful members who are willing to take time from their
lives to send Reiki to those in great need.
And don’t forget the great ability this gives us to send Reiki for the
highest good of our planet. We can and do make a huge difference. And please,
everyone that is able, send light and Reiki to our upcoming elections.
Reiki is a powerful energy for healing and balancing the body on all levels,
physical, emotional, mental and spiritual. It is an "equal opportunity"
energy and can be simply learned by anyone. It works always for the highest good
of the receiver and it’s always ‘handy’. I can’t imagine being without
Reiki in my life.
© September 2004 by Sheila King
Please honor me by asking permission before sharing this article in any way.
© 2005 Sheila King - Last Modified 09-19-05
