Since September 1992, Reiki has been used as a modality in the Windana drug and alcohol program, with considerable success.

Internationally there is a wealth of anecdotal evidence that Reiki is effective in treating physical symptoms and psychosocial stressors.

The Reiki Clinic at Windana is unique. It is a professionally run and fully supervised clinic, with ongoing documentation of client outcomes. In almost a decade of operation, it appears that Reiki has been effective in alleviating the physical and psychosocial stresses occurring during withdrawal and recovery.

In 1995, Milton & Chapman claimed that Reiki appeared to induce a profound and prolonged relaxation response with reduction in anxiety, tension and aggression, and clients reported they had a greater ability to sleep after treatment.

In this paper, we will expand on these claims and other findings, such as the observation that Reiki often appears to address the conscious and unconscious spiritual needs of drug users.

In addition, we will examine the notion that Reiki appears to elicit self awareness, thereby facilitating the counselling process, and assisting clients in their personal growth.

'Energy field theory' is not new.

Paracelsus (1493-1541) the famous Swiss doctor said to have reformed medical thought, believed that man had two bodies - one of flesh and blood, and the other an energy body, known as the astral body. (Brennan, 1987)

Kaptchuk (1996) claimed that Mesmer's followers rapidly split into two denominations which he called a lower and higher mesmeric interpretation. The lower "made the force analogous to a physical electromagnetic vibration that resembled more recognized scientific energies" (Kaptchuk, 1996, p.37). The higher interpretation, he claimed, was less conventional as it saw the force as ethereal, and more linked to the mystical and occult traditions.

This is consistent with the view of Martha Rogers, who was both a nursing theorist and a physicist. She maintained that "a person is not an isolated energy field, but lives in an environmental energy field with which there is constant interaction - a change in one of the fields produces a change in the other" (Lewis, 2000).

It is important to note that Oschman's book, which we have quoted extensively in this paper, has been warmly endorsed by Dr. Candice Pert, a renowned psycho-neuro-immunologist, and a research professor at Georgetown University, USA.

Oschman claims that these are not subtle phenomena. Rather they are large, or even gigantic vibrations. Furthermore, "their effects are not trivial, because living matter is highly organized and exceedingly sensitive to the information conveyed by coherent signals" p.62.

The practitioner held his hand close to the patient and a baseline recording was made with the SQUID. Then the therapist relaxed into the meditative or healing state that is the focus of the TT method. Immediately, the SQUID detected a large biomagnetic field emanating from the practitioners hand.

The field was so strong that the amplifiers and recorder had to be readjusted so that a recording could be made. This was the strongest biomagnetic field Dr. Zimmerman had encountered in his years of medical research using SQUID.

What was interesting was that the signal from the TT practitioner pulsed at a variable frequency ranging from 0.3 to 30Hz, with most of the activity in the range of 7-8 HZ. In other words, the signal emitted is not steady or constant, it 'sweeps' or 'scans' through a range of frequencies (Oschman, 2000 p78).

Non-practitioners in Zimmerman's studies, were unable to produce the bio-magnetic pulses.