Reiki is a japanese word which roughly translated means spiritually guided life force energy.
I first heard about Reiki from a director that I used to work for a few years ago. She told me that I should learn Reiki someday so I could fix up the headaches that I was constantly getting from working with computers so often! She explained to me that a Reiki practicioner would simply put there hands on a patients body in certain positions and transfer energy to the patient thereby fixing the ailment. At the time I wasn't really interested in it, but later on as I started to learn more about the world and myself, Reiki came up again in my life so I decided to pursue it this time.
I learned Reiki from an independent Reiki Master in Canberra in June 96. I had read a bit about Reiki before I went to see her and was very interested in the benefits of healing for others and myself. There are three levels in Reiki which you must learn before you can become a Reiki Master and teach others. You must "learn" Reiki from a master as the master actually passes on their power and knowledge to you physically and therefore cannot be fully learnt from a book. In Reiki 1 I learned about the Chakras in the body, both major and minor, Reiki symbols of which I learned one called the Choku-rei and I also learned the various arm positions in a frontal treatment.
Reiki treatments help to balance and restore our chakras and to realign our aura. A Reiki practicioner will first ground themselves and relax their body so they can fully channel the energy into the patient. Then the practicioner will assume the first position for a frontal treatment which is one hand on the foot and the other on the ankle. The practicioner's hand positions play a vital role in treatments as each hand serves a different purpose. In my case my left hand is my receiving hand, the hand where I receive the universal reiki energy and my right hand is my giving hand, the hand that I use to channel the energy to the patient.
The practicioner will first put their receiving hand in the right position and then they will put their giving hand in the appropriate position. The receiving hand always moves around the body first in Reiki. Once the hands are in position, the giving hand can then be used to draw a symbol onto the area currently being healed. The symbol is usually drawn in the air three times close to the area. Also, depending on what part of the body you are working on, the way the symbol is drawn can also be different.
When you are receiving a treatment from a Reiki practicioner you will sometimes feel a deep heat coming from their hands and sometimes a dull throbbing feeling. This is normal and is an indicator of the amount of energy being transferred to your body. Reiki practicioner's gauge what area needs more energy by the feeling that they receive from their hands. If one of their hands is cold and the other is warm, then there is an imbalance in that area and needs to be cleansed.
A practicioner uses a technique called Chileation (hopefully I spelled that correctly @:) to remove any imbalances in the patients aura, thereby cleansing the physical body at the same time. After the area has been cleansed, the symbol is drawn again and the practicioner will resume their hand positions until they feel that it is time to move on.
When I received my first Reiki treatment I almost feel asleep! @:)
In fact, most patients fall asleep or get very drowsy as a result of a treatment. When you are receiving a treatment, you usually just lie on a table and let the practicioner do the rest!! There is minimal movement of the body and no physical massage is used in the treatment.
You can now officially call me a Reiki 2 Practicioner!!! YEY YEY
Below is one of the very first places I read about Reiki, they have some really great information there and also more links around the web. You can also visit #reiki on efnet if you have access to the IRC.
A great place to read about Reiki