Once I was a New Age junkie. I balanced my chakras, discovered my past lives (none of which were as impressive as Shirley MacLaine's), and explored countless other areas in the realm of metaphysics.
These explorations were often entertaining, sometimes enlightening, and occasionally transforming. They also taught me skepticism. After a while I stopped listening when someone told me about the greatest, the absolutely most fantastic workshop they took, the one which had transformed them beyond recognition. When my present partner in teaching Reiki (pronounced Ray-key) first told me how her teacher drew some symbols over her and she became a channel for Universal Life Force Energy (which flowed through her hands; did I notice how warm they were?) I waited for the effects to wear off.
I gave this subject no more thought until several months later I developed a mysterious stomach ailment which a few Reiki treatments cleared up. I still didn't understand how her hands got so warm without mechanical assistance, but I no longer doubted that it worked.
Now, years later, I've come to the conclusion that the problem with Reiki is that it's simple. Simplicity is suspect in our complex culture. Doctors have to go to school for many years to learn how to heal, so it must be difficult. The few nonprofessional people who have the mysterious gift of healing were born with it--and we weren't.
Part of the difficulty lies in the definition of healing. Reiki doesn't focus on physical healing (although many such healings have been reported). it's based on the belief that all imbalance originates on the mental and emotional planes. If not corrected an imbalance can affect the physical body. When that happens medical, surgical, or pharmaceutical solutions may relieve the physical symptoms, but they or a new set of symptoms will occur if the basic imbalance remains.
Reiki (with other disciplines in a field called vibrational healing) works on the principle that health on all levels is caused by the free flow of energy. When energy is blocked mental and emotional imbalances are created.
I am often asked exactly what this energy is and where it comes from. In Japanese Reiki means "universal life force energy." The idea is that all life forms are created and maintained by a universal energy source, which we translate into our personal energy. The natural state of things is to be in balance and to feel one's connection to all living things--or, as Einstein said, "A human being is part of the whole, called by us "Universe.'" He also noted that when we experience ourselves as being separate from that whole we find ourselves in a kind of prison. Energy blockages are the walls and bars of the jail cell.
Let"s take a hypothetical man named Joe. As a teenager he learns to play the guitar, and is a member of a local band.. He dreams of stardom, but is afraid that he isn't good enough, that it's too difficult, that he"ll never make a living at it. he's helped to these conclusions by people who tell him that he's crazy to even consider it.
He becomes a lawyer instead, and develops a case of lifelong bitterness. His guitar gathers dust, because to play it only reminds him of his lost dreams ("I could have been Dylan, I could have been Lennon"). He blocks his creative energy and intensifies the blockage through his anger, frustration, and general lack of enthusiasm for life. He doesn't like many people, and particularly dislikes those who have realized their dreams. His back often hurts, and he's prone to headaches.
Joe hears about Reiki. He calls a practioner, who tells him that no muscle or tissue manipulation is involved, that a treatment consists in the laying of hands on his body to focus energy on blockages so that they may be dissolved. If Joe calls me I will also recommend that he learns to practice Reiki on himself--for, soothing and relaxing as a treatment may be (most people fall asleep before it's over), Reiki is primarily intended as a method of self-treatment. For me this is its greatest value.
First-degree Reiki graduates can easily treat themselves and others--including pets and plants. (Reiki gardeners treat their seeds before planting them.) I've used it for a once-persistent back problem, to sooth crying babies, and for a cat which used to vomit as part of his daily routine.
No special meditative techniques are needed for practicing Reiki; you can give yourself a treatment while watching television, having a conversation, or reading. You don't need a background as a healer, either. I have taught postal workers, lawyers, artists, and engineers.
In second-degree Reiki students learn symbols which focus universal life force energy. The power symbol increases energy and seals its power. The mental/emotional healing symbol helps to balance the right and left sides of the brain, and can be used to calm emotional distress and for healing unwanted habits. One of my students used it to quit smoking; others have used it for weight loss. The distant healing symbol bridges time and space, and can be used to send healing energy across a room, a country, or an ocean, to the past or the future. My students have used it to heal childhood traumas and to manifest their goals.
Sometimes universal life force energy works in mysterious ways. Judy, a customer at my store in New York City called when she was diagnosed with breast cancer. She said that she was determined to view her illness as an opportunity for healing, and asked about alternative methods to pursue in addition to the medical treatment she had chosen. Among my recommendations was Reiki.
A friend introduced her to a practitioner, Vic, who agreed to give her a treatment so that she could see if she was interested in exploring it further. Vic, however, kept on coming back to give Judy treatments, because he"d fallen in love with her. As their love grew the tumor shrank (Vic says that at times when he was treating her he could feel it dissolving). This astonished her doctor, who said that her traditional course of treatment couldn't account for the speed with which this was happening.
In the midst of her various treatments and an intense love affair, Judy also took Reiki I and II with my partner and me. She has since been pronounced cancer-free, and she and Vic are very much in love. In speaking to me about the healing which has taken place for both of them they once said, "It was the Reiki. Well, it was the love, too." Then they looked at each other, and Vic said, "They're the same."
Many Reiki practitioners agree, as do I. Universal life force energy may be the literal translation of Reiki, but I prefer to call it unconditional love. While I don't have huge miracles such as the above to report, strange and wonderful things happen when I"m practicing or teaching Reiki. The wildlife population on my property seems to increase. Hawks hover in the air; deer stand quietly, unafraid; cardinals come to the front door, staring at me with bright eyes. I forget who I am. Oneness, interconnectedness is no longer an abstract idea, but a living reality.
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