Reiki Q & A

by Sucheta Shetty

Reiki is a healing approach that uses light touch and the practitioner’s intent, in tune with universal life energy, to promote a healing movement of energy in the recipient. It can be used for physical, emotional and spiritual rejuvenation. The touch is much lighter than that used in massage. The laying on of hands, using the Reiki hand positions and principles, also can be done within the energy field around the body, placing the hands a few inches away from the area being worked on without direct physical contact. And Reiki treatments, as spiritually guided life energy, can even be channeled across vast distances between practitioners and recipients.

In the beginning of February, I started a thread on the Star Chat discussion forum of the Conscious Evolution Website, titled “Reiki Q & A,” to answer questions on and provide information about Reiki to the best of my ability. Although I am a Reiki practitioner, I ended up learning some new things myself through the discussion. We at Metamorphosis thought this discussion was worth sharing with our readers, especially those of you who aren’t regulars at the forums.

Questions were raised by various forum members, ranging from those who had absolutely no idea what Reiki was all about to those who’d had a few encounters with it and consequently had some queries based on their experiences. Some questions I was able to answer, and others pushed my own horizons of knowledge a bit further by making me think and do some research on the Internet. I also got some unexpected help from forum member Chahldean, who, to my surprise, turned out to be a practicing Reiki master who shared some of his knowledge of Reiki. You never know what you’ll discover at the forums!

The following is my attempt to summarise and organise the question and answer session that ensued on the thread.

Ani* wanted to know about the origin and meaning of the word Reiki.

The word “Reiki” is of Japanese origin. It is made up of the concepts contained in its two syllables. Rei is said to mean Universal or All Pervading, while Ki refers to the Life Force Energy that the Chinese call Chi and the Indian yogis call Prana. These words impart the understanding or belief that we, along with everything around us, are made up of energy. This basic energy is all around us and available to us, as and when we desire.

Juniperb shared the following with us:

When I receive Reiki, I have intense visuals – like a movie screen in front of me. I believe the visuals are past-life related. I also feel like my spine, arms and legs are moving and something is shooting out of my feet. The gal giving the Reiki says I don’t move at all. Why does this occur?

... I actually feel like my limbs are moving. Almost like they’re flexing, stretching out, and my foot (left) feels like it is stretching out with toes pointed straight out. Then a feeling, a rush, pushing out of my toes, then it feels relaxed. It is an actual feeling of physical movement, yet she says I don’t so much as move a hair. It feels so real!!

I recognize it as being completely different than the energy moving through my chakras and in my spine. Very perplexing.

The fact that I have never encountered anything like this in my own experience with Reiki goes to show how personal the experience of this energy is. Each person will feel different things during a Reiki session, and no two experiences are identical, even for the same person. A friend of mine would exclaim, “Oh! It feels like you placed a vibrator on my back,” every time I helped sooth her backaches, while another friend never felt a thing. Yet another gave a little start because my hands felt hot. I’ve experienced a range of feelings when giving or receiving Reiki treatments, including warmth, tingling, intense throbbing, and at times even a piercing sensation, which, according to my Reiki master, could have been an energy block being cleared out. There are times when I am practicing Reiki when I can literally feel the energy flowing out or being sucked out of my hands.

A Reiki session could have different effects on different people. Many find it so relaxing that they promptly fall asleep; others like me feel more alert and awake and refreshed. It could also trigger or aid intuitive abilities and/or experiences like the one Juniperb mentioned.

The way I understand Reiki is that it raises the very vibration of your cells, setting right the energy system of your body by clearing any blocks that may be there. The process can release pent-up feelings and emotions that have been causing dis-ease in your body or just clear your “vision” a bit more.

The visions Juniperb saw may or may not be past-life memories. Only she can tell for sure. But they could contain some much-needed piece of information or guidance coming from her Higher Self. During the Reiki workshops I took, and the ensuing 21-day cleansing periods (when we gave ourselves full-body treatments), we were constantly advised to maintain a journal noting our experiences and dreams during that time. That’s advice I would pass on to anyone involved with Reiki. Much of what you write in that journal may not make sense to you immediately. But some day down the line, when you’re ready to see, you might find some interesting message in there.

Moonflower was wondering how Reiki differed from other hands-on healing techniques or if they were all basically the same.

I must admit, I don’t know much about other such techniques beyond whatever little I’ve read. I think a whole lot of them have common elements, like working with a very basic form of energy, an energy that makes up all the matter around us. There also tends to be a shared emphasis on the chakras, or the energy centers of our bodies. So, yes, there are some basic similarities between all techniques that fall under the category of “energy work.” They are all probably just different forms along the same path leading to the same goal. The philosophies and beliefs behind the techniques differ, but they seem to be all based on the same basic premise.

Ani* also wanted to know, “How does one begin cultivating/practicing Reiki?”

To be able to practice Reiki on your own, you can get in touch with a Reiki master who can help you undergo a set of attunements to open up your chakras. This intensifies the flow of Reiki through your crown chakra (the topmost chakra that is supposed to be on the top of your head or just a little above it), and you can begin to heal yourself or others by simply placing your hands on the chakras. (You don’t need to place your hands on the chakras. Anywhere on or along the body will do, depending on where the pain or disease is located. But most treatments will include channeling Reiki to the chakras, along with other parts of the body).

There are generally three levels of Reiki attunements. At the first level, you get the most basic attunement that I mentioned above. At the second level, you get further attunements and are taught the Reiki symbols that will help you practice distance healing. This means you no longer have to place your hands on a person to channel Reiki to them. You could be on opposite sides of the Earth or you could channel Reiki to a past event to bring about healing. This level helps you break past the space and time barrier. The third degree involves the final set of attunements, along with training to become a Reiki master yourself. Once you’re through this level, you can begin to help attune others and teach them about Reiki.

Some people are of the opinion, though, that one need not have to go through these attunements to really practice Reiki. If you remember that Reiki is everywhere and part of each one of us, and open to us all unconditionally, that knowledge in itself and enough faith may be all you need to get started. I personally feel that channeling Reiki is not much different from sending white light to someone or participating in a visualisation meditation to bring about healing. It all boils down to faith.

But, it’s always good to boost your efforts by actually undergoing the attunements. I just want to emphasise that these attunements are not what suddenly give you the ability to channel Reiki. They just magnify the already existent ability by opening up the right channels.

WEvil, another participant in the discussion, expressed the idea that, “Reiki attunements are more akin to putting ‘valves’ on it so you don’t get any backwash.”

Veneo told us about a Reiki session she had that she says was cool. “The lady who did it picked up information on me through my guides and shared it with me ... which was pretty wild at the time (which was over five years ago). I wish I could remember everything she said now.”

That’s the cool thing about Reiki. You can blend it with so many other techniques, and it will enhance them to give better results. Some practitioners use it in conjunction with crystals, and some with massage. You can channel Reiki to your food or your rundown car. There’s plenty of room for creativity.

There’s plenty of other information covered on that thread that I haven’t even begun to mention in this article. Chahldean provided interesting insights, including a brief history of Dr. Mikao Usui, the man who rediscovered and developed the technique called Reiki that is practiced by people today. I haven’t included those topics in this article, because I think they are best expressed in Chahldean’s words. You can find them at this link: Reiki Q & A thread on the forums.

We’ve also had members mention similar techniques of healing that they employ, and it has been an interesting learning experience. The discussion is still open, and I would urge readers of Metamorphosis to participate in it with us. Share your knowledge and experiences with Reiki or other such healing techniques, or ask questions if you have any, and let’s keep spiraling upwards!