Reiki

Reiki is many things, but one thing that it is not is a religion. It is said that its founder, Mikao Usui, was a teacher and a Christian minister who was asked by his students to show them the method by which Jesus did his healing. That was the beginning of his quest to find Jesus’ healing methodology. He allegedly exhausted all of the Christian information that he could find and then moved on to study other religions and religious practices to get his answer. It wasn’t until he became almost a scholar in the ancient language of Sanskrit that he was able to read very old texts in that language and he found his answer. It was quite simple, but it also entailed that he go through a fasting and a meditative process that lasted 21 days in seclusion atop of a mountain. On that last night before the 22nd day the story goes that he had the equivalent of an epiphany in which he was enlightened to the secrets of this healing.

Parts of this story are disputed today that Usui was a Christian minister and teacher, and it is suggested that part of the story was to give legitimacy to Reiki in the West.

Usui then went on to develop his method which he then taught to another Japanese man who was also a doctor in their Navy. That is how Reiki was originally passed down; through word of mouth and teaching from someone who had the knowledge. That is why the “lineage” is sometimes brought up among Reiki Masters, to show that their “lineage” is closer to the origin implying that it is less adulterated, more powerful and legitimate.

All of what we just said is just to serve as some type of background knowledge of how Reiki originated. The name Reiki is broken into two parts, Rei means wisdom for the spirit and Ki means energy. So in essence, Reiki means spiritual energy. When you go to a Reiki Practitioner they do not Reiki you as if Reiki itself was an action. What is done is that the Practitioner passes Reiki energy to you.

Some people mistake Reiki as massage and we have even heard it said that people are going for a Reiki massage. Although Reiki uses the hands on approach, just like in massage, it is quite different in that with Reiki it is the laying of the hands on certain strategic locations on the body that pass the Universal Energy to the recipient.

The one thing that makes Reiki unique to any of the other healing modalities is the attunement process. It is through the attunement process that the Reiki energy is passed to the practitioner which enables them to be a conduit of this energy to the recipient, their client.

A Reiki practitioner has the ability to pass Reiki healing energy and this brings us to the most important factor in the use of Reiki and almost any other complementary and alternative healing method; the practitioners intention. The best way we can describe this is by the saying that the rainfalls on both the righteous and the unrighteous. What we mean by this is the Universal Energy is a pure energy and available to all, for without it we could not live. It is how the individual uses and manipulates this energy by their intention that gives its results.We feel that anyone who practices Reiki with focus and purity of intention will get the results that their client desires.