Reiki

      Introduction

Reiki Degree II symbol - 'power'

Reiki is "... a Japanese technique for stress reduction and relaxation that also promotes healing. It is administered by "laying on hands" and is based on the idea that an unseen "life force energy" flows through us and is what causes us to be alive.", according to http://www.reiki.org/faq/whatisreiki.html.  If one's 'life force' is low, then "...we are more likely to get sick or feel stress, and if it is high, we are more capable of being happy and healthy."

A Reiki treatment

A Reiki treatment requires the client to be fully-clothed and to lie down onto a couch. The Reiki practitioners - or 'Reiki Masters' - will invoke the Reiki through a statement, normally said by them mentally. After that, they will place their hands on where they intuitively feel inclined and the treatment begins.

Feeling the heat...

Some people claim to feel 'heat' during a Reiki treatment. Rpsychologically (or psi-chologically!)?

Reiki Degree II symbol - 'emotion'

eiki practitioners may find that after invoking the Reiki energy, their hands begin to feel warm or hot. Is this the Reiki, or is it body heat? This doesn't always happen, because for some people - Reiki practitioners and clients alike - the Reiki energy is not 'felt' through heat and instead they may feel cool, or may not sense any temperature difference in their body at all. How can we know whether it is Reiki, or whether the heat is due to natural body heat which is misinterpreted to be Reiki heat? How do we know it isn't classical conditioning and cognitive dissonance at play? How do we know that, if it IS energy and, therefore, an 'energy exchange', that the energy itself does not involve, or function psychologically (or psi-chologically!)?

How does it work?

In the introduction, how Reiki is claimed to work was briefly discussed, but now it will be collaborated on in more depth. 'Rei' is Japanese for 'universal' and 'ki' is Japanese for 'life force'. Reiki is, therefore, 'universal life force'. It involves an evocation of the Reiki, which takes the form of an affirmation, such as "So now I give [recipient's name] some Reiki healing, in place of God/Spirit/Source [or whatever!] please guide me, please protect me. I am now a Reiki Healer." Trouble is that with this sort of statement, the power of suggestion may happen. If you feel heat after the invocation, you may believe that it is the Reiki, rather than body heat, because you had invoked the Reiki. You suggested that you were now going to give the recipient Reiki, so you are going to attribute anything that henceforth happens to Reiki. You may be more 'sensitive' to changes in things such as body heat because, perhaps subconsciously, you are 'looking' for evidence that the Reiki is working or that you are channelling it.

I've heard of 'channelling the dead' but 'channelling universal life force'?

After the invocation, the Reiki is supposed to surge through the practitioner's body, through the crown chakra, an energy wheel at the top, or crown, of the head which is said to be white in colour. This is, spiritually speaking, our personal connection to Source or the Universe. Reiki comes from the Universe, so this is where the energy first enters our physical body. After that, it goes down through our Third Eye chakra - which is indigo in colour and is supposedly in the centre of our forehead - otherwise known as the 'brow chakra'. Then the energy travels down, to our throat, where it passes through our turquoise-coloured throat chakra, located in the middle of our throat. Then it moves down again, to the centre of our chest in which is located our emerald-green heart chakra. The Reiki moves into this, then out, passing down both of the practitioner's arms, through the hands, then into the recipient.

Healing hands