Reiki is a Japanese form of healing that is becoming increasingly popular worldwide. What makes Reiki unique is that it incorporates elements of just about every other alternative healing practice such as spiritual healing, auras, crystals, chakra balancing, meditation, aromatherapy, naturopathy, and homeopathy.

Reiki involves the transfer of energy from practitioner to patient to enhance the body's natural ability to heal itself through the balancing of energy. Reiki utilizes specific techniques for restoring and balancing the natural life force energy within the body. It is a holistic, natural, hands-on energy healing system that touches on all levels: body, mind, and spirit.

Reiki (pronounced ray-key) is a Japanese word representing universal life energy, the energy which is all around us. It is derived from rei, meaning "free passage" or "transcendental spirit" and ki, meaning "vital life force energy" or " universal life energy".

What Is Reiki?

Reiki practitioners channel energy in a particular pattern to heal and harmonize. Unlike other healing therapies based on the premise of a human energy field, reiki seeks to restore order to the body whose vital energy has become unbalanced.

Reiki energy has several basic effects: it brings about deep relaxation, destroys energy blockages, detoxifies the system, provides new vitality in the form of healing universal life energy, and increases the vibrational frequency of the body.

The laying of hands is used in Reiki therapy also as in spiritual healing. There is a difference though. In spiritual healing, a person with a strong energy field places his or her hands above a particular part of the recipient's body in order to release energy into it. So, here the healer is the one who is sending out the energy. In Reiki, however, the healer places the hands above the recipient; however, it is the recipient that draws the energy as needed. Thus, in this case, the individual being healed takes an active part in the healing process as opposed to having a passive part in spiritual healing. The individual takes responsibility for his or her healing. The recipient identifies the needs and caters to them by drawing energy as needed.

Although there are a few positions in which the practitioner is in contact with the patient (such as cradling the head), most reiki treatments do not involve actual touching. The practitioner holds his or her hands a few inches or farther away from the patient's body and manipulates the energy field from there.

History of Reiki

Reiki is believed to have begun in Tibet several thousand years ago. Seers in the Orient studied energies and developed a system of sounds and symbols for universal healing energies. Various healing systems, which crossed many different cultures, emerged from this single root system. Unfortunately, the original source itself was forgotten.

Dr. Mikao Usui, a Japanese Christian educator in Kyoto, Japan, rediscovered the root system in the mid- to late 1800s. He began an extensive twenty-one-year study of the healing phenomena of history's greatest spiritual leaders. He also studied ancient sutras (Buddhist teachings written in Sanskrit). He discovered ancient sounds and symbols that are linked directly to the human body and nervous system which activate the universal life energy for healing.

Usui then underwent a metaphysical experience and became empowered to use these sounds and symbols to heal. He called this form of healing Reiki and taught it throughout Japan until his death around 1893.

The tradition was passed through several grandmasters of reiki such as Dr. Chujiro Hyashi, Hawayo Takata, and Phyllis Lei Furumoto.
There are many forms of reiki being practiced now. The two principal ones are: "the Usui System of Natural Healing" and "the Radiance Technique."

The Usui System of Natural Healing balances and strengthens the body's energy, promoting its ability to heal itself.

Reiki is useful in treating serious serious illnesses as well as others. Examples are: sports injuries, cuts, burns, internal diseases, emotional disorders, and stress-related illnesses.

Reiki was introduced to the Western world in the mid-1970s. Since then its use has spread dramatically worldwide.

Reiki energy

Reiki energy is regarded as life energy at its most effective-with the maximum vibration. It is considered to have an almost divine quality and as such includes everything, in a world where problems and disorders are deemed to be due to the feeling of detachment from the world.
There is no division of reiki energy into positive and negative forms but when a person undergoes a session of therapy, they allow the energy to be taken into themselves with beneficial effects. Essentially, those receiving reiki energy decide subconsciously just how much of the life energy is taken in.

Those who use reiki regularly often find they are more joyful, lively and their own in-built energy is enhanced-almost as if their batteries had been fully charged! Existing conflicts within the person are broken down and there is a greater vitality, leading to relaxation and a stimulation of the body. As this improvement develops, the natural processes of renewal and removal of toxins are enhanced and rendered more effective, ultimately opening up more of the body to the life energy.

Body organs such as the skin, and protective systems such as the immune system are improved providing the individual is prepared regularly to undertake reiki and in the first place to undergo an attunement or initiation into reiki energy. The initiation is merely a means whereby the universal life energy is bestowed through the reiki master. The master acts as a channel and a link with God to release the healing power.

An initiation is not absolutely essential but it allows the individual access to the universal life energy, which is used rather than their own life energy. Also, an initiation conveys a greater capacity for using reiki energy, with no associated tiredness and further, it provides a protective mechanism against any negative manifestations.

Initiation or Becoming a Reiki Master

Through a series of attunements, part of the initiation process for new Reiki practitioners, a Reiki master employs the ancient sounds and symbols that attune an individual's nervous system to a higher level of energy. A level is reached in which the students , neither highly trained nor especially gifted, can experience more energy flowing through their hands, giving them the power to heal themselves and others.

Reiki is taught in three levels or degrees. In Level I or First Degree, the participant receives attunement or initiation to the Reiki energy by the Reiki master. This permanently guides the person to greater healing power. The student learns how to do full body treatments on self and others.

In Level II or Second Degree, the participant receives attunements which increase the strength of the practitioner's Reiki energy. This primarily involves learning the sounds and symbols which are used in advanced Reiki bodywork and absentee healing.

In Level III or Third Degree, the participant receives third-level empowerment and the ' final symbol'. It is taught mainly for personal growth. A person who has completed the third level is able to give the Level I Reiki attunement.

Who Does It?

Practitioners study with reiki masters to learn how to access ki and become a channel for its transmission. Students learn basic healing patterns and the "laying on of hands" for themselves and others. More advanced practitioners may use absentee healing-which involves practicing reiki on someone from a long distance, such as a different part of the country- or goal-oriented healing to address specific problems.