Shortly after my previous post on Reiki, where I cited scientific studies that give credibility to massage therapy, a new study about Reiki came out in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. This study took place at Yale Medical Center and found improved outcomes for patients who had received Reiki treatment within three days after suffering a heart attack.
This kind of research intrigues me and makes me want to learn more. I’ve been doing a great deal of reading on the topic in preparation for my Level 1 Reiki training in early November. However, I am having trouble accepting two basic principles: “attunement” and “distance Reiki.”
“Attunement” refers to a kind of initiation ritual wherein an advanced teacher (known as a “Master”) somehow activates a person’s ability to tap into Reiki energy, which is claimed to be a universal life force flowing through everyone. One of my colleagues, who has attained Master-level training and told me she needed to learn more about how to do attunements, agreed with my interpretation that it was like “flipping a switch.” Not having had my own switch flipped yet, I’m not really convinced. I’ll be sure to follow up with a report on my “attunement” after November 5.
“Distance Reiki” is something that happens during training for Reiki Level 2. As I understand it, practitioners are supposed to be able to send Reiki healing energy to those who are not present. This is where, as I mentioned in my last post, Reiki begins to seem suspiciously like religion. I received this impression quite strongly from looking at an internet message board where people were posting distance Reiki requests. Many of them were heartbreaking and desperate, just as prayer requests can be when presented at church or through support groups. But when I got to the post where someone asked for people to send Reiki to her lost kitten, I thought, “seriously?” I love my pets as much as the next person, and I’ve even had a cat jump out my window and run away, but I certainly wouldn’t expect strangers to care, or to attempt to intervene in some cosmic way.
And so “Confessions of a Reiki Sceptic” continues. I’ll be receiving a Reiki treatment in a couple of weeks as a prerequisite for my course, and I’ll post my observations here then.
I’ve been practicing Reiki since 1986, and teaching others to practice since 1990. I always tell my students that their skepticism is welcome. I much prefer to work with people who are skilled in critical thinking. The only thing I ask is that they practice daily Reiki self-treatment. As we practice self-treatment regularly over time, our understanding deepens and grows, and many of the things that may have seemed odd in the beginning seem less so. As we practice, we have an immediate experience of what words express so inadequately, and we come to realize that it was the way Reiki was conceptualized that is odd, and not the actual experience of the practice.
Reiki practice is easily learned, but not so easily spoken about credibly. The fact that many practitioners wrap it in New Age trappings doesn’t help.
But there are credible practitioners, and if you take the time to investigate your options and choose your practitioner and your class carefully, you may come to be a little skeptical of your skepticism. These posts will help: http://bit.ly/Cred and http://bit.ly/bM2xak.
Pamela, thank you for your feedback. I have been enjoying your book (which was recommended to me by Wendy Miner, who has been advising me in startup matters for my hospice massage program and whose Level 1 course I will be taking this November). I very much appreciate your careful approach as well as the dedication you bring to your work.
Wonderful that you are working with Wendy! Enjoy the exploration, and please don’t ever lose your capacity for skepticism. Mine remains in tact, and it has served me well.
“Confessions of a Reiki Skeptic”… I love it!
I hope you get your flip switched BIG TIME!
xo-k
I’m looking forward to hearing what you have to say after you get your attunement. Like you, I am skeptical, though I want to believe that it works.
So? Was it a complete bust or are you so amazed that you can’t find words to describe it?
Eagerly looking forward to you next post.
Sorry to leave you hanging, Tracy! I’ve been busy with out-of-town guests.
I’ll post more after Thanksgiving, but I will say that the experience surprised me in a good way.