Why Reiki?
What are the Benefits of Reiki?
Reiki can be given to yourself, children, the elderly, and to plants and animals.
Reiki has applications for use during life transitions such as pregnancy and childbirth; transitioning into death (spiritual mid-wifery); and relationship changes. It is also indicated during and after surgery and medical procedures; healing constricted relationships; releasing emotional ‘blocks’; developing psychic intuition; releasing emotional trauma; manifesting goals and intentions; and enhancing spiritual growth.
- The flow of healing Reiki energy can help you:
- Experience deep relaxation and increased awareness
- Increase joy in your life
- Find relief for immune disorders and chronic conditions
- Decrease stress and high blood pressure
- Experience clarity and balance in relationships
- Improve insomnia
- Decrease depression and anxiety
- Relieve grief and trauma reactions
- Acceleration of wound healing
- Relieve nausea from chemotherapy and other causes
- Learn to heal yourself, other people and animals
- As a spiritual path to enlightenment
Does Research Support Reiki’s Efficacy?
Again, Dr. Oz: “So many of the ailments that we suffer from can be treated through energy therapies, which will become much more prevalent over the next few years.”
“Energy Medicine” and “Biofield Therapies” such as Reiki, Qi Gong, and Therapeutic Touch are becoming increasingly more popular as people look for help outside of the limits of modern western medicine. Such therapies are recognized as putative practices by the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, meaning that the energy that Reiki and other practices purports to work with cannot be proven or measured by current scientific method. At present research can only evaluate the effects of Reiki treatments because it cannot measure the Reiki energy itself. Although the methodology of many of the studies of biofield therapies still needs refinement to meet standards of the scientific community, there is beginning research to support the efficacy of Reiki.
All the benefits listed in the previous section, and many more, have been found by research to be direct positive outcomes of Reiki energetic healing.
Reiki is being used in hospitals to assist cancer patients and treat wounds and it is currently being applied to work with traumatized veterans. Reiki is an important adjunct in the anxiety of surgery and in relief from chronic pain.
It is good to keep in mind that the idea or notion of the ‘atom’ and also of the ‘cell’ was posited long before science could measure and prove their existence. Even love, which we all know exists, cannot be measured! Whereas the effects of love can certainly be observed and experienced, so can the effects of Reiki healing energy. In fact, the great Reiki Masters all understand Reiki to be the force of love, that pulsation of the universe which creates and brings existence into its wholeness and is often understood as the divine.
These days Reiki seems to be in better company with Quantum Physics than with modern western medicine. The new physics understands that everything is only energy, and some physicists propose that the underlying substrate of all existence is a kind of cosmic intelligence force. As such, time is only a construct which allows for the manifestation of form, and there is much in our universe that can happen outside of our conventional notions of time and space. Indeed Reiki seems to work outside the normal understandings of the limitations of space and time, healing into both past and future. And this possibility is not contradicted by new research into the time-space continuum!
Why Learn to Practice Reiki Myself?
Receiving Reiki treatments can be utterly relaxing, even blissful, and can lead to deep healing of emotional and physical imbalances. A course of Reiki treatments by a qualified practitioner can enhance deep psychological work and sometimes bring unexpected breakthroughs. Allowing oneself to receive Reiki treatments is a gift of self-love and self-respect to be treasured.
And yet, the empowerments one receives from learning to practice Reiki are beyond measure. Once attuned to Reiki at the first degree, your own natural healing abilities are activated and you then have a self-healing practice for life. You will have Reiki at your fingertips to use in times of stress, illness, relationship challenges, and the like. The discipline of a daily Reiki self-practice, especially when paired with a daily meditation practice, creates balance and wholeness in your life. In time, you will actually become a kinder, more loving, insightful, and compassionate person. You will also be able to offer love and healing to your family and friends in their times of need.
Should you decide to pursue further levels of Reiki practice, you will learn how to heal at a distance through time and space; to cleanse and heal chakras and auras; and to look more deeply into the nature of reality and what it means to heal. You will also have the option of becoming a Reiki practitioner and incorporating Reiki into every aspect of your life. Reiki at the advanced levels is a truly transformative practice.