A touch of healing energy

CONTINUING Connect’s series of Beginner’s Guides to complementary treatments, SHARON BAYLIS of the Reiki Association looks at this popular form of healing

GIVEN the range of complementary therapies and healing techniques that now abound, it can be difficult to find a way through them all, to distinguish the good from the mediocre and pick out what is going to be right and beneficial for you.

Take Reiki, for example. Twenty years ago, hardly anyone outside Japan had heard of Reiki. Now, this simple system of ‘hands-on’ healing is spreading around the world at an astonishing rate. More and more people each year are learning how to treat themselves, their family and friends. And adverts for Reiki are popping up everywhere.

So what is Reiki and how should you go about choosing a teacher or a practitioner?


REIKI:
Using energy to stimulate the body's own healing power.

Reiki (pronounced ray-key) is a Japanese word meaning universal energy, or spiritually guided life force (rather like the Chinese word ‘Qi’ or the Indian word ‘Prana’). It’s also the name given to this system of natural healing for the body, mind and spirit.

It’s a ‘hands-on’ kind of healing - quite literally: energy flows through the hands of the person giving Reiki to the person receiving treatment.

Reiki energy stimulates the body’s own natural healing process, relieving physical aches and pains, lifting depression, dissolving stress and bringing a deep and lasting sense of peace and relaxation. In the same way that a plant takes up water, the energy is absorbed wherever it is needed, going straight to the source of any problem in a completely natural and nourishing way, without the need for diagnosis or interference.

Treatment is totally safe and non-invasive and can be used with absolute security alongside other therapies, including conventional medicine. People of any age, from the very old to the very young, and with any condition, from pregnancy to Alzheimer’s, can benefit. Plants and animals also respond well to treatment, so the effect is clearly not ‘just in the mind’.

The history of Reiki is fascinating. One of the most ancient healing methods known to man, Reiki was rediscovered in Japan around 100 years ago by Dr Mikao Usui. He studied, travelled, meditated and with enormous dedication evolved the system of healing that is now taught around the world as Usui Shiki Ryoho (the Usui System of Natural Healing).

Reiki came out of Japan and into the west in 1937, in the hands of a diminutive Japanese woman called Hawayo Takata, born in Hawaii in 1900. As a young widow with two small daughters and a host of health problems, Mrs Takata went to Tokyo seeking surgery. There she discovered Reiki - and the surgery became unnecessary.

She worked closely with Dr. Usui’s successor, Dr Chujiro Hyashi, was initiated as a Reiki Master herself, and for the next 40 years taught Reiki throughout the United States and Canada. It was only in 1975, five years before her death, that she began to initiate masters herself, and it is from the 22 Reiki Masters created by her that the current worldwide explosion of Reiki has emanated. The Lineage Bearer of the Usui System today is Mrs Takata’s granddaughter, Phyllis Lei Furumoto.

Reiki is still taught by Masters trained in the original traditions - people who have committed their personal lives to this work. Like Mrs Takata, they teach in the oral tradition, passing on the story of the System’s development through a series of parables. Inevitably, as the years have passed, practices have evolved and new systems have emerged, so the treatments given by different practitioners may vary enormously, depending on how they themselves were taught.

There are various ways of becoming involved with Reiki. The best way to begin is to go to a practitioner for a treatment. This lasts 60-90 minutes and generally costs £20-40 – prices vary. During the treatment, Reiki energy is transferred through the practitioner’s hands, which rest gently on the recipient’s body in a sequence of positions, moving every few minutes, starting with the head and covering the front and back of the body. Treatment is usually received either lying or sitting, whichever is most comfortable. No clothing has to be removed - the energy passes easily through fabric, blankets, belts and even plaster cast. A peaceful, relaxing environment, free of interruptions and disturbances, is best.

You may experience sensations of warmth or tingling coming from the practitioner’s hands - or you may feel nothing at all. Some people close their eyes while receiving treatment, and some fall into a deep slumber, which can feel more refreshing than a full night’s sleep. Others experience a treatment as being wonderfully energising. There is no right or wrong way to experience Reiki.
Having received treatment, you may choose to be ‘initiated’ into the energy yourself, so you can learn how to treat yourself and other people. Self-treatment promotes healing on every level - mental, physical, emotional and spiritual.

Anyone can learn Reiki – and all sorts of people do, from all sorts of backgrounds and walks of life and from many different religions and cultures. It does not require any level of intellectual or mental power, any special skill or attribute. All that is needed is a genuine desire to learn and to use Reiki. And once learnt, the gift of Reiki is yours forever.

As Mrs Takata said: “All you have to do is take your hands out, apply, and you heal. And as far as healing is concerned, you don’t worry, because you are not doing it, the energy is doing it, Reiki is doing it. If Reiki is doing it there is no mistake, you understand?”

First degree classes are divided into four parts (usually spread over four consecutive days or a weekend), during which students are gradually initiated into the energy of Reiki and learn the forms of practise and the hand positions for treatment.

Second degree Reiki, which includes healing at a distance and the healing of situations and places, takes people deeper into the System and requires a greater commitment.

The Reiki Association (TRA) was formed in 1991, a community of people who have been initiated into Reiki and who seek to nurture the understanding and practice of the Usui System of Natural Healing. As well as offering help and advice to practitioners on things like legislation, insurance and training, TRA is a wonderful forum for Reiki people to meet and exchange views and ideas. It is also a useful point of contact for people who want to find out more about Reiki.

Finding the right Master or practitioner is a personal process, so TRA does not recommend individuals, but it does offer guidelines on how to make your choice, and publishes both a referral list of practitioners and a directory giving helpful information and the details of Masters who are members.



WANT TO KNOW MORE?
VISIT the TRA website at www.reikiassociation.org.uk; send an sae to Julia Prescott-Rogers at 8 Windmill Close, Buerton, Crewe CW3 0DF; or call the “number for life”, 0901 8800009.