What does Reiki do?

Reiki is not a substitute for appropriate medical or emotional treatment. Reiki is a complementary treatment, and should be used only as an adjunct when other forms of treatment are necessary. Reiki is a very gentle and safe method of bringing in healing energy from the Universal Supply. Reiki uses ancient healing energy techniques to help build more personal energy, more vitality, more resilience, and better health. Its most profound effect is an almost immediate feeling of deep relaxation, resulting in a reduction in stress. Reiki can help you change your mind and body for the better learning more of your inner self and giving more to yourself. You can learn to share Reiki healing energy with others as well as anything else that you can imagine including pets and plants! There are many cases on record of miraculous cures where Reiki has helped with all kinds of physical and mental ailments. Reiki practitioners can even send Reiki over a distance, sometimes thousands of miles, and still achieve beneficial effects. Reiki is being used more and more as an adjunct to help with traditional medical practices.

Does Reiki work for everyone?
Reiki works to the degree that a person is willing and able to use the energy. If a person chooses for whatever reason to not receive a treatment, no energy will be transferred. The effect of a Reiki treatment can vary from so subtle it may not even be felt to fairly profound. The more healthy you are in all respects, the more subtle the effects. Most of us feel some discomfort in our lives and can benefit from Reiki.

Reiki is known as intelligent energy and helps with the highest form of healing possible in a situation. Sometimes, the healing that occurs may not match our own expectations. This is often where the spiritual aspect of Reiki is most obvious. Sometimes, if a person's time has come, being able to feel at peace with death is the highest form of healing possible, even though we personally think a complete cure is preferable. Reiki can only enhance whatever natural healing is taking place; it cannot be used to guarantee outcomes or change fate.

What is a Reiki treatment?
A Reiki treatment is a "laying on of hands" which is an ancient technique common to many spiritual traditions. To ensure the safety of the client as well as the practitioner, Reiki treatments should be administered only by a person fully trained and certified in Reiki techniques. In a typical Reiki treatment, the client lies down (fully clothed) on a padded treatment table. Energy is transferred to the client through the hands of the practitioner. The practitioner moves through a sequence of standard hand positions. Treatment starts with the practitioner's hands lightly resting on or above the client's head for 3-5 minutes, then slowly repeats this process systematically moving down to the feet. A full treatment usually takes about an hour. A Reiki treatment is a spiritual practice because it works directly with energy, or "spirit." A Reiki treatment does not involve any pressure or manipulation of tissues such as with a massage.

What is a "distance" treatment?
Only a Reiki Level 2 or a Reiki Master can give a distance treatment. Reiki distance treatments are learned advanced techniques for transferring Reiki energy to a distant time or location. Although we do not understand either the energy or how it works, there is considerable evidence that Reiki is able to travel independent of time or distance to deliver healing. Most Reiki practitioners use this technique similar to a telephone. They know it works and do not necessarily have a clue as to the underlying mechanisms.

What is Reiki energy?
Reiki is simply the "life force." It is called by various names in different parts of the world. It is called "prana" in India, "qi" or "chi" in China, "spirit" in Western traditions, etc. It is the subtle energy we unconsciously feel when we sense that someone is "intense", "laid back", or that someone is watching us. Each person's pattern of energy is as unique to them as their fingerprints. These patterns are often described as personal vibrations. People have a general energy pattern that is different from the patterns of other species. This energy can be concentrated as taught in the martial arts of T'ai Chi or Qi Gong. When used properly this energy can produce many beneficial effects.

What does Reiki energy feel like?
People feel Reiki in different ways. Most often during a treatment the energy is experienced as warmth. Others feel a mild tingle, as when an arm or leg has "fallen asleep." Still others feel a throbbing or pulsing sensation. Some people don't feel any physical sensation but describe mental or emotional changes, such as a sense of calmness or peacefulness. Nearly everyone experiences a Reiki treatment as deeply relaxing.

How does a Reiki treatment work?
This question is best answered by drawing an analogy. As mentioned before, our natural energy level is affected by our state of health or disease. We can all relate to the feelings of low energy or depletion that occur when we are trying to heal, whether from physical distress (illness or injury) or from mental difficulties (such as grief or anxiety). A Reiki treatment under these circumstances can be compared to jump starting a car. When the car's battery can't quite provide enough energy to start the car, we attach jumper cables from another battery to add more energy. Reiki is a means of adding more energy to our "life force" battery to help "jump start" the healing process. This process does not exhaust the practitioner, because the practitioner is trained to channel energy from the outside environment, not from his or her own personal "battery." Practiced in this manner, the energy available is virtually limitless. The amount of energy transferred depends on the client's ability to use it and willingness to receive it. When no more energy can be used, the transfer ceases to occur. A skillful practitioner can usually sense when this happens.

Why Reiki?
As with the battery analogy, Eastern and Oriental philosophies say there are two major "life force" energies. One kind of energy is that personal individual life energy. When it is used up, that living thing dies. There are ways to tap into this individual energy, but in doing so even the most vital healers rapidly tire and become depleted. Tapping this type of energy is unhealthy. Reiki energy provides a far better alternative. Reiki energy is "Universal Life Force Energy". It is inexhaustible plus is intelligent. It always goes to where it will do the most good and never comes in stronger than can be handled. Reiki provides a simple, easy to learn way to tap into this universal energy to help others and us.

What is the definition of Reiki?
Reiki is a compound Japanese word that has the general case meaning of "healing". Rei means "Universal" or "Spiritual", and Ki is "Life Force Energy". Most westerners take Reiki to mean "Universal Life Force Energy". This universal energy, and not personal energy, is what is used during Reiki Healing. The Usui Natural Healing System (sometimes written as Usui Shiki Ryoho), named for its founder, Mikao Usui, is the basic system used to invoke and use this energy known as Reiki energy.

How is Reiki done?
In a Reiki Healing session, the practitioner places his or her hands onto or just above the patient's body at a number of strategic points. The patient almost always feels the energy begin to flow into them, either as a heat, a coldness, or a strange "flow" through their body, often in places remote from the point at which the practitioner has their hands.

When is a Reiki treatment appropriate?
Reiki is particularly effective if applied as soon as possible after a trauma happens, whether due to physical injury or mental shock. At these times the body is mobilizing all available energy to stabilize the immediate problem so that long-term healing can occur. Any extra energy available will only enhance the process. Later, when the healing process slows and energy is shared between healing and other bodily functions and activities, Reiki can still be a useful adjunct.

It is important to remember that because Reiki works on an energy level, it can aid physical, emotional, mental, and even spiritual healing. Many people also use Reiki as a preventive practice. Practitioners learn to do self-treatment before they learn how to treat others.

Many of us are increasingly aware of the unique energy patterns that develop between individuals and among people in groups. Psychology includes this in the term "group dynamics." Advanced Reiki practitioners are trained to treat group situations as well, using special distance techniques.

What is a Reiki Attunement?
Reiki practitioners are said to be "attuned" to the Reiki energy. The "attunement" is similar to helping someone tune in a radio station, but in the case of Reiki it allows the student to "tune in" more efficiently to using Reiki energy. Everyone is to some degree attuned to the same energies used within Reiki. Teaching Reiki Masters give initiations to better connect each student with the energy channels and to ensure that energy passed through will not be from the student's own reserves. Teaching Reiki Masters go through considerable training to learn how to make efficient "attunements" as well as how to impart the Reiki teachings. After each attunement students are given a series of exercises for twenty-one days or longer to ensure those students are from then on permanently attached to the Reiki Energy they learn.

How do you learn Reiki?
Unlike many other disciplines, learning how to be an effective Reiki practitioiner is easy and quick (as little as one day). Reiki is easily used from then on simply through intent and a little focus of attention. There are no complicated movements or rituals to learn. Although easily learned and applied, Reiki is so rich mastery can take a lifetime.

The Traditional Reiki Degrees
All Reiki derives from the Usui Natural Healing System (sometimes written as Usui Shiki Ryoho) but most commonly known as traditional Usui Reiki. In traditional Usui Reiki a student goes through a comprehensive many year long learning program to earn Reiki I, Reiki II, and then Reiki Master degrees:

Traditional Reiki 1 - The First Degree
This is the first of the Reiki degrees where students learn how to do self-treatment and to give hands-on treatment to others. Many, particularly people with chronic problems, take the First Degree Reiki training to help with their own personal healing. In this degree a Reiki Teaching Master gives several initiations. These initiations "attune" each student to open the Reiki energy channels and ensure that energy passed through will not be from the person's own reserves. Students are given a series of exercises that they must do after the class for at least three weeks to make attunements permanent and available from then on as needed. This level generally requires two and a half days of training. Many current traditional Teaching Reiki Masters provide this training in an eight to ten hour class with quite a bit of homework. In class the student learns a little of the Reiki history and the simple basic skills to use Reiki. They have an opportunity to work with a Teaching Reiki Master to learn basic hands on healing, grounding, and protection. The student will then continue to work with their Teaching Reiki Master for a few months to refine their skills and technique.

Traditional Reiki 2 - The Second Degree
Second level training is usually only given after a student has been practicing First Degree skills for at least a year, though this can vary somewhat depending on the individual. This second level generally requires two days of training that many current Teaching Reiki Masters teach as an eight hour class plus significant homework. The Second Degree Reiki student learns three special symbols and how to use these symbols to better focus and increase the amounts of Reiki energy transferred. The three symbols loosely represent the trinity present in many belief systems, in this case representing mind, body, and spirit, with one symbol for each concept. Second degree Reiki also teaches students how to give "distance" treatments for individuals, groups, and circumstances. It provides tools to help with emotional and mental problems, physical complaints, past-life and karmic issues, and how to direct healing energy both forward and backward in time and space including over great distances. Students can learn second degree skills in a weekend when the student is ready.

Traditional Reiki Master - The Third Degree
Traditional Teaching Reiki Master training is primarily intended for people who have made Reiki their life's work. The requirements for the Second Reiki degree are stringent. They are even more stringent and difficult for a Reiki Master degree. Depending upon the individual, Reiki Master level training is usually only given after a student has been practicing Second Degree skills for at least two years. After being accepted by a Teaching Reiki Master as an apprentice it takes from one to three additional years of hands on training and experience to master teaching each of the three levels of training. During this training period as a courtesy the student is called a Reiki Master. Soon after starting their Reiki Master program they learn the intellectual knowledge to be a Reiki teacher. Still, they have a long way to go to add the considerable hands-on experience under the careful guidance of a good teacher to become an effective teacher. During this apprenticeship phase, each new Reiki Master is strongly encouraged to heal others and themselves helping each to improve their own physical, spiritual, and mental health.