Reiki

The gateway to energy healing

Reiki is an energy healing technique that promotes relaxation and reduces stress and anxiety through gentle touch or near touch. Reiki practitioners use their hands to deliver energy to your body, improving the flow and balance of your energy to support healing. Reiki is sometimes seen as the gateway to the mystical and magical realm of energy work and energy healing. It is something that feels accessible, and it is, while at the same time to access it requires a spirit of openness. It is a safe, gentle, non-invasive form of natural hands-on, energy-based healing. Reiki works particularly well for stress reduction, insomnia, chronic fatigue, and chronic pain, It is also particularly helpful in being with grief and finding spiritual integration and unfoldment.

Reiki, the term, is derived from the Japanese words rei, meaning “universal,” and ki, which refers to the vital life force energy that flows through all living things. It is simply universal life force energy and because it is just energy it has been around as long as the planet itself.  The traditional Reiki story begins in the 1800s with Mikao Usui. Usui developed the practice and traveled throughout Japan treating people and training students to practice Reiki. 

In the 1940’s Reiki came to the US and then spread to the rest of the world. It is now used globally. Reiki training ends with what is called an attunement. There are typically three levels of reiki training (some Reiki training uses 4 levels and separates level 3 from Reiki Master level) —each training level is centered on "attunement" (which is a ceremony of empowerment), education, and practice. The attunement is what makes reiki unique from other forms of healing touch and energy work. At the culmination of each level of training there is a ceremony, called Reiju (Ray-joo), that is performed by the reiki master to open and expand the main energy channels of the student's body, allowing universal energy, also known as Qi/Chi/Ki, to flow more freely and deeply through them. This attunement can clear blockages in the body and can lead to significant energy changes within the individual. Many will undergo an intense period of self-growth following their attunements. Once a student is attuned and receives that energy form the reiki master, they will then possess it for life.

Reiki practitioners act as a conduit between you and the source of the universal life force energy. The energy flows through the practitioner’s hands to you. During a reiki session, you’ll lie on a massage table fully clothed, as your reiki practitioner gently places their hands, palms down, on or just above your body in specific energy locations. They use a series of 12 to 15 different hand positions. Reiki treatments typically last about 50 minutes. 

It is a bit unexplainable what goes on in a session as each one is different depending on the client and the practitioner. Some sessions are relaxing and some rejuvenating. It is deeply dependent on what the client is there to receive as energy cannot be pushed onto someone without a level of receptivity - which can be conscious but is mostly likely more on the subconscious level.  The patient or client determines the energy flow from the practitioner’s hands by taking only what they need. 

Reiki differs from other touch therapies in that there is no pressure, massage or manipulation involved and it is fully clothed so you can just show up as you are and leave when the session is over, no need for a shower or change of clothing. It is passive and non-invasive for the client, yet no less impactful - and it can really create big, yet gentle shifts. 

To find Reiki practitioners, check out the resources directory on TheAlySphere.com.