Is Reiki just a panacea?

I mean is it?  Many people have asked me that over the years, because when you look at someone practicing Reiki, it doesn’t look like much.  A practitioner puts their hands on or over a client’s body and channels energy.  But what does that really mean?  And is it really working?

Well, technically, every living thing on this planet channels energy that can be measured.  We have electromagnetic currents in our body and warm blooded creatures do give off body heat.

But that’s not what Reiki ‘is’.  It’s a form of energy that is greater than even that.  In classical Western thought, there were 5 elements:  earth, wind, fire, water and ether.  Ether was the 5th element that bound all the others together.  It was a kind of ‘psychic glue’.  I like to think of Reiki that way.

But why and how does it work?  Well, a practitioner of it is a channel for this force that is greater that brings about a state of relaxation.  I like to say a ‘method of calming the nervous system’.  When that happens, the physcial body gets to take a break.  It stops trying and instead starts being.

Kind of like what happens in meditation or prayer, without the effort.  Reiki takes over, it ‘resets’ the body and mind.

When that reset happens healing can occur.  I like to say that healing comes from the same Latin word as ‘wholeness’.  To heal is to become whole.  So in my mind, yes, Reiki is working.

But what about the panacea effect?  For some, the panacea effect may be in action, a practitioner is ‘doing’ something to them whether they understand it or not.  Reiki often feels hot or tingly, like something is working.  If that effect is in action and it causes someone to believe they are being healed, or protected, or rejuvenated, then so be it.

The energy is still doing healing for the highest and best good.  Reiki is a method that does work with or without the snake oil.  For more scientific studies on Reiki please visit www.centerforreikiresearch.org.

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