What is Reiki?
Reiki is a Japanese healing practice for reducing stress and inducing the body to heal itself.
Reiki, pronounced Ray Key, is a Japanese word which means free passage of universal life force energy. This life force energy is known as Prana in India, Chi in China, Ki in Japan, Mana in Hawaii and Elan vital in Europe. All of us have life force energy; it is essential for life and needs to flow freely for optimum health.
The aim of Reiki treatments is to harmonise your life force energy and reconnect you to the universal energy. Reiki energy is said to come from the source of all creation. This Source is said to be the vital force that sustains the cosmos and infuses us with light and life, providing the energy source from which our bodies, and all forms of matter, arise. Our aura is an energy body that surrounds our physical body; it emerges from our chakras (the energy centres of the body) and reflects the state of our life force energy.
These concepts are the pillars on which all healing traditions including Reiki are built and can be found in the texts of ancient Chinese, Indian and Japanese philosophies. More recently, modern scientific understanding has started to converge with this ancient wisdom. Quantum physicists have discovered that the universe is made up of energy, the Zero Point Field, and this energy is the source of all matter in the universe including human beings.
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Reiki – Mechanisms of Healing – Part 2
In part 1 on the discussion of the mechanisms of healing I explored the range of opinions on how Reiki works. I want to continue this discussion by focusing on some interesting research which supports my belief that I act as a channel for universal energy when I am giving Reiki treatments. During the 1980’s, Dr Robert Becker, Dr John Zimmerman, and Max Cade each investigated what happens whilst people perform therapies like Reiki. They found that not only do the brain wave patterns of practitioner and receiver become synchronised in the alpha state, but they pulse in unison with the earth’s magnetic field, known as the Schuman Resonance. During these moments, the biomagnetic field of the practitioner’s hands is at least 10000 times greater than normal, and not as a result of internal body current. The synchronisation between practitioner & receiver in the alpha state allows left-right balance, and stimulates deep relaxation and meditation. Which explains why all my clients state Reiki is very relaxing. Toni Bunnell (1997) suggests that the linking of energy fields between practitioner and earth allows the practitioner to draw on the ‘infinite energy source’ or ‘universal energy field’ via the Schuman Resonance. Professor Paul Davies and Dr John Gribben in The Matter Myth (1991), discuss the quantum physics view of a ‘living universe’ in which everything is connected in a ‘living web of interdependence’. References Zimmerman J., ‘New technologies detect effects of healing hands’, Brain/Mind Bulletin, Vol 10, No 16. Sept 30, 1985. Becker, Robert O. ‘The Body Electric: Electromagnetism and the Foundation of Life’, Pub: William Morrow & Co. Inc. 1985 Bunnell T., ‘A tentative mechanism for healing’, Positive Health, Nov/Dec 1997. Cade M. & Coxhead N., ‘The Awakened Mind;Biofeedback and the Development of Higher States of Awareness’, pub: Element Books, 1996 (reprint).
