Reiki Deep Dive

Understanding Reiki – Universal Life Force Energy

If you are new to words like reiki or chakra, let’s get you up to speed with a reiki deep dive.

Let’s take a reiki deep dive into the origins of the practice and how reiki is used in today’s healthcare system. You’ll also learn about chakras and how they are related to the endocrine system. Finally, you’ll learn about the benefits of receiving a reiki treatment.

A single reiki session can be tremendously beneficial, especially if you’ve never received it before. We’ll discuss appropriate frequency of receiving reiki below.

Origins of Reiki – Japanese

The first stop on our reiki deep dive is Japan. Reiki is a holistic practice developed in Japan in the early 1900s by Dr. Mikao Usui. Dr. Usui’s concept was heavily influenced by Buddhist, Taoist, and Shinto practices. The fundamentals of reiki are based on the belief that universal life force flows through all things. Dr. Usui discovered the skill of being able to channel energy to oneself and then taught it to others. He trained over 2000 reiki practitioners before he died in 1926.

Prior to his passing, Dr. Usui expressed his desire for the teachings to continue. He entrusted one of his Reiki Masters, Chujiro Hayashi, to expand and develop the practice. This led to the Hayashi Reiki Institute. The clinic focused on holistic treatment of health issues and kept detailed records on which reiki hand positions were most effective for each patient.

An actual patient of the Hayashi clinic, Mrs. Hawayo Takata, went on to become a Reiki Master and opened her own clinics in Hawaii. She taught others and became a well-known and powerful healer. Mrs. Takata’s ways of holistic teaching were much more rigid and involved a code of secrecy. As a result, Reiki Masters trained under Mrs. Takata were sworn to uphold her methods. This significantly limited the spread of the teachings and benefits of reiki until Mrs. Takata crossed over.

Her principles were not in alignment with the philosophies of Usui and Hayashi. Those Masters believed that Reiki healing was something that should be shared and made widely available to anyone who wanted it. Following her passing, Reiki teachings became more creative and flexible based on the unique experience of the practitioner.

Today there are over 100,000 trained Reiki healers in the United States alone.

Reiki Healing in Healthcare

Reiki works in harmony with all other kinds of health treatments. You cannot give too much reiki. There are no side effects or contraindications. The only person who should not receive reiki is the person who does not want to receive it.

You might be surprised to learn that reiki is becoming more widely accepted in the medical community. Reiki has shown to be particularly beneficial in conjunction with traditional treatments for cancer patients. The following highly-reputable institutions offer reiki and other holistic treatment modalities:

Cleveland Clinic offers complimentary reiki therapy.
Brigham & Women’s Hospital
Mayo Clinic Integrative Oncology
New York Presbyterian
Memorial Sloan Kettering

Read more about reiki in hospitals here.

Reiki and the Endocrine System

The main energy centers of the body are known as chakras, pronounced “chack-ras”. These 7 main areas are located close to various endocrine glands as shown in the image below.

Understanding Chakras

The word “chakra” means “wheel of light” in Sanskrit (the language that guides the names of your yoga positions). When the body is in alignment, the energy of each chakra circulates in a clockwise motion. If there is an imbalance, which could be overstimulation or under stimulation of an energy center, the energy may move slow or essentially come to a stop (which is referred to as an energy blockage).

While I can’t point you to a textbook that clearly connects the endocrine system to the chakras, it is widely accepted that the two are interrelated. Deficiencies or excesses in the endocrine system can manifest as physical symptoms, but the underly premise is that this is the result of energy dysfunction in one or more chakras. Therefore, restoring healthy energy flow to the chakras may have beneficial impacts on symptoms related to dysfunction of the endocrine system.

The 7 Chakras Defined

Each chakra is tied to a different function of your existence and life experience. The top 4 chakras (crown, third-eye, throat and heart) are related to your spiritual existence and the bottom 3 (solar plexus, sacral and root) relate more closely to your physical experience.

Crown Chakra – The crown chakra is your connection to your spirituality and higher purpose.
Third-Eye Chakra – This chakra is your control center for intuition, imagination, wisdom and insight.
Throat Chakra – Related to finding your voice and speaking your truth. Letting go of what no longer serves you.
Heart Chakra – Love of self and all other things, understanding, acceptance.
Solar Plexus – Sense of self, willpower, personal power, intellectual activity.
Sacral Chakra – Emotional life, feelings, sexuality, pleasure, desire, your feminine energy.
Root Chakra – Survival instinct, security, groundedness, stability, courage, your masculine energy.

Is Reiki the Same Thing as Acupuncture?

Reiki is not the same thing as acupuncture, but they are both alternative therapies used to treat imbalances in the body.

Acupuncture focuses on the body’s meridians, which are energy pathways that are believe to supply energy to each of the individual organs. In acupuncture, tiny needles are used to release negative or unhealthy energies from a specific organ or body system.

In reiki, a reiki practitioner channels healing energy through their hands into the body of the receiver. That energy does its own intelligent work to find blockages or excesses in the chakras and restore balance, or homeostasis (no needles).

Benefits of Reiki

Reiki had been used to aid in treatment of nearly every malady imaginable and is a good adjunctive therapy for more traditional medical treatments. That said, there are many benefits to receiving reiki even if you are not under medical treatment.

Patient’s receiving reiki healing have reported feeling profound relaxation after a session. Other commonly reported benefits are:

Effective in pain management
Improvements in sleep
Improvements in digestion
Reduction of unpleasant side effects associated with medications or treatments like chemotherapy and radiation
More complete breathing
Support in recovery from addiction
Clearer thinking and enhancement of self-esteem
Greater self-awareness and self-acceptance
A sense of greater spiritual connection to oneself and a higher power
Increased satisfaction in relationships

Will I Be Healed After One Session?

There is always benefit to a reiki session, so even doing a single session is worthwhile. If you are dealing a chronic illness or continuing to struggle with an emotional or spiritual challenge, a series of 3 sessions spaced 2-weeks apart is recommended. From there, you can schedule additional sessions as needed.