What is Reiki?
The art of laying on of hands is ancient.
Since the dawn of days, we humans have been wired to lend a helping hand to those in pain or discomfort.
It's in our DNA to reach out and touch someone who's ailing, and mums are a prime example of this. When a little one is in pain, a mother's loving hands can magically ease the hurt.
Human touch conveys healing care and love.
This energy is known by many names. Chi in china, Prana in India, Ruach by the Hebrews and Reiki by the Japanese. Reiki is easily learned, very simple to use and is beneficial for all.
Reiki is one of the more widely known forms of healing through direct application of this energy.
Mystics in all cultures have talked about the physical universe being made of an underlying simpler form of something, much as modern physics research is coming to understand the Universe is made of energy, which is subject to, or affected by, thought.
Modern physics and the mystical masters both agree: our thoughts have power. They say that the energy that forms the backbone of our reality is shaped by our thoughts and that we can even create our own world by sharing our thoughts with others. So, let's get those happy vibes flowing and create our own little corner of paradise!
This energy is the natural energy used by Reiki practitioners.
The Reiki healer has access to this energy in a more powerful way because the attunements he or she receives clears the blockages from the body’s energy channels. The attunements also give an increase in the healer’s own life energies and connect the person to the source of Reiki.
This source could be called anything the healer pleases, the Goddess energy, God, the first Source, etc. Reiki is not connected to any religion, so please call it what you like. I personally like to call this source “Mother/Father/God.”
The process of attunement is not a healing session.
The attunement creates the healer after the first initiation, which comprises of four attunements. This is known as Reiki I.
The person has received a magical gift from the Source.
After receiving Reiki I all you have to do is place your hands on yourself or someone else and the Reiki energy will flow.
When you start to practice you may experience things that you may not have seen or felt before. Some feel more than others do.
Some feel nothing, but nevertheless are still channeling the energy. Heat may be felt in the hands. It is like plugging into the outlets or mains.
Every time you lay your hands on yourself or someone else, the energy is there. To practice Reiki, the practitioner places his or her hands upon the person to be healed with the intent for healing to occur, and then the energy begins to flow.
Reiki energy is smart, since the Universe is a very smart place. The energy knows where to go what to do once it gets there and is being directed by a higher intelligence.
The energy manages its own flow to and within the healee. It draws through the healer exactly the amount that the healee needs.
All this happens without direct conscious intervention by the healer.
The healer’s job is to get out of the way, to keep the healing space open and to watch/listen for signs of what to do next.
Reiki is capable of healing anything because it works at very fundamental levels of reality. Even though the capability is there, this is not always what happens.
The limits seem to be in the healee’s willingness to cast off the old and accept the change and healing. In this context, the word healing has a different meaning from what is widely accepted.
The widely accepted meaning seems to be curing of symptoms. The other meaning, used in the practice of Reiki, is the return to greater wholeness. There is an ideal form that each of us has, this ideal is the highest and clearest expression of who we are.
Pain or dis-ease comes from any deviation between the person’s current form and the ideal form. Healing in this context is to bring the healee's form into closer alignment with the ideal form.
Deviations from our ideal form come from accepting limitations in our lives. Most of this comes from early childhood because that is where we are most open and inquisitive about life. A limitation may be a parent yelling “BE QUIET!” enough times that the child learns not to speak up.
Another limitation may be a limp that continues longer after a physical injury has healed or it may be phantom pains. Limitations include behavior patterns, eating patterns, physical limitations, imagined physical limitations, psychological, mental or emotional ways of being, living expressing or loving that is not in alignment with our personal highest expression of self.
In any healing the goal is to find the limitation, recognize the pattern, recognize where it came from and let it go.
Reiki facilitates this by providing the healee enough energy to step above (metaphorically) to see all that and have the courage to let it go.
Our lives are a constant flow of patterns of activity. Sometimes it happens that people block the healing. This usually occurs when they don’t believe in it. You must always first seek their permission to heal.
Permission will usually mean that they are open to it. But it could also be that they are feeling a little apprehensive, in which case, loving perseverance will soon release the block.
Remember, it is up to the healee to choose whether or not they become whole. It is each individual’s choice to have these patterns remain stuck in limited expression or to release the old patterns and try new ones more in alignment with our personal highest self.
Reiki is not only for those who wish to become healing practitioners; it is also for people who want to become whole themselves.
The Reiki attunements make it possible for you to heal yourself, both physically and spiritually. It is a very useful way to break habits and addictions or to heal yourself on a mental and emotional level.
People who are suffering ill health and mental imbalances could have Reiki attunements to help them.
Self-healing is made easy by using the hand positions taught later in this course. These positions are used for healing others as well. After receiving your attunements it is a good idea to do a self-healing session daily, and if possible, practice on others. This helps you to “settle” into the energy and become used to it. This takes about one month.
Using Reiki to heal one problem often leads to the healing of other problems.
Pain is often felt in a completely different place in the body than the point of dis-ease.
For instance, headaches are often caused by emotional stress. Healing the headache also heals the emotions.
We should know as Reiki practitioners that most of the dis-ease we suffer in the physical has its source in the metaphysical (the emotional and mental) bodies. If we root out the cause, the effect simply goes away.
As healers, we should encourage people to talk. By doing this, we can assist them to discover the source of their dis-ease. We may hear some terrible stories, but we should not react to them.
We should transmute the energy of fear into love, by being an embodiment of love ourselves. This really means that we give loving support to them.
By allowing the healee to go through their process, we allow them to find out what is wrong. This may even be from past lives.
If a person starts to get emotional and you are not experienced in dealing with this, just ask the Reiki guides to help you. Stay calm and know that the Universe will look after you. Know that after the release, the healee will have grown a lot.
Another thing to realize as a Reiki healer is that it is not always possible to heal people because the dis-ease they suffer from might be part of their Soul’s purpose in this life.
If this is the case and death takes place, know that death is also a healing process. Death is usually a lot less traumatic than being born! Modern societies try to deny the fact that death happens everywhere. They think that if they deny it, it won’t happen. Death happens everywhere, everyday. You must realize that it is merely a transition. In this age, death can be avoided by the Ascension process. This is a process of becoming light, and being able to stay awake and conscious through dimensional change. (See suggested reading list – Ascension Sources.)
Reiki relaxes and rejuvenates.
Some would say that Reiki couldn’t replace missing limbs, or right congenital birth defects. I say that this is limiting the system. If it is not the Soul’s choice to suffer this, in this life, I say that we can, with the aid of the Source, achieve anything.
The seed blueprint for creation is wholeness, and wholeness is Love.
Reiki is love, so don’t limit yourself. Do every healing with the result firmly in your mind. The result, of course, is wholeness in accordance with Divine Will, whatever form that might be. If you always look for results in accordance with Divine Will, you will find that you can facilitate the healing of anything
Don’t worry that you may take on the dis-ease of others, because if you work with the Reiki guides and the Source, this will not happen.
The more healing that you do, the more healed you, yourself, become.
Stick to the principles of Reiki, and don’t interfere with the religion or beliefs of other, and step into service with love.
Allow yourself to LET GO, and let the Reiki energy do the rest. You are a channel for the energy.
Allow the magic into your life and become one with the Source. The more you let go, the more it will flow through you.
Age is no barrier with Reiki. Infants benefit from the attunement and it can start their life on a path of service.
Senior members of society benefit from being able to heal themselves and others. Reiki is not only for those that want to heal others, it is for everybody. Being attuned to the Source brings wholeness.
Reiki is a gateway shining pure love into the Universe. It is this love, which allows us to transcend our wounds and help us to remember our true nature.
Taken from Shamballa Reiki Manual One