Therapeutic Touch

Reiki

Reiki Therapy is a technique for stress reduction and relaxation which involves the channelling of universal life force energy through the Reiki Practitioner by means of placing hands onto the Recipient, with the intention of correcting any imbalance of energy.

Because the Practitioner merely acts as a channel for the energy, he or she also benefits from the Reiki energy as it passes through them!

Reiki works on the physical, emotional, mental and spiritual levels which means that, unlike orthodox medicine, it treats the person as a whole, rather than just the symptoms of a condition. The human body has a natural propensity to heal itself and Reiki simply accelerates this process.

  

The word "Reiki" ('Ray-key') is made up of two Japanese words:

"Rei" - meaning "universal, spiritual or free flowing"
and
"Ki" - meaning "life force energy"

Reiki is therefore "universal life force energy".
It is also the same energy known to many ancient civilizations, by many names, including Ch'i (Chinese), Prana (Asian Indian), Ruach (Hebrews), Mana (Polynesians) and Orenda (Iroquois Native Americans), to name but a few! Reiki has been known and used, under many names, for thousands of years in the East but was kept as a closely guarded secret and virtually lost until the beginning of the 20th century, when a Japanese man called Mikao Usui re-discovered it.

There are many versions of the story of how Reiki was re-discovered but they are not as important as the fact that it was found again! Most of the accounts state that Usui was searching for the healing methods used by great healers such as Jesus and Buddha. He eventually found the secret in the ancient Mahayana Sutras, the doctrine of life held sacred by Indian and Tibetan Buddhists.

This universal life force energy, by definition, is found everywhere in the universe and is the same energy that modern science in general, and quantum physics in particular, recognizes as the subatomic energy which underlies all matter.
Although this energy is present everywhere, imbalances can and do occur. When they occur in the human body the results may include stress, inability to concentrate, depression and physical disease.

Reiki history

Reiki has been known and used, under many names, for thousands of years in the East but was kept as a closely guarded secret and virtually lost until the beginning of the 20th century, when a Japanese man called Mikao Usui re-discovered it.

Mikao Usui was born on August 15th, 1865, in the village of Yago. He was a, simple and humble person, physically healthy and well-proportioned. He never showed off and always had a smile on his face; he was also very courageous in the face of adversity. He was, at the same time, a very cautious person. He was a very talented student and travelled to several Western countries and China to study. He loved to read, and his knowledge of medicine, psychology, fortune telling and theology of religions around the world was vast. (It is also believed that he was well versed in Ki Ko, the Japanese form of Chi Kung). It is unlikely that he was ever a Christian, as taught by Hawayo Takata, but he did study Tendai, Shingon, Mikkyo and Zen Buddhism.

At one point he did run into some bad luck (possibly a failed business venture) but he did not give up and trained himself arduously. In order to sort out his life he went to Mount Kurama, on a 21-day retreat to fast and meditate. It was at the end of this period that he felt the great Reiki energy over his head, which lead to the Reiki healing system. He first used Reiki on himself, then tried it on his family. Since it worked well for various ailments, he decided to share this knowledge with the public at large. He opened a clinic at Harajuku, Tokyo, in April 1922, where he not only gave treatment to many patients but also hosted workshops to spread his knowledge. Following the Kanto earthquake, in 1923, Usui took Reiki to the devastated city and treated hundreds of the survivors. He became so popular that he had to open a new clinic at Nakano, in February 1925. He died from a stroke, in Fukuyama, on March 9th, 1926.