What is Reiki?
In the early 1920s, Mikao Usui Sensei discovered a method of hands-on healing using Reiki. Reiki is a type of invisible energy that is considered to rain down from the heavens to satiate the needs of human beings and help return us to our natural healthy state. It is a natural healing method that is somewhere between etheric and physical. It encourages and activates the client’s own body’s self-healing ability.
This next bit is complicated. Maybe you don’t want to know what the symbols of Reiki mean in Japanese, if so skip over the next three paragraphs, but if you’re curious then, we recognise that they would tell us how the Japanese would have thought about Reiki.
Reiki is written in Japanese with two pictographs based on those used in Chinese. The first pictograph is made up of 3 component parts: Rain, mouths/vessels and the shamanic altar. The first is literally the symbol for rain, which is why I use the term rain in my definition. I feel this indicates how the Japanese would have thought of Rei, as something pouring down from the heavens. Below it is the Chinese symbol kou or mouth. This is sometimes used for containers or vessels, but the traditional meaning is “mouth”, so it’s like three mouths down there ready to consume the rei pouring down to them. It’s like the mind, body and spirit all being washed by the rain or people from all nations receiving it showing that Reiki is for all people. The most widely accepted belief is that these mouths represent three offering bowls on a shaman’s altar. So the bottom part is then considered to be the Shinto Shaman’s altar. Some people just translate this whole character of Rei as “Soul” or “Universal” and the second as “Energy” so Reiki is “Soul Energy”, but as you can appreciate there is so much more complexity to the character. The early Japanese practitioners of reiki, seeing the character, would receive many more impressions such as “rain coming down to offering bowls to fulfil the will of the shaman” or even “rain coming down to nourish mouths and bring man to the altar of the divine”. Nourish is also seen in the ki symbol as well, which is why it forms part of my definition.
The second symbol is pronounced ki. It is often considered to mean “energy”. It has two main parts. The top part is to do with Air. You see this symbol in words like aeroplane. The bottom part means rice, but is sometimes used to mean a meal. This indicates nourishment again. The character is often translated as “energy”. You might think this word is super-mystical, but it really isn’t to the Japanese. Yang Jwing Ming, a world-famous martial artist, translates the character to mean glucose energy because of the use of oxygen (air) to release carbs from meals or rice. Weather in Japanese and Chinese is written with two symbols which translate to Heaven energy (Tenki / Tianqi) and electricity is written as electrical ki or Denki, electrical energy. So this is a more common word than you think.
I like the stark contrast in density between the two parts of the ki character. One being thin, air, and the other very solid, rice. This reminds me of the separation of yin and yang. I am reminded of the line in the Hermetic Text, the Emerald Tablet. “Separating by great art, but an easy manner, The subtle from the dense, and the earth from the fire.” So this reminds me of the necessity of separating the thick (rice) from the thin (air) for the operation described in Emerald Tablet. This possibly influenced Daoist alchemy, which in turn was studied by Usui before using this term for his healing practice.
I should add that sometimes Reiki makes you rest. We talk about it always as “energy”, but sometimes it is a substance that when it gets into your body, your body uses the ki to relax, reset and rest more deeply than usual. So it’s not always hyperactive energy, but energy which seeks balance.
Our modern lives frequently throw us off balance and we often need to take the time to rid ourselves of the etheric residue that comes with trying to constantly rebalance ourselves in a turbulent world. If left, this interrupts the flow. When doing Reiki the practitioner simply provides the Reiki, it’s your body that uses it to fix itself.
Reiki can support and enhance many other therapies.
What is Reiki Ryoho (treatment) like?
Receiving Reiki Ryoho or Reiki Treatment is easy. Just relax. You can be seated in a chair or lying on a pop-up table, called a couch. In Japanese Traditional Reiki, we do use physical touch as we find that radiating reiki through the air often provides resistance and reduces efficacy. The recipient remains clothed and the healer will ask if it is okay to rest their hands on the appropriate part of the body. Then they will attempt to find a comfortable position to lay their hands gently for an extended period of time. Sometimes a fresh thin cloth is placed where the healing is going to be done to reduce sweat, discomfort and to promote cleanliness. In Traditional Japanese Reiki, we often remain in the same area for well over 10-15 minutes at a time to scan for toxins or residue from the body’s natural healing processes. Feedback from scanning the body will often inform the healer whether they can move on or if this area needs more work. It is not unusual for clients to fall asleep, cry, shake, pass gas or any combination of these things. The relaxing nature of receiving Reiki alone can bring out a number of these. The treatment will continue for about 1 hour, maybe longer as per the need. Sometimes if lots of byosin (toxins) has been raised a brief rubbing technique is used to encourage it to leave the body quickly. I recommend preparing some water to drink before and after the treatment. See This is Reiki by Frank Arjava Petter for more details.
Is Reiki just for physical healing?
It is very common for Reiki to bring forth our emotional aspects. The energy itself brings us closer and closer to our natural state. Sometimes, there are emotions that we need to express to get there. Traditional Japanese Reiki includes specific techniques for targeting emotional and psychological issues, but often in a normal session can help us through emotional issues which are not specifically targeted. They still find their way out in the healing process. I can offer human-centred counselling and life coaching with some CBT techniques should the need arise. For any serious mental health issues, I will need to refer you to a professional who focuses on that field.
Will I feel instantly better?
Often yes, but not always. Reiki is very relaxing and the most common reaction is that a new client is able to rest substantially deeper than ever before. The relaxation alone does a world of good, even before we take into account the healing effects of the Reiki. However, the healing process is like peeling layers off an onion. A single treatment will rarely fix everything, but it gets you a step closer to wellness and your natural state.
Also, Hayashi Sensei gave us a wonderful metaphor. A dirty river often looks clean, until it is stirred up. At this point the sediment from the bottom makes the water appear cloudy and dirty, but it needs to be lifted up from the river bed for the river’s natural flow to move it on. Otherwise, it would remain and the river would always be dirty. Sometimes Reiki breaks up stagnant energy and it begins to circulate around the body in a similar way to this raised sediment. If there is a lot to be removed at once the Reiki can cause a mild headache or even a runny nose, this is understood to be the body removing a lot of toxins at once and is a necessary pain on the road to good health.
So sometimes Reiki can make you feel instantly better in a single treatment, but sometimes you can leave undergoing a necessary hurdle on the path to good health. In reality many treatments are required to support recovery from a long term condition.
Can Reiki Guarantee Health?
No. But let’s be honest what health treatment actually can guarantee results?
The big difference is that there are not enough people doing Reiki in the same way for concrete scientific testing and the results are often subtle, but many clients are extremely happy. It is my hope that working with organisations like the Jikiden Reiki Institute, we will be able to scientifically pinpoint the specific effects of Reiki and provide more concrete proof of its efficacy in the near future.
In small subsets, Reiki has been proved to reduce healing time, alleviate pain and increase the chances of recovery, however due to the small size of the studies this affect is often ascribed to the placebo effect. It is my hope in the near future we will prove that there is more to it then that, however spending an hour deliberately triggerring the placebo affect is beneficial itself.
My conclusion is that you need to determine for yourself if it works for you. Give it a try and I know that Reiki will show you its incredible life changing power.
Why should I pay for something so ethereal?
A tough one I know. Often when people pay for things like faith healing I worry that the persons involved are more interested in money than healing. So I totally understand this concern. I try my best to provide Reiki to everyone for as little as I can afford to, but I have certain costs to cover. Also, if you want Reiki treatment, in order to make a difference I really need to be there for up to an hour, so there’s my time which is probably the most valuable thing to meto compensate me for.
There is also the time I have spent practising before the session and all the time I spend trying to keep my own energy clear, that time is now measured in years.
My costs associated with Reiki are as follows, I need to travel to get to you, I have equipment to pay for, insurance and finally the cost of training. I really believe in this healing and I am willing to pay for those things so I can spread the word of Reiki and I often give Reiki for free (join the mailing list for FREE reiki sessions), but at some point I need to make sure I am at least breaking even so I don’t go bankrupt trying to spread the word.
If you’re not sure it is worth the money, but you really want to try, then join the mailing list and look out for discounted or sometimes FREE sessions.
How do I know you’re qualified?
I am authorised by the Jikiden Reiki Institute, Kyoto. For the Traditional Japanese style of Reiki which I am currently practicing. I trained under Shaun McKeown. If you want I can show you my most recent certificates at the session (please let me know if you want me to bring these). If needs be my qualifications can be confirmed with them.
Join the Mailing List for offers
I am currently running a mailing list offer as of 25th September 2024. My next 10 sign-ups to the mailing list will be offerred a FREE 1 hour Reiki session. Terms and conditions apply.
The service will be provided at their home or a place to suit them, in the Croydon area (I will consider near by areas on an ad-hoc basis), the service will be offered on Monday or Wednesday evenings in slots after 6pm for an hour. I will provide a few slots by email as soon as possible to each winner, but while I work through the list it might be up to 2-months before all winners hear from me. If none of the slots work, I will offer them to the next person on the list and return to the winner after offerring to the other winners. As I go through the slots more slots will become available.
You can leave the mailing list whever you like, but if you leave before I have emailed the 10 first sign-ups then you will disappear from the list and won’t get the free session unless I have already offered it to you.
Book a Session
A typical session costs £45 per hour on weekday evenings and £55 per hour on weekends. From time to time, discounts are available for people who have low incomes or for introductory offers. I operate in the Croydon and surrounding area and I am able to offer treatments at your home so long as there is space to set up a pop-up table with my stool near by. I can make adjustments for seated Reiki.