Health From a Reiki Practitioner's Perspective
(continued)
Health From a Reiki Practitioner's Perspective
To complete the research for this paper, I interviewed three Reiki practitioners: P. H., J. S. and K. M. P. H. has received the second level of Reiki, while J. S. and K. M. are both Reiki Masters. P. H. was at a Reiki exchange hosted by K. M. I attended while doing the research for this paper, though not the same one described earlier. J. S. was training for her Master with K. M. in 1998 when I received the first level, so I had known her for a few years. I chose K. M. because I received my first level of Reiki from her and felt that she would be an excellent resource.
When I conducted the interviews, I asked two basic open ended questions such as: "What attracted you to Reiki?" "Has Reiki changed your perception of health and healing, and if so, how?" The other questions varied according to what I had learned from previous interviews and the answers I received from each person. Their original reasons for beginning to work with Reiki varied, but their answers about how it affected them had many similarities.
P. H. is a musician and songwriter who purchased a bookstore in 1996. K. M. rents her office space from the store, and she offered to let him take her Reiki I class free of charge. He had never heard of Reiki, and decided to take the class so that he could be informed about it when customers had questions. He said that he "went in as a complete skeptic", but once he started to work with the energy and saw how powerful it was, he was no longer skeptical. P. H. worked on himself for physical and spiritual areas, and found it amazing that Reiki offers as much healing to the person giving the energy as to the person receiving it.
Prior to working with Reiki, P. H. saw illness as chance, but afterwards he began to see physical ailments as more representative of internal emotional and spiritual issues. He also learned how much one can influence health, not only with Reiki but with dietary changes and adequate rest. One example of such a change was that he experimented with eating local honey in order to alleviate his allergies and was successful.
When I asked about P. H.'s experience with Reiki and doctors, he said that he had no such experience. He did mention that when he told his doctor about the honey and his allergies, he "looked at me as if I was crazy. Not because he didn't believe me, but because he had never heard of such an idea before."
A second Reiki practitioner, J. S., had worked as a patient advocate, first at Magee Women's Hospital and later at Mercy Hospital for a total of seven years. In contrast to P. H., she had been gathering information about alternative practices for several years because she was diagnosed with a brain tumor in 1979. She learned about it at the Lifeworks Center on Baum Boulevard in 1992. She had never heard the word "Reiki" before, but she was interested in self healing and signed up for the class. She stated that at the time she did not give it a great deal of thought because there was not much information about Reiki available at the time.
J. S. was initiated into Reiki I in the fall of 1992, and Reiki II with the same Master in January of 1993. She began to offer treatments professionally in 1996 and earned her Master from K. M. in 1998. When asked if Reiki had changed her perception of health and healing, she stated that it certainly had. She was trained in chemistry and biology and had a "traditional view" that the human body was what one can see and touch. "[Reiki] expanded my view and I feel that I have a better perception of what's going on with the illness because it isn't just the physical body [that is sick]." J. S. went on to talk about the energy system of the body including the chakra system and the etheric body which surrounds the physical body.
J. S.'s perspective that these energies are connected to her health was reinforced when she began to use Reiki to treat her brain tumor. When this tumor was diagnosed in 1979 and they determined that it was not cancerous, her doctor prescribed Parlodel, a medication to retard the tumor's growth. They monitored the tumor with annual CAT scans until MRIs became available, and then she had an MRI once a year. The tumor grew slowly until 1994, when her doctor said she was going to need surgery. This news motivated her to begin working daily with Reiki and guided meditation to rid her body of the tumor. Six months later, another MRI revealed that the tumor had reduced in size. Her doctor told her that whatever she was doing, she should continue, and J. S. was pleased with the success. She then ceased her daily Reiki and meditation, and in 1997 had surgery to remove the tumor. She said that her lesson from this experience was "if you have success, keep with it!"
With regard to the role of doctors in her health care, J. S. expects them "to fill in the traditional medical part of the illness" by ordering necessary tests and recommending treatments that would be appropriate. She also wants them to be "supportive of your right to make your own decisions regarding your body." As an example, she described a conversation with her general practitioner regarding hormone replacement therapy during menopause. J. S. stated that she did not want to take estrogen, and her physician snapped at her "Well, we'll see about that." Because this doctor was not willing to discuss options with her or value her perspective, J. S. found another doctor who was willing to do these things.
A third Reiki practitioner, K. M., had worked with metaphysical healing techniques for several years before she found Reiki. She felt that while these techniques were powerful, they brought up past traumas for people in ways that were unnecessarily painful and left people unbalanced. The healer also needed to be "in a perfect state" in order to properly practice these methods, and K.M. was looking for something she could use for herself when she was out of balance. When I asked her what had attracted her to Reiki, she corrected the assumption in my question and said that she had not been attracted to Reiki. Rather, she had put a specific request into the universe "for something that was safe, powerful, and you didn't have to be perfect to do."
In discussing the way that Reiki changed her perception of health and healing, K.M. stated that it had changed the way she understands everything. "I look at healing as an ongoing process with many levels [and Reiki] has given me the ability to be an active participant in my healing at all levels." She uses the Reiki first, and then everything else "falls in around it."
When K.M. visits a doctor, she expects him to teach her about her body and give her the tools to care for herself. She stated "I feel if they haven't taught me something then it's a disservice." She also said that she tests the suggestions of a doctor against her own belief system before she decides to follow his directions.
Towards the end of the interview, K.M. had a moment of insight. She was discussing some of her spiritual work when she said "That's it! That's what changes the perception, it's not what they think: it's the experience of being able to heal. You think you've got it all figured out and then you experience it and it all changes."
For many people this is exactly what Reiki provides and why these three practitioners have changed their health seeking behaviors. Most of us are taught intellectually about the importance of diet and exercise in preventing certain illnesses, but the experience of healing is what allows people to truly make the connection between their choices and their health. The profound peace and stillness that so often accompanies Reiki dissolves pessimistic beliefs about the universe and about illness. It is inspiring to know that Reiki along with the practitioner's dedication can shrink brain tumors or motivate someone to alter his diet. It challenges our ideas about the causes of disease and provides access to the tremendous possibilities for healing.