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Health From a Reiki Practitioner's Perspective

(continued)

Reiki, Anthropology, and Oprah

The Reiki exchange described earlier and these interviews are a tiny fraction of health care in the United States. Yet the issues discussed are part of changes that are taking place on a larger scale. If we return to Kleinman's description of the popular, professional and folk sectors of health care, we find some interesting parallels between public opinion and the experiences of these Reiki practitioners.

The popular sector is the largest piece of the health care system because it is comprised of the general public. Here, world views and beliefs about illness influence the choices people make about their health. While we cannot psychologically evaluate the entire U.S. population, we can address ideas that are popular. Bestseller lists and television ratings are two ways of approximating what sorts of ideas Americans are connecting to en masse.

Gary Zukav's book, Seat of the Soul, was published in 1989 and has been # 1 on the New York Times Bestseller list. In addition to going on and off the bestseller list over the past twelve years, the nation's most popular talk show host, Oprah Winfrey, proclaims it to be one of her favorite books. Zukav has become a regular guest on her show discussing his concept of authentic empowerment. Oprah herself made a significant change in the quality of her shows after finishing the film Beloved in 1998. Instead of the usual "White Collar Women Meet Blue Collar Men" shows that she had done in the past, Oprah invented Live Your Best Life television. The programs are intended to inspire people to reach their full potential in their careers, relationships and health. The ideas in the show are similar to those in Zukav's book, although they have Oprah's distinct flair.

Seat of the Soul and many of Oprah's shows do not directly address health problems. Rather, they express a world view in which being true to one's own heart is the best way to serve oneself and others. A great deal of emphasis is placed upon healing addictions, honoring one's spouse, and the power our intentions and beliefs have in shaping our lives.

With such ideas becoming widespread in the popular sector, it is not surprising that people are becoming dissatisfied with the dominant model of medicine. When we view the world as primarily physical, the idea that power comes from owning the biggest guns or the most toys makes sense. When medicine is based on this perspective, health is often defined as the mere absence of physical symptoms. If symptoms do arise, they are viewed as inconveniences that should be suppressed. Pain can be fixed with painkillers, insomnia with sleeping pills, allergies with anti-histamines. Any adverse side effects these drugs have can be suppressed with more pills. The focus is on suppressing a physical problem with a relatively simple physical solution. While this approach may initially help patients to be more comfortable, it does not address the causes of disease. Mainstream and alternative medicine are capable of operating with this philosophy, and they are both capable of changing.

As patients become dissatisfied with the dominant medical model, they have been re-discovering old healing methods and creating new ones. The Reiki exchange described at the beginning of this paper is an example of these methods. It is one way for people to actively participate in their own healing even as they are focusing on others. As they do this, they claim responsibility for their health and access their own tremendous capacity for healing.

This exchange also demonstrates the emphasis Reiki practitioners place on non-physical aspects of health. When we gather together and send loving energy to people who are not in the building, we are focusing on something that is greater than our bodies. From such a perspective, relationships, intentions and emotions are just as important in creating health or illness as medicine or toxic waste.

This understanding of health is consistent with the idea of authentic empowerment. Oprah repeatedly highlights individuals who have found a way to lead richer and more fulfilling lives after experiencing personal tragedy. As a large portion of the popular sector focuses on this attitude, it makes sense that they would want health care professionals to understand it as well. If becoming authentically empowered means to make choices that move a person closer to her spirit, then the process of healing an illness is one of many opportunities to change one's life for the better.

This attitude is not intended to belittle the suffering involved with illness. People who are diagnosed with HIV, cancer, or any other disease do not go home and turn cartwheels because they have this terrific challenge that has the potential to help them become authentically empowered. On the contrary, patients and their loved ones suffer tremendously from illness. The point is that how they perceive their illness affects their choice of treatment, health care professionals, and other choices about their lives.

It is crucial to recognize that the change occurring has to do with the perspective from which medicine is practiced. Instead of striving to suppress symptoms, patients and health care professionals ask "How can I best support the body's ability to heal itself?" and "Will this medicine/therapy/procedure support this person's greater purpose on the Earth?" There are times when it is appropriate for a patient to take a medicine that will alleviate a symptom, but with the awareness that that is what he is doing, while taking other steps to address the cause of the disease.

In the past, the dominant medical model has viewed patients entirely as victims of disease. In this model health care professionals are the experts and patients are ignorant. Health care professionals are also responsible for patients' health. They often behave as authority figures, and patients expect or tolerate this behavior.

When individuals begin to make the connection between their choices and their health, they no longer see themselves as passive victims of disease. The patient is responsible for the choices he makes about his health and he is the expert on his own healing process. Health care professionals cease to be authority figures and instead become teachers. They have expertise in whatever field they have chosen to practice, and they share this knowledge in order to assist the patient in his process.

The three Reiki practitioners interviewed demonstrate this new model. As K. M.'s comments illustrate, they see their doctors as teachers. When J.S's doctor snapped at her to begin hormone replacement therapy, she behaved as an authority figure rather than a teacher, and as a result found herself with one less patient. Their doctors' tools and skills are useful for certain health problems, but by no means do they provide a complete picture of the patients' health.

These interactions between patient and doctor demonstrate on a small scale the change that is occurring within the professional sector. Patients are expecting doctors to behave as teachers rather than authority figures, and doctors are stepping up to that role. While P.H.'s doctor was surprised at his experiment with local honey, such an exchange has the potential to broaden his doctor's understanding of allergies.

While three people are hardly proof of mass change, the fact that the Journal of the American Medical Association devoted its November 1998 issue entirely to alternative medicine is evidence that the microcosmic interactions described here are part of a larger picture. As patients reclaim responsibility for their health they challenge the power structures of the dominant medical model. The JAMA issue is evidence that the people immersed in this model recognize that they need to change in order to better serve their patients.

The Process of Empowerment

In the popular sector, the definition of power is changing. In the past power has been widely defined in physical or external terms. While this definition still exists, Oprah, Gary Zukav and their audiences are embracing authentic empowerment. This form of power is based upon inner choices. When people choose to have honest and loving relationships with themselves, their work and the people around them, they gain power. If they choose dishonest relationships based in fear, they lose power. This definition focuses more on the intentions that motivate action than on the actions themselves. In other words, more emphasis is placed upon the non-physical aspects of our world than on the physical ones.

In the folk sector, the definition of health is expanding from a symptomless physical body to one that includes the quality of relationships in a person's life. When the Reiki practitioners interviewed for this paper discuss the way their definition of health changed after they began practicing Reiki, they articulate concepts that parallel the changing definition of power. P.H. and J.S. both say that they used to see illness as a physical problem. P.H. said that after he began practicing Reiki, he started to see physical illness as representative of spiritual issues, and that he saw how the choices he made influenced his health. J.S. said that she was trained in Chemistry and had a "traditional view" that illness was in the physical body, but after she began practicing Reiki she learned about chakras and the etheric body. She believes now that these energy systems play a crucial role in people's health. K.M. did not say that she viewed health as primarily physical prior to practicing Reiki, but her current definition also includes the energies surrounding the body.

The vocabulary these Reiki practitioners use is different from that used in the popular sector. In all the hours that I have watched Oprah, I have never heard anyone mention the "etheric body" or "Reiki". I have found discussions of angels, karma, nutrition, miracles and metaphysics, but never "Reiki". Which simply reinforces the point that the experiences of these three Reiki practitioners is paralleling the larger cultural belief in authentic empowerment.

These two groups have little direct interaction, but they are converging on the same idea. Reiki practitioners call it health: an awareness of how profoundly the intentions behind their choices influence their bodies. They see being healthy as an ongoing process in which they play an active role. They are learning which foods best support their bodies, which meditations or work nourish their spirit and which drain it. They believe they have a responsibility to be aware of their options, and value the freedom to choose. Oprah calls it "remembering your spirit", Zukav, "authentic power". Whatever language we speak, the essence is the same.

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