We begin all things in the name of the most ancient entity many know as God and others call other names. As spiritual warriors our purpose is to seek and spear (get) the truth of our lives, spear-it-you-all, rescuing from the castledom of fear, doubt and anger the feather-light yet protectively pure love of which we are made.
This article is the second installment focusing headlights on the science and art of the healing method known as reiki. The real force behind the success or failure of reiki is intention. A practitioner’s intent is akin to the Muslim’s niyah (also translated “intention”), which is a statement one makes to align with God’s will. Reiki treatments generally begin with the intention to treat a client’s complaints for the “greatest good.” Because healing energy comes from without, exists within, and is merely activated by the healer, reiki is believed to flow wherever the body needs it be. It goes beyond the area the hands may touch or intention may be focused on. The individual’s body temple and the universe direct the reiki, the two meet each other, and the restoration of harmony and healing begins.
This inner-standing of reiki intention reflects the evolving nature of reiki practice. In addition to the hands, reiki was also administered in the early days through the eyes and the breath. Usui’s experience was witnessing his own healing when he applied his finger to a bleeding stubbed toe. He later noticed that a look and breath could be effective tools for accelerating healing. His views on this are provided in the appendix excerpt. Still, the most important element of reiki usage is the hand positions, either on the body or held away from it. Specific hand positions were evolved after Usui directed his primary follower, Chujiro Hayashi, to create a system for teaching reiki. The positions apply reiki over the whole body in a systematic manner. A minimum of three minutes is spent on each area to ensure bodily functions and processing areas such as organs and glands are covered. The entire body is treated in approximately one hour.
Using both hands, hand positions for self-administration and/or seated individual could be as follows:
1. Cupping the eyes
2. Framing the temples /holding the head or fontanel
3. Cupping the ears
4. Holding the whole head across top/cupping back of head for clients
5. Holding forehead with prominent hand, base of skull with other hand
6. Gripping the neck
7. Both hands placed on shoulders, uncrossed preferably
8. Both hands across the sternum/just above heart, with fingertips touching
9. Both hands across the heart
10. Both hands across the solar plexus
11. Both hands across the sacral chakra, 4” below navel
12. Hands in V-shape over pelvis
13. Prominent hand on solar plexus, other hand on sternum
14. One hand over the other’s elbow, then hand
15. Other hand over the elbow, then hand
16. Both hands on the middle back to treat kidney area
17. Both hand on the lower back
18. Both hands on thighs
19. Both hands on knees
20. Both hands on feet, beginning with the instep
Hand positions enable the practitioner to learn from and communicate with the client’s body. Spot treatment based on intuition and body scanning (byosen) is a technique that goes straight to a problem area or complaint. Hand-healing techniques such as byosen are used to unconceal blockages that are inhibiting a client’s health and may not be consciously known. The earliest reiki treatments were given through what we now call spot treatment. Dr. Usui traditionally treated complaint areas immediately and directly, and he typically found other areas requiring attention and would “go there.” He promoted a holistic approach to improved lifestyle and health and you will see from his excerpted comments (in a later installment) that he understood reiki as a healing for mind, body and spirit. A Congolese physician, Dr. Fu Kiau, teaches similarly that a look, word, or touch applied just so can completely heal discomfort or disease. African hand healing and other forms of spot treatment will be discussed later.
As it is practiced today, a reiki treatment is considered completed when the practitioner no longer feels the energy flowing and has thoroughly addressed all glands, organs and systems using the hand positions. If the client is laying on a table she or he is allowed to take some time before slowly resuming a sitting position. This is somewhat like completing a massage session. Unlike massage, however, the client does not have to get dressed because disrobing is not required for a successful reiki session. Seated treatments are possible and indicated when the client has difficulty laying down prostrate. Dr. Usui initially treated everyone in the seated position, and use of a massage table, though quite typical, is contemporary.
Benefits
Outstanding results that mimic the miracles of faith healing are among the legendary benefits of reiki. People have been healed of cancer, AIDS, heart disease, hypertension, multiple sclerosis, lupus, blood diseases, deafness, blindness, and myriad other conditions. These successes usually take place after many treatments over time, though there have been veritable miracles. Medical doctors and nurses who use reiki techniques have reported faster healing among their patients after the application of reiki. Surgery is performed with ease, broken bones set faster and recovery from medical procedures are accelerated when reiki has been included as part of the healing protocol. Mental health professionals report the decreased need for intervention and drug prescriptions because reiki has effectively helped patients to go beyond mere coping to actually thrive.
Reiki medicine also helps practitioners gain health and wellbeing. While massage therapists may become energetically depleted from working physically hard on a person, reiki travels through both the practitioner and client during a treatment, and the practitioner experiences empowering results very much like the client. This may occur because practitioners are open to the flow of energy, since they give themselves reiki or participate in sessions as receivers themselves. Most clients report that the energy seems to penetrate the body and that a warm calm envelops them. Even so, the practitioner may experience a range of physical feelings and emotions that signal deeply held dis-ease in the client. This is a way of getting client information. The practitioner responds immediately to these messages by changing positions or recalling the intention, the client’s stated need and what that brings up, and other techniques. This communication is part of the process, as a reiki session means energy is flowing from one person to another and flows one way—from practitioner to client. The practitioner experiences the good that is being transmitted, as well as resistance to it or blockages. Good technique and true mastery is being able to use one’s strength and stamina, in a word, one’s being, to keep reiki flowing. A daily habit of reiki accelerates healing of the practitioner’s physical, mental and emotional selves and facilitates the consistent positive flow of energy. Like a spigot, the force of water cannot flow backward.
Mind Through Matter
Reiki may be used for distance healing, social well-being and as a feng shui technique. The latter two are really forms of distance healing. It may seem an outlandish concept, yet most human beings ignore commonplace examples of distance healing and other unseen incidents that seem to coincide. The field of physics has taken on the challenge and we will soon see that evidence abounds for the human effect on matter that is not visible or that is beyond the spatial realm. One could say reiki itself is a distance healing mode. The energy comes from On High and is delivered near-at-hand. This too is the province of physics, which despite my nominal science training is explored a bit later in this series.
The distance healing session takes the place of a practitioner and client being together for a session and the techniques vary. A practitioner may use a pillow or stuffed animal, the person’s name written on a piece of paper or some surrogate to stand in for the person, and then send the energy to this thing. The intention, the five principles, the prayers if one has some—whatever the practitioner would normally do if the person were present must be done to prepare the session. Then, like a meditation, the session begins with the practitioner focusing his or her energy on the distant person and this focus is usually held for about 10 minutes or however long feels right to the practitioner. The energy begins to flow through his or her hands and then stops when it has been sent to the recipient.
One of the most critical uses of reiki is as a method for healing past hurt, trauma, abuse, misunderstanding, confusion, failure or other situations that are part of a person’s life script. This is distance healing over time, and the technique used dispels the notion of time to encourage healing of the event or situation. Since past problems exist as a reality only in memory, reiki is a great way to draw energy to situations that one couldn’t control in the past and to bring balance to them, resulting in a healing taking place then and now. Memories have vibrations just as other thought processes do and reiki works to change the memory vibration and how the outcome of events affected a person. Energy that is spiritual and universal is equipped to heal past, present and future. Therefore, reiki is also sent into the future for events that have not happened to ensure a positive and “highest and best” outcome for all concerned, based on this same reasoning.
For social networks and group settings, reiki is used to clear blockages, reduce harmful energies and transmute negative vibrations into healing vibratory signals that help to bring about calm and relief. The aim is to enhance individuals’ relations with themselves and thus with one another. Social service workers who have reiki take this a step further to promote well-being among clients enrolled in rehabilitative workshops around a particular theme. A reiki group session begins with guided meditation aimed at enhancing each participant’s ability to serve as a resource for the group, and informing all participants what they may expect. “Human resources” could take on new meaning as we consider the energetic contribution participants in a group session can make to their organizations. Beyond the physical energy that always stimulates the workplace, each person can help a colleague or co-worker adapt and recover from occurrences that happen unexpectedly at work. We have all experienced the opposite and witnessed what happens when a forceful and negative individual must express anger no matter what, and a major upset rules the rest of the workday. Reiki can foster calm and help reverse these tense situations. The expansion of group sessions to corporations and government are the next frontier, and would probably begin with leadership teams that recognize the value of reiki and promote its use within their organizations. Guided imagery and empowerment work occurs in many groups but it is not often known as reiki.
As a feng shui tool, reiki can be used defensively to place positive vibrations or energies into a space. The whole room or house is the client in this case, and the flow of energy is through the practitioner outward to the space or room or building.
SPEAR-IT TOOLS
• Reiki is always a positive flow of spiritually guided, healing energy
• Touch is a missing quality in our technological world
• Neither time nor space stops reiki from flowing
Niamo Nancy Muid-Davis has been a powerful, energetic force all her life. She saw healing colors and beings and influenced situations before she could articulate them. She translated her visionary experiences into a BA in both art and communications (Chapman University) and a master’s in city planning (Pratt Institute).
While a high school senior she held the first Essence magazine depicting beautiful black women in her hands, bedazzled. She imagined herself working for them and forgot about it. Four years later she got her dream job as the youngest Essence editor, fresh out of college.
Niamo traveled the world, augmenting her biblical, yoga, meditation and Sufi studies. Fast forward to Submission (Islam) in 1977. She felt only a creator of the universes could have sent the Quran. Later, she wrote columns and books advocating Islamic spirituality. Visit spiritualwarriorsguide.com for more.
The HealMobile came to Niamo during one Ramadaan, as a way to purify herself while heightening her service. The HealMobile thus expresses holistic healing and spiritual culture simultaneously. Niamo gives Friday sermons now (only a handful of women do globally) and is a leadership facilitator, nonprofit board member, All-Love (reiki SKHM) enthusiast and African Medicine Woman.
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