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 third installment in our focus on reiki science, and now we will look at the legal issues facing the use of reiki for practitioners and receivers or clients. To be sure, any benefits a client experiences originate from the I AM sensibility that religions and spiritual paths hold dear, in other words, God. As stated above, practitioners do not actually heal, despite the fact they may self-identify as healers. Even if they did, in legal terms only medical doctors in the U.S. are allowed to call themselves doctors—i.e., those who are trained to heal. This means a reiki therapist cannot legally promise a client that he or she will experience specific results. That doctors can make promises and not keep them is beside the point (and this is why malpractice insurance is inordinately high). After one undergoes reiki therapy, the most significant results may not be immediately discernible at all, for all the reasons described in the previous installment under distance healing. Vibratory change is subtle and profound change and difficult to quantify. The client has legal rights, and prior to the first session, a practitioner will inform him or her of the legal disclaimer and healing benefit issue. A pamphlet or brochure including a statement like the following should be given to the client for review:
"I understand that Reiki is a stress reduction and relaxation technique. I acknowledge that treatments administered are only for the purpose of helping me to relax and to relieve stress. Reiki practitioners do not diagnose conditions, prescribe substances, perform medical treatment, or interfere with the treatment of a licensed medical professional. It is recommended that I see a licensed physician or licensed health care professional for any physical or psychological ailment I may have."
Observance of local and federal laws protects both the recipient and the reiki therapist. Reiki tends to build out its effects over time, affecting various aspects of health and lifestyle. This makes it much more challenging to identify cause and effect. It is safer to observe FDA regulations and make no promises. Indeed, it is likely that the benefits of a reiki session will far outweigh any claims practitioners may want to make. To say “reiki reduces stress and pain” is the catchall phrase most practitioners use in some form. Meditation makes the same claim, as does massage and acupuncture, for example. These are both much more mainstream, but reiki is gaining wider acceptance at clinics and hospitals, because it is a tool even practicing medical doctors and nurses have added to their own training.
What is different for a reiki practitioner is the ultimately spiritual foundation of an individual’s business or consultancy. It bears repeating throughout this Guide that no one claims to heal or is given praise and respect reserved for the Creator of the heavens and earth for healing a sick person or bringing them back from near death. An encounter with reiki means a level of trust that occurs on both ends, for giver and recipient. Clients have to agree to be responsible for seeking out reiki, their appreciation of the results, and, in the final analysis, for their health as a reflection of the state of their body temple. Unlike the typical sick person/doctor interaction that involves a great dependency on the doctor’s knowledge of the body and drugs, the reiki interaction is a joint venture. The following statement from a pre-session application form demonstrates one way recipients become involved in the process and outcome of a session. They are asked to sign the form as approval of a holistic approach that they may know little about.
"I also understand and believe that the body has the ability to heal itself, and for it to do so complete relaxation is often beneficial. Long-term imbalances in the body sometimes require multiple treatments to allow the body to reach the level of relaxation necessary to bring it back into balance. I understand and believe that self-improvement requires commitment on my part, and that I must be willing to change in a positive way if I am to receive the full benefit of a Reiki session."
While similar forms are required for patients’ signature in medical offices, this writer does not know of paperwork that declares the body's ability to heal itself, or that the receiver of care must be committed to self-improvement.
SPEAR-IT TOOLS
• Practitioners must know the state laws affecting reiki where they reside
• Practitioners must stay abreast of appropriate terminology, avoiding the words “patient,” “prescribe,” and “treatment,” which only medical doctors may use
Hard Science
Energy healing or medicine is not a new concept and encompasses all forms of non-touch, light touch and invisible approaches to improving the self-healing capabilities of the body. Data supporting the benefits of reiki and proving its efficacy as a healing art are based on it being an accepted form of energy medicine.* All forms have in common the goal of interacting with the energy fields that surround or permeate the body. Science has proven many times over that fields of energy surround and sustain all physical bodies, from the smallest molecule to the largest animal or tree or mountain. Dr. James L. Oschman is a physicist who has studied reiki, Rolfing and other energy modalities for healing and made astute observations reported in a Reiki News Magazine interview in 2002.10 He noted that rather than reiki practitioners learning from science, science really had more to learn from the practice of reiki. He explained that one advantage of documenting reiki healing success would be that practitioners could be more conscious about the effects of their practice on the cellular and molecular level.
As he put it: “In a sense, all medicine is energy medicine. This may seem trivial, but it makes an important point. Any intervention with a living system involves energy in one from or another. We all have our specialties and interests, and it is challenging to take the step into the energy domain simply because it is the most multidisciplinary pursuit we can undertake, and it can always provide new insights, regardless of our main focus. It is worthwhile for Reiki practitioners to learn a bit of physics and biology so that they can understand the mechanisms involved. It can make your intentions clearer and make the work easier to explain to a medical professional who has a scientific background. (writer’s emphasis)
“Energy medicine involves understanding how the body creates and responds to electric, magnetic, and electromagnetic fields, including light and sound as well as other forms of energy such as heat, pressure, chemical and elastic energy, and gravity. We are interested in how the body produces these different kinds of energy, and how these energies can be applied to the body for beneficial effects.”
Dr. Oschman says that medical technologies in use today are actually forms of energy medicine using different forms of energy for diagnosis and treatment. The X-rays and MRI are diagnostic tools, as is the electrocardiogram, which documented the energy field around the heart and earned its discoverer, Einthoven, a Nobel Prize in 1924. Around 25 years later, Berger measured the electrical fields around the brain, proving with Einthoven that, “the body’s organs produce bioelectric fields that travel through the tissues of the body and that can be recorded with electrodes on the body surface.” Hence, today we have comples biofeedback machines based on quantum physics that diagnose and treat using these principles.
Machinery used in most hospitals is engineered on fundamental energy medicine principles. Biopsy tools, be they magnetic, electrical or optical, pacemakers, lasers, and nerve stimulators are examples of energy tools used for treatment by conventional medicine. “Controversial or not, energy medicine based on the use of medical equipment is alive and well in hospitals, clinics, and medical research centers. Reiki and other forms of hands-on healing are another form of energy medicine based on scientifically measurable energy fields emitted from the healer’s hands,” Dr. Oschman says. In 1979 the FDA approved magnetic field therapy when fractured bones were shown to be stimulated to heal using electric and magnetic fields. “The important frequencies for stimulating tissue repair are all in the biologically important extremely low frequency (ELF) range. Two cycles per second (Hz) is effective for nerve regeneration, seven Hz is optimal for bone growth, ten Hz is used for ligaments, and somewhat higher frequencies work for skin and capillaries.” (p. 3) A study by John Zimmerman found that ELF signals are emitted by various practitioners of energy therapies such as reiki, acupressure, aura balancing, healing touch, polarity therapy and massage, but that “non-practitioners do not produce such signals.” (p. 4) We will see why these frequencies are so important later. Dr. Oschman continues,
“In essence, the biomagnetic fields produced by a practitioner’s hands can induce current flows in the tissues and cells of individuals who are in close proximity. Evidence that this actually can occur is nicely summarized in a fascinating paper entitled “The Electricity of Touch” and in a book entitled Science of the Heart published by the Institute of HeartMath in Boulder Creek, California.
“As a result of these discoveries, I have suggested a definition that is also a hypothesis: Healing energy, whether produced by a medical device or projected from the human body, is energy of a particular frequency or set of frequencies that stimulates the repair of one or more tissues.” (p. 4) (writer’s emphasis)
In pages 5 through 8 of this informative article, Oschman continues to document that reiki transmits and heals through frequencies, biomagnetism, and electrical messaging. He has written several books, of which the first was Energy Medicine: The Scientific Basis (2000). He later wrote Energy Medicine in Therapeutics and Human Performance (2003).
A few years earlier, in 1999, Donna Eden and her partner David Feinstein published Energy Medicine, and the Oschman book seems to be a response to its assertions. The Eden book is a 400-page illustrated compendium of techniques, line drawings, tips and case histories interwoven with references to scientific data. The Eden book is widely quoted and referenced by reiki practitioners and demonstrates many familiar techniques, including some I use, such as chakra cleansing. The book is a kind of bible of energy techniques and a good resource for hand-healing methods that everyone can use. Reiki is mentioned once and is not in the index. Elsewhere in the public literature, reiki is always mentioned along with Touch for Health, therapeutic touch, Rolfing / structural integration and other energy healing modalities. When this writer finds out what’s behind this omission, the information will be provided.
SPEAR-IT TOOLS
• Not all energy healing methods are called reiki, although they all are
• EKG, MRI and other science proving reiki exists has been with us for decades
• Lineage issues promote “competition” among reiki and energy practitioners
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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