what is reiki?

Reiki (The Usui System of Natural Healing) is Universal Life Energy (the energy found in all living things). The Usui system of Reiki Healing applies this unlimited source of energy through touch for the purpose of healing. A Reiki treatment supports the whole person – physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually.

When a Reiki practitioner places his/her hands on an area of the client’s body, Reiki energy flows to the client. This energy is not from the practitioner – it flows through them from a higher source. The energy can be felt by the client as any type of sensation: heat, cold, vibration or unusual heaviness. Clients may also see colours or receive insights during a session. A full Reiki treatment takes about one hour.

a touch of history

The Usui system of Reiki was founded in the late 1800′s by Dr. Mikao Usui who was a Christian educator and scholar. After being questioned by one of his students about how the laying on of hands can heal (and if he believed in this form of healing), Dr Usui began an intense period of study, travel and meditation. It was through this study and a profound 21 day meditation experience that Dr Usui was blessed with the sacred Reiki symbols and the wonderful gift of Reiki healing. He dedicated the remainder of his life to practicing and teaching this ancient and unique healing art.

Reiki Really Works: A Groundbreaking Scientific Study

The following article is from:

http://greenlotus.hubpages.com/hub/Reiki_Really_Works-A_Groundbreaking_Scientific_Study

After decades of disputed validity, the effectiveness of Reiki, a holistic energy treatment is gaining new respect within the medical community. Not only are highly reputable medical facilities throughout the U.S. offering patients alternative healing programs such as Reiki, those facilities are analysing the benefits of their programs and are submitting them for review and compilation. The results are nothing short of remarkable.

A Brief Explanation of Reiki

Reiki is an energy healing treatment that works holistically on the whole body, mind and spirit. Not a system of religious beliefs, Reiki is simply a relaxing treatment whereby natural healing vibrations are transmitted through the hands of a Reiki practitioner (acting as a conduit) to the body of the recipient. The purpose of a Reiki treatment is to relieve stress and pain, induce relaxation, release emotional blockages, accelerate natural healing, balance subtle bodies energies and support other medical modalities including traditional therapies.

The International Center for Reiki Training has estimated that there are 4,000,000 people throughout the word who have taken at least one level of Reiki training. There are three traditional levels of expertise. Today, Reiki is offered free of charge in more than 800 American Hospitals as a means to accelerate the healing process and to alleviate pain.

Why Reiki Has Been Discounted

For years Reiki, along with other methods of holistic therapies were looked upon with disdain, even contempt from medical associations, practitioners, mainstream scientists and clerics. The idea that the human body was permeated or surrounded by an invisible, etheric body of life force energy was considered to be no less than nonsense.

These negative conclusions were formulated on the premise that life energy fields such as those accepted in China as Chi or qi, in Japan as ki and in India as prana , were unseen and immeasurable by traditional research or scientific instrumentation.
But now all that is changing.

Controlled Experiments, Improved Reporting

There’s never been a comprehensive list of controlled, evidence-based research that was accessible to the holistic, medical, and scientific communities. It wasn’t until 2005 when William Lee Rand, founder and president of the International Center for Reiki Training and a pioneer in worldwide Reiki awareness formed the Center For Reiki Research and developed what is now known as The Touchstone Process.

What is The Touchstone Process?

The Touchstone Process is actually a peer review method for analyzing the current state of scientific studies done on Reiki programs in hospitals, clinics and hospice facilities throughout the United States. The process of critique is rigorous, impartial, and consistent and incorporates the best practices for scientific review. William Lee Rand began formulating The Touchstone Process after developing the Reiki In Hospitals website, considered to be the most comprehensive compilation of hospitals offering Reiki treatments throughout the world. The Touchstone Process is unique. Never before have there been so many worthy studies of Reiki gathered, analysed and evaluated within a single source.

What Are The Findings?

The most recent data analysed (during 2008-9) shows strong evidence that Reiki is indeed responsible for a positive biological response in both humans and animals.
The strongest evidence (rated “excellent” in the Process) was reported in the most carefully controlled of all experiments; non other than laboratory rats. In both 2006 and 2008 stressed-out lab rats received Reiki treatments and they all showed significantly reduced stress, anxiety and depression responses. Sham or bogus Reiki treatments were given to the placebo group and they showed no reduction in stress, anxiety or depression.

Testing in humans performed between 1993 and 2006 showed ratings from Satisfactory to Excellent, all suggesting that the benefit of Reiki treatments were positive in controlling pain levels in humans. There were some confounding variables, which is typical in hospital (as opposed to laboratory) studies; however, the placebo Reiki treatments in this experiment were by contrast ineffective in controlling pain.