REIKI HEALING SESSIONS
with Joanna Neff,
Traditional
Usui Reiki Master &
Certified
Holy Fire® III Karuna® Reiki Master
Master-Level,
Distant REIKI Session (includes 30-day Reiki "program")
WHAT IS
REIKI?
Reiki is a very ancient,
spiritually guided life force energy that is said to have been
used by Gautama Buddha for healing. Reactivated on the Earth
in the mid-1800s by Dr.
Mikao Usui and brought to the West by Hawayo
Takata, Reiki is literally able to perform healing miracles.
It can actually be seen by clairvoyants, and the energetic results
of Reiki have been captured in Kirlian photographs. Reiki not
only reduces pain and stress but also has a profoundly positive
effect on health problems, minor and serious. Reiki works on
all levels: physical, emotional, mental and spiritual.
Applied through the hands
of the practitioner on the client (or done from a distance),
Reiki energy is more often experienced as heat. Practitioners
also have reported a tingling or throbbing sensation in the hands,
which is shared by the client as s/he feels these sensations
in areas on which the practitioner's hands rest. Experience shows
that hands-on Reiki releases endorphins, which partially explains
the reduction of pain and relaxation clients usually feel within
minutes of being treated with Reiki.
(Reiki is a specific healing ray: blue light sealed within white
light.
Photo,
right: a Kirlian Photograph of Neff Sensei's
fingertips -- two separate exposures -- while doing Reiki.
Note how the energy field is completely and perfectly sealed
while the practitioner is doing Reiki. This is demonstrated in
the coronas around my fingertips.)
JOANNA'S
REIKI LINEAGE
My beginnings in
Reiki in 1991 with the late Helen J. Haberly, Traditional
Usui Reiki Master, who
was attuned to levels I and II Reiki by Hawayo Takata. Helen
said that Takata sensei wanted to attune her to the Master Level
before Helen felt ready. After Takata went through transition,
her granddaughter, Phyllis Lei Furumoto, attuned Helen as a Reiki
Master. (Furumoto sensei has been Grand Master of the Reiki Alliance
since Takata Sensei's transition.)
REIKI
WITH ANIMALS
ANSWERS
TO FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
How
do you pronounce Reiki?
It
is pronounced "ray-kee."
What
does the word "Reiki" mean?
Although the Japanese
ideogram for Reiki has many subtle meanings, a good basic translation
is"Universal life energy." Rei may be interpreted
as "the wisdom that comes from the highest spiritual source"
and Ki as "the nonphysical energy that animates all
living things."
What
is Reiki?
Reiki is spiritually
guided life force energy. Although not a religion, Reiki starts
us on a path of growth on all levels--a path to wholeness. There
are many reasons why Reiki is not just one of the many methods
of alternative healing. Perhaps the most important is that, after
one's attunement to Reiki, it is literally an automatic connection
to the positive healing forces of the Cosmic. It is literally
capable of performing miracles. Because it was rediscovered during
the mid-1800s in Japan by Dr. Mikao Usui, Reiki is also known
as The Usui Method of Natural Healing. This very ancient system
of natural healing is said to have been used by Buddha Gautama.
How
does Reiki work?
Applied through the
hands of the practitioner on the client, Reiki works on all levels:
physical, emotional, mental and spiritual. Reiki not only reduces
pain and stress but also has a profoundly positive effect on
health problems, minor and serious. According to the late Grand
Reiki Master Hawayo Takata, who brought Reiki to the West: "Reiki
. . . goes to the cause and effect. When the cause is removed
there will be no effect. It is not associated with any visible
material being. It's an unseen spiritual power that radiates
vibration and lifts one into harmony." (Mrs. Takata once
likened Reiki energy to that of Radionics.)
Although Mrs. Takata
described Reiki as "an unseen spiritual power," Reiki
is visible to clairvoyants, who see a beam of white light entering
the crown chakra, going down through the shoulders and coming
out of the palms of the hands. A Kirlian photograph of the fingertips
of Reiki Master William Rand clearly shows a main beam emerging
between the first and second fingers and another coming up between
the thumb and first finger. (In the original color photo the
beam is white, bordered in blue/white, with indigo at the base.)
What
does Reiki energy feel like?
Reiki energy is most
often experienced as heat. Practitioners also have reported a
tingling or throbbing sensation in the hands, which is shared
by the client as s/he feels these sensations in areas on which
the practitioner's hands rest.
Is
there such a thing as "too much Reiki?"
No. Reiki always works
for the Highest Good and can never harm. When Reiki practitioners'
hands are touching an area that needs healing, clients may feel
the Reiki energy intensifying. Sometimes this intensification
may briefly make existing pain or discomfort seem greater and
cause a client to perceive that the Reiki is "too much."
However, after a few minutes of Reiki, clients usually feel much
less pain and discomfort than they did before treatment began.
More often Reiki removes the pain or discomfort entirely.
Can
anyone learn Reiki ?
Learning Reiki requires
neither great mental powers nor the ability to meditate. It is
simply passed on from teacher to student by a series of attunements
to the energy and training in its use.
Can
you learn Reiki from a book or a tape?
No. Although you might
place your hands in the correct positions or even draw the symbols
that are revealed in some books about Reiki, you can't actually
do Reiki unless you've been attuned to it by a bona fide
Reiki Master. After your Reiki attunement you can actually feel
the energy coming out of your hands. Although some healing facilitators
naturally have energy coming through their hands, they can not
channel actual Reiki energy until they are attuned to it by a
Reiki Master.
Can
you use Reiki with other kinds of healing?
Reiki intensifies other
healing methods. It can be used by itself or to enhance any other
kind of healing modality you use. Natural healing facilitators
who learn Reiki report that their healing power is significantly
increased. According to William Rand, "People who already
do healing work consistently report an increase of at least fifty
percent in the strength of their healing energies after taking
the Reiki training."
Do
all healers use Reiki?
According to Rand,
Reiki is "a special kind of life force that can only be
channeled by someone who has been attuned to it. It is possible."
Rand states, "that some people are born with Reiki or have
gotten it some other way. However, most healers who have not
received the Reiki attunement from a Reiki Master are not using
Reiki but another kind of life force."
Are
you "protected" while using Reiki? In other words,
are you in danger of "picking up a client's stuff"?
Reiki protects you
and your client during the treatment. A person doing Reiki
on another is protected and is never in danger of picking up
negativity or problems from the recipient.
Can
you "lose" the Reiki energy?
No. Once attuned to
Reiki, you have this beautiful healing energy permanently-- healing
energy that works even for people who don't believe in
it!
Because Reiki practitioners
are taught to ask permission before facilitating healing, if
they continue to "play God" and do not ask permission--or
continue to try to use Reiki for negative purposes--the Reiki
may leave them for their own good . . . to teach them at a Soul
level.
How
much do Reiki workshops cost?
This
varies according to which "school" of Reiki the Master
Teacher subscribes. To find out what the workshop fees are in
your area, check with the Reiki Master with whom you want to
take the Reiki training.
(Among the 22 Reiki
Masters initiated by Mrs. Takata, a number branched off not only
in the teachings but also in the fee structure. Therefore, the
fees charged by Masters whom these other Reiki Masters trained
vary considerably. Those who don't charge these fees, which,
according to Rand's research, were actually set up by Mrs. Takata
and not by Dr. Usui or Dr. Hayashi, believe that such high fees
make Reiki much less accessible to the great numbers who would
otherwise benefit from attunement to Reiki.)
How
much do Reiki treatments cost?
Again, this varies
with the background and experience of the practitioner. Some
people evidently believe that Reiki practitioners are mere money
grubbers who charge a lot of money for a simple relaxation technique.
(The same could be said of massage therapists, yet people choose
to pay for massages.) The truth about why there are more and
more Reiki practitioners is that, over this century, Reiki has
worked well enough that people want to learn how to do it themselves.
The truth about Reiki fees is that few Reiki practitioners are
able to make a living from their work--and that they charge their
fee for the value of their time (as do all professionals)--and
not for the healing energy itself. This has not changed since
the time of Usui Sensei's successor, Dr. Chujiro Hayashi, many
of whose students "were forced to stop practicing Reiki
due to a lack of adequate income," according to William
Rand. This fact stems not from the fact that Reiki doesn't
work; it results from the fact that the main purpose of Reiki
is to help others--not to make money--and from the fact that
many people still aren't aware of the efficacy of this healing
modality.
THE
LEVELS OF REIKI
Each level of Reiki
training gives you the appropriate initiation and teaches many
ways of using Reiki energy. In addition, at each successive level,
the Reiki attunements increase in their power and effect on the
Reiki initiate.
Level
I: "Hands-on Reiki"
At level I you are
told the history of Reiki: how it was rediscovered, how it was
passed on from Reiki Master to student, and how it came to America.
Next the ethics and principles of using Reiki are discussed,
for having such energy "at your fingertips" involves
deep responsibility, including the matter of permission.
You are attuned to
the Reiki energy, which means that you are able to offer Reiki
to others and to treat yourself with Reiki. After attunement to Reiki energy you
learn simple sets of hand positions that basically correspond
to the body's gland and organ systems. Then, working with others
in the class, you learn and practice the hand positions and other
techniques available to you at Level I.
Reiki
II is not only
more powerful than Level I but also includes three specific,
sacred symbols that allow you to work directly on the emotional/mental
level and to send Reiki energy to others at a distance. This
process is also termed "absent healing."
You are taught to draw
these sacred symbols, and you learn about the many ways you can
use them to open doors to higher levels of awareness, manifestation
and healing. You participate in a guided meditation designed
to put you in touch with the very source of Reiki healing energy,
and you practice other general techniques available when working
with Reiki II.
At Level II there is
also a detailed review of how to do the full, Level I, hands-on
Reiki treatment. You may also be taught some special methods
of enhancing a client's receptivity to the Reiki healing session,
including working with the seven chakras and closing a healing
session.
Level
III: Master
This level is often
divided into two parts: Reiki Master Practitioner and Teaching
Reiki Master. The reason for dividing the Master's training is
that at the Master Teacher Level there should be a great commitment
to teaching Reiki.
Master
Practitioner (Advanced Reiki Training)
Reiki practitioners
usually seek this level of training when they are interested
in increasing the power and scope of their Reiki practice. They
have been attuned to Reiki Levels I and II, they have used Reiki
extensively, and they wish to attain true mastery of the uses
of Reiki energy. Here the practitioner is attuned to the Usui
Master Symbol, which allows one to begin using both hands-on
and distant Reiki in amplified, more powerful ways. (At this
level the practitioner is not taught how to attune others
to Reiki energy.)
Master
Teacher
This level requires
prerequisite Master Practitioner training. Before the Reiki practitioner
takes this level of training, s/he has, hopefully, felt a profound
calling to teach Reiki. Here the practitioner makes an even deeper
commitment to Reiki mastery and to healing service in the world.
Here practitioners are taught how to initiate others into Reiki,
which enables them to teach their own Reiki classes.