Panda:
Can it hurt?
I don't think it can hurt. I think it can only help.
That's what I thought immediately when I saw you posting in this thread.

x 2. Also an idea to find and contact Reiki masters online who don't mind sending some distant Reiki. I'm sure if you ask nicely most enthusiastic regualr practitioners will be happy to add a name to their distant healing list without expecting anything in return.

Best of luck and healing vibes to all involved with the cancer }}}

I am so going to look into Reiki and/or improv spin offs. Thanks a lot for sharing this, you live an interesting life by the sounds of it.

I think I might need to put some faith into this, always had tinnitus between my right ear and jaw, had lots of ear problems as a kid too and I always find myself trying to crack my jaw to alleviate pressure when it builds up. It hasn't helped that my bottom wisdom tooth on that side has been deteriorating lately, being in such close proximity.

Interesting that I stumble upon this not long after I had a powerful reiki session myself.

An aunt of mine practices reiki, and like many have said, I was rather skeptical but decided to give it a shot. Initially I didn't notice anything except deep relaxation, she then began working on my heart/lungs and I had an intense wave of anxiety as my fears were brought to the forefront of my awareness. "How must I move on from here? Where will life take me?" and then the big one that has consumed the entirety of my being since I initially developed an awareness of the dark and treacherous road that lies ahead for civilization.. "How must I prepare for such a demise..possibly my own death?"

For so long I have been confined to my own fear, something that has crippled me with anxiety, prohibiting me from seeing the profound goodness in transformation as well as limiting my potential to catalyze personal evolution.

And there I was, staring into my penetrating shadows. I broke down in tears as everything disintegrated around me, purging the toxicities of my life. On the "comedown" I felt like I was just left hanging in that void, my aunt did nothing to nurture the experience, rather, she began talking of mundane things, she shied away from the truth. I believe I may have frightened her with my own experience as she simply did not know how to fully implement healing, nor was she willing to even try.

What disturbed me was my aunt's inability to understand the profound nature of my experience. I get a strong sense that she doesn't know of the potential in the forces that she is wielding. I try not to blame her, but I was left with a slight sensation of anger as she carries an ego that thinks itself to be wise and pure. I see spiritual delusion in her. I try to be understanding, but it is for this reason that I do not see myself going back to her. After this experience, I realize that I must have complete faith and trust in someone that is to perform this practice on me.

First of all, it warms my mystic heart to see so many of my diehard skeptic buddies here embracing the most woo woo of all healing modalities.

Heheheheh.

Thinking back to dialogues we have had only a relatively short time ago... I am somewhat astounded, but more gratified, to see such progress. I suppose there is only so long you can take entheogens and open yourself up to these things before you get your own proof. I'm vividly remembering a few of you lot taking me to task for making claims along these very lines.

How the worm turns.

At any rate... I am a LONG time practitioner of this kind of energy work. A Reiki Master of 20 year or more, and an even longer history with various other forms of energetic healing and "laying of hands" type stuff.

Reiki is relatively new, and specifically refers to the system developed by Usui Sensei with various offshoots coming from his senior students for the most part. It involves the use of symbols he developed to be drawn and visualized by the practitioner to focus their energy and call in what amount to archetypal energetic patterns.

This can be rather effective actually because it allows the rational mind of the practitioner to busy itself with the symbols and "get out of the way." In this way, the practitioner often has little or no awareness of what they are actually doing. They become, in effect, channels for a higher energy that doesn't require their conscious direction. As such, the emptier they can become the better it works.

Of course, Reiki wasn't developed in a vacuum. Much like Aikido has obvious roots in Tai Chi, Reiki harkens back to earlier energetic practices like Jin Shin Jyutsu, Jo Rei, and the comprehensive chi massage techniques of Chinese Internal Arts. Most Japanese martial arts and meditative practices are Japan-ized versions of things that go way back in China.

Of course, this is not limited to Asian artforms either. Yoga has some similar practices. As does Christianity and Kabbalah. Jesus himself practiced laying of hands.

Having said all of this, I don't think that improv or spin off Reiki is any worse than the real deal. I don't think the practitioner needs to understand the mechanisms at work either. All that is necessary is that the giver of the energy can tap into this force and direct it.

I could give a plethora of examples of my own successful use of this stuff... including the woo woo iest of them all... remote healing. I have helped many friends from great distances. With uncanny things transpiring, like me sending Reiki to someone while we Skype chat and then after a random amount of minutes, I would stop and IMMEDIATELY they would type "don't stop!"

There are a number of my comrades who call me first thing if they are feeling really shitty or ill.

I don't say this to pat myself on the back. I don't think that these healings are done by my virtue or personal greatness (however vaunted that may be ). It is clear that this stuff is simply connecting universal energy with people and letting it take the lead. It really is like the Bible says (note: I am anti religious), if you can bring the holy spirit inside of you, you can share it with others. Read the story of Pentecost for a good example.

OK. I will shut up now.

I am certain there are still people on the Nexus who will be hunting for my scalp for saying these things. But I can't help but chime in. If House and AKL are open to the Reiki bandwagon now, perhaps hell is actually freezing over.

Thanks for the thread and the info. I find this intriguing because even the most woowooish concepts in reiki (existence of an archetypal energy and channeling abilities) are things I'm coming to take quite seriously, and the principles of reiki theory (the present moment, avoiding worry and anger, work, thankfulness and kindness) make eminent sense to me.

Regarding the studies claiming that reiki effects are unproven and attributing the cases of improvement to placebo, I wonder if that rate of success is lower or higher than in other healing practices/beliefs.

What's the rate of good practitioners versus bogus practitioners, HF? Do you think the difference between a good result and no result depends on the skill of the practitioner?

IMO I would say the vast majority of people who practice these arts are amateurs... at best. In a number of systems of energetic healing that I studied one is considered a beginner only after many many years of Qi Gong practice. Mastering the internal arts is far more difficult than becoming an MD.

In the old monasteries of China it was common to believe that 20 years of intense monastic training only lay the foundations of rewiring one's central nervous system and THEN the real learning began. So most Taoist and Buddhist monks would get dropped off at perhaps 4 or 5 years of age, and not really become ready for learning the more advanced practices until they were in their 20's. And this is living and breathing Kung Fu all day long everyday.

Obviously, the number of people in the west who can practice even 5 hours a day are few and far between.

Having said that... Reiki was designed to be simple to learn and practice. It was purposely set up so that one can learn Reiki I, II and get your Master attunements in extremely short order.

It is my feeling that even "poorly" done Reiki is still valuable. So long as someone isn't entertaining negative emotional thoughts while sending, it can only be good for you. I would say that the abilities of any practitioner are proportionate (perhaps exponentially) to the ability that person has to empty their mind and relax their body. So a healthy meditation practice is generally a must for one to be any good at it.

One can go well beyond the basic symbols and positions one learns as a Reiki Master, though. There are plenty of extra symbols one can learn from offshoot systems... like Violet Flame Reiki for example. But even the mightiest symbols kind of pale in comparison to what you can do once you can really see and feel the energy directly... and have enough knowledge of the meridians and acupuncture points to be able to direct energy in a more surgical way.

At such levels, one can also use this for ill, though. (SKEPTIC ALERT - serious skeptics should skip over this paragraph) I have seen people get seriously injured from even haphazard energy. One time a Sifu of mine was building up some frighteningly high energy levels in the kung fu studio while we were doing an advanced class nearby. He discharged some and happened to direct it towards a relatively senior student who subsequently began to feel rather ill... instead of leaving after the class he stuck around and began to turn green. He looked to me like some of his organs were shutting down! It took this Sifu 40 min of intense energy work to correct the damage he had done inadvertently in a single second. My friend was rather lucky he didn't simply drive home directly as I am of the opinion that he may have died.

So...

I suppose for most people's purposes, it is probably best that their conscious mind and personal energy NOT be involved in Reiki at all. Simply getting out of the way and letting the universal energy do its thing is as simple as... getting out of the way. Furthermore, if one really gets out of the way, the results can be simply miraculous. I must admit that the most amazing healings I have seen have come from people who never studied at all, but were just overflowing with this (for lack of a better word) holy spirit.

I say that because the energy does seem to have its own intelligence and is life affirming without any conscious direction on your part. To call it simply energy doesn't quite capture that self aware quality it has.

Anyway, that's my 2c.

Vodsel

Skill is definitely a contributing factor regarding reiki practice, though I think intention is as vital as skill when it comes to the effectiveness of reiki. I was always skeptical of the entire concept of reiki until my mother practiced reiki on me while I was in excruciating pain after an operation and it seemed to be the only thing that would dissolve my pain. I try to incorporate and infuse positive intention into everything I do in life even while I'm making a cup of tea or a meal, it really is quite powerful.

To be a healer is an intensely complex and difficult thing, the most masterful shamans and healers have pure compassion and intention as well as incredible skill and experience.

۩

Thank you for sharing your amazing and profound experience...


Much Peace and Understanding

Wow, what an amazing thread! Is it also possible to evoke a healing experience that can help to deal with deep psychological problems? Like something a psychedelic drug can do by confronting you with subpressed or subconsious things? I see so many people, many of them friends, around me with serious issues (also resulting in physical illness and/or overuse of numbing substances) and often think a good psychedelic experience would do them so well, but it simply is not an good and safe option for most of them IMO, or even something you could seriously suggest. And I was thinking a lot lately about what could be done for them and contemplated if I could go anywhere and try learn how to heal a human being. Is this maybe something that could help for such a purpose?

Reiki can absolutely be used for emotional and psychological problems.

In fact, one of the main symbols one learns as a practitioner is Sei He Ki. This symbol is designed to work on emotional issues specifically. It can be quite effective.

Naturally, healing can not (or should not) be forced on people who don't really want it. This is often an overriding consideration because people may say they want to be healed and pay lip service to the idea, but deep down... often subconsciously, they absolutely don't want it. The fact is, that most things that are "wrong" in people's lives arise from unconscious beliefs and such.

If a person feels they deserve to suffer, or they are not worthy to be healed... then they will simply recreate the problems or shift them to some other area of the mind body system.

I am no fan of psychotherapy, but it is often necessary to work with people over time to uncover the roots of their problems... sitting with them and going deep into their issues while they are in an altered state can be quite effective at this. Then, once this stuff comes up, it can be handled via other healing modalities.

^

While I do find there is something to the above excerpt, and my comments on this thread show this to some degree... especially concerning the amount of time it takes to truly cultivate a Chi Kung practice....

I must, however, note that Falun Dafa and its system of Falun Gong are NOT truly old school internal arts systems, but rather a new and somewhat political movement. I deplore the Chinese government's vicious suppression of Falun Dafa. It is something to consider, though, why no other internal art system is currently banned in China... in fact, the Chinese government is going out of its way to promote medical Chi Kung and a wide variety of internal arts.

All I can really say, is that I don't know any Chi Kung master that takes Falun Gong overly seriously. This doesn't, in and of itself, negate anything that was said above about charlatans and such, but it does call into question how advanced the masters who practice it really are. Any moderately skilled Sifu I know is perfectly capable of protecting themselves from absorbing negative energy for instance. And it is somewhat child's play to merge one's energy with others and not absorb any malignant chi from them whatsoever. Furthermore, one does not have to "spend" any of one's personal energy when influencing the chi of another. The energetic systems I studied employ more of an empty technique whereby the practitioner is more of a channel for universal chi (which is infinite) and thus works more like a tube or fire hose than like a battery that has to be charged up.

These are important points to make.

If simply merging energy with someone was so detrimental or potentially hazardous, one could not go into public at all. Seeing as a typical energy field (or aura) is something like 10m in diameter... and that of a master can be considerably larger... you would be exchanging energy with half of the people on the subway everytime you get on. And, in fact, you do.

The thing is, that an advanced practitioner of internal arts (Yoga systems included) should have developed the ability to not only open their energy centers, but CLOSE them as well.

One point I would like to make is that Chi, Prana, Life Force, Mana, Ki etc. is, in it's basic universal form, entirely nourishing and life giving. In fact, without it, nothing could live. More of it is nearly always better than less, except when forced through blocked channels or something like that. Inside the body it can become stagnant, and even in nature, does have the ability become polarized in yin and yang forms. There is also elemental chi in the 5 elements. Chi is further broken down into forms corresponding to the 8 Kuas (trigrams) and the 12 animals. Combining the Kuas results in 64 Hexagrams of the I Ching, each representing an archetypal energy form. Combining the animals and elements in their yin and yang forms results in 120 varieties (yin water snake or yang wood dragon for instance) of alchemic energies.

For most people who are not working with the deep internal alchemy, this stuff is unimportant. As is the case with Reiki. None of this kind of thing is even taught in Reiki. Thus people simple work with raw Ki and are primarily instructed to clear themselves and send or channel this life force. At the conclusion of a session, they are taught to close the flow and break any connection. Generally one is also taught to clear the space and oneself before and after administering Reiki. Thus, in my opinion, the dangers talked about above are somewhat remote. Though, you will see plenty of healers who unknowingly do make themselves sick.

Only an advanced practitioner will be working with energy that they have cultivated and refined anyway. As I said before, if you are simply channeling universal life force, you don't have to worry because A) it will do its work without conscious direction on your part B) it will serve to protect you from negative energies & C) no ego should be involved. One practicing in this fashion should be well aware that they are not doing anything overly special. If anything, the feeling of being used by the life force as an instrument is somewhat humbling.

I won't dismiss everything the Zhuan Falun quote says. But I think it very important to consider that Falun Gong is often considered a dangerous and cultish offshoot of the core Kung Fu systems itself. My limited exposure to those people who practice it has always left me scratching my head and thinking why do people think this stuff is so dangerous? It always seems to me as extremely watered down stuff pilfered from other systems. All I can say is that many of its leaders are quite outspoken and have set it up so that the mere practice of a Falun Gong meditation is grounds for imprisonment in China even though said meditations are often just simplified versions of perfectly legal Taoist and Buddhist practices.

Hey sgtWow... I didn't mean to insult your practice or denigrate its value. As you surmised, I haven't actually read the Zhuan Falun through, so your link to the pdf is appreciated. When I get a chance I will check it out. My "to read" list is rather long, but I am curious about Falun Dafa... if only to understand the controversy better.

My comments on your first cut & paste passage, though, come from a 4 decade practice of many internal Chinese Kung Fu systems. The lineages of my systems go back for ages and ages in the public eye, and were based in mountaintop monasteries renowned for their mastery of this stuff. They include all the cosmic philosophical stuff, the physical culture, sexual alchemy, as well as basic things like herbs, cooking, dreaming and calligraphy.

I find it interesting the way you use the word "Gong." Transliterations of Chinese words being what they are, you may be referring to a different term, but the gong I am familiar with means simply work. In the older books it is usually written Kung, and is the root of the terms Kung Fu (Hard Work) and Chi Kung (Energy Work or Breath Work) among others.

At any rate, this thread is about Reiki, and even my detours into Chi Kung and other energetic healing systems are already off topic enough. If you would like to discuss Falun Gong further, I suggest you start a new thread on the subject. I would be happy to chime in. (note: I can tell you in advance that such a thread will probably not be overly popular here on the Nexus, as this site tends to focus on nuts & bolts chemistry and often frowns upon spirituality. Just a heads up.)

Nice thread guys, im in rishikesh right now starting my reiki course tomorow,if everything goes well i will be a lv2 reiki practitioner in a few weeks

Shroomtroll... hey buddy! Rishikesh, eh? Quite some place that. Have fun, namasté and all that jazz.


sgtWow, it sounds to me like the Gong in Falun Dafa is what is known as Ching in the systems I studied. Alternatively they could merely be speaking of Shen. Hard to say. I will have to read the book. Look forward to your thread.

Wow... that sounds like the penultimate iteration of what my body does, awkwardly and with great distress, and without the lively outcome. I've had far-out musings around the idea of one person being able to facilitate that kind of movement/unfolding/transformation/whatnot in another. I didn't really imagine I'd ever hear of something similar, especially from Reiki.

Your description is pretty similar to the presentation of my own wonderful brand of lifelong kundalini crisis (speaking of phenomena couched in BS), with the horrible *something must have broken* jarring movements of various structures in the body, lovely physiological cacophonies, sudden shifts in perception and all that. (Amazing how convincing it is, huh?) Sounds like I should look into this, if even just for the breadcumbs... Not one thought of dust to dust, and all.

Y'think you could give her my number?

I jest,
Happy Trails Jav.

Sounds like you're doing well... It sounds good. <3

Hmmmm... this Falun Dafa stuff is certainly interesting. Of course, Reiki is not attempting to do anything of this sort. The kind of instantaneous healings of serious illnesses being described are not even considered in normal Reiki practice. I don't think a Reiki practitioner is in any position to deal with their patient's karma or chase off extra-dimensional parasites.

This kind of stuff is well beyond the belief systems of most people who are drawn to Reiki at this time.

What Reiki does is create a flow of positive chi (ki) which has a tonifying effect on the body and the energetic systems of the receiver. This is directed and amplified, not by the high level of the practitioner, so much as it is by the archetypal energetic symbols that the sender uses. These symbols have certain meanings and act as lenses of sort which the basic positive energy passes through and which imprint and program the energy to do specific things. Reiki practitioners are not trying to battle dark forces or perform miracles.

The kind of laying of hands that does this stuff is that which is spoken of in the Bible. Casting out demons, healing the sick, raising the dead and whatnot. When done by a prophet or saint, it is said that this activity is performed on his or her merit and backed by the divine. In the Christian tradition, there is also the ability to do these things by grace... in the name of Jesus or another spiritual heavyweight like the Virgin Mary. It is worth studying the book Acts of the Apostles if this interests you, as the story of Pentecost is the pinnacle of this idea. The Holy Spirit of Jesus comes down to the Apostles (none of whom was a prophet or saint in their own right... and who by and large were fairly ignorant and foolhardy having only been with their master for 3 years or less) and all of them were able to go out into the street to work miracles of healing.

I am not a Christian. But I find the Pentecost story intriguing. It is probably the most purely Christian story in the New Testament, in that it is the only thing that really goes against Kabbalistic understanding. At any rate, the people who work miracles are in no danger of the kind the Falun Dafa speaks of because they are channeling the highest and most potent of light sources, and have no egoic involvement whatsoever. This kind of light not only chases off darkness, parasites and illusion... but can retroactively uncreate it so that it never existed.

So, I would say Reiki is something quite a bit below what the Zhuan Falun is talking about, and the working of miracles by the divine spirit is significantly beyond that. This middle ground of personally directed energetic healing clearly should only be undertaken by an advanced practitioner with plenty of Ching/Gong.

Anyway, it seems that we have chased off the people who were posting here with our going well "off the deep end" for them. Knowing them as I do, the very idea that Reiki could have anything but a placebo effect was already a huge step out of their skeptic materialist worldviews. Alas, I am fairly sure they tuned out of this thread long ago.

What can you do? These are not things that should be taken on faith anyway. The fact that the OP here experienced a pronounced effect personally is enough to challenge the deeply held belief that this stuff is all BS. We can ask for nothing more than this.

I def dont mind this going a bit off topic cause its still very related, esp if you wanna discuss these more then regular experiences some people can have.

On topic i think reike is a preety harmless yet valuable art that is simple and harmless in its basic nature.

However there is always the chance of someone getting into the whole energy work world through reike and maybe have some talent that could corrupt them and they would cause some problems later on.

but anyway that is not reikis fault it was the person.



I did the first level course which was 2x 3hours with a master and instruction papers on how i could continue my training,

The courses themself were very simple in nature, my chakras got read then we meditated together and i got a total of 4 initiations so 2 times per course.


This meant that the reike lady put her hands on different parts on my body and also she did some other stuff.

For me the whole thing was subtle but i could def feel something going on if i focused and stayed in the meditation, i got some slight visuals at some points also.

One interesting thing though was at the end of the first day during the last meditaion and initiation i got very clear visions of a shiva half moon that morphed into a sun, i got these like 10 times in a row.

Anyway after that meditaion she asked me if ive experienced something out of the ordinary, she asked cause she told me she had seen the shhiva half moons and that she rarely get visions when doing this.

So she showed me a notebook were she had drawn out small half moons that had popped up during the sesion.


So yeah i can def get into this reike thing, but its not miracles and that is not the intention of the art.

Reiki doesnt manipulate the chi, prana etc it just makes you aware of it a little more i think, then you can probably come to the point were you can change the flow of things somehow but i doubt many people master any kind of powers like that.