What is a Reiki Healing?


-- by Sheree Silver, Ph.d.

Reiki is Universal Life Energy

Reiki is a Japanese word that means Universal Life Energy. Reiki healing is a process of tapping into that while light energy. The practitioner puts his hands on the patient's body to radiate this energy and allow the body to come into balance and harmony. With this energy, the person is relieved of physical and emotional blockages. It is very simple and can be administered at any time or place.

Reiki is not taught through studying. It is transferred by the meditation and touch of a Reiki Master to a student. The power transfers given by a Reiki Master to his or her student will last the whole life of the Reiki student.

A practitioner is never tired or depleted after giving a Reiki healing since they are using universal life energy, not their own. Reiki certification is divided into three degrees to achieve a Mastership and the whole process can take a year from beginning to end.

Reiki energy cannot be seen with our physical eyes. It can only be felt. Everything around us is energy and everything we feel, do, or express is a manifestation of this energy. You do not have to believe in Reiki for it to work.

Reiki is an ancient form of healing but is just recently being discovered as a powerful and natural way to heal the body.

Reiki Background

It was re-discovered by Mikao Usui in the 1800s who spent many years studying ways to heal the body. He searched out many religions from Catholicism to Buddhism. He studied the Japanese sutras (ancient texts from 500-200 BC, then the Chinese sutras. Then he went on to learn Sanskrit (ancient language of India used before the fourth century BC, now only used for sacred or scholarly writing) and studied the Sanskrit sutras. He eventually went to a mountain, Mount Kurama Yama, just outside Kyoto, for 21 days. He sat and fasted and meditated. On the last day, he received the universal light energy in his forehead. Then he saw gold figures in white lights in the Sanskrit he had learned in the sutras.

From that moment on, he spent his life helping people with Reiki. He passed the knowledge on before he left the earth.

There are Reiki Masters all over the world now.

Reiki can be used on the whole body or specific areas. It can be used on children, animals, plants, and even objects.