An Honest Introduction to Reiki

Of all the energy healing modalities available today, Reiki is among the most widely practised and most accessible. Developed in Japan in the early twentieth century by a Buddhist monk named Mikao Usui, Reiki (pronounced "ray-kee") translates roughly as universal life energy. rei meaning universal or spiritual, and ki being the Japanese equivalent of China's qi: the animating life force.

The story goes that Usui received the Reiki system during a period of deep meditation and fasting on Mount Kurama. Whether one takes this origin literally or as metaphor matters less than what emerged from it. A gentle, structured practice for channelling healing energy through the hands that has now spread to virtually every country on earth.

A typical Reiki session is remarkably simple in its outward appearance. You lie fully clothed on a massage table, usually with soft music or silence around you. The practitioner places their hands lightly on or just above specific areas of the body, head, shoulders, chest, abdomen, legs - holding each position for several minutes. There is no manipulation, no pressure, no tools or instruments of any kind.

What happens beneath that quiet surface is, according to practitioners and many clients, anything but simple. People commonly report sensations of warmth, tingling, or gentle pulsing beneath the practitioner's hands. Many enter a deep state of relaxation akin to the threshold between waking and sleep a state science now recognizes as highly conducive to healing and the regulation of the nervous system. Some people see colours or images behind closed eyes. Others simply fall asleep. Some feel an unexpected wave of emotion move through them and release.