Articles on Reiki from PubMed

The National Institutes of Health has a National Center for Complimentary and Alternative Medicine. Lots of people are always looking for references to use in Reiki classes to show that Reiki isn't all "woo woo" (or perhaps even voodoo?). I thought I'd share the sources that the Center came up with when its staff used Pub Med. You can go to more information from that site here.

Barnes PM, Powell-Griner E, McFann K, Nahin RL. Complementary and alternative medicine use among adults: United States, 2002. CDC Advance Report #343. 2004.

Chu DA. Tai chi, qi gong and Reiki. Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Clinics of North America. 2004;15(4):774-781.

DiNucci EM. Energy healing: a complementary treatment for orthopaedic and other conditions. Orthopaedic Nursing. 2005;24(4):259-269.

Engebretson J, Wardell DW. Experience of a Reiki session. Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine. 2002;8(2):48-53.

Healing touch: hands-on help for the heart? Touch therapies are reaching growing numbers of patients. Harvard Heart Letter. 2005;16(2):3.

LaTorre MA. The use of Reiki in psychotherapy. Perspectives in Psychiatric Care. 2005;41(4):184-187.

Miles P, True G. Reiki-review of a biofield therapy history, theory, practice, and research. Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine. 2003;9(2):62-72.

National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine. Expanding Horizons of Health Care: Strategic Plan 2005-2009. Bethesda, MD: National Institutes of Health; 2005. NIH publication no. 04-5568.

Nield-Anderson L, Ameling A. Reiki: a complementary therapy for nursing practice. Journal of Psychosocial Nursing and Mental Health Services. 2001; 39(4):42-49.

Reiki. Natural Standard Database Web site. Accessed at http://www.naturalstandard.com on March 30, 2006.

Here are some more that look good as well:

LONG-TERM EFFECTS OF ENERGETIC HEALING ON SYMPTOMS OF PSYCHOLOGICAL DEPRESSION AND SELF-PERCEIVED STRESS. By: Shore, Adina Goldman. Alternative Therapies in Health & Medicine, May/Jun2004, Vol. 10 Issue 3, p42-48, 7p; (AN 13123196)

In Vitro Effect of Reiki Treatment on Bacterial Cultures: Role of Experimental Context and Practitioner Well-Being. By: Rubik, Beverly; Brooks, Audrey J.; Schwartz, Gary E.. Journal of Alternative & Complementary Medicine, Jan/Feb2006, Vol. 12 Issue 1, p7-13, 7p; DOI: 10.1089/acm.2006.12.7; (AN 19859455)

Using Reiki to Decrease Memory and Behavior Problems in Mild Cognitive Impairment and Mild Alzheimer’s Disease. STEPHEN E. CRAWFORD, M.Sc.,1 V. WAYNE LEAVER, Ph.D.2 and SANDRA D. MAHONEY, Ph.D. THE JOURNAL OF ALTERNATIVE AND COMPLEMENTARY MEDICINE
Volume 12, Number 9, 2006, pp. 911–913

An Integrative Review of Reiki Touch Therapy Research. By: Vitale, Anne. Holistic Nursing Practice, Jul/Aug2007, Vol. 21 Issue 4, p167-179, 13p; (AN 25846572)

I think I am going to get the ones that review other research on Reiki for the purposes of teaching my first class. I'll put up a review after I read them.

Some Reiki Esoterica

I am taking a Reiki Master class from a local woman, Pauline Southard who’s a photographer and psychic as well as a healer (see her website here). It’s so interesting asking her questions because if she doesn’t know the answer, she asks her Reiki guide and then channels it.

So I thought I’d share with you one of the answers to a question I had back in September.

I’m being trained in using the method that William Lee Rand teaches at his International Center for Reiki Training, which uses 2 Tibetan symbols in addition to the Usui ones.

Of course, I was curious about why this came about. Apparently, Rand was working with a couple of psychics when he came up with using these symbols. But that’s not what I wanted to know. I wanted to know what their purpose is, since we’re really getting Western Reiki training, and not just the original Usui training.

This was the response:

First, I was a bit spaced out for the class so my first message was that I need to remember the vital importance of intention when passing an attunement, since passing it to someone is really activated by one’s intention. You always need to say/pray to yourself that you are intending to pass the Reiki attunement or the violet fire to the person.

OK, so getting to the meat, the Tibetan DKM is less literal and more related to the non-linear, instinctual part of our energy system. It’s Sanscrit-based, and Sanscrit is really based in the male/female, active/passive, stop/go binary oppositions in duality, and in quantum states and it can get into the more primitive part of people’s brains, which is tied to our energetic connection to the universe, energy, and matter. In quantum states there are no halves, only wholes, and so there are whole jumps between levels.

The origins of the symbols were in Lemuria, and are preverbal. Some of the famous cave paintings in France have rudiments of the symbols.

This tells me that the capacity to send energy healing is really an ancient ability that we have lost track of, and that even though people today can indeed send healing energy, our true potential for energetic healing - which we always remember is just activating that capacity in the person who is in need of a healing - is really being re-activated by Reiki and other energy healing modalities.