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reiki healing U.K.
Annalise Juncker, reiki practitioner and holistic massage in England, West Midlands, Bromsgrove UK
Reiki is a
Japanese word representing Universal Life Force, the energy around us and within
us. Reiki is a way of activating, directing and applying natural energy for the
promotion of health, healing, balance and wholeness. This form of healing is an
holistic creative energy and therefore useful for preventing imbalance,
assisting the body's natural healing powers and maintaining the rebalance as a
state of well being.
It can be used most effectively as a self help technique as well as for the
release of stress and relaxation and to restore the vital energy lost in daily
life. Therefore creating good health!
This ancient form of Healing is a vehicle to channel love, the most powerful
healer.
It opens the heart, crown and palm chakras and the spirit to the causes of disease and pain and reinforces the body's ability to heal itself. It supports and enhances all medical treatment, being used effectively by conventional doctors, complementary practitioners.
The history of Reiki
Reiki has a unique history. The many books on Reiki give similar histories of Reiki, and these are summarized below. I do not pretend to be an authority on the History of Reiki. Instead of spending much effort debating the past and the exact path by which Reiki came to us, I find it more fruitful to use the energy and experience the truth of the larger reality of all that is. This is not to say that the history is unimportant. As human beings we tend to react based on the past so it is natural to want to know where things come from.
All of the histories of Reiki come from the verbal stories passed on from Mrs. Takata, with little or no hard evidence of Reiki from before World War II remains in Japan, to the knowledge of the mainstream of Reiki practitioners.
With roots in Japan prior to World War II, it is not surprising that some documentation was lost. Apparently the survivors of Dr. Hayashi lost to the war the resources allowing them to continue the clinic he founded and perhaps stopped practicing Reiki. If it were not for Mrs. Takata learning Reiki before the war and bringing it to America, this healing technique could well have been lost to the world. Such a skin of the teeth saving of Reiki perhaps lost some valuable memories, knowledge and continuity had the lineage not been squeezed through one person. We can only hope that practice, study and intuition will bring back any lost knowledge and practices.
Lost knowledge, particularly the evidence to support the following history, does give rise to possible scepticism. Still, Reiki speaks for itself on every use. The energy is real and easily experienced. Once one has experienced the energy, particularly if one is an attuned Reiki practitioner, it is always there and easily demonstrates its truth.
Reiki is a Japanese word meaning "Universal Life-Force-Energy". The "Ki" part is the same word as Chi or Qi, the Chinese word for the energy which underlies everything. Reiki is a system for channelling that energy to someone for the purpose of healing. It was discovered by Dr. Usui in the late 1800's, a teacher or perhaps dean of a Christian school in Japan.
Dr. Mikao Usui: Dr. Usui was a Christian minister in Japan , though Japanese. He was the head of a Christian Boys School in Japan. One day some of the students asked him if he believed in the miracles which Jesus did (healing, etc). Being a Christian minister he answered "Yes". They asked if he knew how Jesus had done this, "No" he said. [It is interesting that the story coming through Dave Kings' contacts in Japan is that Usui was Buddhist, not Christian as we are told through Dr Hayashi and Mrs Takata. This gives credence to the claim of some that the 'Christian' angle was added during Dr Hayashi's trip to Hawaii to make it more acceptable to the Christian audiences in America.]
With this he resolved to find the way in which Jesus had healed. This immediately set him on a journey of many years. Studying first at Christian schools in the US, for where else to learn of Jesus, but with no results. In the Christian schools the method was not known.
It was suggested he study Buddhist writings since the Buddha had also healed. This took more years studying at a monastery in the Orient. Nowhere could he find the answers. In Japan he toured many temples asking for knowledge of how the Buddha had healed. At each one the priests said they were more concerned with spiritual than physical well being. In one small monastery he found some ancient Sanskrit writings from India (or perhaps Tibet). [Diane Stein's research suggests he found the sutras to invoke the Medicine Buddha, the invoking of this Buddha is a common practice in Tibetan Buddhism] After a few more years of study, he felt he had come to an understanding and that to go further required in depth meditation. He declared to the monks of this monastery his intention to fast and meditate for 21 days at a nearby mountain and that if he did not come back they should come and get his body.
He went to the mountain and gathered 21 stones with which to count the days. Each day he would throw away a stone and in this way count the time. On the 20th day nothing had come as yet and he threw away the last stone saying "Well, this is it, either I get the answer tonight or I do not". In the night on the horizon he could see a ball of light coming towards him. The first instinct was to get out of the way, but he realized this might just be what he was waiting for, so allowed it to hit him right in the forehead. As it struck him he was taken on a journey and shown bubbles of all the colours of the rainbow in which were the symbols of Reiki, the very same symbols in the Tibetan writings he was studying but had been unable to understand. Now as he looked at them again, there was total understanding.
After returning from this experience he began back down the mountain and was, from this moment on, able to heal. This first day alone he healed a broken toe-nail, his own starvation, an ailing tooth and the Abbots sickness which was keeping him bedridden. These are known as the first four miracles.
He wanted to use these abilities to help others, he spent the next seven years in the beggars section of Tokyo healing the poor and sick people there, sending them to a priest to assist finding them employment, and elevating them out of poverty. After the seven years he noticed familiar faces, those of people whom he'd healed long ago who were back again. Asking them, they complained that life outside beggartown was too hard and that it was much simpler to beg for a living. They had thrown away the gift of health, as if it had no value, to return to the supposed comfort of the life they knew.
This threw Usui into a quandry and he returned to the monastery. From this he realized he hadn't taught gratitude along with the healing. That he'd focussed on the physical ailments without dealing with the spiritual matters. The people did not understand the value of the gift he gave them.
Dr. Usui returned to the monastary for furth reflection and planning. After some time in the monastery he developed precepts. In this new plan he traveled around the countryside from village to village. In each one he stood in a public place during the day holding aloft a lit torch. When people told him he didn't need a torch in daylight, he answered was he was looking for the few who are interested in improving themselves. In this way he traveled around teaching and healing, working both with the spiritual healing as well as physical healing.
Dr. Chujiro Hayashi: During these travels he met Dr. Chujiro Hayashi, a Naval Commander in the Naval Reserve. He came from a well educated and well to do family. He met Dr. Usui in the marketplace holding a lit torch announcing his lecture at a nearby temple.
Dr. Hayashi was very impressed with the sincerity and conviction of Dr. Usui. When asked by Usui to accompany him in his travels, Dr. Hayashi agreed. And they traveled around teaching and healing. After Dr. Usui passed on, Dr. Hayashi became the leader of Reiki.
Dr. Hayashi opened a clinic in Tokyo near the Imperial Palace. It consisted of eight beds in a large room, two practitioners per patient. One would treat the head and the other would be on the tright treating the stomach area, then both would treat the patients back. The practitioners all worked here doing healings. They would also go to the homes of sick people for house calls.
To become a Reiki Practitioner in that time one had to be accepted by the masters in the Reiki organization, and second had to promise to use Reiki daily and volunteer some hours to practice Reiki regularly in the clinic.
My first Reiki teacher, Fran Brown (one of Takata's 22 masters) believes that Dr. Hayashi developed the practice of treatment by using specific hand placements over the body. Being of a military background, and therefore more organized, Dr. Hayashi would have preferred an organized method of treatment. In addition an organized method of hand placements allows for full coverage of the body and organs.
Dr. Hayashi passed on Tuesday, May 10, 1940. This was just prior to World War II and it was clear that Japan would enter the war. Being a Reserve Officer, Dr. Hayashi knew he would be recalled to duty and therefore become responsible for killing many people. This he did not want to do, and so determined to end his life. In addition he wished to, and did, pass leadership over to Reiki to Mrs. Takata (perhaps because she would not be in Japan and therefore relatively safe and able to continue the practice).
Mrs. Hawayo Takata: Mrs. Hawayo Takata was born in Hawaii, on Kauai, on Christmas Eve 1900 of Japanese descent. In the 1930's she went to Japan to visit her family there, and inform them of the death of her sister. While there she became very sick and was in the hospital. The doctors were going to operate, and as she was being prepared she kept hearing a voice saying "Operation not necessary". Eventually she jumped off the table asking "Is there another way?". The doctor had a sister who had been cured of dysentery at Dr. Hayashi's clinic and suggested to Mrs. Takata she talk with his sister. The sister brought Mrs. Takata to the clinic and her treatments there began.
After Mrs. Takata became well she wanted to learn this for herself. However Dr. Hayashi was not willing to teach her because she was a foreigner. Through the good graces of her doctor, Mrs. Takata was able to pursuade Dr. Hayashi to train her in Reiki. This training took a year and brought her to what we would now call Reiki Level II (she could do everything but train other practitioners).
After this year she returned to Hawaii. In Hawaii she also learned the lesson of having the recipient perceive value in receiving treatments. She treated a neighbour but did not charge, this neighbour did not value the treatments and did not become well. She treated another relative and this time charged, and this relative did stay well. Thus the tradition of charging for Reiki treatment was reinforced.
In November 1936 Dr. Hayashi came to Hawaii for a speaking tour to promote Reiki. During this time he trained Mrs. Takata to teach Reiki, thus making her what we now would call a Reiki Master. As he left Hawaii he asked her to come to see him when he summoned her.
After some more time it was nearing when World War II would start, the part in Europe already having begun. Dr. Hayashi appeared to Mrs. Takata in a dream asking her to come to Japan. She did this and found Dr. Hayashi having his Naval Uniform out of storage and fretful. With the coming war he knew it was a matter of time before the Navy would call him out of retirement and he would be asked to perform actions he was not capable of doing due to his spiritual development. At this time he passed to Mrs. Takata the leadership of Reiki. He gathered all the Reiki Masters to a gathering, announced Mrs. Takata to be the leader of Reiki, and then announced he would kill his physical body through bursting three blood vessels. And as he continued speaking and lecturing those blood vessels burst and he died.
Mrs. Takata returned to Hawaii and continued using and teaching Reiki. Eventually she moved to California, using and teaching Reiki there as well. She did not teach other masters until 1975, and before her own death in 1980 she trained 22 Reiki Masters.
Healing is not the popular conception of removal of symptoms. Healing is full and complete resolution of the causes of the disease. Healing is returning to a state of alignment with your Higher Self or true way of being.
In its simplest form using Reiki is simply the practitioner placing their hands on the recipient with the intent of bringing healing, and willing for Reiki energy to flow.
There is a set of hand positions traditionally taught which give good coverage over the recipients entire body. It is not necessary to follow those positions, they are merely taught as a starting position from which the practitioner can learn. If there is a specific area of concern the practitioner can keep his/her hands right there for as long as necessary.
To the world of spirit there is no such thing as time or space. Reading Barbara Brennan's books (Hands of Light, and Light Emerging) one sees why. The world we see around us is only a small fragment or slice of all which exists. This small fragment is that which our physical bodies can detect and transmit or describe to our consciousness, or which we can construct machines to extend the senses of our physical bodies. There is more in existence than what our bodies can detect in this way (though with some training and practice one can extend the range of what our consciousness can perceive).
Since there is no time and space to limit spirit, Reiki can operate without regard to limitations of space (at least). A level II Reiki practitioner can bring healing to a recipient regardless of distance.
In doing remote healings the recipient is to be objectified somehow, and the symbol drawn in the vicinity of the object representing the recipient. By objectified I mean that it is easier for the conscious mind to deal with objects than abstract things. Therefore when doing a remote healing it is easier on the healer to visualize sending the energy to something than otherwise.
There are many ways of visualizing or objectifying the recipient. For instance the healer might intend that their knee is the same as the intended recipient, which will create the necessary connection. Or they might draw in the air a shape to represent the recipient. Or use a teddy bear, pillow, or some other physical object as a stand in. The only limit is the healers imagination. For the healers intent is primary in bring forth the Reiki energy.
Reiki can be used on relationships between people. Like with remote healings the healer should come up with a way to objectify the relationship, then apply energy to the object as for a remote healing.
Recall that physicists are realizing that everything around us is made of energy. Recall that Reiki is about channelling energy. Therefore it stands to reason that Reiki can be applied to anything made of energy, i.e. anything in existence.
massage therapy
Massage therapy is the systematized manipulation of soft tissues for the purpose of normalizing them. Practitioners use a variety of physical methods including applying fixed or movable pressure, holding, or causing movement to the body. Therapists primarily use their hands, but may also use their forearms, elbows, or feet.
The basic goal of massage therapy is to help the body heal itself and to increase health and well-being.
Touch is the core ingredient of massage therapy and also combines science and art. Practitioners learn specific techniques for massage and use their sense of touch to determine the right amount of pressure to apply to each person and locate areas of tension and other soft-tissue problems. Touch also conveys a sense of caring, an important component in the healing relationship.
When muscles are overworked, waste products such as lactic acid can accumulate in the muscle, causing soreness, stiffness, and even muscle spasm.
Massage improves circulation, which increases blood flow, bringing fresh oxygen to body tissues. This can assist the elimination of waste products, speed healing after injury, and enhance recovery from disease.
Therapeutic massage can be used to promote general well-being and enhance self-esteem, while boosting the circulatory and immune systems to benefit blood pressure, circulation, muscle tone, digestion, and skin tone. It has been incorporated into many health systems, and different massage techniques have been developed and integrated into various complementary therapies.
In order to speed up the process of downloading, the contents are divided into several pages. We suggest that you navigate from this home page. You may read the material in any order you want. We have tried to make each chapter self standing
The Benefits Of Whole-Body Reiki
A Reinforcing Effect
The whole body reiki is used to treat the whole body to achieve relaxation. It facilitates the removal of blockages in energy flow and the dispersal of toxins.
Long-term practice of whole-body reiki will restore the general condition of the body. The energy channels are opened to allow the body to deal properly and naturally with both stress and the build-up of toxins. It will help you to cope with anxiety and depression.
Reiki therapy is also useful when you are recovering from an illness. Reiki will provide the additional energy required to recover from the illness. It will also reinforce the effects of any other method of natural healing. It can be used as a supplementary therapy as it is a truly complementary system of treatment.
Reduction Of Side-Effects
Reiki therapy can be a very useful adjunct for anyone taking a course of drugs. It can help reduce some of the side effects of drug therapy. Reiki helps the body in the recovery after drug therapy, after surgery and after chemotherapy. In all these cases, reiki therapy supplies the body with extra life energy, enabling the body to bounce back more quickly from the burdens of surgery and chemicals.
In some cases, use of reiki therapy after an operation will lessen pain. It will accelerate the natural healing processes. The key to success is that the therapy be undertaken on a regular basis. When a person is enjoying good health, the regular therapy increases the body's built-in defences which manifests itself as a confidence and outward harmony in dealing with everyday events. It bestows a greater ability to deal with stressful situations. You will gain a positive outlook on life. Once the blockages and toxins have been removed from the system, the scope for personal advancement and growth becomes available. In general, the better metabolic functioning afforded by reiki therapy means that benefits and improvements may be experienced in many ways.
Combination Treatments: Reiki With Other Holistic Therapies
Reiki therapy works very well in combination with other holistic therapies. Virtually any treatment can be used. We will examine a few such combinations to illustrate the synergy that can be accomplished.
Crystal therapy involves the use of precious and semi-precious stones. The stones are believed to store positive energy and they act as a conduit for healing from the practitioner to the recipient. They also believed to generate a healing vibration that acts upon the body. In some cases the stone is placed on the body where treatment is focused, in others it may be positioned on the appropriate acupuncture point. Most therapists use quartz for physical healing, amethyst for spiritual healing and rose quartz to heal emotions. Fluorite may be used to develop awareness and knowledge of a spiritual nature.
In reiki, three varieties of quartz are commonly used-amethyst, rose quartz and ordinary quartz (or rock crystal). The crystal structure of quartz is often taken to be related to the six chakras and the tip of the crystal to the seventh chakra. Practitioners recommend using rock crystal to avoid feeling overpowered by changes, mounting pressures and the stress of everyday life. Carrying the crystal or wearing it is meant to bring light into your workaday routines.
Rock crystal, held in the hand or between the hands, can also be used in conjunction with reiki meditation. The energy emanating from the crystal is thought to go into the palms and then the rest of the body via the reflex zones. It is recommended by some in a variety of applications such as relaxation, wound-healing with other therapy and treating particular organs.
Rose quartz, with its soft pink coloration, is used for mending emotional problems. Examples are: shutting out certain desires or facing trauma and stress brought about by a separation.
The use of amethyst with reiki is varied. It is said to help promote the proper function of an organ that has been under treatment. Placed on the Third Eye (centre of the forehead), it facilitates clearer vision in one's path through life. It can also reduce tension and fear.
Reiki is said to assist in the concentration required for meditation, with the flow of energy aiding relaxation. There are some positions that can be adopted in reiki meditation to achieve particular goals. In the first position the legs are drawn up and the soles of the feet put together with the knees falling apart. This can be done while lying down or sitting against a wall or chair. The hands adopt a praying gesture. This is meant to complete the circuit of energy, allowing a flow around the body. The reiki energy removes any blockages and performed regularly, this becomes a powerful meditation exercise. It can be done for short periods initially, just a couple of minutes, and then built up in small increases.
Group meditation is also possible with reiki, in which the participants stand in a circle with hands joined.
Aromatherapy Blended With Reiki
Aromatherapy employs essential oils extracted from plants. The oils can be used in three ways: by direct application, bathing in water to which a few drops of the appropriate oil have been added, and inhalation.
When used in conjunction with reiki, some oils can be applied directly on particular areas of the body, or their aroma can be made to fill the room using an aroma lamp. Below a few oils are considered and their use compared to their therapeutic value in aromatherapy.
Lavender: In aromatherapy lavender is a tonic with relaxing effects. It is also an antiseptic, an antispasmodic and stimulates the appetite. It is also used for minor burns and wounds. Its soothing effects render it helpful for headaches, tension and similar conditions.
In reiki, lavender is associated primarily with recipients who are sensitive and easily hurt. In long sessions of reiki lavender helps to promote the calm and confidence necessary for a period of building and strengthening of the life force energy.
Sandalwood: In aromatherapy, sandalwood oil is prized for its relaxing and antiseptic effects. It forms a very effective oil for application to the skin (especially facial), particularly for dry or sensitive skin.
Sandalwood oil produces an ambience conducive to the reiki therapy because the oil is considered to elicit trust and confidence, between practitioner and recipient.
Clary sage: Clary sage is a tonic, antispasmodic, antidepressant, anti-inflammatory, bactericidal and more. It is also used to treat colds, menstrual problems and its very low toxicity renders it suitable for general use.
In a session of reiki therapy, clary sage is used to open blocked channels and to enhance sensitivity.
Patchouli: Patchouli has some aphrodisiac qualities, and is also used to treat skin disorders and minor bums because of its anti-inflammatory and antiseptic qualities.
It is also used in reiki therapy for allergies and impurities of the skin; but the fundamental use and aim is to enhance the sensual qualities and aspects of life.
