Reiki (rei-ki) translates as “universal energy”. Reiki is a laying on of hands technique and a healing touch modality of incomparable ease and power. What it can do and how it works is the subject of a story that spans almost all of the written records of humanity, and the healing system itself is older than any written account.

The act of laying hands on the human or animal body to comfort and relieve pain is as old as it is instinct. When experiencing pain, the first things most people do is put their hands over it. Human touch conveys warmth, serenity, and healing. It also conveys caring and love.

The simple act of laying on of hands is the basis for all healing touch techniques. Reiki is totally positive and can never cause harm to any living thing, whatever their condition or status.

The person who is attuned as a Reiki healer has had their body’s energy channels opened and cleared of obstructions by the Reiki attunements.

These attunements allow them to now not only receive an increase in universal energy for their own healing, but become connected to the source of all energy so that they may transfer it to others for the purpose of healing. When the healers put their hands down with the intent to heal, the energy flows.

The healer has only to place their hands on the series of positions that constitute a session, and energy flows through to the receiver. The energy heals on all of the body’s levels: physical, emotional, mental and spiritual.

Note that a healer does not do a healing to someone, but with them. Without the receiver’s permission, agreement and participation in the process, no healing can take place.

Receivers of Reiki experience this energy flow in as many different ways as there are blades of grass. Some perceive colours, others see pictures, some witness past lives. Some receive knowledge from ancient wisdom or receive visits from ancestors or guardians.

Some are filled with light or a feeling of total peace, wonder or love. Some people perceive and experience more than others. The sensations are definite but can be subtle. Heat radiating from the healer’s hands is often felt, and sensations of waves flowing through the body or out-of-body experiences have been reported.

Some people may feel spacey or tingly, have intense dreams, or experience detox symptoms after a treatment. These can include increased bowel movements, running nose, odorous sweat or increased urination after a treatment.

Many gaps remain in the research of Reiki’s origins, but the Reiki story that is known and the technique that is practiced today begins in the mid-1800s with a man named Mikao Usui.

Mikao Usui was the principal of the Doshisha University in Kyoto, Japan, and also a Christian minister. Asked by his students to be shown the method by which Jesus did healing, Usui began a ten-year quest to find and learn the skill. When Christian authorities in Japan told him that this healing was not talked about, much less known, Usui sought the information through Buddhism.

Usui was told by Buddhist monks that the ancient spiritual healing methods had been lost, and that the only way to approach them was by entering the Buddhist teachings, the Path to Enlightenment. And so he went, learning how to feel and channel universal life energy to achieve great healing, and teach his findings for the betterment of this world.

You may find your practitioner using or drawing symbols in the air with their hands during your treatment. Symbols are used to invoke and increase the healing potential of your treatment.

Cho-Ku-Rei is the first Reiki symbol used, and its function is to increase power. It Turns on the Light Switch of energy. The ability to access Reiki energy is increased and the symbol acts as an initiation to invite universal energy forward.

Sei-He-Ki is the second of the Reiki symbols, and it is traditionally used for emotional healing. It is defined as Divinity and People Coming Together. Another definition of the symbol might be As Above, So Below. This symbol brings divinity into human energy patterns and aligns the upper chakras.

Hon-Sha-Ze-Sho-Nen is the third and last of the Reiki symbols, and it is prescribed for mental level healing. By targeting the mental body, we allow the truth of No Past, No Present, No Future to express itself, which has the capacity to transmit Reiki healing through distance, time and space. This symbol is important in the use of healing karma in past and present lifetimes.

There is a saying that There is Nothing New Under the Sun. We are returning home to ancient ways, as the route to becoming modern. Reiki reconnects people with their Earthly and Heavenly selves, by connecting them to universal life force energy.

Most of us have energetic blocks and imbalances as well as energy-sabotaging habits that prevent us from accessing our full vitality, which leads us to feel exhausted, scattered and dull… even ill. Reiki has the capacity to remove these blocks to “lighten us up”. It can also clear and open the meridians, Kundalini channels and the Chakras.

The meridians, Kundalini channels and Chakras are simply systems by which energy travels through the body. We can use our knowledge of their location and purpose and focus Reiki energy there in order to balance and heal. It is through our understanding of these systems that we can relate and interpret the emotional, spiritual and physical manifestations for further growth and perception on our state of health.

*Reference: Essential Reiki by Diane Stein