What is Reiki energy healing?

Reiki energy healing is a Japanese spiritual healing modality through which the practitioner channels divine energy through the hands. Developed by Mikao Usui in the 1900s, Reiki comes with the belief in the higher power called the divine. The divine animates all beings, and is accessible anywhere, any time. It is a perceived or imagined life force.

The universal life force

Reiki practitioners are channels, and definitely not the source of the healing energy. So, as a conduit of divine love, the practitioner equally receives healing. It is a win-win scenario, and it is one way to pay it forward, or to move good energies around.

The ki in Reiki is the same chi in Chinese (Tai chi, Qi gong), and gi in Korean. All means spiritual force.

Reiki energy healing precepts

All practitioners observe a mindful and compassionate lifestyle. At level 1, we must develop a healing habit (21-day self healing). All Reiki practitioners live by these precepts. These statements are affirmations, which is expressed everyday. Each starts with, “Just for today, I/I am…”

1. peace.
2. trust.
3. grateful.
4. work joyfully.
5. love.

Are practitioners in zen mode all the time? Of course not. Earth angels have feelings too! Are they also all too positive, and don’t get tired? No, but we know how to manage our energies. All I know is that all practitioners are meditators, and mindfulness takes practice.

Reiki is reminiscent of Jesus Christ’s healing work. So, Reiki energy healing entails harnessing the power of faith, love, and touch. Practitioners lay their hands on the body parts corresponding to the energy meridians in the body. And these meridians are the energy centers we call chakras.

The Chakras

Reiki is a form of chakra balancing.

The Aura

The word “chakra” is a Sanskrit word for “spinning wheels” or “wheels of light,” wherein each of our 7 chakras oversees physiological and psychological functioning. Life force flows through the chakras, and it manifests through human energy fields. As a result, these energy fields form a luminous body surrounding and interpenetrating the physical body. This is what we call the aura.

Love as an underlying principle of Reiki practice emanates from a balanced Heart chakra. The Heart chakra sits in the middle of all chakras. Hence, Reiki posits that love is the significant manifestation of the divine in the material world. For example, a person highly in love radiates and has a good aura. An optimist exudes the same.

Chakras and Cancer

Any disease we are diagnosed with is a simple manifestation of an imbalanced chakra. While we look healthy on the outside, we may have personal issues on the inside. These issues may pose as behavior problems, negative mindset, or negative emotions. Negative emotions are toxins to our energy fields, like an invisible dust that accumulates on a surface.

Psychological manifestations of an imbalanced chakra are often overlooked. Hence, it can go unresolved for decades. As a result, these internal toxins physically manifest as that dreaded disease: cancer.

Spotlight: The 7 Chakras

How is the Reiki energy healing process done? – The 7 steps

Practitioners may also keep their hands a foot away from the person being healed, with their hands directed towards the chakra. Distant healing (levels 2-3) also works without touching the person. For instance, the practitioner will have an object to represent the individual being healed, or through beaming (my personal preference).

Below is my typical 7-step process as a practitioner:

1. Calling upon Reiki energy

It is assumed that I have done my meditation practice and clearing of physical space before a session.

The session starts as I place my hands in the Gassho position (prayer position) and then invoking the divine by putting my hands onto the forehead. This is just like praying. 

Intention is set during this part. This is very important, so only positive energies are drawn. It is sending Spirit the clarity of the energy-work, and the purity of the intention. Consequently, Spirit works with you through this intention.

The next step is to tap on the recipient’s shoulder to signal the start of the session. 

2. Body scanning

I then intuitively scan the recipient’s whole body by scanning the aura using my hands. This is to check energy blockages. It serves as a guide, like a bookmark to an area that I need to focus on later. Some practitioners skip this part, and the scan is simultaneously done as the hands move per chakra.

If you want to learn how to find and work with the aura, read more about it from Reiki Master-Teachers.

Then I do the hand positions on healing. Hands linger on areas where I sense the blockage.

3. Laying hands per chakra

I lay my hands intuitively on the front and back parts of the body. At the same time, I meditate and invoke Reiki. Working with crystals can also be done during this stage.

Visualization and intuition

This phase entails visualization and intuition. For example, I imagine a stable, ball of light on my solar plexus. It glows during inhale, and weakens during exhale. Its radiance also stabilizes with sustained breath. Working as an anchor, this is where I draw the divine energy. Meditation fuels this phase.

Channeling joy and love

In my practice, I channel the feelings of joy and love, as it means to me. I recreate this feeling on my own body, and I bask in these energies. I transfer this ball to my hands–still pulsing, and growing stronger. Then, I direct this powerful ball to the recipient’s chakras. For the curious, sacral chakra balancing is done by touching the side body only, by the hips, and never on the private area.

The most accessible (and probably understandable) energy of the divine is love. So, I strongly believe more than ever, that love heals. Likewise, I have never witnessed how tangibly miraculous love could be, until I became a Reiki energy healing practitioner.

4. Grounding

I slough off negative or residual energies. It could be done with the help of a grounding crystal, a candle, or just the imagination. For example, I imagine a raging water bringing unwanted energies back to the ground.

5. Closing the aura

An imagined bubble balloon around the body is created, so the healing energies inside it are sealed.

6. Cutting cords

I cut off the energy cord with the recipient. To be concrete, this is like doing that karate chop on the space between the recipient and I, focusing on my belly, where the power was sourced.

7. Gratitude

A simple prayer thanking the divine energy (felt or imagined) for the healing energy.

What do you feel during Reiki energy healing?

These are the immediate and most common effects of Reiki:

• relaxation
• rejuvenation (it feels like you slept for 8 hours)

Why only two? Because these two are the foolproof and immediate after-effects of Reiki. But Reiki can go deeper than this.

Healing is a journey

First off, let us acknowledge that healing is a journey. It might take a long process for a person to heal. You may come out of a healing session and you still have a disease. But Reiki balances your energies and removes toxins, which works with (yes, it’s “with”) you at a spiritual level. And most of the time, your physiological healing comes after spiritual healing. 

Experience Reiki energy healing today

The Reiki experience is never quantifiable. It is a subjective experience. Each experience is unique, so the list can be endless. If you wish to feel the relaxing experience of Reiki (or meditation in general), you can check out this 15-min Youtube short film which simulates this experience.

I totally understand where this “what do you feel during Reiki” question is coming from, so here is a selective list of subjective Reiki feelings and visions:

• mental clarity
• peaceful and calm
• feeling like on a very vivid dream
• bodily sensations like twitching (or that reflex when you fall off a roof in your dream)
• a warm, loving embrace from someone (no it’s not the healer)
• unconditional love
• natural high 
• hot as if you’re a cookie being baked
• a certain joy you have never felt before
• feeling omnipresent (yes, feeling like God [no judgment!])
• like you’re swimming on the beach
• seeing your future self or meeting your inner child
• meeting your guardian angel (sometimes they introduce themselves)
• meeting a goddess (i.e., Shiva)
• seeing dancing or orbs in multicolor
• being in a garden of unknown but majestic flowers (no you’re not on an acid trip)
• seeing various colors (sometimes it changes color)
• communicating with your baby on your belly (of course the baby is real–recipient is pregnant)

Each experience is unique

Why? Because your past life, visions, karma, fate are entirely your own.

Sometimes Reiki projects this to you at a subconscious level so you may embrace it, hence the “awakening” and healing experience. If you encounter messages during Reiki, maybe that is your message from your spirit guides, and they have been waiting for you to access it.

Reiki energy healing is transformational

Of course, I do not recommend that you reach out to a practitioner with the intention to feel or experience any of the above. Because those are specific experiences of other people. Give yourself the gift of experiencing a new one that’s uniquely your own.

I strongly recommend that you come to Reiki session with openness and faith, because that’s how magic happens! Otherwise, you are just limiting yourself . Let go of control, and just allow the Reiki healing energy work through you, because your Reiki experience is your own story to tell.

Does Reiki really work?

To be honest, maybe it is best (and maybe more fun) to ask the healing recipient. Ask a practitioner then the answer would most definitely be a yes. But let me give a logical, brief walkthrough answer to this.

Reiki relaxes you. Relaxation brings positive energy in. Positive energy flows freely around your being. Hence, you are physiologically and psychologically open to positive energy. And then healing.

PCOS to motherhood

I wrote a full story about this journey, and the vision I had.

Two clients came to me once, both had PCOS (polycystic ovary syndrome). They came to me not with the intention to heal the PCOS, but just for stress relief. In every session, I just feel like lingering by their pelvic area. It was not my intention, but I felt those areas need it (something is heavy around there). Reiki is an intelligent energy, it knows where it has to be received the most. Now, both these clients are moms to their newborn. So what’s my point?

Miraculous healing is a two-way street, just like how Jesus Christ reminds us about faith. One thing I also tell my clients every time: it takes courage to acknowledge that you need healing. So, I am just a channel, and the first step towards your healing was your faith. It was you who exercised it, not me.

Healing is both a journey and a two-way process.

Final Thoughts

Now if you ask me, “Does Reiki energy healing really work?” My answer is a quick yes, and you should try it. Not all practitioners are created equal, and not all will become a practitioner if they have not done the spiritual work themselves. Above all, Reiki energy healing has only positive effects. Reiki energy healing has no side effects.

Will Reiki replace evidence-based medicine? No. Should I try Reiki? Yes, because you have finished reading this post! If you wish to learn it and be an instrument of healing for others, you can learn Reiki through credible resources.

I always recommend to learn Reiki from a Reiki Master in person, but due to social distancing challenges, you may like to hear as if there’s a live instructor through this Reiki Healing for Beginners audiobook (it’s FREE with an Audible trial). You will learn self-healing first, and through this, you may need not visit a Reiki practitioner just to experience its healing and transformational power. /highfive!

If you are a practitioner, I hope you can share your practice with me! Also, if you have questions about Reiki in general, please feel free to comment down below!

If you are curious about distant healing and would like to experience one (fair energy exchange applies), please connect via reiki@highfiveshighvibes.com. My heart is full, thank you!