Reiki, is it a part of us?

I started to question the “original” theories about where Reiki comes from and have considered other possibilities of what is actually happening when we practice Reiki. Reiki Master teachers tell us, “Reiki is universal life-force energy" and that “Reiki moves through the practitioner to the receiver”.

Instead of thinking of Reiki as an exchange of energy, I began thinking of it simply as a practice that reconnects a person with their body’s natural energy and healing ability. I imagined that during a Reiki Attunement, that student's natural healing energy is awakened by the teacher. (Attunement is when the students receive the ability to channel Reiki to send to others from their Reiki Master teacher performing an Attunement ceremony.) This awakening is a reminder of the incredible inner wisdom and natural ability we all have. It’s that same natural energy that heals our wounds without our effort. It’s always there and it’s everywhere. Some call it Source Energy or Life Force Energy. We are all born with it. When a practitioner places their hands on or near someone's aura, that person is given an opportunity to respond to this sharing of natural healing energy by awakening their own.

The same with distance Reiki, the practitioner and client's auras connect awakening the recipient's healing energy. I won't go into all the details of distance Reiki. Let's just say that similar to radio waves being sent through the air, you can't receive them without a radio.

The radio allows you to tune into the signals to receive the information. The same with Reiki energy signals. It's out there, waiting for you to open up to it and receive the signal.

The Reiki practitioner acts like the radio to assist you to 'tune in to the energy' allowing you to start with self-healing.

Each person will respond uniquely depending on what is possible at the time. Most practitioners feel twitches, tingling, heat and other interesting sensations in their hands while practicing Reiki. Is this the feeling of life force energy moving through the hands? It feels to me like the receiver’s aura or bio-energy rearranging as their natural capacity for self-healing is stimulated. This healing energy then passes into their body wherever it's needed. The practitioner feels the change in energy of recipient’s aura as it passes across the practitioner's hands. That's where the feelings of heat, tingling and other sensations come from.

When you imagine that the receiver is automatically responding to that reminder of their innate healing ability, your job as a Reiki practitioner is to simply establish the connection and let the receiver respond as they will. This is also very empowering for a person who wants healing and offers them an important part in taking responsibility for their healing process.

Our ability to self-heal is always present and all we need is a little prompt or suggestion to activate the healing response sometimes. I think this is why distant Reiki works and why it doesn’t seem to matter how you practice Reiki. Traditional and new age styles all produce great results and I believe it’s because of the simplicity of this reminder of our incredible capacity to move towards balance and wholeness when given the chance to relax enough to reconnect to this natural ability. That’s what Reiki does it brings about relaxation and raises our energy vibration enabling natural healing.