What is Reiki/Energy Healing?

The idea that the body is animated by a vital life force energy is neither new nor fringe.  It is one of the oldest and most enduring concepts woven through healing traditions across cultures and centuries. Traditional Chinese Medicine calls this energy qi and works with it through practices like acupuncture, acupressure, and qigong. Ayurveda, the ancient healing system of India, and the practice of yoga, center around this same life force, prana. Ancient Greek medicine spoke of pneuma. Hawaiian traditions honor mana. Jewish traditions describe ruach.
 
Different cultures, different languages, different eras, and the same essential recognition: that life is animated by an energy, a form of consciousness that extends beyond what can be seen, and that healing involves more than the physical body alone.
 
Most of us in the modern world have simply not been taught to think about the body this way. We have been encouraged to view it primarily through a physical lens, something to fix when it breaks and manage when it struggles. While this perspective has brought many important advances, it does not tell the whole story.
 
Beyond the physical body exists an energetic dimension that shapes our vitality, our emotions, our resilience, and our capacity to heal. When that energy flows freely, we tend to feel balanced, grounded, and well. When it becomes disrupted, by chronic stress, emotional suppression, unresolved experiences, prolonged overwhelm…the effects begin to surface in ways that can be difficult to resolve.
 
Reiki was developed in Japan in the early twentieth century by Mikao Usui.  It is a gentle, non-invasive healing practice that works directly with this energetic dimension. During a session, the practitioner directs energy to the areas that need support, facilitating the body's own innate capacity to return to balance. Sessions are experienced resting comfortably, fully clothed, in a quiet and supportive environment.  Many people notice sensations of warmth, tingling, or a profound settling, followed by a quality of relaxation that is genuinely distinct from ordinary rest; restorative in a way that is difficult to describe until it has been experienced. Others simply feel lighter, more grounded, or more themselves. Every experience is unique, and there is no right or wrong way to receive. 

 While Reiki is not a substitute for medical care, it is increasingly offered in hospitals, with it currently offered in over 800 hospitals in the United States, including John Hopkins, Mayo Clinic, New York-Presbyterian, Sharp Memorial Hospital and major cancer centers such as Memorial Sloan Kettering.  A growing body of research supports its effectiveness for pain reduction, anxiety relief, immune support, and the promotion of the deep parasympathetic rest state in which the body's self-healing mechanisms are most active. The National Institutes of Health now includes energy medicine as a recognized category of complementary and alternative medicine, and research funding for its study has increased significantly.

 

• MD Anderson Cancer Center recently published a groundbreaking pre-clinical study in Cancer Medicine showing that biofield therapy (energy healing) helped slow pancreatic cancer growth and reduced tumor metastasis by more than 50% in laboratory and animal models. 

• NYU Langone published a peer-reviewed study that showed energy healing provided in emergency & inpatient settings resulted in a marked improvement for 76% of patients with pain and a marked improvement for 79% of patients with non-pain related issues. 

• A clinical trial from Harvard and the University of Utah found that both Reiki and mindfulness were associated with significant reduction in osteoarthritis knee pain and improved physical function. More than half of participants (55%) experienced major symptom reduction with the benefits from Reiki continuing for several weeks following the final session, suggesting that Reiki may offer a gentle, non-pharmacological approach for managing chronic pain.

The emerging research is exciting however you do not need to fully understand energy healing for a session to be meaningful. 

All that is required is a willingness to pause and to allow yourself the opportunity to receive.