What is Reiki and How Does it Work? Yes, It Can Change Your Life
People often ask me, “What is reiki and how does it work?” You know, my friends and neighbors who are far from energy work. Reiki can easily seem esoteric and mysterious. Well, I am here to answer all your questions and tell you how it changed my life.
In this post, I will cover what reiki energy is, how reiki healing works, and how you can harness its power, so it can bring you the biggest benefit possible.
This post is all about the question, “what is reiki and how does it work?”
What is Reiki?
Reiki refers to the life-force energy that flows through all of nature. The term is also used to describe the practice of using reiki energy to help heal someone. It is one of the most well-known and popular energy healing techniques around the world. You can easily find a reiki practitioner near you through an internet search.
But under this big umbrella, there is a lot of diversity in the reiki that you’ll encounter. I hope this post helps you find the best reiki possible to help you on your healing journey.
Definition
During my reiki master training, I was instructed to describe reiki as, “a Japanese form of stress reduction and relaxation that also promotes healing.” This description originates from William Rand, the founder and president of The International Center for Reiki Training (ICRT).
Everyone can understand that relaxation would lead to healing. This description keeps the door wide open to all who may be skeptical, or even those afraid of an energy that they are not familiar with.
But reiki is a distinct energy. Once again in Rand’s words, it is a “spiritually guided primal life energy.”
Brief History
Examples of healing through laying of the hands have been recorded throughout history. But reiki’s story starts with a man named Dr. Mikao Usui. He lived in Japan around the turn of last century.
After 21 days of fasting and meditation in the mountains, Usui felt a strong download of reiki energy at the top of his head. He eventually learned to use this energy to heal himself and his family. With continued success in healing others, Usui soon developed the reiki healing system and started training students.
There may be many generations of reiki masters, or teachers, between you and Dr. Usui. Reiki taught in Japan may be very different from that in the United States. Across North America, reiki as a practice has gone through some changes. Today, reiki sessions and classes are amazingly accessible across the United States.
How Do You Learn It?
People become reiki practitioners after taking a class and getting attuned for the appropriate level of reiki that they are ready for. For Usui reiki, there are three levels:
- Reiki Level I: Practitioner is attuned to the reiki energy and learns the basics of self-care using this energy.
- Reiki Level II: Practitioner is attuned to three reiki symbols—cho ku rei, sei he key and hon sha zei sho nen—and learns how to practice reiki on others.
- Reiki Level III or Mastership: Practitioner is attuned to two more symbols—dai ko miyo and raku—and learn how to teach and attune others.
There are higher levels of reiki, including Karuna and Holy Fire. These levels take you deeper into reiki practice and provide additional symbols.
How Does Reiki Work?
Reiki attunements are sacred processes during which your teacher gives you a download of the reiki symbols. They can be compared to a program download onto a computer.
Reiki symbols represent specific energies, or healing frequencies. (See this site for explanation on the symbols and their meanings).
For example, by getting a download of cho ku rei, the power symbol, it’s as if you are getting a memory of that frequency or quality into your subconscious. The more you work with it, the stronger it becomes as a part of your energy.
Other Usui reiki symbols include frequencies for clearing, balancing, emotional healing, connection through distance, energetic cutting at the quantum level and dynamic power.
Energy fields exist right alongside our physical bodies at the unseen level. Each of your body parts, organs, etc., has its own energy field. Chakras are like energy stations that help distribute and manage the energy that we get from our environments and food/water. Your energy body extends outside your physical body. Its size and health vary by the individual.
Healing can begin as reiki practitioners channel reiki symbols, or frequencies, to help cleanse, balance and strengthen your energy fields. When your energy is thus strengthened, barriers to mental, emotional and physical healing dissipates and you naturally begin to heal.
There is usually a lag time for the physical body to catch up to energetic healing, although instant changes have also been observed.
As my teacher always says, it’s the client’s readiness that determines success of the healing. Reiki practitioners can facilitate change only to the point allowed by the client. This is definitely true. I have observed people who, albeit subconsciously, don’t want to or not ready to heal. Then the healing is like throwing pebbles at a rock wall.
How Do You Know It’s Working?
I’ve had people fall asleep on the table, tear up and make gurgling noises from the tummy. They ALL express that they feel extremely relaxed during sessions. Many say that they felt heat coming from my direction. People have reported visions of color or deceased family members (which I have sensed, as well).
One common sign of reiki at work is indeed relaxation. Everything else depends on who and where you are energetically.
It would be rare to see drastic changes after just one reiki healing session, although definitely possible. But it usually takes multiple sessions for the energy to go deep into the healing. Also, it may take multiple sessions for the receiver to be open and receptive to the healing.
Find the Right Practitioner or Teacher Near You
As I mentioned earlier, reiki is very accessible in most parts of the United States. If you can’t find one in your local community to see in person, it is totally appropriate to find one remotely. Reiki works just as well over distances as in person.
Obviously, look for a practitioner who is well-respected in the community. More experience, usually, means better connection to the reiki energy and know-how on how to help you.
But more experience also means higher rates. You should weigh your options depending on your needs.
More research and discernment might be necessary if you are looking for a teacher. Getting a reiki session from a potential teacher is a great start. Then, you can take note of how they make you feel from start to finish.
You Can be Your Own Healer
The beauty of reiki is that it requires only the first attunement for you to embody its frequency. After the first class, you can practice reiki on yourself every night before bed. It is so simple to do and there are so many benefits. You feel incredibly relaxed to fall fast asleep. You also continue to develop a relationship with the symbols by practicing.
Connecting yourself to reiki energy also benefits your family and those around you. As you raise your own vibration, you help raise their energy.
Teachers Are Different
I’ve had many teachers of energy work in my life. Teachers are people, and all different.
As I mentioned earlier in the post, reiki has spread across North America very rapidly. One can become a reiki master in a very short time and start teaching others with little experience. Strength of teaching and reiki attunement can also vary depending on the teacher’s own connection to energy.
Let me tell you my story.
My Reiki Beginning
I first studied reiki with one teacher who was very well respected by the community and had been teaching for a very long time, with great reviews. Her reiki curriculum would be considered mainstream reiki. In that style of teaching, most Reiki I is taught over a few hours in one day, Reiki II taught similarly, and reiki mastership over a few days.
My first reiki attunement with her brought me to tears, and I didn’t know why. I felt deeply moved and something definitely connected. I was also full of questions. What happened?
I continued to study with her until mastership. I got my attunements and my symbols. But it also didn’t go anywhere. At least for me. I didn’t know what to do with it beyond self-reiki. Also, this teacher, as kind as she was, was either unwilling to or unable to answer some of the questions I had.
Finding a Reiki Home
Many months later, I had moved to another town and was looking for a new place to connect to. That’s when I found my current teacher, Sierra North, at the Muktinath Holistic Center. I saw that Sierra’s reiki mastership program would last over 10 months. It would also include clinical studies and other rigorous requirements. I was intrigued.
Taking her Reiki I on a whim, she answered ALL of my questions. Her attunement was so powerful, it had me weeping, and laughing, on the floor for a few minutes. I couldn’t explain to you exactly why. But I felt moved and incredibly present. I also knew that I’d just begun a new journey.
“And so it begins,” is what I heard through my tears. As to what? I think I am living it now.
Make the long story short, my training with Sierra continues to transform my life. If my first reiki training could be compared to taking a sip of water from a cup, then my second training would be like standing in the middle of a river and drinking directly from it.
How Has Reiki Changed My Life?
I have SO much more energy. Physical energy. It feels like I’m the energizer bunny sometimes, going and going and doing. I have so many more tools to find my equilibrium as I go through life. Cutting cords, purifying my energy and cleansing my surroundings. All of it at my disposal.
I am no longer afraid of the dark like I used to be. The symbols feel like my old friends. They are always there when I need them.
I continue to study with Sierra and intend to learn everything she has to teach. She is an amazing teacher who leaves students feeling deeply connected to their inherent power. I am also studying other modalities, like Pranic Healing and shamanic healing, because I love learning about energy in all ways. [See my previous post, How to Become a Pranic Healer: Basic Pranic Healing Class Recap, for more.]
This is not to say that I don’t value my first reiki teacher. In fact, I believe that was exactly meant to be. Mainstream reiki is taught that way to make it accessible to as many people as possible. Also, my first training helped me give birth to questions that had to be answered. It was all in Divine flow. I am deeply grateful for my first teacher.
I hope you get to experience and benefit from reiki as I have. But you won’t know until you try, right? 🙂
This post answers the question, “What is reiki and how does it work?” I hope you enjoyed it!