The Science and History of Reiki, Plus Why to Use It

What is Reiki, really?

The Japanese word Reiki when split into two characters - rei and ki - literally translates to spiritual energy, or what is more commonly known in the West - universal life force energy. But when two characters are used together, as one word, it’s essence is often greater than its separate counterparts. In this sense, Reiki can be better understood as ‘spiritual, boundless energy’, ‘soul power’ ‘life energy’, or ‘aura’.

This ‘life energy’ flows through all living things - people, animals, plants - and is considered to be healthy, when it’s strong and free-flowing throughout your entire being. When your ki - or your energy is blocked, it can manifest both in your mind, affecting your mental health, and in your body, causing physical illness and disease.

Reiki then is the practice of balancing those life energies. It eases tensions and stresses, in both your mind and body, which enables you to facilitate a better environment for self-healing. The body, mind, and spirit are not separate entities and when aligned harmoniously, the capabilities of healing yourself can be transformative.

Where Does Reiki Come From?

Discovered in Japan, by Makao Usui, Reiki is a holistic healing treatment that works to align the body, mind, and spirit. Using energy healing techniques, the role of a Reiki practitioner is to promote spiritual healing on your path to self-improvement. Since the practice began, it has developed into many different forms, but most practitioners are trained through the passing down of knowledge from Reiki Masters using Makao Usai’s methods.

What Does Reiki Do?

Reiki helps people in many ways, and the experience can be different for every person, depending on what they bring to the session. It is the process of realigning the body’s energy with the spiritual energy so that they can work as one to heal itself.

Reiki healers (conduits) work by placing their hands in various positions on or just above certain parts of your body - for instance, your meridians, chakras, and aura (more on that later). These motions are shaping and guiding your spiritual energies.

One of the most common myths of Reiki is that the healer uses their own energy, putting it into you, but that isn’t what is really going on. This ‘universal life energy’ is something we all have, and a Reiki healer is actually guiding your life energy with direction and intention to the various places that it needs to go, releasing any blockages and making your ‘soul power’ flow freely throughout your entire being.

Studies on Reiki

The science of Reiki had fallen into a lull, where very little progress was made for years. One of the reasons that the scientific community has been so averse to acknowledging Reiki is that the few bits of research that had been done were so widely spread that it was difficult to see any connection. Reiki was stuck in an endless cycle.

This meant that for years, scientists stayed well away from conducting any research into energy healing. But over the past few decades, pioneers like William Lee Rand, have opened up the scene, and finally, Reiki has begun to pique the interest of the scientific community.

William Lee Rand founded one of the biggest research centers in the world - The Reiki Research Center. It contains the biggest compilation of research on Reiki and the most comprehensive list of hospitals that provide Reiki as a patient treatment.

Studies vary from humans to mice, patients with chronic pain and disease, to patience with ill mental health, to studies on typically healthy people. Here’s one of their recent studies. In 2008, The Reiki Research Center did a test on stressed-out rats. After Reiki practitioners performed energy healing on the subjects, they discovered that the rats had a lower heart rate, reduced stress, anxiety, and depression, and were overall, significantly more relaxed.

The Science-y Bit!

As humans, we are essentially made of two parts - our physical body and our spiritual essence. Our spiritual essence is commonly referred to as ‘the seat of consciousness’. It includes all of the intangible parts of our being - our personality, our thoughts, and our memories. These aren’t matter as such, they don’t take up any physical space or volume, but that doesn’t mean that they aren’t non-physical.

Stay with me as I dive a little deeper into the sciency-stuff! One of the most widely accepted scientific theories is String Theory, which goes a long way in explaining how the science of Reiki works. Reiki, like string theory, works on multiple dimensions, and a Reiki practitioner is realigning and reorganizing the energy through these dimensions into alignment.

String theory suggests that matter (such as our bodies) is composed of open-ended strings. It also suggests that non-matter is composed of closed-loop strings, and these closed loops are not attached to ‘space-time’.

This suggests that a closed-loop (such as our bodies) can overlap an open-ended string (a non-matter, i.e. our chakras, or life energy). This explains how our chakras and energy fields can exist outside of our bodies.

When our physical bodies are alive, our energy centers (chakras) co-occupy certain spaces just outside of our bodies, by interacting with their respective electromagnetic fields (EMFs). Essentially, that means that our energy centers can interact with their respective organs inside of our bodies. When they are resonating on the same frequency, they are communicating, creating a bond between the two and affecting each other. When our physical bodies die, the bond is broken, and the energy centers dissipate.

A simple, yet fascinating way to explain this is through NDE’s (near-death experiences). There are practically thousands of reports of people who have technically died for a few minutes and ‘seen’ their physical bodies from above or beside. These experiences can be explained using this theory.

When they died, the bond between their physical and spiritual being was broken, causing the electromagnetic field to move away from the body. People living through this experience, often report a feeling of being sucked back into their bodies when they’re brought back to life by the defibrillator. This electric machine, literally turns the electromagnetism back on, reconnecting the physical to the energetic body.

Cultivate a Life In-Harmony

Reiki also teaches you techniques and ethical lifestyle ideals to promote living and acting in peace and harmony with others and the environment, which are nearly universal across all cultures.

These energetic hygiene practices are a beautiful way of living in harmony with the rhythms and cycles of nature and the energetic world. Providing you with simple, natural and safe ways to enjoy self-healing, self-love, self-nourishment and self-growth.

Schedule your Reiki & Chakra Healing assessment call now to discover where you may be out of balance and learn techniques to cleanse & protect yourself from negative, toxic energy. You will also learn ways to cultivate positive energy, enhance your subtle energy field & improve overall wellbeing.

Questions, comments or simply want to connect? Reach out here anytime: [email protected]