Reiki in Clinical Practice

A science-based guide

Ann Baldwin

• Publisher: Handspring Publishing
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781912085378
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Medicine
• Subtopic: Alternative & Complementary Medicine

The book describes Reiki: what it does and when and why to use it.

Reiki is a healing technique, using gentle touch with the hands placed on or slightly away from the body to optimize physical, mental and emotional health. It is based on the assumption that the flow of energy through the body can be supported and adjusted to promote wellness.

This book is aimed at two main groups: 'medical' practitioners and those with a 'medical' background such as nurses, osteopaths, physical therapists, who may be familiar with Reiki but lack an evidence-based guide on conditions for which Reiki is most effective and who want the 'ammunition' to justify its use in their practice; those unfamiliar with Reiki but who are interested in finding how it can benefit their patients.

The book provides an accurate description of Reiki, based on qualitative and quantitative scientific evidence, in terms of how it can be used in medical settings to benefit patients of all types, physiologically and psychologically. It achieves this by following the journey of the author (a scientist), starting from her unsolicited encounter with Reiki and personal observations to her continuing testing of its validity and her quest to determine its effectiveness through robust, scientific investigation.

The author distils the essence of the currently peer-reviewed published research to produce a clear outline of the effectiveness of Reiki in alleviating disease and imbalance in various body systems. She will provide a summary of the effectiveness of Reiki (based on a review of surveys of its use) in various circumstances and locations.

She presents possible mechanisms by which Reiki may exert its effects. Unlike most books about Reiki, the book is written in a scientific style with which medical practitioners are familiar (clear, precise, logical and concise), so they will be more likely to read it, judge the evidence for themselves, and hopefully support, extend and develop Reiki treatment and training programs so that their patients will have more access to a non-invasive, inexpensive complementary therapy to assist in their healing.

Chapter 1

What Reiki is and Why it is Important

Definition and Background

According to the International Center for Reiki training, “Reiki is a Japanese technique for stress reduction that also promotes healing. It is administered by laying on hands and can be easily learned by anyone.” Actually, Reiki is taught more as a lifestyle than just a technique, and all Reiki practitioners aim to follow the five Principles of Reiki that were received by founder, Mikao Usui, during his meditations:

1.Just for today I give thanks for my many blessings.

2.Just for today I will not worry.

3.Just for today I will not anger.

4.Just for today I will do my work honestly.

5.Just for today I will be kind to myself and every other living thing.

Even just following these five principles without practicing Reiki will help with the healing process. Emotions such as worry and anger produce an activation of the fight or flight response, leading to release of adrenaline into the bloodstream as well as stimulation of the sympathetic nerves that innervate all body organs. These responses cause heart rate and cardiac contractility to increase, so that blood circulation is enhanced and more oxygen and nutrients are provided to the heart, muscles and brain. In addition, the stress hormone, cortisol, is released, which helps covert carbohydrates to glucose (Robert Scaer, Eight Keys to Brain–Body Balance pp. 40–41). These reactions are beneficial in the short term because they provide the body with extra energy. However, they can be detrimental in the long term because chronically high concentrations of cortisol lead to sustained increases of glucose in the bloodstream and reduced release of insulin which can cause type 2 diabetes (Rosmond, 2003). Chronically high concentrations of blood glucose also lead to deposition of fat around the abdominal area, muscle wasting and impaired function of the immune system (Robert Scaer, Eight Keys to Brain–Body Balance pp. 113–114). Elevated stimulation of sympathetic nerves (fight or flight response) for prolonged periods increases the workload of the heart and is associated with heart disease (Florea and Cohn, 2014; Holwerda et al., 2018) and impaired regulation of blood pressure (Holwerda et al., 2018). Blood circulation to the gastrointestinal tract is also restricted which may lead to digestive problems (Bonaz and Sabate, 2009). The principles, “Just for today I will not worry”, “Just for today I will not anger”, do not mean that one must never experience these emotions. Obviously that would be impossible and even undesirable. When these emotions arise, the object is not to be overwhelmed by them but to experience them and then let them pass. Practicing Reiki and/or receiving Reiki enables this process, partly because Reiki stimulates the parasympathetic nerves which help the body relax (Mackay et al., 2004; Baldwin et al., 2008; Diaz-Rodriguez et al., 2011).

The Reiki principles, “Just for today I give thanks for my many blessings” and “Just for today I will be kind to myself and every other living thing” also aid in the healing process because they help one focus on the positive aspects of life. Barbara Fredrickson, a psychology researcher at University of North Carolina, has performed experimental studies showing that when people experienced positive emotions, such as joy, contentment and love, they saw more possibilities in their lives. In addition, this broadened sense of possibilities enables people to build new skills and resources that they can use in other parts of their lives. Fredrickson refers to this concept as the “broaden and build” theory (Fredrickson, 2004).

The Reiki principle, “Just for today I will do my work honestly” can be interpreted as taking responsibility for one’s life and for the attainment of one’s goals and ambitions. Realizing that one has control over how one responds to outside events and personal interactions is a healthy, empowering experience. There is nothing more debilitating than blaming others, complaining, making excuses and waiting for others to act on one’s behalf. So even just living by the Reiki principles can have profoundly beneficial effects on one’s physical and psychological health. Although receiving Reiki sessions has many benefits, as will be described in later chapters, learning and practicing Reiki on oneself provides the ultimate gain.

English Oxford Living Dictionaries provides a more mechanistic definition of Reiki: Reiki is “a healing technique based on the principle that the therapist can channel energy into the patient by means of touch, to activate the natural healing processes of the patient’s body and restore physical and emotional well-being”. This definition leads to more questions such as: “What type of energy?” and “How does one channel the energy?”

The answer to the first question is not obvious. Some Reiki scholars, such as James Oschman, have proposed that Reiki energy is electromagnetic. This idea makes sense because the heart and brain both generate measurable electromagnetic fields (biofields) that extend away from the body. These fields are very weak and challenging to measure but, in the late 1960s, an ultrasensitive detector called a Superconducting Quantum Interference Detector (SQUID) was developed. In 1970, Cohen (1970) reported the recording of the electromagnetic field of the heart (a magnetocardiogram) using a SQUID. Two years later, Cohen (1972) described the use of a SQUID to measure the electromagnetic field of the brain (a magnetoencephalogram).

If Reiki energy were electromagnetic, then it would be able to interact with the heart and brain biofields, alter their vibration frequencies and consequently modify the electric currents producing the biofields. Since electrical conduction systems in the heart coordinate the contraction of the various heart chambers, altering these currents would influence cardiac function. Likewise, since information is passed between the brain and other parts of the body by electrical currents traveling along neural pathways, altering these currents could adjust brain function.

However, there are some major problems with this theory which will be discussed in Chapter 3.

The answer to the second question, “How does one channel Reiki?” is based on the purported existence of energy portals, called chakras, in the body. The word “chakra” is Sanskrit for “wheel” and chakras are believed to spin: pulling energy into the body from the environment and returning energy to the environment. The idea of the chakra system originates from traditional Indian religions, such as Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism. According to Hindu and Buddhist texts (Lochtefeld, 2002; Jones and Ryan, 2006), the seven main chakras are arranged in a column along the spinal cord, from the base of the spine (coccyx) to the crown of the head (Figure 1.1), connected by a vertical channel. If one believes in chakras, it is easy to imagine Reiki energy entering the crown chakra, flowing through the central channel and exiting through the root chakra at the base of the spine. According to the theory, energy can also enter or exit the vertical channel through the other chakras that are not associated with the crown or coccyx. In addition, energy can flow to and from the central channel through minor chakras connected into the system. It is rather like the lymphatic circulatory system in the body, but moving energy rather than lymph (a fluid containing infection-fighting white blood cells). However, the lymphatic system connects with the blood circulation within the body whereas the chakra/channel system connects with energy in the environment. The channel concept is consistent with Reiki energy entering the chakra system from the environment and then flowing out of the minor chakras located in the hands during the healing process.

Figure 1.1

Diagram of seven Chakras.

Some people have noticed that there is a correspondence between the positions of the main chakras and the locations of important glands (Roney-Dougal, 1999) (Figure 1.2). It has also been noted that the positions of the main chakras correspond to some degree with the nerve plexi or nervous networks that serve specific organs in the body (Leadbetter, 1927) (Figure 1.3) but the literature is very scant. Nevertheless, these correlations have led to the theory that chakras act as transducers, transforming environmental energies, such as Reiki, into electrical and chemical signals within the body (Wisneski and Anderson, 2009).

At present there is no convincing scientific validity for the existence of chakras. The closest evidence available for the presence of energy centers in the body arises from the use of a gas discharge visualizer (GDV), in which a small, pulsed electromagnetic field is applied to the fingertips to induce a flow of electrons in the skin and possibly deeper connective tissues (Korotkov, 2004). These free electrons accelerate towards the GDV positive electrode, gaining enough energy to cause further ionization to form an electron avalanche on the surface of the electrode. The electronic ‘glow’ of this discharge can be captured by an optical charge-coupled device camera system. Konstantin Korotkov, from Saint-Petersburg Federal University of Informational Technologies, Mechanics and Optics, developed software for this device to translate the electronic responses of the fingertips to an energy profile of the whole body (Korotkov, 2009). The link between fingertip responses and functions of specific organs and organ is based on acupuncture meridians (Mandel, 1986). When the data of the ten individual fingertips are collated and interpolated, an image of the full body energy field is created. This is illustrated in Figure 1.4. Gaps in electro-photonic emission supposedly indicate impeded transfer of electron density into the body’s tissues and an abnormality in the energy supply of organs and physiological systems. Such deficiencies are seen as gaps in the image of the body’s energy field that is produced by the GDV camera and software. According to Korotkov (2012), and based on the principles of Ayurvedic medicine, a specific part of every finger is also associated with a particular chakra. More information about this relationship is described in the literature (Deshpande et al., 2013) but empirical evidence is lacking. The GDV came...