Reiki Definition
Table of Contents
Reiki is a form of energy healing in which the practitioner channels universal life force energy through their body into the body of the recipient. This triggers the flow of the recipient’s own life force energy, resulting in healing and restoring balance within their body.
The most miraculous thing about reiki is the activation of the recipient’s inherent healing abilities.
It’s like when your car’s battery gets jumped by another car. The car always had the ability to run by itself, it just needed a little boost to get started.
During a session, the practitioner opens themselves up to allow reiki to flow through their body, out through the palms of their hands, and into the body of the recipient. This space is held for giving and receiving reiki for both the practitioner and the recipient.
This could involve the practitioner scanning the client’s body with their hands hovering a few inches above them, assessing where there are energy blocks or leaks, and directing reiki energy there.
The practitioner may lay their hands on the client’s body in a safe, respectful way, although this is not necessary.
The practitioner may also use various hand placements to create “bridges” of reiki between the chakras or various body parts. They may also choose to use reiki symbols to further instill specific healing intentions. Again, this is not necessary, but can enhance a reiki healing session.
The practitioner is spiritually guided through this process, following their intuition on where to direct the reiki energy. Reiki flows wherever it’s needed the most, even without the practitioner guiding it.
This Japanese healing modality is gentle, powerful, and potent, accessible to anyone who wants it. It extends beyond simple healing, relaxation, and meditation. It’s ultimately a way for us to connect with the deepest vibration of the Universe, which is love, bringing it back into our bodies and spirit.
All life in the Universe is made up of reiki (life force) energy. We are reiki, we have reiki, and we are able to send and receive reiki. It is both a noun and a verb. Opening up to reiki means holding space for this realization to happen.
Reiki Therapy
When we think about reiki as being the deepest resonance of the Universe, it’s easy to see how we are reiki. Because we are all various expressions of the Universe, we all innately have this connection to the universal life force.
A reiki practitioner needs to be attuned to the frequency of reiki in order to send it to others purposefully. But a recipient doesn’t need to be attuned to receive it.
To answer the question “What is reiki?” we have to understand that everything in existence stems from the vibration of love. This is so, because all things are the Universe, and the Universe is pure love, therefore all things carry the resonance of love.
When that resonance of love gets repressed or forgotten, dis-ease and imbalance take over. These are much lower frequencies than love, bringing us out of alignment with the universal life force.
Reiki means life force energy. And what is life force energy? Love!
Opening ourselves up to receive reiki reinvigorates the inner frequency of love within every cell in our body. By this same notion, we can send reiki to everyone, and everything, even if it’s inanimate.
Reiki cultivates self awareness and balance. It has a beautiful, peaceful quality that helps dissipate all that does not resonate with love. It’s so simple and profound, and so easy to fall in love with!
How Does Reiki Work?
Through returning to love and life force energy, reiki activates our natural healing abilities.
Similar to other forms of energy healing, there is a process of entrainment, or quantum entanglement, which suggests that the particles (atoms) making up all matter behave as waves or vibrations.
“Science has proven that in the presence of a stronger or clearer vibration, a lesser or weaker vibration will be taken over and brought to the same resonance of the stronger vibration.”
Isabelle from the Conscious Café Podcast
Science understands that particles can change and interact with other particles, even if they aren’t near each other. Atoms are the building blocks of everything, and atoms are made up of electrons, neutrons, and protons, all of which are either negatively or positively charged waves of energy.
On the atomic level, there is an immense amount of space between all these electrically charged particles. So really, they’re constantly repelling and colliding with each other.
We perceive things as solid, but on a microscopic level, our atoms are being forced back by other atoms within these objects, therefore our hands don’t just pass right through things. So things aren’t actually solid, it’s all simply energy in constant motion (referred to vibration).
Higher vibrations change and influence lower vibrations. Love is the highest vibration of all, and reiki is pure love (universal life force energy).
Therefore, reiki changes lower vibrational energy into a higher vibration. And that’s when transformational healing occurs!
Reiki History
Reiki wasn’t necessarily invented, more like discovered.Similar to electricity. It was always there, we just hadn’t yet figured out how to channel it. It’s possible that it went by many other names and practices throughout history, but reiki has Japanese roots.
The modern basis of all reiki branches is largely credited to Mikao Usui. Studying Usui reiki is where most practitioners begin their journey.
There are dozens of styles nowadays, all stemming from Usui Reiki. With the shared belief that reiki is loving life force energy sent through the body for healing.
Mikao Usui took a pilgrimage in the early 20th century to Mt. Kurama, outside of Japan, where he fasted for 21 days, sitting in near constant meditation and prayer. During this time, Source taught him about reiki, showed him the reiki symbols, and blessed him with the desire to pass this knowledge down to students.
Usui was a medical doctor in search of greater spiritual wisdom and purpose. He eventually became a Zen Buddhist and received the honorable title of Sensei.
Usui taught reiki to thousands of students, but only attuned a little more than a dozen masters who would carry on his legacy.
Through his students and the institutions they opened, reiki spread across the world, starting in the east and making its way to the west during the course of a century or so.
Some of his Reiki Masters believed that reiki was sacred and shouldn’t be taught so openly. They didn’t allow their small group of students (who could afford the lofty tuition) to write down anything regarding reiki or the reiki symbols. This was holier-than-thou syndrome at it’s finest.
When the last of the masters who believed in this secrecy passed away, the new masters who inherited the institutions completely derailed from that mindset. They were excited to write down the practice they loved, that has helped so many, and to make it more accessible to those who wish to answer the healing call.
And am I grateful they did! Spiritual gatekeeping in this way only hurts the collective unconscious. Usui did not believe in this secrecy, and the Universe would not have shown him how to teach it to others if it was only meant for a select group of people.
Today, there are likely millions of reiki masters around the world, exploring the healing power of channeling universal life force energy. Every time reiki is brought into our being, the world gets a little lighter and brighter!
The awareness of reiki was brought to the collective for a divine reason, in perfect timing. The more people who learn and use reiki, the more we restore the vibration of love within the collective consciousness. Which means more ascension and spiritual awakenings!
Reiki Principles
Dr. Mikao Usui Sensei outlined five ethical principles to summarize his philosophy. These reiki principles guide us as practitioners, inspire us as recipients, and instill a sense of inner peace and balance.
Five Principles of Reiki
You do not need to be an attuned reiki practitioner to live by and appreciate these simple philosophies. I love how they inspire us to take it one day at a time. Small decisions and continued habits make for a fulfilling life.
- Just for today, do not worry.
- Just for today, do not anger.
- Honor your parents, teachers, and elders.
- Earn your living honestly.
- Show gratitude to everything.
So how do we use these principles? During a reiki session, either a self session or a client session, we remind ourselves of the reiki principles to bring us back to quiet balance.
Balance is important in reiki because this is where dis-ease and unrest originate. Through quiet connection to the heartbeat of the Universe, balance is restored in our minds, bodies, and spirits.
To practice reiki is to have an intimate connection to the universal life force energy. The energy of worry, anger, disrespect, dishonesty, and ingratitude prevent us from developing that bond with the Universal pulsation of love, light, and life.
Reiki Shares
Reiki shares are when reiki practitioners and clients alike come together to give and receive reiki energy in a group setting.
I am very excited to begin offering free group reiki shares via ZOOM starting on March 5th. Everyone is welcome, whether you practice reiki or you just wish to receive it.
I want everyone to have the opportunity to receive reiki healing, intended for their highest good, regardless of their income levels, location, or time commitments.
And if you’re reiki curious, this would be a great place to get an idea of what reiki healing is like.
Even in a group setting, reiki will flow into your body and soul, settling wherever you need it the most. Reiki is not bound by time or space. No matter where you are in the world, you will feel the universal life force energy flowing through you!
