turning over - to do it or not

I've struggled with this question for awhile now. One reason is because it takes me longer to do a Reiki session then most other practitioners, as alot of them don't treat the back of the body, which cuts way down on the amount of time they have to spend with a client. A massage practitioner books a one hour session, so it's possible that they are trying to work within that time frame because so many people are familiar with it.   The other explanation is that many were taught  or believe that the Reiki energy will go to the areas that need Reiki when they are treating the front of the body, so it is not neccessary to treat the back of the body under this premise.

 I was trained by both of my teachers to turn over the receiver and treat the back of the body and I have facilitated many releases (when stuck energy is dissolved in the body by Reiki) in the back of the body.  Many of my clients have back issues and request treatment there. So, in my opinion  treating the back of the body is an integral part of any full Reiki session I do.

I have also had many of my clients report that the deepest rest they have during a session happens when they are on their tummys (turned over).  So I will continue treating the back of the body because that is what I feel serves my clients the best. 

We all have to do what we feel is right for us, so if one person feels things should be done one way, then that is the way they should do them.  If another person feels  they should be done another way then that is what is right for them and both ways are good ways.  If we could all see that all ways are OK, wouldn't it be a more peaceful, beautiful world?

Reiki on all the time?

I have noticed over the years that when I sit or meditation or lie down to take to nap, at some point, when I am really relaxed and "in the zone" I begin to "see" Reiki coming in or going out.  Not sure which, but I  like to think it's in.  Yesterday as I sat in meditation and watched the colors of the energy doing their thing (I clairvoyantly see the colors or frequencies of the Reiki energy that is either coming in or going out) it occurred to me that maybe the term being Reiki or asking someone "are you Reiki" was more appropo then we thought.  What if we are channeling Reiki all the time:  when we are sleeping, driving, walking, eating, cooking, etc?   Wouldn't that be awesome?

Another thing occurred to me, what if those we have connected with when sending them Reiki or working on them, can connect with the Reiki energy through us at will?  That I'm not too thrilled about, I like to think I have control over that .  I have been told by a few of my students that when an ambulance goes by they feel Reiki go on and feel it flowing out of them to whoever is in the ambulance of it's on accord.  Or if they driving by a car accident, this also happens.   Maybe just having a compassionate thought about someone flips on the Reiki switch and Reiki goes out to whoever it is we are thinking about?

I haven't heard or read anything about this occurence in any Reiki book or magazine and I've read dozens and dozens and dozens of both.  Sounds like another one of those things about Reiki that we can't answer and can never answer or have to wait till be transition to know.

Coming around again - asking permission

Not too long ago I participated in an Internet conference with a well known Reiki Master Teacher and author.  The topic of  asking permission when sending distant Reiki or when just working on others came up rather early on and her response was that if you were in court and a judge asked you if you obtained permission from the person you were sending Reiki  to and you said, well I asked their "higher self" (meaning their soul) do you think that would hold up in court?   At first I was taken aback by this response and admittedly swayed by this argument, but now, in retrospect, I'm not so sure I agree with this tenet.

Recently, when doing a self-treatment session  in which I also intended that Reiki go out to several people I mentally named, asking their permission and intending that the energy go for their highest good, I had a download (a message from Spirit or my guides) that I could send Reiki to the souls of some of my crossed over loved ones as we are all eternal souls, occasionally having a physical existence in a human body (or possible other types of body per Brian Weiss and others who do past life regressions) I could always send Reiki to those in Spirit who I loved when they were in the physical with me at some time during my life.  It was one of those revelatory moments for me and I wept tears of joy knowing that on the other side, I was helping to heal  my loved ones souls by sending them the beautiful, miraculous gift of Reiki.   I felt a tremendous wave of love from the other side while doing this.

It occurred to me yesterday that if we are all just eternal souls having a physical experience in whatever body we are in at this time, then asking the soul permission, if you had not literally been given permission by them to send them Reiki, made perfect sense to me.  This generally comes up when someone else has asked for Reiki for a loved one or close friend but that person did not directly ask you or them for it and are possibly not even aware that that person has asked you to send it to them or you just hear or know of someone who is suffering and wish to help them because you know you can by using Reiki distantly.  Why wouldn't a soul be the perfect one to ask?  The body is just the vehicle in which the soul is having a physical experience in whatever life time.  The soul is eternal, is here to learn whatever lessons it has contracted to learn this time around in a particular body at a particular time in history.   Who better to ask then the soul?  If the soul is resistant to the healing then you could assume that the lessons they contracted to learn this time around involve their going through whatever it is they are going through right now to learn whatever lesson/s they are here to learn in the body they are in now.

If we trust that Reiki is an intelligent energy, then between what the soul knows and Reiki knows, we can safely assume by asking the souls permission and allowing the soul to decide whether it is open to receiving  the healing energy or not is the souls decision, as it should be.

To protect or not to protect

In his book, "Reiki Best Pactices", Walter Lubeck brings up a very intriquing point: "The very idea that we must protect ourselves is to take a step in the wrong direction.  Whatever we fear has power over us.  Fear indicates that we are separated from our surroundings.  This is perhaps the greatest folly that we as human beings can commit with our minds."

What Walter is saying is simply the thought that we need protecting calls to us what we want to be protected from.  All of those who are "awake"  know that your thoughts create your reality, so what you are thinking about, especially repetitively during the day, is what you are co-creating with Spirit in your day/life.  What if we just knew we were safe at all times and didn't take any measures to ask for protection or whatever we do to protect ourselves, what do you think would happen?

"But unbased feelings of fear are like a neon light.  They attract what is feared with much noise and fuss.  An afffirmtion such "I am safe and protected" chains our consciousness to the fearr of being unsafe and unprotected.  Without the clearing and harmonization of fears and their individually related problems, protection meastures like wearing amulets, reciting Mantras or hanging up pictures of saints only crete the opposite effect". 

Walter goes on to say that if feels like someone is psychically attacking him, he takes no measures, just allows the energy to flow through him.  This reqires absolute trust in yourself, a good measure of self-confidence along with a good deal of self-love.  Would you be willing to let your need for using whatever it is you use daily to protect yourself go? 

Another view on the "Heat"

When channeling Reiki, the heat we experience while the energy is being pulled through us by the receiver, indicates a blockage (or resistance to energy flow) in the area of the body of the receiver we are working on.  The heat usually dissolves the blockage so that the energy can flow again, according to one Reiki Master Teacher and author.

The constriction or blocked/dense area of energy is vibrating at a lower frequency which indicated that the emotions of fear, worry, anger, grief, or depression  have become stuck in this area.  When you bring your Reiki hands to the area, Reiki raises the vibrational frequency of the area and dissovles the  blockage.

I had read previously that Reiki is a very high vibration or frequency of energy.  When we are channeling it we are aligning the receiver to this frequency which brings about the healing.   As that high frequency or vibration of energy is running through our entire physical and energetic body while we are channeling it, then we also receive a healing or alignment.  What an incredible gift  Reiki is to the world.  Imagine if every household had a Reiki practitioner in it all over the planet.  Maybe there would finally be Peace on Earth.

whatever you call it a rose is a rose

Recently while having to explain yet again to a client what a "block release" is, it occurred to me that maybe that wasn't what was happening and maybe I should rethink how to explain it when an extreme amount of heat begins pouring into the receiver and I break out in a sweat at a particular site that I am working at on their body.  I was taught to believe that this particular occurrence meant that a blockage of energy was being worked on by Reiki to release it from the body and that a blockage of energy could be explained as a "knot" of a lot of different things that had fallen into the body from the energy field (thoughtforms, emotions that haven't been dealt with, negative energy).   I was also taught how to deal with this occurrence by doing "Pranic Breathing" (similar to Lamaze breathing - deep inhales and exhales in through and out of the mouth for the purpose of releasing some of the heat to make myself more comfortable and to help to facilitate the release and to send whatever was released up to the White Light to be transformed to a more healing energy for healing the ...   (fill in the blank).

After I recently became to Karuna  Reiki(R), a newer and even more powerful, in my opinion, form of Reiki and using it in my healing sessions, my clients began to have more and more releases and more intense releases, so I felt I needed to explain to them just what was going on when this occurred.

I decided to ask a very highly known and respected Reiki Master Teacher in the UK that I correspond
with occasionally what his opinion was when this occured..   His response was quite eye eyeopening.  Rather then try to nail down a definition he was more apt to just let it be what it was and not try to define it.  He used the analogy of several blind men all trying to describe what kind of animal they were touching when each were placed at different intervals around an elephant - some felt his tail, others his trunk, others his ears, etc.  Basically, again, we really have no idea what is taking place, we are not advanced enough to have this information.   It may be many things, areas of depletion being filled with energy, areas of too much energy being depleted of energy in that area, areas of a build up of negative energy being discharged, a very deep need for balance in a particular area and so forth.

So maybe it is better left undefined and to simply say Reiki is an intelligent energy and it is doing what is required in this area. 

Beginning my Reiki Blog

The most interesting thing to me about Reiki is that nobody really knows what it is and what it does.  We can guesstimate through experimentation I suppose, what it does.  People report feeling calmness, relaxation, falling asleep during a seesion, feeling more energized after a treatment, pain reduction, inflammation reduction, etc.  There are lots of theories about it's origins, the main one being the Christianized version created by Mrs. Takata that was debunked after her death for lack of evidence, or evidence that absolutely went counter to what she told everyone, like no record of Usui attending seminary school at the University of Chicago, and the fact that  he was raised in a Buddhist monastery and even became a lay Buddhist Priest. 

There is even talk of Usui not having used or created any Reiki symbols, those being the product of Dr. Hayashi and the other Naval officers who, in Reiki circles is accepted to be the heir if you will of the Reiki world after Usui's untimely death at 54 of a stroke.  Also that Usui didn't actually have the big bang moment on Mt. Kurama but actually performed The Lotus Repentance Meditation (21 day fast and medittation on the sacred mountain for enlightenment) many times and that actually Reiki is a compliation of all the modalities systems he studied.

Do we really need to know what it is or what it's origins are or can we just accept that that is astounding, miraculous, amazing and so loving and gentle?  Probably not because our egos need answers and so the search goes on.