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.