REIKI AND ETHICS

I understand that in massage school, there are hours and hours of class time spent on talking about ethical practices while performing massage.  There are ethical practices involved in doing Reiki also, although I would make a bet that very few Reiki Master Teachers are actually giving much class time to this topic or even bringing it up or so I've heard through the grapevine.  

So what are the ethical practices involved in being Reiki Practitioners?  Going back to the five Reiki Precepts "Just for today, do your work honestly" (depending on which translation you're reading".  One unethical practice involving Reiki would be for a Level I  or Level II Reiki Practitioner to, first all do Reiki on the public and charge for it at all, but if they do, to charge the public the same amount for their doing a Reiki session on someone that a Level IIIa (Reiki Master - the level at which you are certified to actually treat the public) or a Reiki Master Teacher would charge (Level IIIb). Because you are not opened up to the full flow of Reiki energy at the levels below IIIa and because of lack of experience, it is unethical for you to do Reiki on the public and to charge what someone who is fully open and experienced would charge.

Other ethical practices include never treating someone who is not fully clothed.  Why?  Unless you are licensed massage therapist, acupuncturist, or doctor, it is illegal for you to be working on someone who is not fully clothed.  Wisconsin is a "no touch" state therefore as Reiki practitioners, we cannot touch another persons naked body.  If you plan on doing Reiki on the public and are not a licensed massage therapist, etc., you would be wise to become a minister as Wisconsin allows you to "touch" under the heading of "spiritual healing" if you are.

There are many people out there practicing "Reiki" who have never taken a class and have no certification.  The claim they have been "self-attuned" (not possible) or that they just it naturally, so make sure when you go to someone for Reiki that their certificates are displayed out in the open where the public can see them (another requirement by the State of Wisconsin).

One last obvious ethically topic, if a Reiki practitioner comes on to you in a sexual way RUN and report them!  If your client asks you to perform sexual services during a Reiki session - boot him/her out and report them to police. This occurs more often with massage therapists (I've heard many stories from my massage therapist friends about this) because prostitutes often advertise under the guise of massage therapist so the public has some misconceptions about massage therapy.  Working in a spa or wellness center gives you more protection especially if you're female.  

We need the public to know that Reiki is an ethical, safe, service, just like all the other healing modalities our there, so educate the public by your actions and behavior and if you know someone who is not acting in these ethical ways and doing Reiki either talk to them, or report them.  

Massage VS Reiki

I have worked in several "spas" or wellness centers over the past few years and find that they tend to be very much more centered around massage and either acupuncture or skin work then Reiki.  It is hard for massage therapists or acupuncturists to understand that Reiki  is as equal in value to someone sufferings as what they do. I've had tons of massage and acupuncture and, obviously, tons of Reiki.  I am here to tell you that Reiki works just as good or better in some cases, than both.

The massage therapy world touts that we need a massage every week or twice a month or monthly, cajoling their clients  to book their next appointment, convincing them that continued massage  is just a given.

What massage therapists and other healing modalities and the public don't understand is that Reiki should be done weekly, biweekly or once a month also just like a massage, unless you have a chronic or severe condition which should treated more aggressively - like 3 treatments a week for two weeks, tapering down to two a week for 2-3 weeks, then once a week, etc and then maintenance treatments until the condition is gone or greatly reduced and manageable.

We need to educate the public and the massage therapists and other alternative healing professionals that Reiki is just as valuable, just as effective (if not more so) as what they do - hey we're already charging what they do.  I find that there is a belief out there by these professionals that because Reiki training is quick, easy and relatively inexpensive compared to the time and money one has to spend to becoming a massage therapist or acupuncturist, etc., that they equate that to the efficacy of Reiki treatments or the efficacy or abilities of Reiki Practitioners.   You can spend $10,000 on massage school and still come out a poor massage therapist or a egotistical, "bad bed side mannered" acupuncturist - believe me - I know from experience.

So the answer is to blog, write articles and educate the public about the benefits and healing properties of Reiki.

Using Symbols

How much do you actually use symbols when treating others or yourself?   Many people do experiment them and use them more when they first get them at Level II, but I find that many people fall away from using them and I'm told by others you really don't need to after awhile (?).  

I am asking my FB Reiki page group to join me in doing an experiment with the symbols. If you'd like to get in on the fun, try working extensively with them and report back your findings.  Like when your self-treating, intuit which symbol you should put in in each hand position and see what happens.  The next time you do your self-treating session, change it up and use different ones (make some notes afterwords about which ones you used so you know for next time).

When you're doing sessions on others do the same - intuit which symbol should go in each hand position and see what happens (ask their permission first of course).  If you are not intuitive, just pick one at random and when you work on that person again, change it up ( again probably good to keep some notes about which ones you used where then). 

If you are Karuna this probably doesn't apply because we use the Karuna symbols extensively when doing Karuna.

After Your Clear a Room, Then What?

I just posted on my Reiki FB group some methods to clear a room using the power symbol (Usui CKR) by drawing it with a incense stick or smudge stick or even using a tuning fork that I saw mentioned in a wonderful article in the latest Reiki Magazine from the ICFRT - I gave full credit, and someone wrote back that when you clear a room, you need to then fill it up with Reiki energy because you've just created a vacuum and if you don't fill it with Reiki some baddies could come in.

One person responded by saying that "sage purifies the energy not so much clears away energy, since I draw the symbols with the sage I know my space is filled with Reiki energy".  Do yo feel that is true?

I've never seen this mentioned in any article or in any Reiki book which mentions using Reiki symbols to clear a room or any articles about smudging. 

While I can definitely see that this might have some basis of truth, you would think that it would be something regularly mentioned in Reiki books, which it is not (I have read over 55 and can unequivocally say that).

Will be doing some experimenting and talking to my guides about this and that will be another blog post!

Setting The Story Straight - The Real Origins of Mikao Usui and Reiki

THE “REAL” STORY ABOUT MIKAO USUI, THE CREATOR OF REIKI AND HIS ORIGINS

After a long and grueling several years of a major illness from which part of my recovery was a contract I made with myself that I would do daily Reiki self-treating for 1 hour minimum a day and healed it, I made another contract with myself to read every Reiki book I could get my hands on for the rest of my life.   I felt like if I have the capacity to make other people Reiki, then I really need to know everything there is to know about Reiki!

As a result, I am at 55 books and counting.  In my reading (and my connections with many very high level Reiki Master Teachers all over the world) I have come to know so much more about the REAL origins of Reiki and its creator, I feel I could be considered to be somewhat of an expert on the topic – the definition of an expert being someone who has studied a subject for 5 years.  I’ll going on year 10 shortly.

I am writing this article because it has come to my attention that there are local teachers out there in 2013 still telling their students the Christian story about the origins of Reiki.  The creator of this myth died in 1980 and it was debunked after her death.  I find it astonishing and incomprehensible that any Reiki teacher in this day and age would not know this. Obviously someone is not doing their homework and as a result is giving out false and possible harmful information to their students and the general public.

The original Christian story was perpetrated by the last person in what I call the original “Reiki Triune” of larger than life teachers, Mrs. Hawayo Takata.  Mrs. Takata was a Japanese national living in Hawaii just before Pearl Harbor.  She was trying to establish a Reiki healing and teaching practice in an area of the world where many of her students and clients were white Western Europeans or Americans.  At this time, T’ai Chi, Qigong and even Feng Shui were not on the radar of most of non-Asian individuals, so imagine how a tiny little Japanese woman in Hawaii teaching about and doing a Japanese Buddhist hands on spiritual healing system with Shinto (the ancient national religion of Japan that venerates nature spirits and departed loved ones, and Shugendo (a form of Japanese Shamanism) would  have been received.

It is said that she created the “Christian story” because in Japan it is traditional for someone to make up a parable to get across a sacred spiritual truth.  If you’re not familiar with the story here is how it goes:

Mrs. T (as I like to affectionately call her) said that Usui (the creator of Reiki) was a Christian teaching in a Christian school in Japan and one day his students asked him if he believed everything he read in the bible, to which he replied “YES”.  Then they ask him if he also believed that Jesus could heal with his hands and again he replied “YES”.  So they ask him to show them how he did this and he said he couldn’t and the story goes that right then and there he quit his job and vowed to find out how it was done and come back to tell everyone.    I’m sure the details defer from teacher to teacher but this is the gist of it.

Supposedly he went out on a trek all over the world looking for the system of how Jesus healed with his hands, going to China, all over Japan, India, and Tibet or so the story goes, even supposedly coming to the US and studying theology at the University of Chicago.  There is no record of anyone  who has a name even closely resembling his ever studying at that University at that time. 

It is possible that Usui, at some point in his life did travel to some of these places (possibly even Europe) because he worked for a Japanese diplomat who is said to have traveled to some of these places also – Usui was  supposedly his bodyguard.  Usui studied martial arts (his family was of ancient Samurai descent) and was said to be very highly accomplished and respected martial artist in his day.

The story goes that he found the instructions in ancient possible Sanskrit texts about how to do this but couldn’t make it physically work, so he decided to go on a traditional 21 day fast and meditation (Lotus Repentance Meditation) atop a very sacred mountain in Japan (Mt. Karuma) and hopefully get some guidance.  He took 21 stones with him to mark the days and at the end of 21 days nothing had happened and he had just thrown the last stone off the side of the mountain when he saw a very bright light coming at him at very high speed and knew he could duck and let it pass him by or allow it to strike him.  He chose to allow it to strike him and it is said to have hit him the middle of his forehead (third eye chakra) knocking him unconscious.  It was then that all the secrets of the system were revealed to him in what is called an “enlightenment moment.”  There are 4 miracles that supposedly happened as he came off the mountain which I won’t go into here. 

What’s interesting is that he did not go back to the school he supposedly taught at the reveal this information to his students, instead he went into the beggar section of Tokyo and begin healing beggars for free (another story around this also with a lesson).

In truth, Usui was born in Japan around the end of the 19^th century to an ancient Samurai family of Buddhists and as is traditional, was put into a Buddhist monastery at the tender age of 4, where he was also taught Japanese Qigong (Kiko) and martial arts (grappling and swordsmanship to name a few) along with the Buddhist teachings (some say he family were Pure Land Buddhist, some say Tendai Buddhist).  He is buried in a Pure Land Buddhist cemetery (see “This is Reiki by Frank Arjava Petter for information on this).

In his short life he held many jobs including the aforementioned, such as prison guard, industrialist, and quite possibly as a lay Buddhist Priest (Zaike) or even as a Shinto Priest, to name of few.   From all that I have read about him in books and manuals by other teachers, Reiki is actually a compilation of all the many and varied subjects he studied in his life (Western and Chinese Medicine, religions of the world, Buddhism (possible both Pure Land and Tendai) Zen Buddhism, Kiko and much more.  It is said at one point he wanted to discover the secret of achieving Satori (a state of being where no matter what is going on around you, you are peaceful and calm, you know what your life’s purpose is and are doing it).

Trying to find the method of achieving Satori is said to have been the real reason why he did actually perform the 21 day fast and mediation on Mt. Kurama (possible several times).  On his memorial stone erected a year after his death by some of his followers, the story of one such fast and mediation on Mt. Kurama is immortalized and is said to have actually happened (the enlightenment moment with the white light). There is even a newspaper or magazine article written by Usui himself where he clearly states that he created the system and had the enlightenment experience (“This is Reiki” – Frank Arjava Petter).

Dr. Usui’s original system (he was awarded an official doctorate by the Meiji Emperor for his work in healing it is said thousands of people after the worst earthquake to hit Tokyo in recorded history, at that time) was about self-actualization, not a healing modality.  He originally taught his system to those seeking enlightenment but it was later tweaked into the “hands on healing” modality most of us know it as today through the machinations of Japanese Naval Officer named Dr. Chujiro Hayashi (the 2^nd figure in the Reiki Triune) who as a Western Medical Doctor turned Reiki into a formalized healing system for his and his Naval Officer buddies benefit right before the War.

Dr Usui died of a stroke in 1926 while out teaching and doing healings in the Japanese countryside one day.  Dr. Hayashi opened a healing clinic and wrote a large manual with prescribed hand positions to treat specific illnesses.  Many people think of Hayashi as Usui’s predecessor but there is another group of Reiki Practitioners that you never hear of that still carry on Usui’s original teachings in Japan – the Usui Reiki Ryoho Gakkai – a secret Japanese Reiki society.   The United States government outlawed the practice of Reiki in Japan after WWII and it went underground.

The Gakki has an elected president of its closed and secret society, although due to the efforts of the men and women who in the last 10 years or so from outside of Japan (mostly American  and Western European Reiki Master Teachers and Practitioners  they are leaking out more and more information as to the real origins of which I am writing of here.

These teachers and practitioners went to Japan to get the real story and have brought back amazing discoveries about all that I mentioned.  Pictures of Usui’s ancestral home and town, 100+ year old documents and manuals he signed or wrote, interviews with 100+ y/o Buddhist nuns who actually studied with Usui and MUCH MORE.

If you want to read up on the latest information about Reiki and Usui, I highly suggest  you read “This is Reiki” by Frank Arjava Petter and Tadao Yamagucchi’s book (his mother was taught by Hayashi and he is now touring Japan and I think the US and Canada teaching as Hayashi taught)  “Light on the Origins of Reiki”.

The newer Reiki books coming out today are reflecting all this new knowledge brought in by Frank, and people like Chris Marsh, James Deacon and I believe William Lee Rand of the International Center for Reiki Training in Michigan. 

Patricia Penner, Usui & Karuna Reiki ®Master Teacher, Crystal Reiki Master and Crystal Healer, Heart-Light-Reiki, LLC   www.Heart-Light-Reiki.com  

THE VALUE OF REIKI AS PERCEIVED BY OTHER ALTERNATIVE HEALING MODALITIES AND THE WORLD

I am running into a very interesting attitude problem with others in the alternative medicine field, which is making me see the wisdom of Hawayo Takata charging $10,000.00 to make someone a Reiki Master.  I know, calm down, I can sense your outrage and see your eyebrows going up! 

Here is where I am coming from with this: I have worked in several wellness centers now with many acupuncturists, herbalists,massage therapists and even estheticians.  The attitude I get from these people is unbelievable.  It's all - I was in training intensely for 3 years at so and so's school, and paid up the wazoo for my training, you are just a lowly Reiki practitioner who only put in a few hours in training and hardly spent anything for it and all you do is run energy, etc., etc., etc.

Seriously people this is what they think of us!  So number one, this tells me that they have no clue about what Reiki is and what it does, and number two we should all be considering charging a lot more money to make people Reiki like Mrs. T did and give Reiki sessions.

I've been struggling off and on about my fees for sessions and classes for years.  My website designer told me this story one day and it totally changed my perspective on this. A high end jeweler in Santa Fe decided to get in a line of the local Native American silver and turquoise jewelry, but priced it very low (like $35 and $50) as compared to all the diamond and gold jewelry in the hundred and thousands in his shop. It sat there and didn't move at all for a long time.  One day he hired someone to come in and clean out all the cases.  They inadvertently changed all the price tags on the silver jewelry marking everything up significantly to $350 and $500 when they put everything back into the cases - it flew out the door after that.

There is even a story about Usui working in the slums of Tokyo healing beggars and after some time the supposedly healed beggars were returning to the slums - when Usui asked them why they said it was easier to beg then to go out, get a job, have a family, own a home, etc.  It is said he vowed then and there to never give Reiki away for free again - people do not value what they can get for free.

Moral of this story - our culture has a preconceived notion of how they value things - they place more value in something that costs more because they see it as more valuable whether it is or not. This is a very well known fact in the car business (why do you think a Mercedes costs so much) the fashion business, the jewelry business and so on).  I raised my prices significantly and now I am busier than ever - I VALUED MYSELF. I made a statement to the universe that I see what I do as valuable!

What is the Correct Direction that a Healthy, Open and Balanced Chakra Should be Spinning in?

I have been puzzling over the question of what the correct direction a chakras should be spinning in for quite awhile now. I could not find a definitive answer anywhere in a book or online or get a clear answer from anyone - until now! 

In his book "Heaven and Earth" James van Praagh wrote this " In a healthy chakra system, all chakra centers are spinning in a clockwise direction and are all interconnecting with each other. When a chakra system is totally open and functional, it is possible to live on one's own breath without food a water. The energy flowing through such a body is fundamentally clear of all toxins." 

God Bless you James Van Praagh!!!!!!!!!!!!! FINALLY I have had confirmed what my pendulum had been telling me all along. The correct direction of the spin for a  healthy chakra is clockwise!!!!!! 

It is very easy to check a persons chakras using a pendulum.  Just connect to the energy of your Angels and guides by saying a little invocation like "I ask the Holy Spirit and my guides and Angels to be here and present now and speak to my through this pendulum".  Then hold the pendulum over the first chakra (base or root chakra) and ask "Show me the correct direction that so and so's  (your clients name) base chakra  should be spinning in right now" and wait.  When your pendulum has shown you whether it  should be spinning clockwise or counter-clockwise (some peoples chakras do need to spin the opposite direction sometimes - but very rarely) then ask "Show me what direction so and so's chakras IS spinning in right now. " 

Work up the chakras to the crown using this method.  If you have been taught a chakra balancing technique either using Reiki or crystals, then you and your clients can decide which chakra or chakras to work on to bring the system into balance.