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December 11, 2004 ~ Healing with Hands
Saturday.
Four of us sat in a circle of chairs in the Formal Gardens overlooking the Swannanoa Mountains. It was midmorning, Sunday, November seventh. The sky was clear, and it would be a warm day. My bare feet grew slightly chilled in the dewy grass, but the sun warmed my back. Our instructor stood quietly to the side, gathering herself and centering. The candle flickered in the breeze.
She stood with her eyes closed, palms up, for a few moments, and then started her work. I watched as she attuned the first student, then closed my eyes and waited while she attuned the second and third. Soon, she was behind me. I could sense her hands moving, working around my body. She touched my head, my hands, came around the front and did similar motions. Her hands were very warm.
I was extremely skeptical, when I first heard of Reiki. Right. Energy Healing. Faith healing? Whatever. Sounds interesting, but probably just some New Age fad.
But when I saw that the college was offering a Level One class and Practitioner Certification, I considered it. It can't hurt. I might learn something. Hell, it may even actually work. Worth an open-minded try, at least, and it's free. It may go well with the herbal healing strategies I use for so much already. So I signed up.
Reiki, also known as the "Universal Life-Force Energy System of Healing," is an Eastern tradition in which practitioners manipulate and channel energy to bring about healing in a patient, on a physical and sometimes emotional level. There are three levels of Reiki practice, two practitioner levels and a "Reiki Master" level (the level at which Reiki can be taught to others). Reiki can be practiced on one's self or on others.
The "attunement" is when a teacher channels energy to her student and manipulates her student's energy and body so that blocks to the energy are removed, and the student can channel the energy herself.
Sounds pretty out there, huh? I didn't know what to think. But I was willing to give it a try.
I mentioned the class to a friend, and she said, "Oh, yes. I was a skeptic at first too."
"Oh? And what happened to change your mind?"
"Well, this one time, my son and I were on a group horseback riding trip..." She spoke of how the horse had thrown her son, then stepped on his leg. His leg began to bruise immediately. But a Reiki Master happened to be on the trip with them, and he came over, and laid his hands on her son's leg. "And the bruise, it just disappeared, right in front of my eyes. I couldn't believe it. He was able to walk right afterwards."
There are tons of explanations out there as to where this Reiki "energy" comes from and what exactly it is. As my teacher put it, some people say it comes from God, others say it comes from the earth, others say it comes from "Reiki Guides," and some people even claim it comes from aliens." In other words, everybody has a theory, but is there an agreed source? No. All that is known is that it has helped many people heal. It does seem to work, sometimes quite amazingly.
I think that, with anything like this, people mainly just look to their own already established belief system to understand it. Those who believe in God explain the energy as coming from God. Those who believe in "Energy Guides" conclude that the energy must come from them. Those who believe in aliens claim that it comes from aliens. And, of course, there is always science. Bioelectric energy fields, our brains are essentially energy synapses, et cetera, et cetera.
Personally, honestly, I don't really care, to be blunt. If it works, why worry about explaining it? I tend toward thinking that it's partly scientific, partly spiritual, and partly unexplainable. And I'm okay with that. I have felt an underlying something in plants, in animals, in people. Perhaps it is just electricity or energy. Perhaps it is soul. Perhaps it is God. Do I need to have an explanation? No.
Our teacher showed us hand positions, techniques, and let us talk about what we felt most comfortable with. She encouraged us to practice on ourselves, our family, our pets, our friends. I have been practicing on myself, on my classmates, and on Morgan. I'm too shy to ask anyone else if they want a treatment yet, though I know I'd love the chance to practice if someone wanted my attention.
The class is over now, I've got my certification, but I'm still testing and experimenting with this, as it is very new to me. Thus far, I've noticed a few things.
When I practice, my hands heat up, and I feel a tingling most of the time that peaks in the middle of a hand position, then ebbs.
Morgan has commented that my hands feel very warm while I'm treating him. He really enjoys the treatments. "Extremely relaxing." "I always feel so much better afterwards." One of my classmates, when I placed my hands on her, exclaimed, "Oh! Your hands are so hot!"
I'd been having a problem with my left knee for months. It ached, and cracked and popped when I moved it. So I focused some of my attention on that. Within the first week, the noises and pain completely stopped. My awful cramps, last month, disappeared entirely after I treated myself. Instead of taking my Devil's Smoothie when I started coming down with a cold earlier this month, I used Reiki. The cold went away. And, of course, my depression lifted shortly after I started the class. (Though I still feel that that had more to do with my concerted effort to pull myself up out of the hole than anything).
I don't know. It certainly does seem to be doing some good, even though I don't know where it comes from or how, exactly, it works. I see no harm in it, only good results, and I've integrated the practice into my life fairly easily.
Had you told me a few months ago that I'd soon be an energy healer, using only my hands, I would have laughed in your face. But here I am, feeling perfectly natural in the role. Strange, strange world.
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