Reiki: Facts, Myths & Honest Experiences, by Jim Schmidt

What is Reiki? What can reiki do, and what can’t it do? Today, Jim, a level 2 Reiki practitioner is kindly sharing his experiences with us.

What IS Reiki?

Reiki is an intelligent energy – it will only go where it’s sent, and only where it’s wanted. It has some very practical applications. And it also has limitations.

Mikao Usui was the first person to channel this energy. I have seen online that he “developed” reiki.

Reiki was not developed by a person. It was first channeled by Mikao Usui. I wanted to clarify that fact.

Reiki was not developed or invented by any person. It existed long before Mikao Usui and will continue to exist for a very long time.

But I’m not going to write about the history of reiki. I would rather write about my personal experience with reiki.

How I Got Into The Practice Of Reiki Healing

I knew people who had reiki attunements but I was never interested. Then years later, I became more inclined towards it. I felt called to it.

But like most people, I was too busy. I ignored it and went on with my life. Then, I met someone who had recently received a reiki attunement.

After a few weeks we didn’t see each other for a while. To my surprise, I missed her very much. How could I miss someone I had only known for a few weeks? After thinking about it, I realized it wasn’t her, it was the energy. I knew it was time to find out more about reiki.

I began to search online for more information. There were many people in my area that offered attunements. Some people made wild claims about it.

There are many different ideas about what reiki is and what it can do. So I did what I usually do, I continued to search and learn with an open mind and heart.

After a month or so of searching, I finally began to feel drawn to a
teacher whose website I had visited several times. I was hesitant because she lived 75 miles away from me! But I was feeling more and more sure that she was my reiki teacher.

Some teachers will do a reiki attunement on your first visit. I called her, and she scheduled me for an informational class. In that class, we learned about this form of energy healing.

Then she told us to go home for a week and think about it. If we felt we wanted to move forward, we should call her in a week and tell her.

I went back and received my level one attunement.

With my level one attunement, I could give reiki energy to someone very near me through my hands. And with my level two attunement, I can send the energy over any distance to any person in the world.

Other Facts & Myths

I want to be clear about some more things.

I have read that people learn reiki, or develop it.

You do not learn or develop reiki. It is a mystical and powerful energy that exists independently of any person. You are only attuned to channel that cosmic energy.

I have seen articles online trying to discredit reiki because it would be
impossible to learn how to heal someone in one or two classes. Of course that is true. But you are not learning how to heal.

You are only becoming a conduit, a vessel through which the energy flows. The energy will do what it can to help, heal, and even comfort the receiver.

It’s important to remember, however, that this healing energy will only go where it is welcome.

So, you cannot force reiki on anyone. If you try to send it to an unreceptive person, it will go somewhere else it is needed and welcome.

Now for the topic of what reiki can do and what it cannot do.

I’m sure there are many undiscovered and subtle benefits. It would be impossible for me to state here everything it can and cannot do. I am only going to share my personal experience.

As for the wild claims that it can cure cancer, and many other physical,
emotional, and mental diseases, please do not substitute it for proper medical care. While it may supplement standard medical care, it should never be assumed that it will replace it.

A disease may be a natural learning experience for us or even the natural way we transition from this life to the afterlife. Reiki may give us more insight and understanding into this, rather than cure a disease or illness.

It should not be assumed that it will change the course of a natural part of our life.

Benefits Of Reiki Healing

And in my experience, the most practical applications of reiki are for burns and stress.

Reiki For Burns

You can’t use reiki to walk through a burning house without getting harmed. But sometimes we burn ourselves on a hot stove or take a sip of tea or coffee that is too hot. As soon as it happens, if you immediately use this healing energy, I often notice the burn will not be as bad as it otherwise would have
been.

I will usually use cold water and reiki immediately. But again, if you seriously burn yourself with a second or third degree burn, seek proper medical attention immediately. I’m talking about minor first degree burns.

Reiki For Stress

I think the best practical use for reiki is for stress. This is the kind of stress you get from a bad day at work, peer pressure at school, or angry people in traffic.

There are many kinds of energy that claim to deflect negative energy and stress. Many of them work very well, but it works far better than anything else I have tried.

It is an intelligent energy, but you need to ask it for what you would like it to do.

If I know I’m going to be stuck in traffic, or have a difficult phone call at work, I will ask reiki to repel negative energy from the people and situation, and to send that energy to a higher dimension and let it dissolve into light.

I notice this especially helps to stay calm in bad traffic. Again, this has its limitations.

So, if you have a job where you are constantly under severe stress and are stuck in traffic jams for hours every day, I would suggest trying to make some big changes in your life.

Reiki can help to improve a bad situation, but it cannot make you completely immune to stress.

Stress, like many other things in life, is healthy in the right amounts at the right time. Like stressing our muscles in the gym, emotional and mental stress can help us to learn, grow, and mature.

If you tried to lift heavy weights all day for many days in a row, you would collapse from exhaustion. Think of reiki like an energy drink or a protein shake to help you with your workout.

It can help with normal amounts of stress, but cannot completely shield us from chronic, severe stress.

If reiki shielded us from all the stress of life, we would miss out on those opportunities to learn, grow, and mature!

Does Reiki Really Work?

Yes, I have some crazy stories. One time I was driving a truck for work and I made the mistake of letting the truck run too low on gas before I pulled into a station to fill up.

I did not know that if a truck like that runs out of gas, you need a special mechanic to come out to the truck and prime the fuel pump.

Facing a long wait and an expensive bill, I remembered reading a story where a woman claimed that reiki made her washing machine suddenly start working again. I was skeptical but desperate.

I had tried to start the engine many times without success. Then I mentally intended to send healing energy to the truck to help it start again. And when I turned the key – it started immediately!

I was surprised and have no explanation of how the truck started. Having said that, I do not walk around every day asking reiki to fix my car, reveal tomorrow’s winning lottery numbers, and fix every ache and pain I have.

It won’t work. This intelligent energy assumes that I know what is best for my life path.

Concluding Thoughts

Life’s joys and challenges all help us grow if we face them with the intention to learn and grow from all of it. This has been my experience with reiki. I hope it helps you to know what you might expect, if you feel drawn to it.

*-*-*-*

Add some Love & Light to your inbox. Come join the monthly newsletter for self-healing tools, insights, and exclusive spiritual highlights.