Reiki and Spiritual Healing
To the casual onlooker, Reiki healing would appear to be much the same
as Spiritual Healing, where energy is channelled from a higher source,
through your hands, into the recipient. But there are some major differences,
and that is what I want to describe here. Spiritual Healing and Reiki
are not the same. In the end I see all forms of energy healing as working
with the same sort of stuff, so the differences are in how you connect
to the energy and what you do with it when you're connected. I am in
no way an expert on spiritual healing in all its forms, but from my
point of view the differences between spiritual healing and Reiki are
as follows:
Origins
Ways of connecting to the energy
Beliefs
Ways of treating
Self-treatments
The use of Symbols
Origins
Spiritual healing grew up through Victorian Spiritualist Churches, with
their table-thumping séances, and has thus had a sort of Christian
origin which has continued to a greater or a lesser degree. Reiki is
Japanese and has more in common with Tai Chi, QiGong, Shiatsu and Acupuncture,
Mystical Buddhism, Shintoism etc. Having said that, the NFSH (National
Federation of Spiritual Healers) in the UK is non-denominational, but
I see the *origins* of spiritual healing as being connected to Christianity,
and spiritual healing is offered at some churches.
Ways of connecting to the energy
Spiritual healers learn through practice to connect to and draw down
the energy. Reiki practitioners go through a 'connection ritual' that
gives them a strong and consistent connection to the source right from
day one, which I imagine seems to be a nonsense for spiritual healers,
who have to work hard and long to do this.
Though some spiritual healers would see themselves as ‘attuning’ to the energy just before they treat someone, the word 'attunement' has a special meaning within Reiki, and does not refer to an individual's 'preparation to give a treatment'. 'Attunement' within Reiki is a special connection ritual that is carried out on a Reiki student when they attend a Reiki course. The attunements have their origins in mystical Buddhism.
Once 'attuned' on a Reiki course, the Reiki student is able to channel chi strongly from day 1. It seems to give a strong consistent connection to the source, according to spiritual healers to whom I have taught Reiki. Students can then carry out daily energy exercises (similar to QiGong exercises) to help make them a stronger channel for the energy.
Beliefs
Spiritual healers believe that they can be vulnerable to astral plane
entities when they open themselves to the energy, so they take steps
to protect themselves by visualising bubbles of light around them, and
close themselves down – closing down their chakras - at the end
of a treatment session. I have heard of some spiritual healers having
someone on hand ‘to stand guard’ as they treat. Reiki people
do not have such beliefs, they do not generally take those steps, and
the energy seems to be inherently protective.
If you believe that you need to protect yourself then your underlying belief is that you are vulnerable, and that becomes your reality. It you believe that you are safe then you are too!
Protection is also seen as needed to prevent a practitioner from ‘picking up’ problems from the person they are working on. I have met people - particularly hands-on therapists (reflexology, aromatherapy etc.) - who have experienced this problem. Reiki however seems to prevent this from happening. I have taught many therapists who found that attunement to Reiki both prevented them from 'picking up things' from their clients, but also stopped them from feeling 'drained' at the end of a session. Reiki seems to have the 'protection' built in, without having to do anything to achieve this.
That’s not to say that some Reiki people aren’t taught to protect themselves, and visualise protective bubbles etc., but this is usually something that is passed on by Reiki teachers who started out in spiritual healing. They have brought their ‘spiritual healing’ beliefs with them, and applied those rules to the practice of Reiki.
Ways of treating
Spiritual healers tend to treat people seated in a chair, and work in
the aura. Reiki people tend to treat people who are lying down on a
treatment couch and tend to use a hands-on rather than a hands-off approach.
Self-treatments
There seems to be more of an emphasis on self-treating within Reiki,
an essential part of the system. I don't get the impression that this
is the same with all spiritual healing.
The use of Symbols
In the way that Reiki is taught and practiced in the West, symbols are
an integral part of the system, used both in the connection rituals
(‘attunements’), and used when treating others. The symbols
give the Reiki practitioner more conscious control of the energy they
are working with, though ideally the symbols should be used intuitively
rather than being imposed in a calculated academic fashion. Spiritual
healing does not use symbols.
Now the above are generalisations, and I am sure that there are many,
many spiritual healers out there who will disagree with what I have
just said, but as I understand it, those are the main differences between
spiritual healing and Reiki.
Teachings
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