Energy Healing and Why This Book?

Good question. There are a few reasons why, amongst all the New Age energy healing practices, Reiki has the distinction of having a very unique and fascinating history, and has been beset with controversies on various issues the like of which is not to be seen elsewhere.

When Mrs. Hawayo Takata began teaching Reiki from her clinic in Hawaii about three decades ago, what attracted people to her system of healing was the novelty in her teaching. But more than that, it was the exorbitant fees of US $ 10,000 – a princely sum in those days (well, it is a princely sum even now!) – that she charged to bring Reiki learners to the third degree (Master) level, that made big news.

The circle of Reiki practitioners was a closed circle then, with the symbols that Mrs. Takata taught her disciples being a guarded secret. Then along came Diane Stein with her book “Essential Reiki” that spilled the beans, and soon, Reiki’s once closely guarded symbols were to be seen on every nook and corner of New Age Street.

Another interesting phenomena that has taken place in Reiki World has been that, due to there being no single standards organization that controls and monitors the way Reiki is taught and practiced all over the world, scores of variants (mutations, actually) of the original Reiki have sprung up.

While traditionalists decry this “dilution of purity”, as they so eloquently put it, I, for one, welcome this development; for the simple reason that any movement has to transform itself and keep growing, if it has to remain vibrant and relevant.

I can go on. But its enchanting history is not the point here. The main point is the sheer beauty of Reiki as a simple healing technique that is based on very simple doctrines, or tenets, as I call them.

Which brings me to the original question: Why am I writing this book? What do I have to offer you?

As a dedicated Reiki practitioner in love with the subject, I too paid a hefty amount to become a Level III Reiki Master (RM). That was about fifteen years ago. Since then, I have been in the thick of things, and was fortunate enough to witness the explosion taking place in the Reiki World in the ensuing years.

Especially interesting are the advent of the various mutations of Reiki, energy healing; and the initial accusation of the scientific establishment of Reiki being nothing more than superstitious mumbo-jumbo.

That this contempt has now given way to a whole-hearted acceptance of Reiki as an effective complementary and alternative medicine (CAM); is a different issue altogether. The acceptance has firmed to the extent that quite a few hospitals across the United States, Europe and many other countries around the world, now offer Reiki as part of their services to patients.

While browsing through the available literature – yes, all the manuals and books that fill up the book shelves and the internet E-book shops – I realized that writers have more-or-less tended to focus more on the nuts and bolts of the technique and underplayed the fine points that make up the beauty of Reiki.

The solemn and somber manuals and books are sometimes too bogged down in detail on the ‘how-to’, with personal experiences of a practicing Reiki channel somehow missing in them. Even the history of Reiki that most of these books, if you will pardon the expression, trot out, is bland and mundane; and don’t really capture the despair and ecstasy of the heroes and heroines who were involved in those days
when Reiki as a structured discipline was being founded and formulated.

With this book, I intend to fill these gaps. I have written this book from the perspective of a practicing Reiki Master, and my insights, experiences and ground level facts that have been culled over all these years are weaved throughout its content.

There is another, more important reason why I have chosen to write this book. And that is the topic of self-attunement.

The world of Reiki is today sharply polarized between two sets of practitioners. On one side of the pole are traditionalists who insist that people who wish to learn Reiki must mandatory be “attuned” into, or initiated into, Reikidom by a human mediator.

This human mediator may be any Reiki Master who has already attained level III of Reiki.

The other side of the pole comprises modernists; these are practitioners who have some other New Age practice in their background and view energy as Universal Life Experience (U.L.E.).

When they come to Reiki, they find the precondition of a mediator having to attune them to Reiki strange. For these modernists, Reiki energy is a subset of U.L.E., which they have already been experiencing without the need for any mediator.

Why then, they ask, is there any need for a human mediator to initiate them, when it comes to Reiki?
I have been fortunate in getting some grounding in other New Age movements such as reflexology, Akashic Records, yoga and Kundalini Energy, and this exposure and experience has helped me in experimenting with different variations of Reiki where I can improve my practice as a Reiki Master and heal my clients better and faster.

One of the outcomes of this experimentation has been a self-attunement method that initiates the Reiki learner into the technique. Comparison of the success rate in healing clients by Reiki Masters who have self-attuned, as against that by Reiki Masters who went through the traditional attunement method; show nearly identical outcomes. Both are equally successful in healing.

So, after you attune yourself through the procedure that I have detailed in this method, I am sure that you will not feel the need for a human mediator.

Of course, Reiki is not a goalpost. It is an ongoing learning process, where there is no end to learning. Even Usui Sensei, the founder of Reiki, acknowledged that he has touched only the iceberg, and the main part is still out of his grasp.

Therefore, inputs from all and any persons who can elevate you to higher planes of conscious are more than welcome – including Masters who are already attuned to energy healing and Reiki traditionally, can deepen and enrich the channeling process.

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