What is Reiki?

Developed in Japan in 1921 by Mikao Usui and brought to the United States in 1938, Reiki is a light touch healing technique that gently facilitates each person's own ability to find and maintain balance in body, mind and spirit. Often known as a spiritual healing practice, Reiki helps each person to discover meaning and purpose in life, often serving as a bridge to a better connection with yourself and others.

Every aspect of your life may be enhanced, whether you want to maintain a healthy state of wellness or you are facing the physical and emotional challenges of a life-altering disease. The technique is based on the belief that there is an energetic flow in and through all living things. When this energy is low or blocked, we are more likely to get sick and feel stressed. The Chinese intention of “moving chi" to bring harmony into the body is also the foundation for the proven modalities of acupuncture, acupressure, tai chi, and qi gong. A Reiki session restores this flow of energy, naturally helping the body's own innate ability to rediscover wellness.

Imagine what it would feel like to...

Be more relaxed
Be without migraines, back pain or other discomfort
Have an increased sense of well-being and self-awareness
Sleep better
Have better digestion
Have more energy
Have decreased (or complete elimination of) symptoms of sadness and anxiety
Experience heightened intuition and spiritual awareness
Strengthen your immune system
Feel like you have more control over your own health care

Reiki (pronounced ray-key) can do all of the above commonly reported benefits – and more!

Reiki therapy is safe and non-invasive. It is proving useful in hospices, nursing homes, emergency rooms, operating rooms, organ transplantation care units, pediatric, neonatal and OB/GYN units; facilitating relaxation and recovery and decreasing anxiety and pain; it can be a helpful addition to conventional therapy for HIV/AIDS and cancer patients.

Reiki in Modern Medicine

Sensitive instruments have been developed that can detect the minute energy fields around the human body. Of particular importance is the SQUID magnetometer which is capable of detecting tiny bio-magnetic fields associated with physiological activities in the body. This is the same field that sensitive individuals have been describing for thousands of years, but that scientists have ignored because there was no objective way to measure it. [http://www.reiki.org/reikinews/ScienceMeasures.htm]

The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) at the National Institutes of Health notes that Reiki belongs to "Biofield Medicine, which involves systems that use subtle energy fields in and around the body for medical purposes". Refer to https://www.nccih.nih.gov/health/reiki. Some recent NCCAM-supported studies have been investigating:

How Reiki might work
Whether Reiki is effective and safe for treating the symptoms of fibromyalgia.
Reiki's possible impact on the well-being and quality of life in people with advanced AIDS.
The effects of Reiki on disease progression and/or anxiety in people with prostate cancer.
Whether Reiki can help control blood sugar levels or improve heart function in people who have nerve pain from diabetes.

Autonomic Nervous-System-Changes During Reiki Treatment: A Preliminary Study. The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine Volume 10, Number 6. This study revealed a significant reduction in diastolic blood pressure and heart rate in the Reiki group that didn’t appear in the placebo group or the control group, thus tending to indicate that Reiki created an important effect that was not caused by suggestion.

The Clinical Center (Bethesda, Maryland) is a unique medical institution totally funded by Congress. As a research hospital affiliated with The National Institutes of Health, the Center has successfully demonstrated Reiki’s ability to integrate into even the most demanding medical settings. Diana Linnekin, Ph.D., a researcher at the National Cancer Institute, reports that “she was especially impressed with Reiki’s ability to fill the gap when medical interventions for pain had been exhausted.” Miles, P. “Reiki at the NIH’s Clinical Center.” This article is available at www.ReikiInMedicine.org

NIH-supported clinical trials, which are currently recruiting patients, will test the efficacy of Reiki (including distant Reiki) in the treatment of Fibromyalgia at the University of WA - CFS/FM Research Center, Seattle, Washington, and Reiki in the treatment of patients with advanced AIDS will be performed at Temple University and Albert Einstein Medical Center, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Planned study, which will be performed by Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Cleveland, Ohio will test Reiki for prostate cancer. (www.clinicaltrials.gov/ct/search?term=Reiki&submit=Search)

The Cleveland Clinic announced receipt of a $250,000 study to examine the effects of Reiki on men with prostate cancer. The hospital currently incorporates Reiki into their treatments on a number of illnesses, ranging from depression to cancer (August 2021). https://my.clevelandclinic.org/departments/wellness/integrative/treatments-services/reiki

The website Reiki in Hospitals (www.centerforreikiresearch.org) “promotes the availability of Reiki in medical settings by providing a list of hospitals, medical clinics, and hospice programs where Reiki sessions are offered.”

Reiki is already used in several hospitals for cancer patients: Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center (Lebanon, NH), Integrative Medicine Outpatient Center at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (New York, NY), Integrative Therapies Program for Children with Cancer at New York Presbyterian Medical Hospital (New York, NY), Metropolitan South Health Center (“ Direccion de Servicios Metropolitano Sur”, Santiago, Chile) Miles, P. True, G. “Reiki: A Biofield Therapy—Theory, History, Practice and Research.” Alternate Therapy Health Medicine, March/April 2003 9(2) 62-72. This is also available on Pamela Miles' website at www.ReikiInMedicine.org
[Miles: www.alternativetherapies.com/at/pdfarticles/0103reiki.pdf]

Used in conjunction with conventional cancer treatments, Reiki is reported to ease the side effects of chemotherapy and radiation, improve immune function, ease anxiety and enhance positive emotional attitude, decrease pain and promote relaxation.

Both hands-on and distant Reiki treatments resulted in statistically significant decrease in the symptoms of psychological depression and self-perceived stress, and the treatments had the long-term effect [Shore]. The nature of psychological effects arising during a Reiki session was studied, and anxiety was shown to reduce after treatments [Engebretson, Wardell]. Certain physiological changes were associated with receiving Reiki treatments, including decrease in systolic blood pressure, increase in salivary IgA levels and decrease in salivary cortisol after treatments, increase in skin temperature and decrease in electromyographic activity during treatments [Wardell].

Shore, A.G., "Long-term effects of energetic healing on symptoms of psychological depression and self-perceived stress", Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine, 10(3): 42-48 (2004)
Wardell, D.W., Engebretson, J., "Biological correlates of Reiki touch healing", J. Advanced Nursing, 33(4): 439- 445 (2001)
Engebretson, J., Wardell, D.W., "Experience of a Reiki session", Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine, 8(2): 48-53 (2002)

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