Reiki: With Minds Wide Open

Author:

Sharon Fish Mooney

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Article ID:

JAR121

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Updated: 

Sep 7, 2022

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Published:

May 2, 2006

This article first appeared in the Christian Research Journal, volume 29, number 06 (2006). For further information or to subscribe to the Christian Research Journal please click here.

SYNOPSIS

Alternative health practices have grown in popularity to the point where major medical centers have departments of “integrative” or “complementary” medicine. The general public frequently asks the question, do these practices work? Researchers ask that question too, but they also want to know why. For Christians, there are more important questions to be asked, especially of practices that claim to be based on concepts of energy exchange. Do any of the rituals in an alternative practice involve areas that Scripture forbids Christians to explore? Can any practice rooted in a worldview that is antithetical to Christianity be divorced from that worldview and rendered acceptable for Christians?

Reiki, one of the most popular alternative interventions, is in particular need of such examination. The literature on Reiki encourages skeptics to keep an open mind and to judge Reiki by its effects. The Bible, however, encourages Christians to examine more than just the outward appearance of such theories; they are to judge them by their overall fruit, which includes not only their possible dangerous side effects, but more importantly, how their message compares with Scripture’s message about God and the world. Reiki and its various contemporary branches have their origins in the worldview of Buddhism, which is antithetical to the Christian worldview. Their initiation rituals often involve the channeling of spirit guides, a spiritually dangerous practice that Scripture forbids. These beliefs and practices should lead one to conclude that Reiki is a healing practice that is neither neutral nor Christian, but instead is rooted and grounded in an occult belief system that is incompatible with a biblical worldview.

Covenant Health Systems is a Catholic health care provider that offers elder‐care services throughout New England. According to its Web site, Covenant Health Systems is committed to providing its nursing home residents with “positive, life affirming care at the end of life which addresses the issues of pain, suffering and loss of control” by offering interventions that range from “high‐tech to high touch.”1 In addition to more traditional interventions such as patient‐controlled analgesic pumps, its offerings include alternative therapies such as massage, acupuncture, and Reiki.2

Ohio’s Cleveland Clinic, which ranked third on the list of the nation’s best hospitals in the 2006 U.S. News and World Report survey,3 has a center for integrative medicine. The clinic’s research has shown that practices such as guided imagery, massage, and Reiki can help patients reduce their anxiety before surgery, cope better with postoperative pain, and maximize their recovery. Current research at the clinic includes pilot studies that investigate the effects of Reiki in patients who suffer from prostate cancer and in patients who are undergoing in vitro fertilization.4

An article in the United Church News described healing services at Christ the Healer United Church of Christ in Beaverton, Oregon. The Reverend Gabrielle Fackre Chavez indicated that the Japanese healing art of Reiki fits well inside Christian ethics and understanding, saying that it is “a form of praying with an open heart, opening your channel to God.”5 She also stated that people who received Reiki had “this incredible experience of being loved, of the burdens dropping off their shoulders….You can watch the face change from stress and wrinkles and pain to what I call the Reiki Face: the face of an angel!” The article noted that Chavez urges keeping “an open mind to something that isn’t as foreign as one may think” since it relates back to the healing ministry of Christ.6

The Reiki for Christians Web site includes articles7 and testimonials from nuns, priests, and ministers who practice Reiki.8 One of the testimonies is by Scott Wyman, M.Div.,9 who does Integrated Reiki Therapy, or Psychotherapeutic Reiki, combining “Reiki healing techniques with the more traditional ‘talk’ psychotherapy.”10 On his Web site he describes classes in Reiki Jin Kei Do (which means “Reiki with Compassion and Wisdom”) that are designed to facilitate one’s spiritual path and relationship to the Divine. According to Wyman, Reiki Jin Kei Do “emphasizes the practice of Reiki, Reiki symbols, and meditation for the purpose of Quieting one’s mind, Opening one’s heart, Raising one’s vibration, and Expanding one’s consciousness (QORE), coming ultimately into complete attunement with the vibration of the Universe as the One and Only Being”11 (emphases in original).

OPEN MIND, OPEN DOORS

The International Center for Reiki Training provides continuing education programs that are approved by the American Holistic Nurses Association.12 The center was founded in 1988 as the Center for Spiritual Development and provided spiritual development classes on topics such as past‐life regression, although the focus today is exclusively on Reiki training.13 One technique taught at the center is a healing attunement, described as a process that “opens a spiritual door through which powerful, higher‐frequency Reiki energies are able to flow and through which the Reiki [spirit] guides can work more effectively.”14 Articles on the center’s Web site include such titles as “Reiki and Past Lives,” “Was Jesus a Reiki Master?” “Reiki and Shamanic Healing,” “Reiki as a Spiritual Path,” “Organizing a (Reiki) Healing Service in Your Church,” and “Knowing Your Reiki Guides.”15

Reiki is one of the most popular of the techniques and formalized alternative‐healing systems that are based on the concept of a universal energy. It also, like the practices of Therapeutic Touch and Healing Touch, is making significant in‐roads into health care facilities and places of worship.16

It may be difficult at first to understand why Christians might have reservations about Reiki, as it is frequently described as God’s gift to humanity. William Lee Rand, one of the more prolific Reiki authors and founder of the International Center for Reiki Training, speculates that Jesus might have traveled to the East sometime between the ages of 12 and 30 and been schooled in many of the mystical teachings and associated healing techniques of India, Tibet, and China. Rand also claims that early Christian healing was a function of Gnostic forms of Christianity, which were suppressed after the second century by an established “Official Christian Church” that strongly discouraged the practice of the laying on of hands by lay Christians.17

A Reiki intervention usually involves actual physical contact, unlike Therapeutic Touch and Healing Touch, in which the hands of a practitioner hover over the body of a recipient. A Reiki practitioner places hands in different positions on various parts of a recipient’s body and then supposedly acts as a channel of universal life energy into the human energy field. According to Libby Barnett, a medical social worker, and Maggie Chambers, a Reiki master and artist, who conduct classes in Reiki, the vital energy is “transmuted into a form that is usable at the cellular level.”18 They claim that this energy “recharges, realigns, and rebalances the subtle bodies, bringing harmony and wholeness to all the recipient’s systems.”19 Subtle bodies20 are believed to extend beyond one’s physical body and are said to be perceptible by physical and noncontact forms of touch for anyone trained in how to assess them in virtually all forms of healing based on the theory of energy exchange.

From the standpoint of efficacy, Reiki does appear to be a useful technique. Nervous patients obviously can benefit from drug‐free, stress‐reducing interventions that may lower preoperative blood pressure. What Christian congregants would not appreciate a health care modality that offers them not only physical but emotional and even spiritual healing and a greater sense of God at work in their lives? Reiki claims to offer all of this in abundance, and stories of healings abound in relation to people, pets, plants, and the planet as a whole. In a Christ the Healer United Church of Christ article, Chavez noted that there are many Christians who recognize the “Trinitarian essence of Reiki,” which apparently manifests itself in part as “the Holy Spirit or power of God moving through us as vessels.”21

Is Reiki, as Chavez and others claim, a gift from God and the type of healing Jesus performed, or is it, as still others have claimed (particularly when promoted in health care settings), a religiously neutral technique that anyone can practice or benefit from, whatever that person’s belief system happens to be? The literature on Reiki encourages skeptics to keep an open mind and to judge Reiki by its end results.

The Bible also encourages us to judge both people and their practices by their fruit (e.g., Matt. 7:15–20). In evaluating fruit, however, one must consider the nature of the tree, and the origins of Reiki and its various contemporary branches should lead one to conclude that Reiki is neither a Christian healing practice nor a neutral one, but instead fits the definition of an occult practice, rooted and grounded in a belief system incompatible with the Bible.

John Warwick Montgomery identified three basic elements of most phenomena that are regarded as occult: (1) the paranormal, (2) the supernatural, and (3) things that are secret or hidden.22 Reiki is associated specifically with rituals that involve opening one’s mind to the realm of the paranormal and supernatural in ways that are forbidden either explicitly or implicitly in both the Old and New Testaments (e.g., Deut. 18:9–14; Acts 16:16–18).

People who seek to become Reiki practitioners must be initiated into the practice by a Reiki master, who is said to be able to activate energy, to empower the trainee, and to raise the trainee’s energy level to higher vibratory levels in a special secret ceremony through attunement. Attunement energies, channeled into the student through the master teacher, are believed to increase psychic sensitivity. During or following an attunement session, it is not unusual for students to have experiences in which they claim to encounter angels or spirit guides. Much of the teaching on Reiki today includes information and experiential instruction on how to make contact with the spirit world and its inhabitants.23

EASTERN ORIGINS

The origins of Reiki can be traced to nineteenth‐century Japan and Mikao Usui (1865–1926), whose family belonged to the Tendai school of Buddhism, founded by Saichô (AKA Dengyo Daishi, AD 767–822). For his part, Saichô drew his teachings from the Tiantai school of Buddhism in China.24 The Tendai Buddhist Institute notes that central to Tendai thought “is the concept of Original Enlightenment (Hongaku shiso)—the idea that all beings are originally or inherently enlightened, and that liberation is immediately at hand if we can only awaken and cut through the delusions that keep us from seeing our true nature.”25

Usui, at age four, was sent to a Tendai monastery, where he received his early education that included training in the martial arts. Later in life, Usui studied and adopted practices from the Shingon school of Vajrayana Buddhism (one of the three major schools of Buddhism26).

The Shingon school was founded in Japan in AD 804 by a Buddhist monk named Kukai (AKA Kobo Daishi, AD 774–835). Kukai had studied Vajrayana or Esoteric Buddhism in China and developed Shingon as his own synthesis of esoteric doctrinal beliefs and practices for Japan.27 The Shingon school of Buddhism teaches that everything in the world, including persons, animals, and inanimate objects, are the body of the Buddha Mahavairocana, considered to be the chief deity. The ultimate goal of this school of thought is a state of awakening or a realization of one’s essential Buddhahood, a state of at‐one‐ness with the universal Buddha that can be realized within one’s present lifetime. The Shingon school placed less emphasis on doctrine than on various esoteric ritual practices. Rituals and practices that involve the mind, body, and speech are the primary means proposed to attain this enlightenment. This includes various forms of meditation, visualization of mandalas, initiatory rites, and the reciting of formulas or mantras.28

An overview of Reiki in the literature today indicates a wide variety of techniques with the focus on hands‐on healing for anyone who desires training. The original Reiki teachings as taught by Usui, however, were broken into three major divisions for (1) experienced practitioners and advanced meditators, (2) experienced practitioners who were also martial arts practitioners or adherents of the traditional Japanese religion Shinto, and (3) lay people, according to Bronwen and Frans Stiene, coauthors of The Reiki Sourcebook and founders of the International House of Reiki.29 Achievement of spiritual growth and enlightenment was the primary focus of Usui’s original teachings, with hands‐on healing believed to be an added benefit. Mantras, used to invoke vibrations, were given to students in order to access energy. By 1922, when teachings became formalized into a system known as Usui Reiki Ryôhô Gakkai, symbols were added to the mantra recitations to increase the Reiki power, and various hand positions were taught for the purpose of balancing energy, primarily around the head. Current practice includes hands placed on or hovering over many areas of the body.

The Stienes also note that the teaching of traditional Japanese Reiki connects both mantras and symbols to Japanese deities; this was true of Usui Reiki Ryôhô Gakkai.30 The actual word Reiki means spiritual energy (rei meaning spiritual or sacred and ki meaning energy) and may or may not have originated with Usui, whose teachings were originally called “Usui dô” or “the way of Usui” and his healings “Usui teate” or “Usui hands‐on healing.”31

MOVING WEST

There are two people who are associated with the early development of Reiki in the West. Chujiro Hayashi, a retired Japanese naval officer, received Reiki master initiation from Usui in 1925. He then opened a Reiki clinic in Tokyo and continued to develop Usui’s system of healing. One story says that Hawayo Takata, born to Japanese parents in Kauai, Hawaii, in 1900, traveled to Japan in the 1930s where she was hospitalized with the diagnosis of tumor, gallstones, and appendicitis. Takata claimed that while on the operating table awaiting surgery, she heard an incorporeal voice telling her that the operation was unnecessary. She eschewed the surgery, began treatments at Hayashi’s clinic, and within four months was completely healed, presumably through Reiki. She subsequently was trained in first and second degree Reiki by Hayashi and returned to Hawaii in 1937, followed by Hayashi and his daughter, who helped her establish Reiki in Hawaii and also initiated Takata as a Reiki master. Takata in turn initiated 22 other Reiki masters before she died in 1980, charging $10,000 for the initial attunement. 32 According to William Lee Rand there are more than 200,000 Reiki masters and as many as 2,000,000 Reiki practitioners throughout the world today, although, judging from the literature and Internet sources, these figures probably are underestimated.33

The Reiki Foundation acts as one primary repository of the dharma teachings of Shingon and Tendai. The term dharma refers to the teachings of the Buddha regarding the law or truth of life and the universe, with a focus on the means by which to attain enlightenment. The foundation indicates that many members, students, and affiliates “have come to the Dharma through the pathway of Reiki.”34 Dharma is considered to be the second truth or treasure of Buddhism, the first being the Buddha, and the third being sangha, or the community or assembly of beings aware of the harmony and interrelationship of all things. The term dharma also can refer to minute impulses of energy or elements of being.35

The Reiki Foundation’s curriculum is aimed at establishing trainees “in the active ‘practice’ of the Bodhisattva principles through the true understanding and use of Reiki, especially its placement within the Mandara/Mandala as an act of ultimate compassion.”36 A bodhisattva is a person who out of compassion postpones the ultimate state of Nirvana in order to serve others. Reiki is considered by its adherents to be a prime example of such compassionate service. Mandalas are ritual objects that take different forms, depending on the specific school of Buddhism with which they are associated. They contain depictions of Buddhas, bodhisattvas, and various doctrinal beliefs (e.g., compassion) and are used as an aid to meditation and in the ritual practices of Reiki. In general they are viewed as the embodiment of enlightenment or truth.37 “The essence or purpose of the Mandala is concerned with the process of invocation, the calling in and realization of the spiritual force within the contemplator himself.”38 Reiki Foundation students are trained in the basic healing practice, but also are “guided upon the path of Buddhist teachings as they apply to the nature of spiritual life and practice.”39 This includes a variety of beliefs such as the study of karma (i.e., inner potentials that are affected by outward actions) and rebirth.

CONTEMPORARY BRANCHES

The late‐twentieth‐century interest in anything alternative, whether related to physical health or spirituality, has created a veritable hotbed for the proliferation of Reiki branches ranging from Ascension Reiki, supposedly channeled from the ascended masters, to Angelic RayKee, purportedly based on channeled teachings from Michael the archangel, to Reiki Plus and Wei Chi Tibetan Reiki. David Jarrell (1946–2002), founder of Reiki Plus, claimed that he received his spiritual initiation into the “mystical energy of Reiki” through a Tibetan master in 1981.40 He also claimed to be the 24th Reiki master in the lineage of Hawaya Takata and to have received a second initiation by Takata’s granddaughter. Students who complete the first and second degrees of Reiki Plus can apply for ordination as ministers in the Pyramids of Light Church.41 Second‐level students learn the more mystical aspects of Reiki and study distant healing techniques and Esoteric Anatomy and Physiology. The Pyramids of Light Church is based on the principle of a “Universal Living God, from which all creation is an equal part and to which judgmental differences shall not be appropriate” as well as “the principles of spiritual Christianity taught by Jesus, the Christ and Master Healer.”42

Wei Chi Tibetan Reiki is allegedly based on the teachings of Wei Chi, a 5,000‐year‐old Tibetan monk, trance channeled by Kevin Ross Emery in his bathtub one night in 1995 in the presence of his partner, Tommy Hensel. Both men use the designations Reverend and Doctor and claim to be ministers in the Universal Brotherhood Movement. Emery received his doctorate in divinity from Universal Brotherhood University and also promotes himself as a Full Body Trance Channeler of “discarnate entities” that include Simon Peter and Judas Iscariot.43 Emery and Hensel coproduced an audio tape titled The Channeled Teachings of Simon Peter and coauthored a book titled The Lost Steps of Reiki: The Channeled Teachings of Wei Chi.44

Lightarian Reiki is another branch of the technique, created in 1997 by Reiki and Karuna master Jeanine Marie Jelm, who claims to have channeled information from ascended master Buddha.45 The Lightarian Institute for Global Human Transformation in Sedona, Arizona, provides “celestially‐inspired” channeled attunements from the angelic realms and the ascended masters that are “designed to support the spiritual transformation that is taking place on Earth.”46 Energetic attunements, in the form of so‐called Lightarian Buddhic Boosts, are thought to provide people with acceleration of their personal healing and spiritual development.47

Helen Belôt founded a Reiki‐related branch called Sekhem, which she describes as an ancient Egyptian energy system. Belôt insisted that Sekhem was the original hands‐on healing system—something she would know, since she also claimed that she was a high priest in Egyptian temples for a number of lifetimes and was reincarnated to give Sekhem to the world.48 The name Sekhem comes from the Egyptian lion‐headed goddess Sekhmet (i.e., “she who is powerful”). In Egyptian mythology Sekhmet seems mainly associated with war and retribution. It is said that she used arrows of fire to pierce her enemies (who included almost everyone), such that the inscription on one of her statues reads ”Mistress of Dread.”49 Her “power to destroy things utterly” was, to her credit, invoked against “the invisible ‘demons’ of plague and disease,” though she also was known as the ”Lady of Pestilence” for having caused them in the first place.50

OPENING A CHANNEL

One of the most problematic aspects of Reiki for people who do not wish to become involved with the occult involves the initiation rites for practice. According to William Lee Rand, the process of Reiki is “guided by the Rei or God‐consciousness” and the attunement of the student is “attended by Reiki guides and other spiritual beings who help implement the process.”51 Rand notes that many practitioners also report having had “mystical experiences involving personal messages, healings, visions, and past‐life experiences” during these attunements.52

According to Bronwen and Frans Stiene, the concept of Reiki guides is an addition to Usui’s original teaching.53 Students who study with the Australian‐based International House learn Usui Reiki Royôhô, which, with a focus on developing personal spirituality, is more consistent with Japanese meditation techniques. The Stienes54 cite Rand and Diane Stein55 as Western popularizers of the concept of guides, but even a cursory review of books, articles, and Reiki Web sites indicates a virtual mainstreaming of the concept of guides in Reiki teaching and training today. Steve Murray, who promotes himself as a Usui Reiki master, Tibetan Karuna Reiki master, and an Essene healer, devotes a chapter in his book, Reiki: The Ultimate Guide, to explaining how to contact spirits and departed loved ones with Reiki, and he offers a step‐by‐step video program on the same subject. “Reiki,” Murray notes, “will enable the contact to manifest faster and clearer” and also will “make you more open and receptive to contact from the other side.”56

Murray’s teaching includes a prayer/meditation for clearing and opening up one’s “spiritual portal” to “only allow spirits for [one’s] highest good to come forth.”57 He suggests that in a prayer for making a spiritual connection, a person should request to be guided and protected during the spiritual contact and to have contact only with spirits he or she seeks for information and guidance.58 This suggests that there may be malevolent spirits lurking about who may give information and guidance that is not in one’s best interest, though that is the extent of Murray’s warning on the subject.

QUESTIONING THE PHILOSOPHY OF OPENNESS

The International Center for Reiki Training (India) has a number of points in philosophy to which many of the Reiki branches also adhere.59 Christians might readily agree with a few of these principles; for example, having honesty and clarity in one’s thinking and respecting the right of others to form their own values and beliefs. The following four principles, however, should be problematic for Christians: “trusting completely in the Higher Power regardless of the name one chooses to call it”; “basing the value of a theory or technique on the verifiable results it helps one achieve”; “placing greater value on learning from experience and inner guidance than on the teachings of an authority”; and making “the complete expression of Love…the highest goal.”60

The Higher Power in whom Christians believe has a name and He has made it quite clear that he does not receive or tolerate the worship of a Higher Power by any other name (Exod. 20:1–6) . The New Testament reminds us that if we are trusting in any other so‐called higher power, we really are trusting in Satan, who is the ruler of a whole host of spiritual forces (fallen angels) that work to keep the world under his deluding influence (see, e.g., Eph. 6:11–12; 1 Cor. 10:19–20; 1 John 5:19). In the Old Testament, false prophets apparently were successful at performing signs and wonders (which arguably could have included healing signs and wonders), but they also urged God’s people to go after and serve other gods (Deut. 13:1–4). God’s instructions were clear: His people were to put the false prophets to death, thus purging the evil from Israel’s midst (Deut. 13:5–11).

A theory or practice should be judged not only on results but also on the veracity of the claims on which it rests. To base the truthfulness of a theory or value of a technique solely on the verifiable results it might help one achieve, such as relaxation or pain relief, is not consistent with a biblical worldview; it is not even consistent with sound medicine. A practice may achieve results, but one must examine its effect on the whole person, not just on the presenting problem. The rash of recent lawsuits against drug companies is one reminder that any alternative healing practice, like any drug, can have dangerous and even fatal side effects that can cancel out any of its claims to efficacy. From a biblical standpoint, those side effects can be spiritual as well as physical.

The focus in the practice of alternative therapies such as Reiki is experiential in nature. Reiki literature abounds with advice that encourages trainees to follow their hearts and to be guided by their intuition so that the only valid authority is their inner authority and the only true guide is subjective and self-validating. For the Christian, however, all experience must be subject to the higher authority of the Scriptures (see, e.g., Isa. 8:20)

The complete expression of love appears, on the surface, to be a worthy ultimate goal for practitioners of Reiki. The question must be raised, however, whether there can be love at any level that is not based on truth. Jesus told the Jews who believed in Him, “If you continue in my word…you will know the truth and the truth will make you free” (John 8:31 NASB). The road to freedom is not through rituals that require one to acknowledge and seek out angels or discarnate spirits of the dead for guidance (again see Isa. 8:20); that leads to bondage, rather, and is the very antithesis of love. True love reveals the truth, not possible deception, to the one who is loved.

“Some minds remain open long enough for the truth not only to enter but to pass on through by way of a ready exit without pausing anywhere along the route,” wrote Sister Elizabeth Kenny, a nurse who developed a method for treating polio using hot, moist applications followed by exercise to move and stretch joints.61 She may have been talking about the physicians of her day, since at that time her unorthodox treatment was quite controversial. Her method eventually gained acceptance, however, and paved the way for the development of the practice of physical therapy, not just because it worked, but because it was based on truth, that is, on sound principles of anatomy and physiology.

The Word of God provides the Christian with a true explanation of the world we inhabit and gives us sound principles that define the boundaries of our exploration of it. Reiki is an alternative theory that is not based on the biblical understanding of the world and its practices are well outside the biblical boundaries of exploration.

 Sharon Fish Mooney, R.N., Ph.D. (University of Rochester, NY), teaches nursing research online for Regis University in Denver, Colorado and Indiana Wesleyan University in Marion, Indiana. She lectures on Christian and alternative healing and worldview issues.

NOTES

  1. Covenant Health Systems, “What Makes Catholic Not‐for‐Profit Nursing Homes Unique?” Consumers: Catholic Health Care, Covenant Health Systems, http://www.covenanths.org/nonprofit.asp.
  2. Ibid.
  3. S. News and World Report, “Honor Roll,” Best Hospitals 2006, U.S. News and World Report Best Health, http://www.usnews.com/usnews/health/best‐hospitals/honorroll.htm.
  4. The Cleveland Clinic, “Research Into Integrative Medicine,” Cleveland Clinic, http://cms.clevelandclinic.org/body.cfm?id=495.
  5. Gabrielle Fackre Chavez, quoted in Carol L. Pavlik, ed., “Spiritual Nurturing Can Bring Healing of Mind, Body and Soul,” Across the UCC, United Church News (November 2001), United Church of Christ, http://www.ucc.org/ucnews/nov01/across.htm.
  6. Ibid.
  7. See http://www.christianreiki.org/info/Articles/ChristianReikiArticles.htm.
  8. See http://www.christianreiki.org/info/NunsPriestsMinisters/nunshome.htm.
  9. Scott Wyman, “Christian Minister Uses Reiki,” Nuns, Priests and Ministers Who Practice Reiki, Reiki for Christians, http://www.christianreiki.org/info/NunsPriestsMinisters/ ChrisitanMinister.htm.
  10. Scott Wyman, “Individual Work,” The Center for Open‐Hearted Living, http:// web.mac.com/scottwyman/iWeb/Open‐Hearted%20Living/Individual%20Work.html. See also Scott Wyman, “Be a Follower of Love, and Forget All Distinction,” The Center for Open‐Hearted Living, http://web.mac.com/scottwyman/iWeb/Open‐Hearted% 20Living/Home.html.
  11. Scott Wyman, “Reiki Jin Kei Do, the Path of Compassion and Wisdom,” Reiki Jin Kei Do, Reiki Awakening, http://web.mac.com/scottwyman/iWeb/Reiki%20Awakening/ Reiki%20Jin%20Kei%20Do.html.
  12. The International Center for Reiki Training, “Continuing Education for Nurses,” Using Reiki for Healing, Reiki.org, http://www.reiki.org/healing/ceu.html.
  13. The International Center for Reiki Training, “About the International Center for Reiki Training,” About the ICRT, Reiki.org, http://www.reiki.org/AboutICRT/ AboutICRT.html.
  14. The International Center for Reiki Training, “Healing Attunement,” Healing Techniques Developed at The International Center for Reiki Training, Reiki.org, http://www.reiki.org/AboutICRT/HealingAttunement.html.
  15. See Reiki News Articles, Reiki Articles, Reiki.org, http://www.reiki.org/reikinews/ reikinews.html.
  16. Sharon Fish, “Therapeutic Touch: Healing Science or Psychic Midwife?” Christian Research Journal, 18, 1 (1995): 28‐38 (http://www.equip.org/free/DN105.pdf) and Sharon Fish Mooney, “Healing Touch: Trouble with Angels,” Christian Research Journal, 18, 2 (2005): 22‐31 (http://www.equip.org/free/JAH026.pdf).
  17. William Lee Rand, “Similarities between the Healing of Jesus and Reiki,” Reiki News Articles, Reiki.org, http://www.reiki.org/reikinews/reikin16.html.
  18. Libby Barnett and Maggie Chambers with Susan Davidson, Reiki Energy Medicine (Rochester, VT: Healing Arts Press, 1996), 22.
  19. Ibid.
  20. Subtle bodies are thought to be interrelated layers or vehicles of consciousness in the human energy field; each body has its own characteristics and is capable of manifesting illness or disease and also of being healed through energy manipulation. They are written about in both Eastern and Western esoteric literature and may be called by different names.
  21. Gabrielle Chavez, “Reiki for Christians: What Is Reiki?” Christ the Healer United Church of Christ, Christ the Healer Gathering, http://www.cthgathering.org/news/pivot/ entry.php?id=14.
  22. John Warwick Montgomery, Principalities and Powers: A New Look at the World of the Occult, rev. ed. (Minneapolis: Dimension Books, 1975), 11.
  23. On Reiki initiation and attunement, see, e.g., Steve Murray, Reiki: The Ultimate Guide (Las Vegas: Body and Mind Productions, 2003), 253‐71, and William Lee Rand, “Developing Your Reiki Practice,” Develop Your Own Reiki Practice, Reiki.org, http://www.reiki.org/ ReikiPractice/PracticeHomepage.html.
  24. Bronwen Stiene and Frans Stiene, The Reiki Sourcebook (New York: O Books, 2003).
  25. Tendai‐shu New York Betsuin, “A Short History of Tendai Buddhism,” Tendai Buddhist Institute, http://www.tendai.org/i_tendai_buddhism/history.html.
  26. Vajrayana is also known as Esoteric or Tantric Buddhism. It is represented both by Tibetan and Shingon Buddhism. Vajrayana is itself an offshoot of the second major school of Buddhism, Mahayana. Chinese Tiantai Buddhism is a form of Mahayana Buddhism that emphasizes the Buddhist scriptures, The Lotus Sutras. As Chinese Tiantai was transformed into Japanese Tendai by Saichô and his successors, new elements were added, including the esoteric practices of Shingon; thus Usui had already been exposed to elements of Shingon through his training in Tendai, prior to his direct study of Shingon.
  27. Seicho Asahi, “Shingon Teaching,” Northern California Kayosan Temple, http://www.koyasan.org/nckoyasan/introduction.html.
  28. “The Shingon School,” The Esoteric Buddhist Schools, Asunam—Reiki Master, http://www.asunam.com/buddhist_schools.htm.
  29. Stiene and Stiene, 189.
  30. Ibid., 89.
  31. Ibid., 3–6.
  32. William Lee Rand, Reiki: The Healing Touch, First and Second Degree Manual, rev. ed. (Southfield, MI: Vision Publications, 1995), 9.
  33. William Lee Rand, Reiki FAQ, What is the History of Reiki? http:/www.reiki.org.
  34. “The Reiki Foundation,” The Reiki Foundation™, Asunam—Reiki Master, http://www.asunam.com/reiki_foundation.htm.
  35. Rosemary Ellen Guiley, Harper’s Encyclopedia of Mystical and Paranormal Experience (New York: HarperSanFrancisco, 1991), 149; “The Reiki Foundation.”
  36. “The Reiki Foundation.”
  37. See, e.g., The Bodhisattva Reiki School of Healing Science, http:// http//www.bodhisattvasanctuary.com.
  38. Buddha Dharma Education Association, “Buddhist Art and Architecture: Symbolism of the Mandala,” http://www.buddhanet.net/mandalas.htm.
  39. “The Reiki Foundation.”
  40. Stiene and Stiene, 269‐70; Reiki Plus® Institute of Natural Healing, “David G. Jarrell,” Teaching Staff, The Reiki Plus Institute, http://www.reikiplus.com/staff.html.
  41. Ibid.
  42. Reiki Plus® Institute of Natural Healing, “A Church of Natural Healing,” Pyramids of Light, Inc., The Reiki Plus Institute, http://www.reikiplus.com/poli.html.
  43. “Channeling,” Dr. Kevin Ross Emery, http://www.kevinrossemery.com/channeling.htm.
  44. Stiene and Stiene, 282. See also Wei Chi Reiki™, Dr. Kevin Ross Emery, http://www.kevinrossemery.com/wei_chi_tibetan_reiki2.htm; Spiritual Catalyst, Dr. Kevin Ross Emery, http://www.kevinrossemery.com/index.htm; and Lost Steps of Reiki, Dr. Kevin Ross Emery, http://www.kevinrossemery.com/lost_steps_of_reiki.htm.
  45. Stiene and Stiene, 265.
  46. Welcome, Lightarian Institute for Global Human Transformation, http:// www.lightarian.com/.
  47. Ibid.
  48. Stiene and Stiene, 273. See also “The Helen Belôt Sekhem Association,” Sekhem, htttp://www.sekhem.org/association/association.htm.
  49. Caroline Seawright, “Sekhmet, Powerful One, Sun Goddess, Destructor,” Gods and Mythology of Ancient Egypt, Tour Egypt, http://touregypt.net/godsofegypt/ sekhmet2.htm.
  50. Names of Netjer, v. “Sekhmet” (by Tamara Siuda), The House of Netjer, http:// www.kemet.org/glossary/sekhmet.html (accessed September 14, 2006).
  51. Rand, Reiki: The Healing Touch, 22
  52. Ibid.
  53. The International House of Reiki, “Why Study with the International House of Reiki?” International House of Reiki, http://shop.reiki.net.au/about/study.html.
  54. Stiene and Stiene, 326.
  55. Diane Stein, Essential Reiki (Berkeley, CA: The Crossing Press, 1995).
  56. Murray, 253.
  57. Ibid., 262.
  58. Ibid.
  59. The International Center for Reiki Training (India), reikiindia.org, http:// www.reikiindia.org/aboutus.html.
  60. Ibid.
  61. “Sr. Elizabeth Kenny,” Nursing History, Inspirational Nursing Personalities, Nurses.info, http://www.nurses.info/personalities_srl_kenny.htm
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