Common Myths about Reiki and Spirituality

One of my students found that her family life got a lot harder after she learned Reiki. Every time she lost her temper, her family members would ask ‘oh so this is what your Reiki taught you? What’s the use if you still get angry?’ They’re not alone. I’ve heard people commenting about others wondering how Reiki healers/ masters can behave in certain ways… one sick master even got mocked at by other masters when she sought healing for her tumor. Therefore, I thought an article on this theme would be appropriate.

Here are some of the most common myths I’ve found, and what the truth really is.

Healers/ Teachers are always ‘nice’

Anyone who tries to walk on the spiritual pathway gets judged for their actions and words, as if merely being on the pathway is enough to convert anyone into a ‘nice’ person. ‘Nice’ people often don’t know how to stand up for themselves and may not be spiritual at all, but that is a topic for another day. If we really want to know whether a person has evolved, we need to compare them to their previous selves, and that is what gives us real perspective. Everyone on the pathway has their easy and difficult lessons and what may be easy for you may be very difficult for someone else, and vice versa. Being flawed doesn’t make a person unspiritual.

Having a spiritual practice = spiritual growth

One occasionally also comes across someone who has been practicing Reiki, meditation or something else for years and is still a vindictive, cunning or greedy person. Merely a regular practice is not enough for a person to progress on a spiritual pathway, there has to be consistent effort in the right direction. Many of us get complacent somewhere along the path and if this situation combines with trying circumstances in life, we can fall pretty far behind, and being aware of this helps avoid this situation.

One must always keep growing spiritually

One of the saddest trends of our times is that of consumerism, and this affects those on the spiritual pathway too. While ‘materialistic’ people chase after cars and houses, ‘spiritual’ people can end up chasing retreats and workshops. Truth is, the real path is boring and tedious, and after an initial phase of excitement, one enters a slow and dull phase. Look around, nature progresses in waves too! This is completely natural and we will make far more progress if we push through the boring phases of our journey instead of trying to fill that time with more and more new techniques. We can compare the spiritual pathway with a relationship – sticking to one means no more excitement, and probably even dull and boring moments, but switching from relationship to relationship will just leave us repeating the same phase and we will not move into deeper.

Healers/ Teachers can never get sick

Healers are merely channels. Illness can happen to anybody. Reiki does improve the immune system and regular practice drastically reduces the occurrence of problems, but again as before, we need to compare before-after health to get the real picture. Also, if one has chosen big challenges for this lifetime, one can end up suppressing quite a bit in the process, making way for big diseases. Suffering can come to healers and teachers too, Reiki is not an insurance against pain.

Psychic Abilities are a sign of Spiritual Progress

This is probably one of the biggest myths. The moment we meet someone who can perceive more than we can or can do things that defy the laws of physics, we are stunned into believing that they are somehow superior. Just like a person who spends a few years studying math can calculate much more easily than a normal person, anyone who spends a few years developing psychic abilities can develop them. Just like math, it comes more easily and naturally to some and is harder for others. And just like math, being good at it is no indication that one is moving beyond the illusion.

Lastly…

Just because a person is not as spiritual as you expected them to be, does not mean they cannot help you, heal you or take you to greater heights. We are a co-dependent society and all play a role in each other’s’ journey.

Also, spirituality does not fit into a box, and it is very hard to assess the spiritual quotient of a person at face value. A person’s actions and words rarely indicate how far they’ve traveled, but their level of awareness in every moment does. And that is something which is very hard to assess. A spiritual pathway does involve dropping one’s belief systems, so if we start by dropping our beliefs about spirituality and be open to people as they are, we start getting closer to seeing the truth.

Article by Ashwita Goel, Reiki Master

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Having learned Meditation as a child, Ashwita incorporated Reiki into her life during her early teens. After a decade of witnessing the magic Reiki, she felt compelled to take up Reiki professionally, and ended her corporate career in 2007, taking up Reiki full-time. She eventually incorporated EFT, hypnotherapy and past life therapy into her work. Apart from her healing work, she teaches Reiki and meditation, and her book ‘Healing Through Reiki’ is available on Amazon. She holds regular full moon and new moon meditations at @AshwitaGoel. Her website is www.reiki-bangalore.com and her blog www.ashwita.com