Explaining the Basics of Reiki

One of the most common questions among Reiki practitioners is how to explain Reiki to people who haven’t been exposed to this idea before. Here’s a simple way of describing the system.

Hands on healing

As long as people feel that what you are doing is ‘different’ and something they’ve never experienced before, they are prone to resistance. The key to helping people accept Reiki easily is to help them learn that the idea is not really new to them.

Although few people are aware of the aura, most of us have sensed it already, and this can be a great starting ground to explain Reiki. You can start by talking about how most of the times, if someone comes to stand behind us surreptitiously, we just ‘know’ that someone is standing behind us and turn to check if what we feel is true. In the same way, most people have sensed that some places ‘feel’ good or bad. There is often a childish desire to sit closer to someone we like, and at the same time we are very uncomfortable when someone we dislike steps too close to us. These are nothing but subconscious reactions to energy fields.

Once this is clear, the rest is quite easy. Just like we can influence people through our words depending on our intention, we are capable of influencing people with our energy – it is just that most people are not taught how to do so. This also is not too hard to explain – we have all felt the magic of a mother’s touch. Even so, we can tell the difference when she is running her hands through our hair out of love, or as a forced habit without any emotion. The touch in both cases is the same – what makes the difference? Intention, energy. So, simply, put, we use our intention to improve the energy fields of others.

Distant healing

Some people have experienced telepathy already – either a strong feeling when a loved one was in danger, or a feeling that someone is about to call. If they haven’t had any such experience, you could start by talking about how so many studies have shown twins being deeply mentally connected, often as far as one mirroring the physical symptoms of the other despite being halfway across the world. There is no doubt that a telepathic connection can exist between people that love each other.

Now, thought is just energy, and telepathy is proof that energy can travel great distances if people are connected. Distant healing is like telepathy, the only difference being that instead of thought, we are sending healing energy.

Most Importantly

There are a few people who are afraid that Reiki is related to black magic. Such people are terrified either of you or for you. We need to understand that while talking to such people, the above explanations are not so required, because they believe already, probably too much.

Usually, it helps to explain to these people that black magic does indeed exist, but it largely uses dark forces its work, and violates the intent of the targets. It is important to explain that the very foundation of Reiki is that we are not allowed to violate free will and that the energy simply does not work if that is the intention.

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