(Excerpts from “Reiki: A Comprehensive Guide” by Pamela Miles)
“The simple answer is that Reiki is a spiritual healing practice that can help return us to balanced functioning on every level - physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, even social - regardless of our age or state of health. Although balance can mean different things in different circumstances, Reiki treatment, which is usually facilitated by light touch, typically brings rapid stress reduction and relief from pain and anxiety. Recipients commonly report improved sleep and digestion, and a greater sense of well-being. Other benefits, such as feeling more motivated, less depressed, or experiencing relief from side effect of medications, radiation, or chemotherapy, vary from person to person. Unlike conventional medicine, Reiki does not attack disease. Rather, Reiki supports our well-being and strengthens our natural ability to heal by encouraging balance.
Reiki requires no belief, simply the willingness to experience. Noninvasive and holistic, Reiki can be safely practiced in any situation, even emergencies. There are no known medical contraindications.
The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) classifies Reiki as a form of energy medicine, and specifically a biofield therapy. Biofields are also referred to as putative energy fields because, at this time, there is no technology subtle enough to reproducibly measure biofields in the way scientists can measure magnetic or electrical fields. Biofields are extremely subtle fields that are said to surround and permeate the human body.
In fact, the word energy, as vague as it is, does not really apply to Reiki, which is better expressed by more specific and descriptive words such as pulsation, vibration, or oscillation. Although NCCAM gathers all subtle therapies under one umbrella, putative or biofield therapies, the biofield is actually multileveled, and different therapies address different and distinct levels of subtle reality.
Reiki affects the subtlest of the biofield, the subtle vibrational body that holds the blueprint for outer, measurable reality. Unlike energy therapies, Reiki is accessed through, but not directed by, the practioner. Once accessed, Reiki gently encourages the biofield toward balance.