Reiki: How does this energy healing works, and its health benefits

Reiki is a form of energy healing that originated in Japan in the early 20th century.

Reiki heals by flowing through the affected parts of the energy field and charging them with positive energy. It raises the vibratory level of the energy field in and around the physical body where the negative thoughts and feelings are attached. This causes the negative energy to break apart and fall away. In so doing, Reiki clears, straightens and heals the energy pathways, thus allowing the life force to flow in a healthy and natural way.

Reiki is based on the idea that we all have an unseen “life force energy” flowing through our bodies.

A Reiki practitioner gently moves her hands just above or on the client’s clothed body, with the intention of reducing stress and promoting healing by encouraging a healthy flow of energy.

In Reiki a Reiki master uses gentle hand movements with the intention to guide the flow of healthy energy (what’s known in Reiki as “life force energy”) through the client's body to reduce stress and promote healing. Reiki is a form of complementary and alternative medicine; there’s ample evidence available that it can reduce daily stress and help with management of some chronic diseases.

How does it work?

Reiki therapy guides the energy throughout the body to promote the recipient’s self-healing abilities.

The Reiki belief system and that of the practitioner is that they don’t cause the healing, nor are they the source of that healing energy; they’re a channel for the energy — similar to the way a garden hose acts as a channel for water.

“I’m an open channel, and [the Reiki recipient’s] body takes that energy and does whatever it needs with it,” explains Vickie Bodner, a licensed massage therapist and Reiki master at the Center for Integrative Medicine at Cleveland Clinic in Ohio.

The word “Reiki” is a combination of two Japanese words: “rei,” which means “God’s wisdom,” or “the higher power,” and “ki,” which means “life force energy,” according to the International Center for Reiki Training.

“Ki is the life force energy that animates all living things,” says Joan Maute, a licensed Reiki master teacher who practices in Waikoloa, Hawaii, and Charlottesville, Virginia. Put together, “rei” and “ki” mean “spiritually guided life force energy,” notes the International Center for Reiki Training.

Reiki is taught according to the Japanese tradition of the sensei (teacher), who passes the knowledge to the student through attunement, an initiation ceremony that is thought to help open the student’s energy channels to facilitate the flow of healing energy.

Once opened, these channels remain accessible to the practitioner for the rest of their life.

“Reiki is a spiritual practice, like meditation is a spiritual practice,” says Pamela Miles, a New York City–based Reiki master and researcher who has collaborated with the medical schools at Harvard and Yale to help develop Reiki programs there. Reiki, despite its spiritual components and roots, may be and is often used therapeutically (more on this later), including in a secular way.

Reiki not a religion and is neither associated with any kind of religious practice.

It is taught at three levels: first-level practitioners can practice on themselves or others through light touch; second-degree practitioners can practice distance healing; and third-degree or master level practitioners can teach and initiate others into Reiki.

So, how does Reiki practice work? “The honest answer to that is: We don’t know,” Miles says. “Science does not yet know the mechanism of action.”

There are, however, some theories about how Reiki works.

One popular theory involves a phenomenon known as the “biofield.” The biofield is an electromagnetic field that permeates and surrounds every living being. In humans, this field extends 15 feet or more from the body, according to Ann L. Baldwin, PhD, a Reiki researcher and professor of physiology at the University of Arizona’s College of Medicine.

The heart, for example, produces an electrical field — measured through an electrocardiogram, or ECG — to regulate heartbeats. The brain also produces an electrical field, though at a lower level than the heart. In fact, every cell in the body produces positive and negative electrical charges, which then create magnetic fields.

According to this theory, the interaction between two human magnetic fields may explain the effects of touch therapies like Reiki.

It is thought that the biofield is the energetic force that guides bodily functions, and that Reiki energy influences the biofield. “[The biofield] is thought to cause dynamic changes in its vibrational qualities that alter physiological and psychological functions in living beings,” says Dr. Baldwin.

Quantum physics is the study of how the incredibly small particles that make up matter, such as electrons (particles with a negative electric charge), nucleons (protons with positive charge, and neutrons, with no charge) and photons (particles of light energy) behave, in an attempt to explain the interactions of energy and physical matter. Quantum physics may also help explain how Reiki practice works.

Quantum physicists, much to the awe of those who digest their findings, have found that these tiny particles of energy can be in more than one place at one time (both a wave and particle at the same time, depending on how it is examined), and that thought or intention may change how the particles work.

In other words, the Reiki practitioner may be able to gather and direct biofield energy to the recipient through thoughts and intentions.

Because Reiki is guided by the God-consciousness, it can never do harm. It always knows what a person needs and will adjust itself to create the effect that is appropriate for them. One never need worry about whether to give Reiki or not. It is always helpful.

Additionally, because the practitioner does not direct the healing and does not decide what to work on, or what to heal, the practitioner is not in danger of taking on the karma of the client. Because the practitioner is not doing the healing, it is also much easier for the ego to stay out of the way and allow the presence of God to clearly shine through.

Similarly, because it is a channeled healing, the Reiki practitioner's energies are never depleted. In fact, the Reiki consciousness considers both practitioner and client to be in need of healing, so both receive treatment. Because of this, giving a treatment always increases one's energy and leaves one surrounded with loving feelings of well-being.