My first love in complimentary therapies is Reiki. So much so I’ve got myself four or five Reiki Master Certificates. Each discipline differs slightly in its teaching but it all comes back to the same thing, the Universal Light Energy provided by the divine. No, don’t worry, I’m not going all religious on you. A mistake I think a lot of people make when they become involved in this type of life style is that they believe they must suddenly become aloof and lose their sense of self together with their sense of humour. Personally I don’t think that’s what the divine is looking for. I came to Reiki after studying the Qabala. That’s the Kabala with a Q, which separates it as the quest for knowledge of all things hidden (the occult). In its teachings we find that the God wanted to know itself and split itself in order to gain knowledge. To this end, everything in the Universe then is part of the divine and every experience unique, it is this unique experience that the divine wants. Now, my point is, if we follow the path of any “discipline” that changes the personality how is it possible to take a unique experience back to the Universe? So. When we begin to follow these paths we should be extremely careful not to emanate our teachers to the exclusion of our own personality.

Each Reiki Master will discuss with their students their recommended method of building the energy that is channelled as Reiki. I try to be open minded about this and offer as many methods as possible to my students allowing them to try as many avenues as they wish before deciding which works best for them.

So, what does Reiki do? Good question. My answer is generally, what do you want it to do? I’ve seen Reiki heal problems that medicine couldn’t. Does this make me a healer? Nope. I am just a vessel, if the divine energy wishes to use me to bring about a healing then well and good. Not everyone will be healed by Reiki. The energy that is drawn into the client is decided by the client. Don’t worry though, that doesn’t mean you need to believe in it for it to work. Just not so. My best results have been for people who are the biggest sceptics you could hope to meet.

One of the things that most clients report is that the energy continues to build through the body for days, sometimes weeks, after a treatment. So, someone with backache may feel an immediate relief, but a week later they may realise that the pain has completely gone!

The greatest thing that Reiki does is to relax the mind and to bring the mind, body and soul together. All too often we are all over the place because the three aspects of our lives are off in different directions. Once they come together we are able to function and focus better on our lives.

I find that Reiki is also extremely useful for people who are terminally ill. If you can imagine being given a “death sentence” by the doctor and you’re not ready or prepared to move on there is going to be a huge conflict. As I’ve already discussed, we are each here to take our unique experience into the divine, but it worries me that taking a negative experience of leaving the world may, in turn, have a negative affect on the divine. Reiki helps us to accept the cycle of life and to let go when the time is right.