I have regular accupuncture and the lady who does it for me gives me Reiki after she has inserted the needles.

She is a very spiritual person and trained in chinese medicine and the first time I had it I felt this incredible heat on my chest - I did not realise that she was holding her hand a few inches above it as my eyes were closed. She was very emotional as the tension she could feel was passing from me to her.

A lot has to do with your mind and opening it and of course, who is doing it.

I tend to have a top up every couple of months - I find it a necessary part of my life as I suffer from a lot of anxiety and after a treatment, feel ready to face the world again.

I definitely believe in energy and that it can be transferred. This is how we live our lives all together in the same planet. Any change of energy somewhere on earth is effecting the whole universe.

I just don't know how I can use this transfer for the benefit of myself. I have sleeping problem since a few years and that has changed my balance. I'm more stressed, always tired and having less tolerance..

This has been a very useful thread for me, I definitely have more understanding of Reiki now.. Only trying it out is missing now for me..

Thanks all for your replies.

Just a little detail to be a pedantic bore, but it is not complimentary, but complementary. It's not free. And I don't mean just cash..it probably should be an exchange.

I have done a pretty long course of Reiki seminars. I was curious, and wanted to challenge the underlying cynicism of mine, having grown in purely medical family with nutty docs and scientists left and right.

And, at the end, I made a conclusion, it really does not matter how you want to help somebody, as long as you do. You will help if you know a tiny bit about how to work with your potential. Some use Reiki, some other ways, some are entirely in their head, some only work on emotional and energy level, etc. So, to ultimately say Reiki as a treatment, is probably as efficient as the person who wants to help. There are people I would want to be helped by, and I don't care what they work with. Masters and mentors. Truck drivers, profs, therapists, musicians, writers, wanderers.

Reiki as a program, does it for me as much as homeopathy. If the person giving me the sugar water placebo drops on a spoon has the vibe I like, I will eat it up.

Odile, I took a Shiatsu course, and it's da bomb. The best of best. Regular massage is good, too, but Shiatsu has a fab, rational, down to earth background I enjoy. It's great to receive and to give it.

The Reiki course was, by the way, hippie woodoo magic. The teachers kept throwing degrees around and medals, scouting clients, and participants trying to steal cheap feels. I like hanging out with old folks, my old dear friends, and get energy from them. Jokes, laugh, wisdoms..That's my Reiki. I get bugged by oils, burning essences and candles, new age muzzak, rainbow tie dyed clothes that often come with the Reiki peeps.

Jeez didn't think this thread will go on for this long...

I still think I can achieve the same "healing energy" with Red Bull. You just have to believe in it strongly enough and come to my Red Bull sessions twice a week. If it works for you great, if it doesn't well you just don't believe in it strongly enough...

How many of the "complementary health" dealers will still prescribe you "medicine" that you don't need. How many will help to cure the common cold? Once they have the hook in, it seems many advocates of complimentary medicine keep going back on a regular basis, even when it is not required, like an addict with a fix. So yeah, they may cover their backs by identifying real conditions, it doesn't address the fundamental dishonesty of offering treatments not required.

We have posters here already confessing that they go any time they feel down, or a little different, or just on a regular basis. But most things fix themselves, without someone relieving you of cash. When would any alternative practioner turn you away because you simply do not need anything done?

What would you think of car mechanics who charge you a bill when no work is required? Would you accept it was done out of kindness to reassure you that something was done about the car?

We decided a long time ago that physic communication was bullshit, and came up with something real instead.

Wasn't Reiki married to Bianca on Eastenders?

I believe in yakitori. It always worked for me when I felt bad...

Yakitori!?! That's blasphemy - teppanyaki works so much better!

I have also felt this heat - actually felt it moving up and down my spine - and I always felt very relaxed after reiki - like I'd had a good massage, which is amazing when you consider you haven't been touched. What turned me off, was an alternative practitioner pointing out that you are allowing someone else to manipulate your energy field, which if you believe in such, may or may not be a good thing and thus having a reliable practitioner would be of importance.

I would be happy to give a free 30 minute reiki session to anyone who wishes to see how this works. Contact me via mail here to make an appointment.

how much would the second treatment cost?

Treatments cost 130chf per session.

My wife practices Reiki
(Her first post here: Reiki in Basel - though, we live near Lucerne now, not in Basel).

All the patients she has have experienced a very positive change in their physical conditions after the treatment, and regularly come for treatment, or have also learnt themselves so that they can treat themselves or their family.

What was mentioned before about passing the "negative energy" from the patient to the healer is true, so my wife avoided giving treatments when she was pregnant, for example.

Anyone interested in a trial session near Lucerne, can contact her.

I just came across this post and as a Reiki master just wanted to add a few things: Reiki is not a substitute for medical treatment. If somebody needs chemo - then they need chemo. However, studies have shown that Reiki helps with pain relief and side effects when patients are going through chemo. Some cancer hospitals in the US use Reiki and train their staff as well. I always tell clients to inform their doctor that they are receiving Reiki treatments - if they are on medication (as it has happened that the dosage needed to be reduced or even stopped altogether).
A Reiki session is for some people like an hour of bringing them back into balance. It's a rather relaxing and calming hour besides also healing on different levels. You don't have to believe in Reiki - it will still work.
Some clients do need more sessions - as they carry more issues around. Of course it's up to the client to decide on how many sessions they need - but yes, there are healers who say "you are done" - you don't need anymore sessions - so it's not all just about keeping your clients forever.
Also, once you have done a Reiki 1 course you no longer need to go for a healing session - you can do it yourself. Of course plenty of people don't believe in it. But it has changed quite a bit over the last years and more people are starting to go for classes. Not because they all want to become healers but because they feel the need to learn how to become more peaceful and happy again. We have all become so disconnected from the world around us and the universe and it's all about work and making money. The interesting piece is that the more money we have the unhappier we are. I lived in Asia for 9 years and the most amazing thing I learnt there was: people in really poor countries were usually so happy and friendly. Compare that to the "western world" - how much friendliness and happiness is left here - loads of money - but happiness?

As many have already said, Reiki does work even if you don't believe in it. I can vouch to that as I learned this technique and doing it on myself and on friends, it always seemed to calm them even for those that weren't that much connected/sensible to their own energetic body. But from having a positive influence on your physical and mental state to cure all all ailments there's a big difference.
For starters there's always a good reason why there's a disease/dysfunction present in our organism. Knowing what were the unbalancing factors, either physical or mental, that eroded our defenses and led to an unbalanced and unhealthy state can be as important as the methodology that we're using to restore our health.

So, for me both conventional and complementary approaches are valid though the conventional lacks a deeper reading of the fundamentals causes of each individual's specific reason to be sick and the complementary lacks objectivity and can easily be malpracticed either by shady or highly delusional people.
On the middle of these two spectrums I would put chinese medicine and ayurvedic medicine. These two medicines see the person as a whole and are not interested only on the symptom of a disease but on the way the person eats, thinks and goes about his daily life so to understand more deeply what is creating the imbalance in the first place. Not that I'm an expert in these medicines but that's my understanding from having had personal contact with them.

Still subjective observation (seemed to you does not equal proof of efficacy), and the plural of anecdote still not data.

I spoke on my behalf and what I perceived. Not trying to prove it's validity as a cure but stating it's high probability of calming one's mind&body
But you don't need to believe me, if it inspires you try it if not why bother?

From my understanding using Reiki seems to be a very benign process but obviously there are people that take advantage of other's despairs or gullibilities to take exploit them. So most of the times, for me, it's not the method that is the problem but the person that practices it.

Well of course things work somehow. Giving a good foot massage to lady also works in some ways
We humans are extremely complex mechanisms, starting on molecular levels (how individual cell types work on their own, together, how they are stimulated by neurons and chemicals in blood) and this complexity has variations in every individual out there.
But putting magical fairy tale energy flowing through our bodies, base of all life etc... please, let's get little rational Just because some actions create (positive) reaction in our body, doesn't mean there is magic there. It's just that we don't understand every bit and piece of ourselves, and how these pieces form bigger structures, and ultimately ourselves. But be assured that everything, and I mean EVERYTHING in this crazy great universe including ourselves can be explained rationally, by cause and consequence. When we don't see the logic and reason behind something doesn't mean there is none. We as human kind are not at the end of our evolution, rather in beginning (if we don't destroy ourselves, of course ) So let's be little bit patient and don't run to fairy tales realm every time something doesn't make sense. It will, eventually, maybe not to our generation but that's not important.
One example out of many - people who survived clinical death often describe tunnels, with light at the end, divine feelings, maybe even beings. Afterlife, isn't it? Well, if you drug people enough with gas used for anesthesia, same experience gets reported. It's just about how our tiny brains respond to extreme situations, change in working of signal pathways, blood composition etc.
I've experimented enough with psychedelic substances to know how many realities there can be, vastly different from what we can see or feel in normal state. It doesn't mean I magically teleported to fifth dimension, it means we have still no clue how our brain works and what kind of potential lies in there
The problem is, many people simply want to believe in supernatural. In some way, it makes life easier. It's impossible to prove them completely wrong, of course... and that alone is proof for them they are right

But surely enough anecdotes could be turned into data and if not, why not?

Reiki is as much a fairytale as God is.