Reiki Healing: A Hands-Off Treatment

By Subodh Jain:

Reiki is a fascinating practice of healing with one’s hands; the word Reiki is composed of two Japanese words, Rei meaning God’s wisdom and Ki which is life force energy. Reiki, one of the well renowned therapies, was put forth by Mikao Usui in the year 1922. This therapy came into force when Mikao was performing Isyu Guo, a twenty-one-day Buddhist training course. This concept of Reiki involved meditation, fasting, chanting and prayers and was the brain child of Mikao Usui which completely deals with spiritual ideas. History witnessed that during this special twenty-one-day Buddhist training Usui gained the knowledge and the spiritual power to apply and grant to others. And this was named as ‘Reiki’.

The concept of Reiki states that it is a method of reducing stress which also involves healing. The basic administered principle is lying on hands. It’s a typical type of treatment based on the notion that practitioners can produce benefit of wellbeing through healing energy. If studied briefly then it could be concluded that the entire treatment o Reiki includes three levels. It is the spiritual based concept and believes firmly in meditation. Owing to this spiritual power Reiki practitioners claim that it can cure not only stress but also nerve damage, cancer, etc. Moreover this sounds hyperbolic if we switch our perspective towards science.

However it is a matter of growing concern that despite of such incredible claims Reiki enjoys the support of lot of masses not only in Japan but even in India. It is a widely debated topic and any concrete results currently do not prevail. Accordingly this claim gave birth to various critics and the true concept is quite different than that claimed by its followers. According to National Council Against Health Fraud term the benefits of Reiki don’t sound good enough to spark any sense of relief to one’s mind. There is a basic belief that the body is able to cure itself. And there is some evidence that in some circumstances this is true. But research doesn’t support this idea at all and states that in almost all cases self-curing fails. Also Reiki fails to offer some impartial, reliable and reproducible evidence. As mentioned above many drawbacks add to the inefficient claims of Reiki. Quakwatch.org, the consumer website maintained by the National Council Against Health Fraud, describes Reiki as “nonsense”.

On the contrary, despite of no scientific evidence to Reiki treatment, its influence is growing in India. Reiki therapy can be adapted by any individual within days, also no official license or credentialing standards to practice this treatment exits at present. Thereby, the count of Reiki practitioners is increasing to a wider extent in India. The other major reason behind focusing Indian market by Reiki practitioners is its cheap and low cost technique. This directly influences the major portion of middle-class societies of the nation. Though science-based healthcare settings do not tolerate such therapy, the significance of various academics and therapy centre is increasing in the nation. And lack of awareness contributes to the same.