It's become apparent over the last
year that the history of Reiki a number of us were taught is wrong
at best and contrived at worst. It's becoming even more apparent
that there is a trend by high profile Reiki master teachers to exploit
this fact to lure students into doing courses in "The most traditional
kind of Reiki" or in some cases "The only real Reiki".
The only reason they are getting
away with this is their egos carry their message across to a group
of people sometimes ill prepared or inexperienced as to the nature
and effects of Reiki. In some cases these are people who are looking
for a Reiki teacher. They have heard about Reiki and are interested
in experiencing and possibly attending a workshop. If they have
little knowledge about Reiki or healing they are likely to believe
what they are told by the Reiki master in question. But in the worst
cases these will be existing Reiki practitioners who believe what
they are told on the weight of the fact these are high profile Reiki
masters!
I don't want to name names here,
but I will give you a guide at the end of this article on how to
spot a Reiki teacher you'd do well avoiding! But first let us look
at the current situation and see if we can cast some light on the
whole subject to give us a clearer picture of what is going on.
There are lots of conflicting stories
of how Reiki was initially learned and taught by Dr Mikao Usui back
in the 19th century. I'm not going to go through all the theories
here, but instead apply some logic to this whole sordid affair with
wading through false histories.
Reiki itself is becoming a very popular
complementary therapy, with thousands of practitioners in the UK
alone it can be seen that there is obviously a lot of merit in it.
As a teacher myself I have seen the differences it has made to peoples
lives first hand, both as clients and students. I have many friends
and colleges who practice Reiki and all of them have been touched
by the connection that Reiki has provided them and here we see the
point. It's the connection that changes peoples lives, Reiki is
just the tool that makes the changes so we can connect and it's
not the only tool to do this either! There are lots of systems out
there which can grant us this connection.
We all know that connections to spiritual
energy have existed far longer than the Usui system itself and we
can agree that Reiki is just a tool that provides us with the connection.
But it is a tool with many merits! It allows a connection to be
made over the period of a weekend, it requires no belief system
to make the connection, it doesn't require any prerequisite skills
such as meditation or visualisation and it increases the level of
connection someone has over a period of time. But why should the
history of this tool make any difference to its application? Does
the history of sandpaper make any difference to the way a trained
craftsman would use it? No! If he didn't know its history would
he be inadequate to teach its use to another craftsman? No!
The history of a tool makes no difference
to its practical present day application!
There are those who will argue that
it's not the attunements (the tool that enables connection) themselves
which are the important part, but the skills taught with it. This
is true, but then some will say "The original skills that Usui taught
are the only right ones" how is this so?
This brings us around to the idea
"The older knowledge is, the better it is" a false ideology that
is running rampant in new age teaching.
Let us make an analogy with medicine.
The scalpel is a very old tool in medicine, but would you like a
doctor to practice 14th century surgery on you with it, just because
it was the original teaching with this tool? I think you'd object,
and you'd be right to. The teaching and practice of medicine has
developed over the past 600 years just as teaching and practice
of Reiki has over the past 150 years. I hope anyone who really believes
the older knowledge is the better it is still thinks the sun revolves
around the earth and everything solid is made up of earth, air,
fire and water.
A technique is taught on the basis
it's the best one we have, not because it's the oldest!
Now I'm not saying that if we could
find the original teachings of Usui that there would be some parts
we could learn from, I think we would. However just because they
were the original teachings it wouldn't necessarily make them better
than what we have now. Before we can even entertain that idea though
we would need to thoroughly investigate the authenticity of such
a document, or those who claim they have read it.
The truth of all this is that new
age, spirituality and complementary medicine have become a mass
market. This makes all of us interested in these fields consumers,
and it pays to be a wise consumer. All of us are looking for knowledge,
wisdom and understanding that will lead us to a clearer vision of
truth, this is making caveat emptor a key phrase in modern spirituality!
It goes without saying that the history of Reiki will not provide
us with a greater understanding of our personal reality, but the
connection Reiki can provide us with will. But then so can a lot
of systems of connecting to some kind of spiritual energy.
The other great fallacy of Reiki
is that if you don't pay the prescribed amount as set by Philliys
Furamoto (the woman who lays claim to being the Grand Master of
Reiki) you don't have real Reiki. Now, what difference does the
price of the training make to what's been learned? In my opinion
it's just an obvious ploy to make more cash. I could lay into this
idea some more but it's so obvious it's just not worth bothering
with.
Learning
Reiki
The first thing you need to find out
is "Is Reiki the right system for me?"
This is an easy one to do. Look up
some Reiki practitioners, get their brochures and have a treatment.
Chat to them about how they learned and who taught them.
If you then feel Reiki
is the right system for you it's time to make some phone calls and
book yourself on a workshop! Here are some do's and don'ts of finding
a teacher.
-
Ask the teacher
how much they charge for each level of Reiki.
-
Ask what subjects
are covered on the course.
-
Check the teacher
is fully insured.
-
Book in for a treatment
session with the master before you commit to learning.
Don't
Be wary
-
Of anyone who advertises
their version of Reiki as the "original" or "only authentic" one.
-
Of anyone who advertises
their version of Reiki as "the most powerful one"
-
Of anyone who charges
extremely high prices and justifies it by saying "These are the
set prices chosen by my governing body" or anything to that effect.
And if you already practice a system
of healing, have a connection to spiritual energy already or are practising
Reiki and want to learn another version or an extended system, make
your decision in terms of the additional tools and training workshops
will give you. Never do a course just because someone says it's more
powerful. Either they are lying to sell it to you, or it is more powerful
to them and that doesn't mean it will be more powerful for you.
Reiki is an excellent system for complementary
medicine. It is easily learned and becomes part of the lives of the
majority of people who choose to pursue it. Most Reiki masters you
will ever meet are wonderful people. This is because when you truly
take the spiritual connection Reiki provides into your life and heart
it has the uncanny knack of changing your life for the better. The
few money/power/ego obsessed ones are in the minority, they are giving
Reiki a bad image and selling it in the style of American evangelical
Christianity. Learning from them is learning from people who preach
to know all about Reiki but in fact know nothing about the truth or
reality of the connections they have or are giving others. But their
days are coming to an end as we search for the truth, their lies become
more apparent as their facades become see through. Because the future
of Reiki is not dependant on the past, Reiki works, and Reiki works
here and now.
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