It’s been eleven years since I had my first experiences with Reiki. When I decided to get a session back in 2007 I had no idea what Reiki was or what I should expect from a treatment. Skeptical and uncertain (but willing to try anything once), I asked the Reiki Master some details. She graciously gave me a quick explanation which I've expanded on next.
While Reiki energy primarily affects the endocrine system in the physical/emotional bodies, the chakras (or energy centres located within the body), and the subtle energy that exists around us (the aura/spiritual bodies), it assists in healing on all levels. From physical pain to emotional issues and mental health, Reiki helps with everything and anything. Most surprising is that the energy often helps an individual uncover his/her own unique spiritual path.
The Reiki Master or practitioner has been attuned, or opened/cleared, to be a conduit for universal energy and is able to direct this energy in a more focused way into a client’s body. This energy assists in treating all manner of emotional, physical, spiritual and mental issues. Reiki energy is intelligent energy and knows exactly where to go and what to do on its own, the practitioner is merely a channel.
As my first treatment began, the Reiki Master, we’ll call her Tina, asked me to lie down while she covered me in cozy blankets. She put on some soft instrumental music and instructed me to close my eyes and call on my angels. Not at all religious or spiritual at this time in my life, I chuckled and rolled my eyes.
“I don’t believe in angels,” I said very matter-of-factly.
“That’s fine”, Tina replied pleasantly. “Please call on a person who has passed on that you trust and feel safe with.”
No sooner did I think of my beloved Nana who had passed away a decade before, than chills overtook my body. From head to toe I was covered in goose bumps. Tears welled up under my eyelids, spilling out in a steady stream into my ears. Nana was here. I could sense her near the foot of the bed.
“Whoever you called, they are here,” Tina whispered. Hearing her voice I opened my eyes briefly. “Look” she said as she pointed to her arm, which was also covered in goose bumps, fine hairs standing on end. Utterly overwhelmed with a feeling of love, safety and awe, I closed my eyes once more. This was my first experience with Reiki.
I had four more sessions in quick succession with Tina. Each session yielded amazing (yet not always pleasant) results. In the second session I felt like I was choking when Tina was near my throat. The sensation was so real I had to ask her to stop the treatment.
“Have you ever been choked or witness someone being choked or something similar?” she asked.
“Yes, I saw my mother being choked and someone very close to me committed suicide. I found them hanging in the basement,” I blurted out.
“This may be a physical manifestation of these traumas caught in your throat chakra. Have you been able to move past these traumas?”
“I don’t think so” I said and began to cry. Tina asked for permission to continue, which I granted. It was time to let this stuff go.
After the treatment I had a huge emotional release. It was the first step toward healing after the death of my loved one by suicide and from buried childhood wounds.
The third treatment was, embarrassingly, primarily for me to have a bowel movement. I hadn’t gone to the bathroom for days and I figured it had something to do with pent up emotions. (How did I know this?) Tina focused the treatment to move my bowels. Less than an hour after the treatment, I was no longer doubled over and bloated. The treatment had worked!
When I arrived for my fourth session Tina said she wanted to work with my base chakra. She also mentioned that she thought I was spiritually advanced and wanted to try something different for our next treatment and needed my permission. I was slightly taken aback, my skepticism only a fear away.
Although I was having a great time and in awe of the treatments and experiences I was having, I didn’t think of myself as spiritual or spiritually advanced. While I had investigated religion and esoteric principles, I never fully subscribed or engaged in any practices. My skepticism subsided and my curiousity prevailed. I agreed.
While she worked on my base chakra in this treatment, she said that I was holding the anger of my mother since my time in the womb. While this meant little to me at the time, when I was later attuned as a Reiki Master in 2014, I felt this anger and the energy of my mother that was attached to me, actually leave my energy field. I became a truer version of myself following the 2014 experience, and many of my habits and behaviours changed immediately and for the better.
My final session, my fifth treatment in about a month, yielded the most incredible results. Tina instructed me to verbalize anything I may experience during this treatment. While in previous treatments there was much silence as I took everything in, this time I was to let her know everything I was feeling, sensing, seeing, if anything.
She said she was going to perform a cord-cutting to commence the treatment, and explained that I was going to be cutting cords of attachments to people that no longer served my highest good. She said only the cords of love would remain. I was a bit scared, I didn’t want to accidentally cut the cord to say, my daughter or my boyfriend at the time. She assured me only the negative attachments would be cut, so I agreed and we performed the cutting. To my amazement I could see, sense and feel the cords, who they were from or who I had attached myself to. Once we had cut them I was left with a feeling of weightlessness and relief.
Tina instructed me to close my eyes as we continued with the remainder of the treatment. In just a few moments I immediately began to see different colours swirling about. Purple was the first, then green and beautiful shades of blue. These colours morphed into flowers that were falling out the sky. There were hundreds, no, thousands of these beautiful blooms… and then out of nowhere, I saw an elephant. Actually, it was that elephant-headed Indian man that I was familiar with but didn’t know what/who exactly it was. I was telling Tina all of this as it was happening.
I was silent for a couple of minutes while I took in what happened next. I saw a man, no a woman, no a man… it felt like a man but looked like a woman. He was East Indian and wearing an orange robe. I was somewhere sitting on the ground, cross-legged. He was in front of me, also cross-legged and floating just a few inches above the ground. I looked around me incredulous to find others sitting on both sides and behind me, all facing in this man’s direction.
When the session was over and I opened my eyes, Tina said that she thought I had just had a past-life experience. While I didn’t fully understand what had happened I couldn’t deny how vivid the images were, and how real the whole experience felt.
Soon after my experiences with Reiki I discovered that the deity I had seen in my treatment was Ganesha, Remover of Obstacles. I also received a flyer in the mail within weeks with an offer to take part in a Reiki Level I (first degree) class, which I signed up for without hesitation. Another flyer in the mail announced Hatha Yoga at the nearby Zen Buddhist temple. I signed up for this too. My Reiki journey had only just begun.
The following two years involved many set backs. My life was not going well, I had strained relations at home and work and I began suffering from depression and anxiety. I periodically returned to spirituality but the darkness had overwhelmed the light. I struggled on.
At the end of 2009 while browsing around a metaphysical shop I came across a section of books. A feature book had its own shelf, and as I gazed up to look there was a man on the cover staring back at me. It was him! It was the Indian man in the orange robe I had seen in my final Reiki session with Tina. His eyes pierced through me and I remembered him immediately. (Needless to say, I bought the book.)
Coming across that book transported me back to the experiences I had in Reiki and was a catalyst for my renewed spiritual interest and growth. Reiki and Yogananda were calling me home. Yogananda’s home study lessons taught me how to meditate. I had breakthroughs in meditation that lead me to knowledge and understanding that I had been seeking most of my adult life. Yet, while I continued to become a more spiritual person with occasional metaphysical experiences, it wasn’t until 2014 that my spiritual evolution became my primary goal.
Reiki, to me, is the omnipresent, omniscient, intelligent energy that permeates all living things. It is the energy of Source, our Creator, the almighty itself. As this energy comes from source it can never do any harm. You will always get exactly the amount you need during a treatment, and it always works whether you feel it or not. Sometimes you won’t even be able to explain how it worked, or how it changed you - you’ll just know that it did.
While I had been communicating clairaudiently with Spirit since 2015, I began to see, sense and receive messages from the Spirit realm in the summer of 2016 and began doing private readings. In had realized my abilities as a Medium through my Reiki practice.
Whenever I think of that first treatment, and how I flippantly disregarded the angelic realm, and compare it to the many Angels, Ascended Masters, Gurus, Deities, Saints, Guides and other high-level beings I’ve had the pleasure of meeting and bringing through for others now … well, it’s kind of funny how that worked out, isn’t it? I chuckle now as I look back at my ignorance.
To get the most benefit out of Reiki I suggest you find a practitioner you resonate with and follow the treatment plan they offer. For those who are energetically stuck or blocked, have chronic pain or dis-ease, several treatments may be necessary before results become obvious, however there have been occasions where just one treatment can effect profound results.
Reiki works. Reiki heals. And your experience will be as unique as you are.
Everything is energy.
My light honours your light…
Namaste.