“Touch Me” – One Explanation of Reiki and How to Apply Touch to Aid the Healing Response
Healing touch has many names – Reiki, Te a Te, Touch for Health, Qi Gong, etc.. Self help techniques to get you started.
While rubbing “Traumeel” ointment into my aching wrist after a recent fall on the ice (January of 2011), I realized how important to healing the act of touch is.
Healing by touch is called many things. When we were young and our mothers kissed or fathers rubbed our boo boo, this could be termed parental healing touch. When I was studying to be a massage therapist, the books talked about cave dwellers rubbing injuries as the first application of “massage”, another term for healing touch. The Bible speaks of Jesus “laying on of hands” and the healing effects therein experienced by the recipients. “Reiki”, “Qi-Gong”, “Pranic Healing”, “Touch for Health”, are just a few of the names given to healing touch that is now advertised as “alternative medicine” available to the public.
In the “Inochi/Kototama” meridian therapy medicine that I practice, “Te a Te” is the term for the healing “hands on” methods used. “Te a Te” can be translated as hand to hand, or as spirit to spirit. Reiki can be translated as universal life energy. In the tradition of the Kototama (philosophy regarding the “soul” of words), my understanding of the word “te” is first action of life power. That makes sense to me when I consider the act of healing. Reiki, I would translate to mean circling life power and life will (rei) brightening life will (ki). In a nut shell, life will brightening its existence with the empowerment of its true self. That also makes sense to me when discussing the ability to heal. Homeostasis is our true nature. Through the experiences of life in form and the five physical senses, we may lose our sense of balance or center. However, just as nothing is totally yin or yang, even in states of imbalance there is the seed of balance.
Prior to my studying with Dr. Thomas Duckworth in the Inochi/Kototama tradition of Asian energetic medicine, I studied with Jeanne Greening (Reiki Master), now of Roanoke VA. I wanted something to help me better serve my clients while honing my massage skills. In the Reiki tradition, lineage is important. The ancestors who come before us should always be acknowledged when possible. That lineage for Jeanne Greening is: Dr. Mikao Usui (founder of Reiki), Dr. Chujiro Hayashi, Hawayo Takata, Phyllis Lei Furumoto, Ojela Frank, and Jeanne’s teacher Ruth Tishler. I will leave it to another article to honor the ancestors of Inochi/Kototama medicine.
I feel it important to talk about Reiki as I have been practicing it now since 1989. The beauty of Reiki is that it is inherent in all of us. Going to a third degree Reiki practitioner (master/teacher) to be attuned to Reiki is helpful. It is not mandatory to the act of healing. By receiving the attunements from a Reiki “master”, blockages are minimized to allow the energy to flow more freely. In Kototama/Inochi medicine practice, we sit quietly, with hands slightly apart, clearing our minds, and breathing deeply into our Tan Den to achieve the same effect. All of us have the capacity to help ourselves or others heal with simple touch. Just place your hands gently and let the love flow from your center (Tan Den). Love and gratitude flowing are what I keep in my mind while performing Reiki for patients and family.
Reiki was so named by Dr. Mikao Usui who rediscovered this healing method in the ancient Sanskrit texts. As there are many versions of his story already available on the internet and in books, I will simply state my experiences with this powerful healing method.
With second degree Reiki, a practitioner has the ability to help spark another’s healing capability over long distances and or empower objects with healing energy to be used at will by the recipient. Over the years, I have been asked to send energy to those in need on many occasions. And I have “charged” objects with Reiki healing energy to be used by the recipient as they felt necessary. Recently, I was unable to see a friend who was in her final stage of life. More for myself, as I wanted to be near her at such an important time in her life journey, I charged a cherished comforter and offered it to the family. They graciously accepted it. Later I was told that it had helped her in easing her discomfort. It helped me to know that I had that connection with her. The family gifted it back to me after her passing. I find great comfort in it.
Since my completion of the Reiki I and II courses, I have felt firsthand the energy flow between my hands and the recipient. I have witnessed what some would call a miracle and others have yet to explain with science. Those with whom I work often report a great warmth. I have seen people who are greatly stressed from pain and or anxiety achieve a great calm due to a Reiki session. Does it heal? I have no scientific validation as yet to point to. I can only tell you that through my experiences, I believe that it does spark in the recipient their innate ability to heal. I have seen people improve. Is it the “placebo effect”? I don’t know. And I have to tell you that I feel strongly that all tools to help oneself heal within reach should be utilized. “Placebo effect” should be utilized and encouraged. I saw a “Nova” on the Public Television station. They were talking about a woman who had chosen chemotherapy. When she was receiving it, she affirmed that it was love penetrating her cells and healing her. She had a very positive outcome according to that show. We all have the power within to heal ourselves. What ever tool we choose, we should commit to completely. Having said that, I have seen skeptical patients benefit from Reiki and the other energy tools I have at hand.
In Oct. of 2011, I revisited my Reiki teacher. Jeanne Greening provided me the attunement for Reiki III and instructed me on the art of teaching Reiki. I have now committed to the path of mastery of this energetic medical art form, as well as, the energetic medical art form that is Kototama/Inochi Meridian Therapy. Again I state that as of yet I know of no scientific proving of the benefits of energetic medicine. I can only speak anecdotally and in regards to my own experiences personally and in my medical practice.
As of yet, I have found no “one thing” that is a sure bet. In scientific medicine they have successes and failures. I have successes and failures in my practice. As I have continued to hone skills to be a better conduit of healing, I have searched in the realm of scientifically based modalities and in modalities that science has yet to understand. With all the tools I have studied, Reiki has been the undercurrent. It has enhanced my massage practice. When I began studying Inochi/Kototama Meridian Therapy, I was asked to put aside the other tools I had, to better learn the one I was presented. I did that for many years. Now I am embracing my Reiki lineage and letting that practice and the practice of “Te a Te” enhance each other.
When I began my studies with Dr. Thomas Duckworth, he said ” there are three kinds of patients: ones who will get well with no intervention; ones who will get well with any intervention; ones who need a specific intervention”. I am looking for those who need my skills. Whether you are looking for homeopathy; for meridian therapy and its tools of acupuncture, moxibustion, and te a te; for therapeutic massage; or for Reiki (absentia healing, training, or therapy), I am here to serve.
And in that vein, here are some self help techniques using one’s own healing energy and touch empowered by breathing.
Lay flat on your back. Place your hands comfortably over your Tan den (the area two fingers below the navel). As you breathe in, allow the breath to fill and lift your abdomen under your hands. Then allow the rest of the expansion into the chest. Breathe out. Quiet your thoughts. Let them be like clouds on a blue sky, passing by without a name. Feel the weight of your hands on your abdomen. As your hands warm, allow the heat to penetrate deeply into your abdomen. As you breathe in, the warmth culminates under your hands. As you breathe out, allow that warmth to spread up through the lungs and then on throughout your body. Practice this at least five minutes a day.
When applying topical treatments, breathe deeply into your Tan den as described above. Keep the thought of gratitude in your mind. Focus on the soothing sensation your hands bring to the area.
May these simple cost effective techniques serve you well.