Category: Reiki And Science

Is it ethical for nurses to perform Reiki on their patients?

1/1/2019

While there is nothing unethical about using Reiki, it is important for nurses and other healthcare practitioners to follow a few basic rules to make sure that their conduct is ethical and appropriate.

Helping others is at the core of the nursing profession, and I am sure that every nurse who has ever done Reiki for a patient has only done it with the patient’s best interests at heart.

As someone who has seen first-hand the incredible positive effects that Reiki may have on people with various health conditions (scientific research to back this up is still lagging), I can tell you that for many nurses who know Reiki, it may feel unethical not to offer it. How could you not offer a patient something that has no side effects and that the nurse knows could potentially help the patient tremendously?

Because of this, many caring nurses who practice Reiki and other holistic modalities may accidentally cross some ethical and professional lines while trying to help their patients.

Here are a few basic rules that may help avoid some of these ethical dilemmas:

BE FAMILIAR WITH REIKI LAW Reiki is a beautiful, gentle healing art, but we don’t want to get into trouble or find ourselves in an ethical conundrum doing it. Each Reiki practitioner, whether or not he or she works in a healthcare setting, should be familiar with federal, state, and local laws that regulate the practice of Reiki. Unfortunately, Reiki laws in many places are very restrictive and/or contradictory. Until this changes, not only offering it to patients may be illegal in some areas, but it may also be unethical to perform Reiki without following specific rules outlined by the law. Giving Reiki ‘illegally’ would certainly go against professional nursing conduct. Learning what you can and cannot do with Reiki according to the law is each nurse's professional responsibility.

KNOW THE COMPANY POLICY REGARDING REIKI The nurse should confirm with management at her workplace ahead of time that doing Reiki for patients does not violate any company policies. Since Reiki (regardless of how amazing it is) is not a standard part of nursing care, it may be against the company policy to perform a ‘non-nursing’ activity including Reiki during working hours (especially while patients nursing needs have not been met). Giving Reiki while neglecting nursing obligations is unprofessional and can be considered unethical as well. If the nurse’s workplace does not allow Reiki, the nurse can advocate for a change in the company policy, as opposed to doing Reiki secretly. That would be the appropriate course of action. Also, on a side note, performing non-nursing tasks (including Reiki) for patients may cause boundary excursions and violations in some cases, and so it is important for nurses to be mindful of that possibility as well.

AVOID SELF REFERRAL Potential boundary violations may also arise when Reiki is offered to patients outside of the working hours, on nurses’ own time. In general, it may be unethical for a nurse to offer her patients to come for paid Reiki (or other) services. There are circumstances, where it may be unavoidable (like in really tiny communities), but for the most part, I would advise against self-referral because of the potential conflict of interest. Offering free Reiki to patients during nurse’s time off is not necessarily unethical, but it pushes professional boundaries, so extra mindfulness regarding this would be a good idea.

GIVE INFORMATION ABOUT REIKI FROM A MEDICAL PERSPECTIVE It is important that the patient is given information about Reiki, and that it is stated that Reiki is not a scientific/medical concept and that while many patients who receive Reiki have had amazing results, Reiki does not diagnose or treat any medical condition or ailment. As healthcare practitioners, we do not want to mislead our patients into believing that Reiki will “heal” or “cure” them or that it has been proven by science (a lot more research is still needed to prove it, and we should not jump ahead of ourselves, regardless of our personal experiences with Reiki). Being in a medical setting, we have a professional obligation to share information from a medical perspective. We can always share our experiences with Reiki, but they should be qualified as our experiences as opposed to medical or scientific facts. The patients themselves can find plenty of information online about the benefits of Reiki as described by non-medical professionals. They can also choose to experience those benefits for themselves.

GET CONSENT The nurse should always get consent from each patient (or patient representative, when appropriate) before doing Reiki. It would be unethical to perform Reiki (or do anything else for that matter) against the patient’s will. Depending on the organization where you work, that consent may be a part of other consent forms signed by the patient ahead of time, but it would be the nurse’s responsibility to know this, as well as to confirm with the patient that they open to Reiki (patients should have the right to refuse it). On a side note, many organizations may not take all the details of Reiki law into consideration when creating their standard forms and may not follow proper consent procedures for Reiki. That brings us back to point #1 - it would be the nurse's responsibility to know what the laws are and whether there are any specific Reiki consents that are mandated by those laws.

ASK FOR PERMISSION TO TOUCH (IF DONE) Since many Reiki styles involve touch, it’s important to check with each patient if there are any areas of the body that they do not want to be touched and to follow the patient’s wishes in that regard.

MAKE SURE THAT ALL YOUR REIKI TECHNIQUES ARE APPROPRIATE FOR EACH PATIENT There are many Reiki styles and numerous Reiki techniques. Some involve touch, others may involve massage-like motion, some may have the patient lying in a specific position, etc., etc., etc. It would be unethical to follow your Reiki style’s procedure exactly if the patient is unable to tolerate it. For example, if the patient is unable to lie face down, he or she should not be ‘forced’ to do it even if it is a part of the ‘regular’ Reiki ’routine’ that the nurse is used to. It would be unethical to use a Reiki technique that’s not appropriate for a specific patient.

BENEFITS SHOULD OUTWEIGH THE RISKS As the previous example indicates, nurses should be mindful of the appropriateness of the Reiki techniques they use for each patient. Although there are no circumstances that I can think of where Reiki itself would not be of benefit (at least in my experience), it is always important to approach Reiki from the perspective of potential benefits vs. potential harm. The main ethical question/challenge I foresee in this category would be not doing Reiki when it could be of benefit. For example, if a patient is open to Reiki, Reiki is allowed by law, the nurse knows that Reiki could relieve this patient’s suffering (benefit), the nurse knows that not doing Reiki would result in ongoing suffering (harm) - should the nurse do it even if it is against the company policy? I would recommend working on changing the policy and working with your organization’s ethics committee.

PATIENT VS. FAMILY If a clear-minded patient wants Reiki and you are allowed to do it by law and by your company, but the family refuses it, the ethical thing to do would be to follow the patient’s wishes. The opposite is also true - if a clear-minded patient does not want Reiki, but the family requests it, you should follow the patient’s wishes. In the same scenarios except for the patient being confused/unable to make decisions, follow the advance directives and/or family wishes (one may supersede the other depending on where you are practicing nursing).

REIKI ABILITY CANNOT BE ‘TURNED OFF’ The final and perhaps the most peculiar ethical aspect of Reiki in nursing relates to the fact that it is impossible to ‘turn off’ one’s Reiki ability. So anyone who comes in contact with a nurse who has had proper Reiki training will naturally receive Reiki during the nurse-patient interaction - any touch from the ‘Reiki nurse’ (and even proximity) will result in the patient getting some Reiki without the patient or the nurse even thinking about it. I’ve mentioned earlier that it is important for a nurse to get consent from each patient before giving Reiki, by that I mean that if a nurse offers a complete full-on Reiki session to a patient she must obtain proper consent. However, there is no way to get consent for Reiki every moment of a normal nurse-patient contact. Reiki will be given naturally in those moments - there is no way to prevent it - and I do not see any way to consent or not consent to it during normal patient care. Of course, there is absolutely no harm in getting Reiki. So patients should not be worried about inadvertently being harmed by Reiki if their nurses happen to know it. That’s not how it works.

There could be many other types of ethical scenarios of Reiki in nursing, but it is impossible to predict all of them. Some ethical questions and dilemmas are easy to answer and resolve, while others may be more challenging. Each situation is unique and must be addressed in a unique way while staying true to the fundamentals of professional and ethical behavior.

The bullet points above are a few basic ethical suggestions regarding using Reiki in nursing practice and they closely relate to the general principles of nursing ethics, which are justice, beneficence, nonmaleficence, accountability, fidelity, autonomy, and veracity. You can read more about these pillars of nursing ethics HERE.

Hope this helps bring clarity to the ethics of using Reiki in a nursing profession.

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Reiki. Lost in translation.

6/1/2018

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Reiki was developed in Japan, and originally was passed on from teacher to student in oral tradition. It is no surprise that once it was introduced to the Western world via Hawaii, that many aspects of Reiki practice have continued to develop based on mis-translation and misunderstanding of various aspects the Japanese language and culture.

With much already 'lost in translation', another layer of miscommunication is added when Reiki practitioners try to explain Reiki to anyone with a scientific background. I hope this post will help clarify and prevent some of the common misunderstandings and miscommunications.

WHAT IS REIKI?

First things first, the word "Reiki" ( 靈氣 ) is an ancient Japanese word that has a combination of meanings that can roughly be explained as the "spiritual power of the universe" or the "universal life force energy" or "mystical energy of the cosmos" to name a few. There is a lot more meaning imbedded in the word "Reiki" than the literal translation, which is "spirit energy". As you can see, the literal translation certainly does not convey the full meaning of the word. This is not uncommon with Kanji (the Japanese hieroglyphs that have been adopted from the Chinese language).

In the Western world, we can be quite literal, and we can easily misunderstand the meanings behind the Japanese words. We have to make an effort not only to know the translation of the word 靈氣("Reiki"), but also to take the time to comprehend the meaning. For most Reiki practitioners, it would be something that one knows and feels, but something that might be hard to explain. It is that force of nature that connects everything, something that is a part of all of us and of the universe, flowing and shifting, unseen to the naked eye.

THE REIKI METHOD

In the 1920s Mikao Usui, the founder of Reiki, has developed a treatment method utilizing the Reiki energy (靈氣). He called it Shin-Shin Kaizen Usui Reiki Ryoho or 心身改善臼井靈氣療法 - "Usui treatment method for improvement of body and mind".

Over the years, the name of this treatment method has been simplified to just "Reiki" or "Usui Reiki". With that alteration we've lost the deeper meaning of the technique that Mikao Usui has developed.

The method was focusing on improvement of the body and mind using the existing energy of the universe, and by skipping half of the method title, we might be missing something important. We all have Reiki, it is a part of us and of the universe, and it naturally flows and permeates everything in the world. We are not 'giving' our energy to our Reiki clients, or removing 'bad energy' - we simply learn to facilitate the natural flow that helps bring the client to a more natural state of being on a physical and mental/emotional levels. When we know that what we are practicing is not simply "Reiki", but "Shin-Shin Kaizen Usui Reiki Ryoho" it reminds us of that.

IS IT REALLY 1, 2, 3?

In addition to dropping the official name of the Reiki method, we have also made another significant shift away from the original Reiki teaching by relabeling the Reiki levels. In the West, we approach things in a mathematical manner. That's why most people are familiar with Reiki 1, Reiki 2, Reiki 3, which is a very Western way of looking at the stages of learning.

When Mikao Usui taught Reiki, he called the levels "Shoden", "Okuden", and "Shinpiden", which reflected the nature and meaning of each training level, connecting the students to Reiki in a deeper, more intuitive way. In the Japanese culture, it is the meaning that counts, not the number in the teaching sequence.

So what do Shoden, Okuden and Shinpiden stand for?

The "den" part (傳) in Shoden, Okuden and Shinpiden means "propagate" or "transmit" as in "teaching". "Sho" (初) in "shoden" means "first time" or "beginner". "Oku" (奥) in "Okuden" means "inner", "inside". "Shinpi" in "Shinpiden" is comprised of two Kanji "神" which means "divinity", "spirit", "gods", and "秘" which means "hidden", "secret", "mystery".

So putting it all together, we uncover the true meanings of the Reiki levels that go beyond the literal translation:

Shoden 初傳 - first time learning (conveying beginner teachings)
Okuden 奥傳 - inner teaching (deeper studies)
Shinpiden 神秘傳 - can be interpreted vaguely as something like "sharing of hidden spiritual meanings, connecting to source"

Beautiful, isn't it?

LOOK AT ME! I AM MASTER!

Another very common misunderstanding that arose from the literal translation from Japanese is the concept of "Reiki Master". In Mikao Usui's time, when someone completed the Shinpiden level, that person became a "Shihan" (師範).

The meaning of the word "Shihan" literally means a "teacher" or "expert master instructor". "師" is "teacher/instructor/master" and "範" is "example/model", so overall, the idea is that a Shihan is an expert teacher, who also sets an example for his or her students, not only an expert in his field. Shihan is someone who shares a traditional teaching and who is a role model for others.

The "Shihan" title carries a lot of responsibility without an ego attached to it. This goes significantly beyond the common perception of the Reiki Master being a "Reiki expert" who may or may not be teaching Reiki.

FILLING IN THE GAPS

There have been many other aspects of Reiki practice and teaching that were too hard to translate, or to replicate (without being able to write them down in class). Many were difficult to understand because of the vast differences between the Western mindset and the Japanese culture.

Often times, in order to fill some of those gaps in understanding, Reiki teachers in the West had to come up with their own Reiki concepts and Reiki symbols that were more 'palatable' to their students. It is not surprising, considering that Reiki is deeply rooted in the language and culture that is foreign to us. It is also possible that the simplicity of Reiki may have lead to changes created by those Reiki teachers who felt that it was too simple in its original form and that by adding complexity they were adding value.

These mistranslations, additions, and misunderstandings range from minor to significant, and I am not going to cover all of them here. You may learn about some of them during your Reiki training. Regardless of any of the changes that may have taken place over the years, Reiki remains a beautiful mind-body healing art, and regardless where you learn it, I am certain that you will feel that.

Language and cultural barriers can certainly lead to misunderstanding of the Reiki teaching, but there is also another element that adds to the confusion surrounding Reiki. There is strong dividing force between the world of Reiki and the world of science, and it often leads to many miscommunications between the Reiki practitioners, their clients and the medical professionals.

SPEAKING THE LANGUAGE OF SCIENCE?

In Reiki, we use many terms that are often the same words that are used by scientists and medical doctors; however, it is critical to understand that although the words are the same, the meaning behind them is often different. By having this understanding as Reiki practitioners, not only we can avoid provoking the 'eye rolling' that we encounter once in a while from the medical professionals or people who are not familiar with Reiki, but we can also heal the communication gap that feeds the Reiki skeptics.

Here are some examples of the words, that we should use in a mindful way:

"ENERGY"

"Energy" - whenever we say "energy healing", "channeling energy", "I can feel the energy", it makes no sense from a scientific point of view, subsequently discrediting us, as well as anything we say and everything we do, to most people with a scientific background. The reason for this is the fact that the word "Energy" is a scientific term and it is something concrete and measurable, just like distance is concrete and can be measured in miles or meters, temperature is concrete and can be measured in Fahrenheit and Celsius, "energy" is a very concrete concept that can be measured.
When we talk about "Energy" from the Reiki perspective, we are talking an abstract concept of the life-force energy, commonly known as "Chi" in Chinese and "Ki" (as in Rei-Ki) in Japanese. It is the kind of "Energy" that may represent multiple concepts and has not yet been scientifically found or measured.
Naturally, we have to be mindful when using the word "Energy" when talking with someone who can easily misunderstand us. Being aware that Reiki practitioners and scientists are simply using the same word to describe a two completely different concepts can help us be more mindful about it.

"BLOCK" ,"TOXINS"

Whenever we mention to a client that there may be a "block" somewhere or whenever we talk in class about "toxins", we have to be mindful of the fact, that this too, is a completely different concept from the scientific concept of blocks and toxins. Again, we are using the same words, but our meaning is different from the meaning of the medical science.
Medically-speaking the concept of "blockage" is very concrete and it means we can find it with diagnostic tests. When we talk about "blocks" in Reiki, we are talking about something abstract, and not about a "block" that can be medically found or understood.
Similarly, when we talk about "toxins" in medicine, we are referring to very specific chemicals, as opposed to in Reiki, where it is a vague and abstract concept.
We have to be very mindful when we use these terms, if we wish to avoid misleading our clients, who have no way of discerning the differences between Reiki "blocks" and "toxins" from what they may hear from their medical professionals. When talking to clients or students, starting any conversation about "blocks" and "toxins" with a simple statement like "from the Reiki perspective," can help us avoid confusion, prevent misleading our clients and students, as well as help avoid the 'eye-rolling' reaction from the medical professionals.

"TREATMENT" ,"HEALING"

When Mikao Usui developed Reiki he called it 療法, which literally means "healing/treatment" "method". We live in a different world now.
Today, when we say "treatment" it might imply that we are a licensed medical professional, which in turn might equate to us practicing medicine without a license. In many states in the US and in other countries there are laws that protect the public from self-proclaimed "doctors". Obviously when we do Reiki, we do it to help others, and not to pose as doctors. Our communication has to reflect that. Through being mindful of which words we use, we can continue helping others without putting ourselves in the position of potentially breaking the law.
We can choose to use other words like "Reiki method", "Reiki technique", "Reiki services" that are a less charged and still convey what we do. Of course laws are different everywhere, and I am not a legal expert, so I can't advise anyone what's OK and not OK to say or do, but I hope this can blog help increase our awareness and mindfulness of how we express ourselves for the benefit of all.

SO WHAT'S NEXT?

Reiki teaching is spreading rapidly, and with so many schools and styles of Reiki around many people go for the quickest and the easiest option to learn it. Some of us only use Reiki on ourselves, others on friends and family, many have found the path in Reiki and do it full time.

I strongly believe that as practitioners and teachers we have the responsibility to continue learning more, uncovering what we may have missed in our original training, developing ourselves on a mind-body and soul levels, and whenever possible connecting to the origins of Usui Reiki Ryoho, uncovering the treasures that may have been lost in translation over the years. When we grow, we have a positive impact on others around us, and on the world. We can develop as individuals and as a Reiki community with joy and gratitude.

THANK YOU!

In conclusion, I'd like to thank everyone I've learned from, my teachers, my clients, and my students. I feel grateful for the challenges I've faced as a doctor who practices Reiki - the challenge of learning to understand the non-scientific language of Reiki and the challenge of facing the negative perceptions of my physician-colleagues who view the path I am taking (practicing Medicine and practicing and teaching Reiki) as a 'strange' one at best. These challenges have helped me grow and have helped me develop a deeper understanding of Reiki, of myself, and of allopathic medicine.

I am grateful for my unique position of being able to be a "translator" between the two worlds of western medical science and of Reiki, the special Japanese holistic method for improvement of body and mind.

Thank you for being a part of my journey and allowing me to be a part of yours!

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Is Reiki a Placebo?

1/1/2018

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A placebo effect is a psychological phenomenon, in which the recipient perceives an improvement in condition due to personal expectations, rather than the treatment itself. Generally speaking, the more serious the treatment, the higher the extent of the placebo effect. For example, the placebo effect from a ‘fake’ cream will likely be less than from a ‘fake’ pill, which will likely be less than from a ‘fake’ surgery.

The only way to discern whether or not an improvement of a specific condition from a specific treatment is due to a placebo effect is through clinical research. There is no other way of knowing whether or not the effectiveness of treatment (including Reiki) is due to a placebo effect.

Personally, I have a lot of experience with Reiki and based on my observational experience, I am certain that the effectiveness of Reiki is significantly above the placebo effect (and trust me, as a medical doctor and a clinical research physician I approach Reiki with a critical eye, just as I do any other type of treatment).

Unfortunately, in spite of numerous studies on the effectiveness of Reiki, there is no definitive proof that it it is helpful beyond a placebo effect. For the most part, this is due to research of inadequate quality. To quote the analysis of multiple studies on Reiki by Sondra vanderVaart et. al (Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.):

“The serious methodological and reporting limitations of limited existing Reiki studies preclude a definitive conclusion on its effectiveness. High-quality randomized controlled trials are needed to address the effectiveness of Reiki over placebo.”

It is not surprising, since most researchers are not Reiki practitioners and most Reiki practitioners are not researchers. How can you study something you know very little about, and how can you create a high quality clinical trial on something you know a lot about if you don’t know anything about research?

Just because the clinical research data is limited, it does not mean that the effectiveness of Reiki comes purely from a placebo effect. I have no doubt, that with high quality studies, we will be able to demonstrate clinically significant difference between the effectiveness of Reiki for a wide range of indication vs. placebo. It is simply a question of time and high quality studies.

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Is There Scientific Proof That Reiki Works?

10/1/2017

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For a short answer, scroll down to “summary”. Continue reading for a more detailed explanation.

Personally, as a medical doctor and a clinical researcher, as well as someone who has observed Reiki in action for over a decade, I have enough observational evidence to be certain that Reiki is indeed effective for a wide range of indications, and even though I have not statistically analyzed the observational data, I am also certain that the effectiveness goes beyond the placebo effect.

However, my information is based on my own observations, and it will not, and cannot be accepted by the scientific community as proof of Reiki effectiveness, since this type of evidence has a very low weight in the hierarchy of scientific research. If on the other hand, I were to conduct a multi-center placebo-controlled, reproducible clinical trial, then its results may count for something.

In general, in order to demonstrate the effectiveness of any treatment modality for any indication, it takes multiple well-designed, high quality clinical trials per indication. (An indication means the specific issue we are trying to study and address. For example, if we are studying whether or not Reiki is effective for headaches, headaches would be an example on an indication.)

To conduct high quality research in Reiki takes lots of time and money, well-trained staff (in Reiki, and in how to be a practitioner in a clinical trial), high quality study design, proper statistical analysis, and so on. The combination of all of these and other factors is at the core of a high quality clinical trial that can produce valid results. Many high quality trials are needed, so that they can be eventually analyzed together, to convince the scientific community that a particular healing modality (Reiki, a specific medication, etc.) is indeed effective for something.

As of now, there have been numerous studies of Reiki effectiveness, and although some of the studies do show some effectiveness, overall, at this point, given the limitations and current low level of Reiki research, from a medical/scientific perspective, when the available studies have been analyzed, Reiki has been found to be neither harmful nor helpful.

This does not mean that Reiki does not work. It only means that given currentresearch, we can only conclude that it is not harmful (great news for Reiki recipients and practitioners), and we cannot conclude at this point that it is effective (OK news, considering limitations of the available clinical trials). This means that based on the available clinical evidence, a medical doctor will generally neither recommend, nor deter patients who seek Reiki treatment from getting it.

This viewpoint on the effectiveness of Reiki might appear nearsighted from the perspective of the Reiki community; however, if we want scientific proof, then we have to accept that individual Reiki experiences, no matter how plentiful and how remarkable, are not enough. It will take a lot of high quality research to get the scientific proof that’s acceptable to the scientific community. The good news is that if and when better evidence of Reiki effectiveness is available, the scientific community will accept it and will even recommended it.

We are not there. Yet.

Below are some of the obstacles to demonstrating Reiki effectiveness scientifically:

The majority of clinical studies of Reiki are not very well designed. If a clinical trial that demonstrates effectiveness of Reiki is poorly designed, that study will be disregarded by the medical and scientific community, since no matter what the results are, if they are not valid, we can’t base our practice on them. (This is also true for drug trials and for any scientific research in general.)
There are objective challenges in research methods that can be used to conduct clinical research in Reiki (I don’t want to get into too much detail here, since it will result in a very long tangent).
Reiki practitioners are generally not researchers and researchers are generally not Reiki practitioners. This would be equivalent to a research study where the practitioners and the researchers do not speak (or read, or write) the same language. Challenging, for sure!
Funding for clinical trials in Reiki is limited.
The numbers of participants in most Reiki trials are usually too low (due to the costs involved and other constraints), which often produces results that are not statistically significant, and therefore meaningless.
There are other, smaller challenges as well.

In summary, based on currently available, limited data from clinical trials evaluating Reiki effectiveness, we cannot conclude that it is effective from a scientific point of view (we do not have enough high quality data).
More high quality research is needed in order to determine whether or not Reiki is effective with a high level of scientific certainty, and beyond individual experiences and observations.

Disclaimer: I am replying to this question from a scientific point of view and not from the Reiki point of view.

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Shedding Some Light On Reiki Healing

4/1/2017

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Reiki (靈氣)is a Japanese word for “universal life force energy”. The literal translation of the word “Rei” is “soul”/“spirit”. “Ki” means life force energy, which is a very common concept in many Asian cultures.

The original Reiki healing method was developed by Mikao Usui sensei in the 1920s in Japan, and he called it “Shin Shin Kaizen Usui Reiki Ryoho”, which means “Usui Reiki treatment method for body and mind”. Mikao Usui unknowingly connected with the Reiki energy as he was searching for enlightenment. He discovered that laying hands on a problem area of one’s body had a healing effect, and he started helping others using his newfound ability. Eventually, he also developed a way to teach Reiki to others, by helping them tap into the Reiki healing ability. Mikao Usui passed away in 1926, but through Dr. Hayashi, who was one of Usui sensei’s students, Reiki came to America (Hawaii), and eventually spread to the world. Since then, many new Reiki styles have been created, but most, if not all, have the same underlying concept of tapping into the universal life force energy and laying on hands to allow the natural internal self-healing process.

I’d like to clarify, that Reiki “energy” is not a scientific concept. Also from a scientific and medical perspective laying on hands should not have any beneficial effect beyond a placebo, or feeling comforted perhaps. However, I have to tell you that from my own decade-long scientific observation of Reiki helping patients in hospice, and later on through personally utilizing the Reiki method that I have learned from the Jikiden Reiki Institute in Japan, I have absolutely no doubt in my mind that Reiki can have a profound positive effect on a person’s physical, emotional and spiritual state, all of which go far beyond the potential placebo effect.

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How Effective is Reiki?

2/1/2017

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Reiki is a Japanese holistic healing method for body and mind, and it can be very effective on a physical, emotional and spiritual levels.

There is a fairly large number of scientific publications on Reiki effectiveness; however, due to limitations of currently published studies, Reiki has not yet been scientifically proven to be effective. That does not mean that it is not effective, it simply means that there is not enough scientific evidence available today to demonstrate its effectiveness.

As a hospice doctor, I have observed Reiki in action at an inpatient hospice unit for over a decade, and was so impressed with how helpful it was to my patients (way beyond what one would expect from a placebo effect), that I have learned Reiki myself and now personally utilizing it.

One day, I am sure, scientific research will catch up, and the effectiveness of Reiki will not only be clear in practice, but also from a scientific point of view.

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Does Reiki Heal?

1/1/2017

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I’d like like to answer your question from a medical/scientific point of view and from the Reiki experience perspective.

Reiki is a natural Japanese wellness method for body and mind that involves a light touch. As a medical doctor, I can tell you that from a medical perspective, there should be no healing effects (other than relaxation, perhaps) from any method that involves hands-on healing; however, I have observed Reiki in action for well over a decade now, and I have no doubt in my mind about its positive effects on healing.

Technically and legally speaking, we should probably refrain from using the word “healing”, since it implies scientific/medical evidence of effectiveness of a licensed clinical treatment modality, which Reiki is not. It is neither scientifically proven, nor it is a licensed healing profession. I would like to add however, that although currently, there is no scientific proof that Reiki heals anything, I am certain that it is only a matter of time before we will learn otherwise.

From my observation of Reiki as a medical scientist, I can tell you that people receiving Reiki report improvements in physical symptoms, reduction in emotional suffering, and they also often share that they gain clarity or have a healing spiritual experience, not to mention feeling more relaxed and better overall with Reiki. I would say that probably about 50% of people receiving Reiki say that it felt “amazing”. I personally see Reiki as a mind-body-and-soul healing art, and in my experience, not only it can be very helpful for healing on multiple levels, but it appears to be beneficial significantly beyond the placebo effect.

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Is it ethical for nurses to perform Reiki on their patients?

Reiki. Lost in translation.

Is Reiki a Placebo?

Is There Scientific Proof That Reiki Works?

Shedding Some Light On Reiki Healing

How Effective is Reiki?

Does Reiki Heal?

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