Reiki For Dummies. Nina L. Paul

Ki Yoga Prana

How Reiki works is not exactly known. Various terms have been used to explain Reiki, including energy healing, spiritual healing, vibrational healing, or biofield therapy. All of these methods are based on the premise that Reiki healing occurs at multiple levels: the mind, body, emotions, and spirit.

       Energy healing is based on the idea that everything is energy, everything is connected, and deep healing occurs at the energetic level underlying the body.

       Vibrational healing is similar to sound healing, where the vibration of an energy or sound stimulates and balances the body.

       Spiritual healing occurs on the level of the spirit or soul.

       Biofield therapy works at the level of the biofield: the total energy field that supports the body’s function.

      

However you define it (and I think Reiki is all of the above), Reiki works on one’s energy and brings comfort, healing, and peace.

Discovering Your Body’s Energy Anatomy

      Modern-day science and medicine focus on the body as a complex machine composed of interacting parts. Maybe you’ve heard the old childhood song with the lyrics “The thigh bone’s connected to the hipbone. The hipbone’s connected to the backbone.” It tells one piece of our bodies’ interconnectness.

      You can see your body with your eyes, but imagine that there’s an energy in and around your body that you can’t see. Maybe you’re quite comfortable believing and talking about energy you can’t see with your eyes. Perhaps you’re in tune with your sixth sense or just “know” with your intuition that this energy exists.

Or maybe you’re more skeptical or suspicious of anything you can’t see. Admittedly, even though I’m scientifically trained, I’m one of those people who just “senses” that the body is really made of and is surrounded by energy. I don’t need scientific proof to know about energy. But it’s good to know that scientific research backs up the theory that the body is made of energy.

      

Einstein’s famous equation E=MC² expresses perfectly that matter — the body — is equal to energy. All you have to do to convert matter to energy in Einstein’s equation is multiply a fixed number (the constant, C) and square it to get the numerical representation of the matter (M) in energy form (E).

      I’ll leave the details of Einstein’s equation to physicists, but what this profound equation says is that matter and energy are the same thing. In other words, your body, which you can touch and feel, is matter. It’s also energy.

      Knowing the body’s physical and energetic anatomy

Because Reiki is concerned with treating the energy of the body, it helps to know both the body’s physical anatomy (see Figure 2-1) and how its energy anatomy has been described. Even without the information present in Figure 2-1, you’re probably already familiar with the location and workings of your body’s organs, so this section focuses mainly on your body’s energy fields. But do make sure you have a basic familiarity with the organs of the body. That way, if you have a Reiki recipient who tells you he’s healing from hepatitis C, you’ll know that you should spend some time treating the person’s right abdomen just below the ribs.

      

The left and right kidneys are in the back of the body, behind the abdomen. Each adrenal gland lies on top of one of the two kidneys. See Chapter 11 for the Reiki hand placement for the kidneys, adrenals, and back of the third chakra.

      

The energy systems discussed here are not technically part of how Reiki was originally taught (though Mikao Usui, the founder of the Reiki system, would have likely known about meridians). I include the information here because these systems are included in many Western-style Reiki classes, and many find it useful to use when performing Reiki treatments.

The energy system of the body has its own organization and so-called energy anatomy, just like the physical system. The anatomy of the body’s energy fields (see Figure 2-2) has been described as follows:

      Illustration by Kathryn Born

      FIGURE 2-1: Examining the major organs of the human body.

       Energetic layers of the body:Physical: What you can see and dissect of the human bodyEtheric: The energy field associated with the physical bodyEmotional: The energy field in charge of emotions and feelingsMental: Your thoughts and intellectSpiritual: Your connection with spirit and the divine These illustrations and descriptions of the body’s layers are simplified for this book. The spiritual body, for example, can extend far out in many layers, especially for people who have developed this part of themselves through meditation and other spiritual practice. Really, the body exists at multiple interacting levels.

       Aura, which contains all these energy layers.

       Meridians, which serve as an energy highway system throughout the body.

       Chakras, which act as energy centers in the body. A central column of energy runs through the body and connects the chakras.

Viewing the body this way, you can think of the chakras as organs and the meridians as blood vessels or lymphatic vessels that transport information. These parts of your body’s energy anatomy are described in more detail in the later sections “Pinpointing the acupuncture system: The meridians” and “Locating your energy centers: The chakras.”

      Sensing your body’s electromagnetic field: The aura

      The aura is the overall energy structure associated with an object in addition to the physical body of the object. The human body has an auric energy field that surrounds, penetrates, and extends outward. The aura is illustrated in Figure 2-2 with its component energy bodies. It includes the physical, etheric (the layer closest to the body), emotional, mental, and spiritual bodies. This gives a visual representation of the interaction of the mind, body, emotions, and spirit.

      Illustration by Kathryn Born

      FIGURE 2-2: Spotting the body’s energy fields and chakras.

You may have heard of auras in terms of colors surrounding the body and changes in color that can occur:

       Some people can see auras. Psychics and clairvoyants can see color, shapes, and sizes of auras. You can learn to see auras too. (Check out the next section.) Some believe that auras are indicators of health or illness.

       Changes in an aura may precede physical illness in the physical body.

       It’s believed that healing of the physical body must also include healing of the aura, or the disease