What is Reiki?
Reiki is a system through which one may access and work with a powerful external source of ki (life energy). Like qi gong and other systems that work with life energy, this energy is often used for purposes of healing oneself and others, but it has a variety of other uses as well.
When working with the Reiki system, the ki energy will often appear sentient. It will seem to know where to go, how to heal, and will react to interference. It is not actually sentient, however. The guiding intelligence you are seeing is that of your own lower self, the subconscious mind, and also that of the person you are working on. It, being the mind most connected with both our physical and energetic bodies, often percives things that the conscious mind is unaware of. And it, in turn, may be guided in ints work by the higher self, our inner connection with our ancestors and the divine.
Other views of Ki and/or Reiki:
- "Energy, air, breath, wind, vital breath, vital essence... the activating energy of the universe." -Mantak Chia
- Ki is the essential life force of the Earth, the planets, the stars, and the heavens, and those sources of energy affect the living body's Ki.
- The person who is attuned as a reiki healer has his or her body's energy channels opened and cleared of obstructions. He or she recieves an increase in life energy for his or her own healing and becomes connected to the source of Reiki.
- It is sentient enough to know how and what to heal, but not always how to heal comfortably. "Reiki is intelligent, but not brilliant" -Rialian
- Reiki works on the subtle levels of the body that need healing as well as the mental, emotional, and physical.
- Reiki will heal the whole person, not just specific ailments the person may have.