THE SACREDNESS OF REIKI
by Dory Dzinski |
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On March 25, 2009, a paper was published by the Committee on Doctrine of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops entitled Guidelines For Evaluating Reiki As An Alternative Therapy. While the Committee was comprised of bishops from all over the United States, it was our own Most Rev. William E. Lori, Bishop of Bridgeport, CT, who served as Committee Chairman. The findings in the paper concluded that Reiki is incompatible with Catholicism. The findings brought much sadness, confusion, and disbelief to the Reiki communities. I myself have trained many nuns, who find it extremely powerful and sacred. It is in response to those findings that I create this particular issue of The Door Opener. Within these pages are stories of healing, love, acceptance, holiness, divinity, and miracles that came about through the practice of Reiki. I hope that you, our readers, will be moved by these beautiful stories. Reiki is a hands-on (contact with the body or 1-2" above) healing modality that has no religious affiliation and has a lot of unknowns that accompany it. It is impossible to know what will happen during a treatment. It is also impossible to tell the client what it will feel like. Some feel heat, some feel energy waves, some see colors, etc. The energetic connection that exists between practitioner and client can never be duplicated. In no other time and space will this particular match occur; it is irrepeatable as there will always be something different the next time. Reiki is a healing modality, not promising a cure. While a cure is one of the arms off of the main category of healing, there are many other possibilities - acceptance, emotional relief, pain relief, release of unforgiveness, accelerated physical healing - the list is just endless. There are many wonderful Reiki trainers and practitioners who advertise their services in this magazine. It is rare to find someone these days who hasn't at least heard of Reiki. I hope that you, our readers, will call some of these folks and go for some Reiki sessions and get to experience the wonderful healing opportunities that it holds. The following are some of my own personal Reiki stories. I worked on an elderly man in Windsor about nine years ago. He was struggling with a rare form of cancer, and was doing quite well, having outlived his life expectancy by a couple of years already. He came in for visits every couple of weeks and I remember how we used to chat about his dog. How he loved that dog, and told me about his purchases of a new collar, new food treats, and how they took walks together. During our last session, about halfway through, we became surrounded by angels (I don't know if he saw them, as I did not speak of them when the session was over) - they were everywhere - layers and layers of them. The richness of the colors of their garments was indescribable. The elevation of the energy was profound and the clearness and brilliance of the golden-white light they were sending through was like nothing the human imagination could create. He could not see me start to cry, as he always laid on the table with his eyes closed and a gorgeous smile on his face. He took in the energy beautifully and loved his Reiki sessions. We said goodbye as usual. Two weeks later I received a call canceling his appointment, as he had passed the day before. I thought of those angels and knew that they had been encircling him, preparing him to go Home. I worked on a woman who had an unusual form of cancer and had outlived her life expectancy by seven years so far. She was treating at Massachusetts General Hospital and was under doctors' orders to receive Reiki treatment pre- and post-chemo treatments. She, too, loved her Reiki treatments. Her outlook was so bright and optimistic that she was asked to speak to groups at Mass General about how she balanced her emotional state and continued to love her life. She felt the Reiki sessions were a large part of it. However, she and her family felt that her seven years of "borrowed time" was coming to an end soon. While there was no physical decline present, they feared it, as they believed it would bring increased pain and suffering. One day, I received a call from the family telling me that she had passed during the day. She was in the living room, resting, and when a family member went into the room, she was gone. There was no pain or suffering, she just slipped away. One of my favorite clients of all was an elderly woman I worked on at a nursing care facility in a nearby town. Her granddaughter was one of my students and had asked me to provide Reiki sessions to her grandmother. She had suffered a stroke and communication was difficult. But when I gave her Reiki, she would put her hands over mine. Over time, I began hearing old fashioned songs in my mind when I worked on her; songs like Let Me Call You Sweetheart, In Your Easter Bonnet, and Moon River. After a few sessions of this, I began to hum or sing them out loud and very softly to her. I could tell she connected with them; her face changed, and she softened and listened. When the end was near, her granddaughter asked if I could go in on a particular day that we had not scheduled. I went in and there were no songs that day. Her breathing was erratic and most of the energy had already risen from her body. She appeared to be in no pain, and had her beloved stuffed animals surrounding her on the bed. I felt honored to be one of the last people to be with her. She slipped away a few hours after I had worked on her. My Uncle Walter was like a second father to me. He was in and out of the hospital for quick visits quite often during the final two years of his life. He was a feisty guy, and was combative with the nurses, hating to be in the hospital. I had never gone to the hospital to see him; I always visited after he got back home. Except for the final visit. I received word that he was admitted again, and this time was different. Things were "going wrong" and his prognosis wasn't good. The family began to gather. As I was one of the closest family members, I stood by his head. I had my hands on his chest, shoulder, or head at all times, of course, sending him Reiki. As the family stood around, there were murmurs of how compliant he was this time, no combativeness at all. This time seemed different somehow, they said, and there was a sense of peace about him. He passed that night, and I felt his life energy leave him. I was so grateful to have been there, giving him extra strength, as he made the transition. As hard as it was to have him leave, my soul was fed through that sacred final connection. Cynthia J. Brown, DNS, RN reminds us of the Reiki Ideals (the following is excerpted from her article and relocated in this Editorial). We are reminded that Reiki is not just a healing modality, but a lifestyle. Dr. Usui, the founder of Reiki, tells us that Reiki is: The miraculous medicine of all diseases Just for today, do not anger Do not worry and be filled with gratitude Devote yourself to your work. Be kind to people. Every morning and evening, join your hands in prayer. Pray these words to your heart and chant these words with your mouth Usui Reiki Treatment for the improvement of body and mind. Call up Dr. Oz's comments on Reiki on YouTube. He says that the most important alternative medicine of all is energy medicine. He has had Reiki practitioners in his operating room. His wife is a Reiki Master and works on their children and on Dr. Oz when he is out of sorts. On his TV show, Dr. Oz recommended that everyone should try Reiki. According to a 2007 NIH (National Institutes of Health) survey, "energy-healing" therapy is used by more than 1.2 million adults and 161,000 children annually. On June 3, 2008, an article was published in the Journal of Orthopaedic Research (Vol. 26, Issue 11, pgs. 1541-1546) about a study conducted at the UConn Health Center several years earlier. The study was financed by the National Institutes of Health Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine. Gloria A. Gronowicz, M.D. was one of those who conducted this three-year, vigorously designed study which suggests that test-tube cells grew better when people trained in Reiki touch therapy passed their hands over the containers. They did not touch the test tubes, or warm them, or affect them physically in any known way. Dr. Gronowicz presented the study in the Spring of 2009 during an NIH meeting in Austin, Texas. A professor of surgery at UConn with a doctorate in molecular biology from Columbia University, she was one of the last people who expected to find evidence of human non-touch therapy. The tightly controlled study suggests that patients could physically benefit from some sort of energy emanating from the skilled human hand. The NIH concluded that, "Clients may experience a deep state of relaxation during a Reiki session. They might also feel warm, tingly, sleepy, or refreshed. Reiki appears to be generally safe and no serious side effects have been reported." The results showed that Reiki had no effect on bone cancer cells, but that the process improved bone cell growth by a statistically significant percentage. Skin and tendon cells also grew under the Reiki regimen. "We saw a dose-response curve," Dr. Gronowicz said, an effect noted in tests of drugs and other conventional therapies. "The practice of energy medicine has been around for thousands of years," she said. She added that most previous studies of Reiki were small and "under-powered," but did show a slight effect. There are literally hundreds of books on Reiki and even more on energy medicine. A couple of suggestions are the following: The Body Electric by Robert O. Becker, MD and Gary Selden, ISBN 0-688-06971-1, deals with the measurement of "life forces," as well as Energy Medicine, The Scientific Basis by James L. Oschman, ISBN 0-443-06261-7. Dr. Oschman has presented on the topic of energy medicine at Grand Rounds at St. Francis Hospital several times. Reading and research are great. But the best way to find out about Reiki is to go and have a session yourself. Almost every hospital in Connecticut has energy medicine and/or Reiki. But by all means, don't wait to experience Reiki until you're in the hospital! Call one of our practitioners and make an appointment. Better yet - become a Reiki practitioner yourself. Remember, YOU are the strongest member of your own health care team! |