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I Timothy 3:15
Reiki
David Cloud
www.wayoflife.org, April 2016
A study on alternative medicine in the January 2008 report in U.S. News & World Report focused on the rapid growth of Reiki (pronounced ray-key). The report says the number of Reiki practitioners worldwide is in the millions, with half a million in the United States and over a million in Germany.
According to the American Hospital Association, 15% of hospitals were using Reiki in 2007.
A report in The Washington Post for May 16, 2014, was entitled "Reiki Goes Mainstream."
The practice has been praised by Oprah and Dr. Oz.
Reiki is an occultic practice that allegedly channels "universal healing energy" for human benefit such as relaxation and physical healing. The word "reiki" is Japanese for "spiritually guided life force energy."
It was developed in Japan in the early 20th century by Mikao Usui. During a 21 day program of fasting, meditation, chanting, and other pagan contemplative practices he allegedly experienced "the great Reiki energy entering" into him and found that he could use the energy to heal others. It came in the form of a light that moved toward him and entered the middle of his forehead (Mohan Makkar, The New Reiki Magic, p. 5). Usui allegedly began to heal with his touch and to initiate others into the "energy." Reiki was established in Hawaii in the 1930s and from there spread to North America. The American International Reiki Association was formed in 1982.
The International Center for Reiki Training says:
"Reiki is a Japanese technique for stress reduction and relaxation that also promotes healing. ... Reiki is a simple, natural and safe method of spiritual healing and self-improvement that everyone can use. It has been effective in helping virtually every known illness and malady and always creates a beneficial effect."
That sounds harmless enough, doesn't it?
Reiki has three levels or degrees of initiation, the third level being the master level. The degrees are called "attunements" whereby the student is brought into harmony with the reiki energy and taught how to channel it. The initiations are thought to create channels for the flow of Reiki. Paula Horan says, "Through this channel Reiki then flows in through the top of the student's head, down through the body and out through the hands" (Abundance through Reiki, p. 18).
Reiki masters initiate people into the various levels.
Reiki is transferred or initiated by the laying on of hands. The Reiki manual is subtitled "The healing touch." The Reiki practitioner places his hands on the same spot of the body for three minutes at a time, and the energy is supposed to be mystically drawn out by the recipient. Horan says, "...If I lay my hands on you to do a treatment, your body will naturally draw the appropriate amounts of energy it needs, and to the proper places" (p. 20).
Reiki is largely Hindu in its philosophy. It is described as "an energy incomprehensible to the intellect which flows through everything, transforming all realms of life ... Reiki is oneness" (Horan, Abundance Through Reiki, p. 10).
Reiki is founded on the Hindu concept that God is everything and man is part of God. One Reiki Master says that "Reiki will eventually guide you to the experience that you yourself are Reiki or Universal Life Force Energy. ... you and I are that same Universal Life Force Energy." (Abundance Through Reiki, pp. 9, 23)
Reiki is thought to open the chakras of the "astral body," which is a Hindu doctrine.
Paula Horan said that her Reiki teacher gave her a new name, Laxmi, the Hindu goddess of wealth. He said to her, "I am giving you the name Laxmi, because in this lifetime, you will fulfill all of your desires" (p. 152).
The recipients of Reiki describe it as a powerful sense of warmth and security, "a wonderful glowing radiance that flows through and around you." It is not only supposed to provide healing but also to initiate the recipient into higher levels of spiritual transformation.
The International Reiki Center says that "many people find that using Reiki puts them more in touch with the experience of their religion rather than having only an intellectual concept of it." This is the mystical approach that bypasses thinking with an experiential connection with God or the "higher power."
Reiki involves not only "life energy" but also spirit guides. The International Reiki Center web site says:
"Occasionally witnessing miracles. Feeling the wonder of God s love pass through you and into another. SENSING THE PRESENCE OF SPIRITUAL BEINGS, feeling their touch, knowing they work with you. Being raised into ever greater levels of joy and peace by simply placing your hands on another. Watching your life grow and develop as your continual immersion in Reiki transforms your attitudes, values and beliefs. Sensing that because of your commitment to help others, BEINGS OF LIGHT ARE FOCUSING THEIR LOVE AND HEALING ON YOU AND CAREFULLY GUIDING YOU ON YOUR SPIRITUAL PATH.
This is the promise of a developing Reiki practice. ... THERE ARE HIGHER SOURCES OF HELP YOU CAN CALL ON. ANGELS, BEINGS OF LIGHT AND REIKI SPIRIT GUIDES as well as your own enlightened self are available to help you. ... There must be congruence, an alignment within you in order for the Higher Power in the form of Reiki to flow through you in a powerful way and in order for THE ANGELS, REIKI SPIRIT GUIDES AND OTHER SPIRITUAL BEINGS TO WORK WITH YOU."
The Reiki practitioner is taught to get in tune with these spirit guides, to pray to them, and to yield to their control.
"Try the following prayer: 'Guide me and heal me so that I can be of greater service to others.' By sincerely saying a prayer such as this each day, your heart will open and a path will be created to receive the help of higher spiritual beings. They will guide you in your Reiki practice and in the development of your life purpose."
Reiki is even said to open up "psychic communication centers":
"During the Reiki attunement process, the avenue that is opened within the body to allow Reiki to flow through also opens up the psychic communication centers. This is why MANY REIKI PRACTITIONERS REPORT HAVING VERBALIZED CHANNELED COMMUNICATIONS WITH THE SPIRIT WORLD" (Phylameana Desy, The Everything Reiki Book, 2004, p. 144).
The Reiki Journal suggests that message therapy is an excellent tool for spreading Reiki.
Lighthouse Trails observes:
"If US News & World Report is correct in their assessment that Reiki, Yoga, and other types of healing practices are now mainstream, then Reiki is here to stay. One can only wonder if Reiki is going to become as popular in Christian circles as Yoga now has. If it does, then as with contemplative spirituality, the spiritual lives of countless people will be jeopardized and the Gospel of Jesus Christ seriously compromised."
Following is another warning about Reiki:
"My mom is into the New Age movement and has had Reiki done on her for years; recently she started practicing Reiki. She does it on friends and family members (I am the only Christian in the family). I live with back pain, and she has wanted to do it on me.
“I have always said no, but after researching Reiki I finally decided to tell her that my beliefs conflict with Reiki and that the 'energy' is actually demonic (that was a difficult conversation). ...she regularly meditates and talks to 'her angel,' whom she credits with anything good happening. She is getting deeper into this.
“My mother says she prays to 'Jesus' before doing Reiki. ...he does not believe in the Bible or most of it anyway, nor Jesus' deity, but rather He came to point the way to God. ...Obviously this is a false Jesus. ... one of her angels is 'like a best friend' and has a name)" ("My Mother Is Doing Reiki," Lighthouse Trails, Feb. 9, 2016).