Sacred Transformations

Deborah Bowden, Loma Goddard, and John Gruzelier

This is a constructive replication of a previous trial conducted by Bowden et al. (2010), where students who had received Reiki demonstrated greater health and mood benefits than those who received no Reiki. The current study examined impact on anxiety/depression. 40 university students—half with high depression and/or anxiety and half with low depression and/or anxiety—were randomly assigned to receive Reiki or to a non-Reiki control group.

Participants experienced six 30-minute sessions over a period of two to eight weeks, where they were blind to whether noncontact Reiki was administered as their attention was absorbed in a guided relaxation. The efficacy of the intervention was assessed pre-post intervention and at five-week follow-up by self-report measures of mood, illness symptoms, and sleep. The participants with high anxiety and/or depression who received Reiki showed a progressive improvement in overall mood, which was significantly better at five-week follow-up, while no change was seen in the controls. While the Reiki group did not demonstrate the comparatively greater reduction in symptoms of illness seen in our earlier study, the findings of both studies suggest that Reiki may benefit mood. 

In considering the hesitancy for wanting to do this practice, I offer one of the easiest techniques therapists use to monitor repeated thoughts patterns. Throughout random times in the course of the day, stop and write down the thought that they are having at that moment. You may want to set a timer for random times, than reset it after you jot down the thought.

Achieving inner peace requires honesty. Being honest about who you are, and the negative (very human) emotions we carry, especially anger. Inner Peace cannot be achieved by denying or suppressing anger. This does not mean you should lash out at people; but, going to a “safe” place where you beat pillows to “vent out” anger is not going to make it go away either. Anger is telling you that you need to act on something; and, most likely, this requires some form of change. The only way to resolve anger is to confront it in a strategic, yet compassionate manner.

Acknowledging your anger is the first step of achieving inner peace...

The next step is to dismiss inner talk that says your anger is bad. Be compassionate with yourself when anger arises. If you focus your contemplation on the fact that anger is bad, then you will not be able to effectively work through a problem with others. This negative self-talk generates feelings of guilt. Guilt generates more anger and continues to cycle until it leads you into full blown depression. Externally, guilt can show up in body language and subtlety in conversations. If you internally discount or minimize your own anger, the other person will too.

There was a time when the Reiki levels were acquired over an extended period of time. Each level allowed for time to study, cultivate and integrate a new vibrational frequency that was actively applied to one’s life and work as a healer. Mikao Usui, the originator of this particular healing lineage, did not perform Reiki Level 2 until his students obtained empathic abilities. An empath is someone who has obtained the ability to feel the energetic patterns of other people. In others words, an empath has acquired the ability to share feelings and the internal experience of another.

Spiritual development served to establish a strong energetic foundation...

In order to obtain and fine tune this gift of empathy, Mikao Usui focused his teachings at Reiki Level 1 on personal spiritual development. Spiritual development was focused on clearing the mind; which, from a Buddhist perspective, is located within the heart. Spiritual development served to establish a strong energetic foundation as well as to break through the human ego defenses. In healing, these defenses shut off the flow of energy while allowing individuals to sustain an illusory disconnect from others. These defenses can be troublesome when rapid psychic openings occur, causing an individual to receive far greater amounts of energy within their being. Think of it in the way a tornado hits a building. If the building is completely solid and lacks the ability to bend and move about, it can be jarring and even cause enough damage to the structure that leads to its collapse.

Understanding this more in-depth, as an energy healer, your body is your instrument. There are no needles, manipulation techniques, electronic devices that an energy healer is using other than allowing their body to be a conduit for channeling light energy. The more energetically receptive and clearer the healer is, the stronger the healing energy can pass through that individual. As the practitioner is sending energy through an individual, there is an immersion of both their fields which allow for the shared state of experience. So, in understanding this concept, the clearer the healer, the clearer the perceptions become in doing the healing work and communicating the healing process with another.

In spiritual healing work, we tend to focus on what’s wrong, and what needs to be fixed within ourselves. It is, of course, important to look at our bad behaviors, faults, and making them right. I don’t want to discount that. But I am concern that only looking at faults bars us from complete healing.

This realization was further solidified for me while working with a client, whom I will call Catherine. Catherine had over 10 years of sobriety and came to me to work on shame issues. Catherine maintained sobriety through AA. She was married to a successful man, had children and overall had a pretty good life. But Catherine did not feel she deserved a good life and her pervading sense of shame remain fixated.

It certainly didn’t lend itself to complete healing...

Catherine’s discussion of AA brought up memories of myself attending Al-Anon while going through my separation and divorce with a drug addict/alcoholic many years ago. I found the program helpful in the beginning because it offered structure and guidance for my own healing process. But, I had difficulty embracing the concept that poor choices were a disease. And it certainly didn’t lend itself to complete healing by reiterating that I was doomed to a life of disease. After about a year of participating in the group, I found myself feeling depressed going to the meetings. I was told it was important to continue, otherwise I would “slip”. It was also instilled in me to show up for others, but I did not feel healed enough in other areas of my life to be fully present for them. After training as a Social Worker, I recognized a blurring of boundaries. For myself. Al-Anon was not only my primary social circle, but a place to give intensive support to others; which, at times, felt like unprofessional therapy.