The Japanese word Reiki can be translated to “life-force energy.” The term refers to a form of spiritual healing that involves holding the hands above the body. There are many people who have taken training in Reiki, and the service is provided in a variety of settings. However, there has as yet been no meaningful scientific evaluation of this healing technique.
There are two principle stories regarding the origin of Reiki. In both versions, the method was invented in Japan by Mikao Usui. Many American Reiki practitioners believe that Mikao Usui was a Christian monk who invented the technique in the mid-1800s. However, according to the more traditional Japanese schools of Reiki, Usui was a member of a Japanese spiritual organization called Rei Jyutsu Ka, and he developed the technique around 1915. (The story that he was a Christian may have been invented to facilitate the acceptance of Reiki in the West.) Both versions of Reiki’s history agree that Usui based his technique on methods and philosophies drawn from numerous traditional Asian healing methods.
After Usui’s death, various forms of Reiki continued to be taught by his students. One of these students, Dr. Chujiro Hayashi, systematized Reiki into three levels and added a great many hand movements to the technique. In turn, one of Hayashi’s students, Hawayo Takata, brought Reiki to the United States.
In the early 1980s, Takata’s granddaughter, Phyllis Furumoto, took on the mantle of Hayashi and Takata’s line of Reiki and popularized it widely in the West. However, many other forms of Reiki continue to exist as well, descending through different lineages of teachers. There are considerable differences between the various approaches, and certain groups strongly challenge the validity of others.
Most forms of Asian medicine make use of the concept of Qi, a form of vital energy that flows through the body. Free-flowing, abundant Qi is said to create health, while stagnant or deficient Qi is thought to lead to illness. Reiki practitioners believe that they can improve this energy by holding their hands in certain positions over parts of the patient’s body; advanced practitioners believe they can produce this effect from a remote distance. The net result, according to the theory, is accelerated healing and increased wellness.
In many ways, Reiki resembles
Therapeutic Touch
, except that the instructions given to its practitioners are more specific. A certified practitioner of Reiki has spent time learning specified hand movements and positions and has also undergone an “attunement” to an already-certified Reiki practitioner. This chain of attunements goes back to Mikao Usui, the method’s founder.
In its most popular Western form, Reiki is learned in three stages. The first stage involves an attunement that permits physical healing. The second stage grants the ability to carry out healing over a distance. The third degree of training allows the practitioner to perform healing on a spiritual level and to give attunements to students. Generally, each level is obtained by paying a fee and completing a weekend course.
Reiki is promoted as a treatment that can accelerate physical, emotional, or spiritual healing in every conceivable situation. It is used as a support for conventional medical care, rather than as a replacement for it.
The only truly meaningful way to determine whether a medical therapy works is to perform a
double-blind, placebo-controlled trial.
(For the reasons why this is true, see
Why Does The Natural Pharmacist Rely on Double-blind Trials?
) For hands-on therapies such as Reiki, however, a truly double-blind study is not possible—the Reiki practitioner will inevitably know whether he or she is administering real Reiki rather than fake Reiki! The best that can be hoped for is a
single-blind study
in which participants do not know whether they received real or fake Reiki and in which their medical outcome is evaluated by an observer who is also kept in the dark (a blinded observer). However, only one such study has been reported.
1
A simpler study design compares Reiki to no treatment. However, studies of that type cannot provide reliable evidence about the efficacy of a treatment: If a benefit is seen, there is no way to determine whether it was caused by Reiki specifically or just attention generally. (Attention alone will almost always produce some reported benefit.)
Finally, there are many case reports in which people are given Reiki and then seem to improve. Such reports, unfortunately, do not mean anything at all; numerous people receiving
placebo
in placebo-controlled studies also seem to improve. Thus, such reports cannot say anything about whether Reiki itself offers any benefit, and we do not report them here.
In one study, which we have only been able to obtain in an incomplete abstract form, female nursing students received either real Reiki or a placebo form of the treatment called “mimic Reiki.”
1
Before and after tests failed to find any improvement in general well-being attributable to Reiki treatment.
In another study, researchers evaluated the effectiveness of Reiki (in combination with a related technique called LeShan) in 21 people undergoing oral surgery for impacted wisdom teeth.
2
Each participant received two surgeries, one with Reiki and the other without (in random order). People reported less pain when they received Reiki than when they received no treatment; however, due to the lack of a fake treatment group, the results mean little.
One series of studies commonly described as an attempt to determine whether Reiki treatments improved wound healing actually involved
Therapeutic Touch
.
3
A series of better-designed studies of Reiki are underway; at present, however, it can only be said that Reiki has no scientific foundation.
There are several competing organizations that issue certifications to Reiki practitioners. These include the following:
There are no known or proposed safety risks with Reiki unless a person chooses to use Reiki
instead
of, rather than as a
support
to, standard medical care.
Thornton LC. A study of Reiki: An energy field treatment, using Roger’s science.
Rogerian Nurs Sci News.
1996;8:14–15.
Wirth DP, et al. The effect of complementary healing therapy on postoperative pain after surgical removal of impacted third molar teeth.
Complement Ther Med.
1993;1:133–138.
Wirth DP, Richardson JT, Eidelman WS. Wound healing and complementary therapies: a review.
J Altern Complement Med.
1996;2:493–502.
Last reviewed October 2007 by EBSCO CAM Review Board
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