General Public Accepts Reiki
Until recently, growth in the practice of Reiki has come mainly from members of the New Age/Metaphysical Community who already had a core belief system that could easily allow them to understand and accept Reiki. Over the years, there has been a shift in the belief system of the general public, allowing for greater acceptance of alternative medicine. As a result, we are seeing a growing interest in Reiki from the public at large. People from all backgrounds are coming for treatments and taking classes.
I can remember when I first started practicing Reiki in the early 80s. Whenever I began describing the practice of Reiki, I found people would appear noticeably distressed. I often got the impression the uninitiated thought I was a charlatan and what I was practicing was sacrilegious. Today, however, I not only find a genuine interest in Reiki, but that most people have at least some awareness of Reiki. Now, when I tell people about what I do, they almost always have a positive , or add that they know someone who practices it. More and more frequently, I am meeting people who have taken Reiki classes.
This trend was brought into focus by a research report done by Dr. David M. Eisenburg of Boston's Beth Israel Hospital. His study found that in 1990, 80 million people in the United States had used one or more forms of complementary health care, including Reiki. This group had spent more than $14 billion out-of-pocket for this care. This shift in public acceptance appears to be increasing as more and more people are becoming aware of the value of Reiki and other forms of complementary care.
Doctors, nurses and other licensed health care professionals are taking notice as their patients are asking questions about alternative forms of healing and many professionals are accepting its value. In fact a growing number of doctors and nurses have taken Reiki training and routinely including Reiki along with standard medical procedures.
Because of the public's acceptance, the news media are now taking a positive attitude toward Reiki and have featured spots on Reiki. This is a far cry from the past when, if Reiki was mention at all by the media, it was presented as a weird practice done by people on the fringe. I have recently seen a number of television spots on Reiki and have personally received a growing number of requests for interviews.
Scientific Validation
A perception that Reiki is not scientific, but is instead based on superstition and quackery, has caused many to question its validity.
When they are made aware of the positive results Reiki has provided, the scientific community often dismisses these results as only the placebo effect. These unfair perceptions about spiritual healing are dispelled in a book, Spiritual Healing, Scientific Validation of a Healing Revolution, by Daniel Benor, M.D.
In his book, Dr. Benor describes more than 190 scientific experiments, over 2/3 of which show positive results. Many; were conducted as double blind experiments which rule out the placebo effect and others were done on plants which are known not to be effected by placebo. Some of these experiments have been replicated.
I believe that once the scientific validation of spiritual healing is widely disseminated, Reiki will become more respected and the demand for Reiki training will rise dramatically. It will more easily find its way into use by every area of society. There will be opportunities to develop Reiki programs, specifically designed for education, business, law enforcement, government, the military and world politics.
This validation and acceptance will open the door to more scientific research, which in turn will produce many new discoveries. Reiki displays many qualities that science cannot explain. Because of this, research into Reiki is bound to lead to new theories about the nature of reality. This will revolutionize how mainstream society thinks. And , this in turn will create new attitudes, values and beliefs in every area of human activity.
In effect, the wide spread acceptance and use of Reiki, which is beginning to take place now, will greatly quicken the manifestation of the paradigm shift that we have been waiting for. Reiki will create peace on Earth and provide benefits we haven't even thought of. It will help usher in the greatest era the world has every known!
Popularity Creates Challenges
These significant changes are also creating challenges for the way Reiki is practiced. The fact that many Reiki Masters have disregarded the restrictive rules of the past and are teaching and practicing Reiki according to their own inner guidance, has generally had a positive effect on the practice of Reiki.
However, some Reiki Masters have begun teaching with reduced standards and few ethical principals. They teach classes of an hour or less in duration, with little offered except the attunement. We have received reports that all levels of Reiki including One, Two and Master are being taught in one weekend or even in a day by some Masters. This leaves the students of those classes with little understanding of what Reiki is, or how to practice it. These students go on to attempt to practice Reiki without all the necessary information or training, simply abandon Reiki or even worse, pass the debased training they received onto others.
While some motivated, yet ill-informed students who realize that important information was missing from their class do seek out reputable teachers to receive additional training, this should not have to happen. There have been other reports of Reiki Masters misrepresenting what the student will receive in class, unfair competitive practice between Reiki Masters, the use of Reiki as a foil for sexual and child abuse and other ethical problems. As Reiki becomes more popular, and the general public begins to become interested, it is important that these challenges be resolved before they worsen. If these problems are not solved, the general public may develop a negative attitude toward Reiki. The positive potential Reiki offers to solve humanities problems and help create the wonderful world describe above, could be greatly reduced or even lost.
A National Reiki Organization
One solution to these challenges is the creation of a national Reiki organization. Due to the breakthroughs concerning the verified history of Reiki and its harmonizing effect on the Reiki community mentioned above, conditions are now present for such an organization to work.. We are moving from a 3rd chakra based society to a heart chakra based society; from a society based on power to a society based on love. If a Reiki organization such as this is to succeed into the future, it must be based on love and express the true spirit of Reiki. I believe that for this organization to be successful, it would need the following:
It must be open to all Reiki people regardless of lineage or organization affiliation.
A board of directors could be set up from a cross-section of all Reiki groups and independents.
Membership could be available for individuals and organizations.
To solve the challenges mentioned above, it would have to have a minimum set of training and teaching standards and a code-of-ethics. The teaching and training standards could indicate the minimum subjects necessary to be taught in a class and the minimum number of hours required. It would be important to keep these standards simple and reasonable, but they would be necessary if membership were to have value. The ethical standards would include things like honesty in advertising, not requiring the client to disrobe, not touching the genital areas, etc.
Individuals who joined would agree to abide by these standards and code-of-ethics. Organizations who joined would agree to maintain these standards for their members.
Membership records would be kept and a procedure would be necessary to review and deal with any reports of misconduct.
Such an organization could also monitor legislation that might effect Reiki and take action to keep Reiki free of unnecessary governmental interference.