Among the ever growing accepted fields in alternative healing today is that of Reiki (pronounced Ray-key). Reiki is a Japanese word that means universal life force. This healing energy is the universal life force energy that has been around forever, but was re-discovered in the late 1800s by Mikao Usui. Usui sought to understand the nature of how to heal others by laying on of hands as was taught in the holy scriptures. His journey eventually took him to a mountain top in Japan where he meditated and fasted for 21 days hoping to unlock the key to this healing power.

Through a mystical experience at the end of the 21-day period, the symbols that attuned one to the Reiki energy were revealed to him. Thus began the modern-day era of Reiki.

Today, people all over the world practice this form of healing energy. Once attuned by a Reiki Master, the practitioner becomes a channel for this energy that pervades everything. In essence, the practitioner becomes like cosmic jumper cables providing a boost of needed energy to those requesting it.

The person receiving the Reiki energy can be lying down or sitting in a chair. The practitioner simply places his or her hands on the individual and thus begins the transference of the Reiki energy.

Most usually the person receiving a Reiki treatment will feel very relaxed. A 15-minute Reiki treatment is equivalent to an hours sleep. When a person becomes relaxed they allow their own natural healing abilities to take over and healing can occur very rapidly.

Hawayo Takata, who brought Reiki to the western world had a Reiki clinic in Hawaii. On a daily basis, she and others practiced Reiki and claimed it to heal everything from leukemia to headaches to arthritis.

Reiki will help bring the body into balance. Due to Reiki making one feel relaxed, I have found that Reiki is great for reducing stress. Reiki is wonderful for helping one fall asleep. It is like a natural sedative.

From my own experiences, after several Reiki sessions, one lady attributed the power of Reiki to helping reduce the lymphatic cancer she had been diagnosed with. Her doctors could not understand how the cancer could have diminished so rapidly.

They dubbed her their miracle child. Another person I had the opportunity to working with along with other Reiki practitioners, credited Reiki for helping to stop his headaches after several sessions. It is quite rewarding to see the smiling face after a Reiki treatment if nothing else.

If one desires to learn how to do Reiki, one must contact a Reiki Master that he or she feels comfortable with and arrange for a class. Typically, Reiki is taught in three levels, with each level allowing the practitioner to channel more and more of this universal life force energy. The student is attuned to the Reiki energy by the Reiki Master. Once attuned, the practitioner will have this energy available the rest of his or her life.

Reiki can be used for mental and emotional healing as well. The person receiving the energy will only do so to the extent he or she is ready to begin the healing process. It is generally regarded that the Reiki practitioner is just the facilitator of this life force energy which allows the subjects mind and body to relax to a deep level so that its own innate healing ability occurs. The Reiki practioner receives healing as well, while giving a treatment, thus keeping his or her energies in greater balance on all levels.

I have used Reiki on plants as well. One year I used Reiki on my tomato plants and had the biggest plants I had ever grown. Reiki is used in over 100 hospitals in the U.S. and has been used in some hospitals before and after surgery to help accelerate the healing process. One story I read was of a practitioner that had broken a bone and immediately began giving himself Reiki. Once he got to the hospital, the bone had begun to heal much more rapidly than it would have otherwise.

Reiki is a wonderful tool to help anyone help to facilitate healing in others or in themselves. In this millennium, we may see Reiki and other more accepted forms of alternative practices be used more and more along side the medical practioners of today.