The Law of Attraction is based on the very simplistic premise that “like attracts like,” so you will manifest in your life whatever you think about, whether it be positive or negative. If you think you’re going to die, you will die. If you think you’re going to be a multi-millionaire, you will be a multi-millionaire. You must train yourself to fully expect to be given what you have asked for, i.e. you have to really want it, apparently, because the only possible reason for it not working is your failure to believe that you will achieve your desires.

Does The Law of Attraction work?

Not really. It presumes that humans are masters of their own reality, that whatever we think about we can manifest, but this is simply not true. Of course there is something to be said for positive thinking. Some individuals have cured themselves of life threatening illnesses by using visualisation and intention. However, the key to spiritual growth and happiness is not in expecting the universe to fulfill all your physical and emotional desires, but in being grateful for what you’re given, trusting in your intuition and learning to want what you need. The universe has a phenomenal level of control over us and can snap away the earth in a second from humanity. We should let go to the will of the universe, rather than trying to bend the universe to our will. Doing the latter may result in fleeting moments of exuberance and pseudo-happiness, but it will never result in genuine happiness and fulfilment.

The Law of Attraction often focuses on abundance in the form of material wealth, but this should not be the ultimate goal. Spiritual growth and increased awareness should be the goal. Making money is not, never was and never will be a spiritual pursuit. It is a physical process that ensures we are able to maintain a certain standard of living. It is necessary whilst we are on earth because we are too far gone for anything else to usurp capitalism, but it is nothing more than that. If you live your life by your intuition, follow your path and make a fair bit of money along the way, good for you. I don’t have a problem with that, but making money should be a byproduct, not the ultimate goal.

Besides, if The Law of Attraction worked virtually everyone would be millionaires and in case anyone hadn’t noticed, two-thirds of the world live in poverty and I am pretty sure that they strongly desire a different life for themselves. As talk-show host Larry King pointed out, “If the universe manifests abundance at a mere thought, why is there so much poverty, starvation and death?”

Of course, you can ask the universe for things if you want, but if you’re not meant to have them, you won’t get them. If you keep trying to achieve a specific goal and it always remains out of your reach, you need to ask yourself if you are pooling your resources in the right direction, because if you put all your eggs in one basket and keep chasing something that isn’t right for you, you may miss out on something better and more worthwhile.

Alternatively, the universe may deliver your request but you will have to suffer the consequences. If you asked for fame and you got fame, don’t then moan when the paparazzi won’t leave you alone and you can’t determine your friends from your enemies. Whatever choices we make in life we have to be prepared to accept the consequences, because if you ask the universe for something you were not really meant to have and your request is granted, the universe may well take something else away from you to compensate.

The key to happiness is letting go to the will of the universe and going with the flow of your intuition, not desperately clinging onto false dreams and goals that won’t really bring you long-term spiritual contentment.

We are two Reiki teachers and practitioners based in London offering Reiki courses at myhotel Bloomsbury, a beautiful zen inspired hotel in central London. We practise and teach our Reiki courses in the style of the founder of Reiki, Mikao Usui, who used Reiki to directly work on physical and emotional conditions. Students have travelled to our UK Reiki courses from such far-flung locations as America, Austria, Jordan, Switzerland, Brazil and Spain.  

What is Reiki? In short, Reiki is a Japanese energy healing system, whereby a trained Reiki practitioner channels external energy into the client in order to improve their health and wellbeing. Active Reiki practitioners, like the founder of Reiki Mikao Usui, work directly on the client’s presenting condition(s) using visualisation and intention to optimise the healing effects. Passive Reiki practitioners predominantly use Reiki for relaxation. 

By learning a Reiki course you can learn to self-heal, working on your own physical, emotional and spiritual problems, as well as using Reiki on others (once you have taken a level 2 Reiki course). 

Our Reiki courses offer you a wonderful journey of self-discovery and will enable you to directly counteract specific health problems. We offer Reiki courses from beginner to Master level. Our Reiki courses are straightforward, comprehensive, fun and an amazing opportunity for you to change your life for the better, forever!

Click here for more information about us.

There are currently over 144 different types of Reiki in existence, some of which have no connection with the founder Mikao Usui, whatsoever. Currently any Reiki Master can teach whatever they choose on a course and call it Reiki. With so many types of Reiki available and unregulated, it is difficult for consumers to know exactly what they are getting when they visit a practitioner or teacher.

For many practitioners Reiki is a passive therapy, where they believe, the less input they have into the healing process the better. The energy is channelled into the recipient passively, which means that the energy is expected to define?it’s own path within the body, without any direction or focus from the practitioner. The energy is considered to be intelligent and will treat the client always for the highest good, rather than the practitioner choosing what or what not to treat. Regardless of the type of Reiki practiced the passive healing method is most commonly used. This form of healing does not address specific conditions or illnesses but rather relies on allowing the body to heal itself. This method of working with Reiki is very difficult to integrate into a clinical environment as practitioners do not treat conditions or necessarily offer any improvements in the client’s health.

There is an alternative and much more effective and clinical way of using Reiki, which is the way the founder Mikao Usui used and taught Reiki. Mikao Usui worked directly on the presenting conditions stating in the Usui Reiki Hikkei (Usui Reiki handbook). “If brain disease occurs I treat the head. If it’s a stomach ache I treat the stomach. If it’s an eye disease I treat the eyes.” We call this active Reiki, not to brand our own form of energy healing but to signify that the way we work is different to the majority of Reiki practitioners.

The Active Healing Method

In Mikao Usui’s day Reiki was used to treat conditions directly, including medical conditions. Dr Hayashi was a student and friend of Mikao Usui who was tasked with developing Reiki into a more clinical method of healing. One of Hayashi’s students called Matsui Shouoh, during a newspaper interview explained that; “when my hands with activated blood are put on the patient’s body, I think my blood vibration may promote the patient’s blood vibration. Blood current, vibration may become the same.”

With recent research into energy healing and the body’s energy field we can explain this statement in a more scientific manner.

Our understanding of this is that the frequency of the energy used by the healer matches the optimum frequency of the condition being treated. This returns the afflicted body part to it’s ideal resonant frequency (i.e. back to optimum health).

It has been demonstrated scientifically that each body part produces distinct vibrations of varied frequencies. Each cell, organ or tissue has an ideal resonant frequency when it is in it’s natural healthy state. These vibrations are not restricted to each body part, cell, organ or tissue but emanate throughout the body and beyond₁. The frequency of these vibrations can be measured and analysed. A damaged area of the body has an altered frequency_2.

The method we use for healing is through direct action on the condition being treated, which is as we explained earlier, the method the founder used.

By channelling energy at the vibrational frequency of the body part being treated, the energy will have a direct effect and ultimately restore the body part to its normal healthy vibrational frequency i.e. the body part is returned to its natural healthy state of being.

The secondary method that is used is to allow the body to heal itself. ?The research that most readily explains this practice is that, the body generates a ‘current of injury’ at the site of any physical trauma₃. This current of injury signals to the body (and the brain) via the perineural system that repair is required and attracts the appropriate cells to accomplish this. The frequency of the current of injury depends on the tissues that are damaged and the severity of the damage done. The channelled energy acts as a ‘current of injury’ ?instigating the body’s self repair mechanism. There are cases where the damage is so extreme that the current of injury cannot travel from the injury site.

A passive Reiki healer is channelling the whole spectrum of available frequencies, some of which will be at the frequency of the current of injury and instigate the body to repair itself, some will be at the optimum frequency of the condition. The majority of the energy will be out of the frequency range of the condition entirely and thus will have no effect on the condition.

As active Reiki practitioners we consciously channel energy at the optimum frequency for the specific conditions we are treating. This is done through the correct use of Shirushi or symbols and Kotodama or mantras again as used by Mikao Usui. This method has allowed us to successfully treat a wide range of clinical conditions, both physical and emotional with incredible results, mostly in just a few treatments. We have helped people with conditions such as: stress, depression, cancer, bereavement, spina bifida, ME, spondylosis of the spine, arthritis, nerve damage, bell’s palsy, fractures, torn ligaments, anxiety and many more. If we had worked on these conditions in ‘passive’ way we are positive that we would not have had such amazing results.

Active Reiki is much more likely to be positively received by conventional healthcare professionals as it offers more direct results and a much more logical explanation and approach.

In fact we recently attended our local Primary Care Trust Complementary Health day where NHS staff had the chance to experience different therapies. We gave Reiki treatments to doctor and nurses and active Reiki was very well received. As a result a new clinic opening in our local area have asked us to provide active Reiki for patients.

Below we have cited some case studies demonstrating the positive effects of working with Reiki actively.

Case Study 1

Person A was diagnosed with breast cancer and over a three week period between diagnosis and surgery, received Reiki for 2 hours over the first few days and subsequently 45 minute treatments took place every other day. No other treatments were received during this period. The tumour shrunk by 1cm.

Case Study 2

Person B had nerve damage in her right knee and had had no feeling in the knee area for 8 years due to a skiing accident. After one 30 minute treatment on the knee area person B got the feeling back in her knee completely.

Case Study 3

Person C had a smashed right knee cap with a metal plate inserted due to a motorcycle accident. The knee had been swollen for 6 months and person C had very restricted mobility in the knee joint. After three 20 minute treatments on the knee area the swelling was completely gone and he got around 75% mobility back.

Case Study 4

Person D had a torn cruciate ligament in his left knee. There was swelling around the knee area and the client was in significant pain. After one 20 minute treatment on the knee area the swelling and pain was completely gone. The client was able to use his knee in a normal way and continues to do so.

Case Study 5

Person E was diagnosed with an inguinal hernia on the right side of his groin. This caused him significant pain, discomfort and a restriction in mobility. After daily 1 hour treatments over a 4 week period his doctor diagnosed that the inguinal hernia was completely healed.

Reiki in the NHS

From our experiences of treating clients we feel that Reiki could be utilised within a clinical environment to supplement the work of doctors and nurses. Active Reiki could be used as a first line of treatment before drugs or surgery are offered, or as a complement to drugs and surgery to provide a more rapid recovery. From Case Study 5, the client had the hernia healed whilst waiting for surgery, thus avoiding painful surgery and huge costs to the NHS.

To enable Reiki to be accepted into the NHS or even the private sector we need to have professional standards in both the teaching and practice of Reiki. Additionally we need to have a clear definition of what Reiki is and how it is used. The government has introduced voluntary self-regulation (VSR) across all complementary therapies and the regulation of Reiki is progressing.

Unfortunately there are many practitioners that are not making the most effective use of Reiki, which is stalling it’s progress into a medical environment. The VSR process is being used to introduce higher standards but is not being used to define a standard form of Reiki practice to be applied across the board. What this effectively means is that everyone will continue to practice Reiki as they currently are, with the majority of people using passive Reiki and very few using active Reiki. This means the NHS is unlikely to adopt Reiki because there are so many types of Reiki with differing practices that there can be no unified set standards of treatment. A doctor cannot prescribe Reiki because they don’t know what they will be getting!

Where Reiki Should be Heading

The first thing that we need to do within the Reiki community is to adopt a definition of Usui Reiki that is based on the teachings of the founder Mikao Usui i.e. active Reiki. All other forms of Reiki should be excluded from this particular definition. In this way all Usui Reiki practitioners will be using the same methods and practices to treat any condition with similar results.

Records need to be kept for all treatments given to enable a statistical trial of Usui Reiki to take place. This will give provable results that can be used to push for Reiki in the NHS as a viable method of treatment.

We need a single regulatory body or professional association that all Usui Reiki practitioners can belong to, to ensure that high standards are maintained and to protect clients.

We need to create nationally recognised professional Usui Reiki practitioner and teacher qualifications to ensure that the same standards and syllabuses are provided across the country.

Hopefully with these practices being adopted, Reiki can become a respected and professional complementary therapy that can be utilised by both the NHS and the public with confidence.

References:

1. Frohlich H, Bose: Condensation of Strongly Excited Longitudinal Electric Modes, Physics Letters 26A:402-403 1968.
Frohlich H, Bose: Biological Coherence And Response To External Stimuli Springer Verlag Berlin 1988.
2. Pienta KJ, Coffey DS: Cellular Harmonic Information Transfer Through A Tissue Tensegrity-Matrix System. Medical Hypotheses 34:88-95 1991.
3. Davson H,: A Textbook Of General Physiology, 4th Edition Williams and Wilkins, Baltimore, p559 1970.

It is not long before babies mimic the traits of their parents and as they grow older into children, teenagers and then adults, their sense of self and purpose is derived, not from the strong intuitive connection they possessed at birth, but from processing external information, from parents, friends, work colleagues, the media and other walks of society.

Children are rarely encouraged to embrace their intuition and are instead persuaded to shirk inner knowledge in favour of external answers. We find it hard when someone presents us with insight that is devoid of physical evidence. Have you ever spoken to someone about a matter that you were sure about but could not explain? When they question you, asking, “How do you know this?” the only answer you can provide is, “Because I just do.” We are not programmed to compute that response, longing for the answer to be backed up with solid proof, but science has not yet caught up with our intuition.

Of course, it would be unfair to say that science has discovered nothing about our intuition. Researchers at Washington University in 2005, found that the anterior cingulate (ACC) part of the brain is more active when an individual is about to experience something potentially harmful. It is believed to serve as an early warning system, helping the individual to avoid hazardous situations on a subconscious level. It is also recognised that the brain generates its own electromagnetic (EM) field. Professor Johnjoe McFadden at the University of Reading has suggested that this field might be “the seat of consciousness.” I would call it our intuition.

Albert Einstein once said “the only real valuable thing is intuition.” In my view his statement is absolutely right. Indeed, Einstein believed in God, not a God that served as a moral guiding compass for society but a creator. The word God strikes abject terror into many people who associate God with the dogmatic and punishing God of religion. For me God is a creative intelligent and loving energy.

Rather than dismissing spirituality and perceiving intuition as the product of evolution, I think we should be looking to something much more ethereal. Personally, I feel that it is impossible to look up at the stars, to see the intricate and complex nature of the universe and believe that this just happened by itself.

Losing Our Connection

As we traverse through this life, we very often allow our physical desires and our emotional longings to control us. It is hard not to, the society we live in is geared towards the pursuit of our physical desires. In the current climate it is so hard for people to be intuitive. The wonderfully strong intuition we have at birth is quickly shattered and replaced with a confused combination of physical desire and emotional yearning. In energetic terms I believe that we have three bodies, which I compare to three circles, a physical body, an emotional body and a spiritual body. When we are born these circles are as one and our intuition guides our physical and emotional bodies. As our lifestyles, interactions and society impinge upon us, these three bodies drift apart.

Our physical bodies direct us towards fulfilling our physical desires. They want money, power, possessions, sex, drugs, alcohol, and so on. Our emotional bodies long to be loved, but in the absence of our spiritual guidance they latch onto conditional love, but it never quite meets our expectations and we very often feel that something is missing. We look for love in the wrong places and feel that we need certain things that are deemed to be social ‘norms,’ such as marriage, having children, being with a partner. Sometimes our emotional bodies become attached to our physical desires and we convince ourselves that we need to have a big house, a big car, a myriad of possessions and personal power and glory.

The happiness we derive from any of these things is fleeting and so we accumulate more and more, we become desensitised to certain pursuits because they rapidly move from being a taboo to normal modes of behaviour. We are swimming without a paddle because we don’t have that intuitive connection; we instead rely on the inherently flawed guidance of our physical and emotional bodies.

Our spiritual bodies desperately try to pull us in the right direction, but their guidance falls on deaf ears. We are utterly oblivious. Perhaps there are fleeting moments where we hear our intuition and think, “should I listen,” but it isn’t long before we reject its guidance and pursue a different path. Our lives take a turn for the worst because we ignore our intuition. All the pain and suffering on this earth is bred by humanity and we chose to endure that pain and suffering. It can end if we make different choices, ones that are based on intuition.

Find Yourself

There is a way out, even if not for everyone, then for some. You need to discover who you are, why you are here and learn to distinguish your physical and emotional desires from your intuition. We can all do this if we choose to. George Eliot said that “the strongest principle of growth lies in the human choice.” Choose your destiny. Search until you find the answer. Look beyond the words that are presented to you and see the real message, the real person and the real world.

I have written several books and my current book, Toxic Beauty,  exposes the dangers of certain cosmetic constituents. When I think about the beauty industry, I don’t see beauty but an industry that is out to make a profit by fostering anxiety about our physical appearance. Think about what you see when you consider what is happening around you. Forget the charm that powerful figures present and look for the truth. It’s not a secret. It is there for the taking.

By opening your eyes and your mind to the wisdom of your intuition you can come to have all the spiritual answers you need, you can bring those three disparate circles into a united trinity of wholeness. If science has no answer for your knowledge, it doesn’t matter; have faith in what you know.

The founder of the Japanese healing therapy I practice, Mikao Usui, said in the 1920s that science had no explanation for energy healing, but that one day it would, and sure enough science has explored healing and found answers. Many studies have shown the healing effects of electromagnetic energy, whether from a machine or from a healer. There are even some very good theories as to how it actually works at a cellular level. Perhaps one day there will be answers to explain your inner wisdom, but don’t wait for them to appear, trust in yourself enough to not need that physical form of validation. Be more like an infant and see the world with untainted and intuitive eyes.

Many Reiki practitioners see themselves as passive channels for the Reiki energy, they simply connect to the energy and put their hands in either a set series of hand positions or around areas that they feel need treating. They deliberately try to avoid having any input into the healing or control of the energy they are channelling. Their belief is that the energy is ‘intelligent’ and will know what to treat and how to treat it, without any participation by the practitioner. The other belief that comes with passive Reiki is that the energy is so intelligent it will go wherever it needs to within the client’s body, irrespective of where the practitioner places the energy via their hand positions. An extension of this way of working is the concept of Reiki as a relaxation therapy that ‘allows the body to heal itself’ rather than a healing system that works directly on any condition. Needless to say this is very different to the approach taken by Usui-sensei and his students.

With active Reiki the emphasis is on the practitioner to effectively treat whatever ailments their clients present them with. Through a consultation with the client, the practitioner determines the presenting symptoms and any underlying causes. The practitioner then treats each condition directly by channelling energy at the frequency needed to initiate and accelerate the healing process. The practitioner applies the energy at the area(s) that is/are damaged in the case of physical injury or illness or the areas where emotional trauma(s) is/are located. The frequency of the energy is dictated by the shirushi (symbol) and its corresponding kotodama (mantra) and jumon (name). The practitioner chooses the relevant shirushi for the condition being treated.

There are two shirushi used for accessing energy for healing purposes in Reiki. The other two shirushi are different in nature and are not used to channel healing energy as such. Each shirushi has a corresponding jumon and kotodama, which need to be used whenever the shirushi is used. The healing shirushi both allow the practitioner to channel a range of frequencies, one range for the physical body and one for the emotional body. By adding colour to the shirushi it is possible to narrow the frequency range of the energy to make it more precisely match the energy required by the condition being treated. This is usually an intuitive process on the part of the practitioner, although there is a more mechanical method that can be used when necessary. In this way, the practitioner connects to the required frequency of energy needed for the condition they are working on.

By staying focused and concentrating on the shirushi and jumon/kotodama the practitioner can ensure they are channelling the energy externally to themselves (i.e. they are not using their own ki) and are channelling the energy in a more directed and powerful way. In addition to working with the correct frequency of energy, the practitioner can add the use of intention and visualisation to enhance the healing effects of the energy. In studies it has been shown that using an effective visualisation and intention can increase the effectiveness of the energy in stimulating a repair process. One particular study used a healer, Leonard Laskow, to try a number of different intentions and visualisations while working on cancer cells in petri dishes. It was found that combing the most effective intention and visualisation gave a 39 per cent inhibition of cancer cell growth.1
Working with Reiki in an active way helps to maximise the effectiveness of the Reiki treatment, so we can do the best we can for our clients, which is really why we become Reiki practitioners in the first place.

References:

1. Rein G., Ph.D. October 1996 Effect of conscious intention on human DNA. Proceeds of the International Forum on New Science, Denver, CO.

Firstly, as a good starting point, let’s define the word Reiki. The word Reiki can be translated as spiritual energy, clearly setting out from the outset what Reiki is – a spiritual energy based art. Reiki is a healing system and at the same time a means of spiritual growth that can lead to enlightenment. The system of Reiki as we know it was developed by Mikao Usui (or Usui-sensei as he was known) in Japan in the early 20th century. Usui-sensei did not re-discover Reiki nor was he taught Reiki, as is commonly believed. Reiki is the culmination of his many years of hard work through self-development, spiritual growth and his satori (enlightenment) on Mount Kurama. From this humble origin, Reiki is now practiced around the world, with many hundreds of forms, some loosely connected to Usui-sensei’s system, many others far removed from Usui-sensei’s system. There is huge variation within the Reiki community both in terms of style of Reiki practiced and overall quality due to the lack of regulation of Reiki teaching.

Reiki as a healing system can be used to treat any condition, whether it is physical or emotional, Reiki can work directly to initiate and accelerate the healing process. This is what Reiki can do, but is not primarily how it is used today. This requires of the practitioner a certain amount of effort and the willingness to use Usui-sensei’s methods and follow the correct process. For many Reiki practitioners, Reiki is a passive form of healing that helps recipients to relax and encourages their body to naturally find balance and hence to heal itself. The practitioner takes no part in the healing and acts like a ‘channel’ for the energy to flow through, with no input or direction on their part. This approach is perhaps a much more Western one, where responsibility is relinquished in favour of an option that seems easier. Usui-sensei taught specific techniques that students had to practice and perfect. These included self-healing methods, which students would use everyday.

The other aspect of Reiki is the self-development and spiritual growth that was expected of students. Usui-sensei instilled in his students “right thinking” and “right living” as part of their Reiki journey. He insisted his students follow a path of self-healing and continuous growth as part of their Reiki training. This is perhaps not emphasised a great deal today by modern Reiki teachers. Reiki should be a life changing event for all those who choose to learn it, but ultimately this can depend on where the individual receives their training and how much dedication their teacher has to a spiritual path.

When a student learns Reiki they are connected to the source of the energy through the attunement process. This allows them to channel external energy to treat themselves and others. By treating themselves regularly they can improve their well-being, raise their spiritual frequency, become more aware and intuitive. They can develop and grow as much as they choose to simply by self-healing. As their awareness increases, they can start to see things from a higher perspective and their lives will change accordingly.

Reiki is a complete system with precise teachings and methods that need to be taught and practiced by students. Anything less than this is not Usui Reiki.

Reiki in Short

• A Japanese spiritual energy healing system developed by Mikao Usui.
• Promotes spiritual growth.
• Raises awareness and deeper understanding.
• Works directly on physical illnesses, injuries and emotional traumas.
• Energy is applied at the frequency needed by the condition being treated.
• Practitioners hands are placed over the area that needs treating.
• Non-invasive – clients remain fully clothed.
• Practitioners do not need to put their hands on the client.
• Practitioners should heal themselves everyday.