Certified Reiki Master

Fyxe wrote: So is this like Force Healing? How can I learn it?

Hi Fyxe. You could look at it like Force Healing, yes.

Reiki was discovered by Mikao Usui sometime in the late 1800's or early 1900's. Dr. Usui studied and practiced a variety of Eastern disciplines; he was a Buddhist monk, practiced martial arts as well as the Oriental healing discipline of Chi Kung. At one point, at the end of a 21-day period of fasting, he experienced a vision of several ancient Sanskrit symbols that became the basis for his method of healing. I know this sounds sufficiently exotic to read like good fiction, but Usui's biography is pretty well documented.

If you wish to learn Reiki, you can do so in far less time than it took Dr. Usui, and no fasting is needed. Accessibility to a Reiki teacher kind of depends on where you live; it is probably easier to find a teacher in larger towns than very small ones. I'd suggest just performing an internet search for Reiki plus the name of the city where you live.

Traditional Reiki is called Usui Reiki for obvious reasons. Many styles have been added since Usui's time; I believe some are good and some are suspect; anyone, after all, can hang out a shingle calling themselves a Reiki practitioner even having had no training at all. The Reiki practitioner who first helped me was trained in Tera Mai Reiki so I can vouch for that system too; my training, though, is in Usui Reiki, and I recommend starting there if you can.

There are three levels to traditional Reiki training. Level One is primarily focused on direct healing of yourself or others who are in the same room with you. Level Two offers the additional ability to assist in the healing of others at a distance. Level Three is required if you want to be a teacher yourself, and pass along the tradition to others.

Training for each level is simple. In traditional Usui training, you'll typically spend a weekend with a teacher and a small group of fellow students. Information will be shared, and at some point the teacher will provide an attunement - a short, ceremonial process where the teacher essentially provides an energy infusion directly to you that makes Reiki energy a permanent part of your being. It is an easy and comfortable process. During your weekend class, you can also expect to exchange healing sessions with your classmates several times.

Costs for the training can vary. In the early days of Reiki teaching (after Dr. Usui), it was quite expensive to become a Reiki practitioner, but that is no longer the case. I'm a little out of touch on current rates, but I'd guess you should be able to enroll in Reiki I training for no more than $200. The costs tend to rise as you progress to Reiki II and Reiki III, but if your teacher charges upward of $1,000 or more for the third level, I'd look elsewhere. I think you can probably pay considerably less than that.

In selecting a teacher, I'd ask him/her to share their lineage. My teacher could trace her lineage directly back to Dr. Usui through a half-dozen generations of teachers - so she wasn't too far removed. A longer lineage isn't a bad thing necessarily; the key point is that the best teachers know how Reiki training flowed to them.

Finally - if you're genuinely considering this and have never experienced Reiki, before getting training I'd recommend undergoing at least four or five Reiki healing sessions yourself, either with your prospective teacher or one of his/her students. It'll help you decide if this path is right for you.

I hope that's helpful. I'd love to hear where you take this!

Wow that sounds amazing, but I'm mostly interested in building force healing power. But this might be a good place to start. But I'm from a very small town and 200 bucks is a lot!

Are you a master? If so can you help me remotely? I looked up classes and there are none near me but I found an online course where he will teach me to be a master remotely by buying his home course for only 47 dollars! That seems pretty cool so what do you think of that?

I want to use the training to develop my force heal talent. I want to use the force though not a Japanese energy system. Do you think we can work on this or something like that?

Don't worry. Reiki isn't a Japanese energy system, either.

Oh sorry thought he was from Japan. In any case whatever oriental energy system he made I want to tap into the force energy.

Call me old-fashioned if you must, but I still feel a general sense of unease about encouraging and promoting getting scammed... Like sure, if you happen to have more money than sense, by all means, burn as much of it as you see fit, nobody can tell you what good you should be doing with it instead. But once we start broadly promoting this pseudoscientific garbage like that we are risking deliberately causing real harm to people on no better excuse for it than that the victims - our victims at that point - were not savvy enough to see through it in time. Again, from a libertarian standpoint I cannot form an objection to it, but I'd like to think of us as better than so callously uncaring...

Gist, you do realize you can just, y'know, not post in threads, right? Like, it's possible to see something you don't agree with and just shut the hell up instead of being a parade rainer, right?

Yes, I am aware of that. Thanks.

Sorry I interrupted. Please carry on standing by doing nothing as people advice each other on how best to get scammed. And I'll carry on giving a damn whilst keeping in mind that I could also "just shut the hell up", as you put it. Thank you for reminding me that the negligent, disinterested route is an option. I keep overlooking it...

is it a scam though? if someone genuinely feels that they have benefited or learned then that is all that matters to them. i have seen enough energy work to know that i do not know everything (i have seen frauds and i have seen people get legitimate results) and that the scientific method cannot explain everything (even scientists have admitted that there are things science still can't explain). the power of belief is difficult to understand or explain...i know a man that had a tumor that medical science could not get rid of and he was told by his doctors that he only had a few months before the tumor would eventually kill him, the man turned to "pseudo sciences" and holistic treatments and after 3 months the tumor stopped growing, after 6 months it began to reduce in size, after 3 years there was no sign of him ever having the tumor...there must be something to these ancient methods if they're still around after all these centuries, even in the face of modern science and medicine....just saying...

RyuJin wrote: is it a scam though?

Yes.

if someone genuinely feels that they have benefited or learned then that is all that matters to them.

That's awful. I would hope more things than that would matter irrespective of what they feel benefits them, but maybe that's too high an expectation to make of people... At any rate, I recall saying that I can appreciate an argument in favour of letting people waste their resources. What is concerning to me is encouraging and promoting that wastefulness in others, but I guess I better "just shut the hell up" than dare voice any such concern...

i have seen enough energy work to know that i do not know everything (i have seen frauds and i have seen people get legitimate results) and that the scientific method cannot explain everything (even scientists have admitted that there are things science still can't explain).

It can't explain where the storks stash the babies before they fly them to young parents, nor how the storks keep those babies from growing up all that time. Just because science can't explain something doesn't mean that there is a thing there to be explained in the first place, let alone that woo-woo can explain it.

the power of belief is difficult to understand or explain...

And yet, it has been.

i know a man that had a tumor that medical science could not get rid of and he was told by his doctors that he only had a few months before the tumor would eventually kill him, the man turned to "pseudo sciences" and holistic treatments and after 3 months the tumor stopped growing, after 6 months it began to reduce in size, after 3 years there was no sign of him ever having the tumor...

So does this man or his doctors have names? Was the location size and growth behaviour of the tumor noted down and what were the uncertainties on the prognoses? How old was the man, where did he live, what job did he work and what was his immediate family's history with cancer like? What tests were performed on him before, during, and after these "procedures"? Which one of the procedures was the one that did the job? Which ones and in which order, if they were multiple? What mechanism specifically did the working procedure employ that the doctors refused to in their efforts to help the man (if any such efforts were made), and did they keep their licenses after this was made public? Why is it that we hear all of these countless anecdotes of anonymous people with unspecific sequences of vaguely described events, but not one thoroughly documented case, not one properly conducted study?

there must be something to these ancient methods if they're still around after all these centuries, even in the face of modern science and medicine....just saying...

First of all, no, that's nonsense. Just because something is old or has persisted for a long long time doesn't mean there must be something to it. It doesn't even mean there could be, if we're being technical. Stork theory of child conception has been around for quite a while, too, as has astrology, but if we want to stick with medicine, there are people in the west still attempting at balancing their humours despite modern science and medicine rightly abandoning that practice because they know better now. People aren't always up to date and even more seldom critical enough to tell fact from fiction. And that's ignoring vulnerable people who are biased towards the comforting lie over the harsher reality they face.
But at any rate, Reiki is not an ancient method, so that point is moot anyway. It's just under a century old, you can buy certificates for pocket change and any credible evidence to support its efficacy is yet to surface, which may be part of the reason why it is so often cited as one of several prime examples of modern pseudoscience.

This seems to be a roundabout way of saying that Gisteron's opinion doesn't matter. Today many are too quick to tell those that don't agree to be quiet or that they shouldn't be allowed to speak. The point of these types of forums should be the open exchange of ideas. Instead of dismissing their opinions, perhaps you should present your side of the argument with evidence to rebut Gisteron's position and show the efficacy of proposed treatments.
We can have civilized discussions without resorting to dismissing each other's opinions. You may not change their mind, but you will at least be respecting their opinions and their rights to express them.

Casshern wrote: This seems to be a roundabout way of saying that Gisteron's opinion doesn't matter. Today many are too quick to tell those that don't agree to be quiet or that they shouldn't be allowed to speak. The point of these types of forums should be the open exchange of ideas. Instead of dismissing their opinions, perhaps you should present your side of the argument with evidence to rebut Gisteron's position and show the efficacy of proposed treatments.
We can have civilized discussions without resorting to dismissing each other's opinions. You may not change their mind, but you will at least be respecting their opinions and their rights to express them.

Been there done that- too many times it’s both sides pointing fingers and nothing ever gets accomplished or agreed. I’ve done that so many times it seems like two sides almost null each other without ever seeing any other side but their own. It’s nature. I know folks who think it’s a sham. Part of the gig, like people who ask me where’s your light saber and robes.
Kind of like when Voldemort and Harry Potter hit Priori Incantatum— a lot of lights and really nothing gets done.

Carlos.Martinez3 wrote: Been there done that- too many times it’s both sides pointing fingers and nothing ever gets accomplished or agreed. I’ve done that so many times it seems like two sides almost null each other without ever seeing any other side but their own. It’s nature. I know folks who think it’s a sham. Part of the gig, like people who ask me where’s your light saber and robes.

Facing disagreements is just part of the game, don't you know. They keep asking me to show the stork, that's just how it goes. There is no changing their minds, nor is there changing mine. Maybe there is a stork, maybe not. Personally, I think there is, but they wouldn't buy it if they saw it anyway, so no point entertaining their query. Been there, done that, you see. Just part of the gig, innit.

Couldn't have put it in more dismissive terms myself. Well done!

I’ve stopped disagreeing with others and arguing and began to give them as often their side and space as they need. ( a great practice for all Jeddist I think)!Sometimes that causes more grief but it’s worth it to me. Sorry if you thought that was dismissive. Wasn’t the intention. We may never see equal but ... I don’t have to to be friends or running buddies along side other Jeddist - to be a Jeddist. I don’t even have to like them. Smiley face Isn’t that kinna neat. Reiki - it’s a very one on one thing for me. Whether others believe or trust or even acknowledge- never changes the one on one experience of practitioner and client - on anything. That’s all - not dismissing just letting otters take their sides. That’s all. Sorry if you thought that’s what it was. Just giving others their side or space.

I was neither endorsing nor condemning either view. Merely pointing out that people are free to choose what they wish to believe in and spend their time and money on, no one has the right to choose for them or to force them to choose a certain way...you embrace logic and science, some people choose not to...

As to the man i was referring to, i only knew his first name which was robert, he was a regular customer at the store i worked at, i never asked about the full nature of his condition as it wasn't my business nor my place to ask. The tumor was on his abdomen and was very noticeable when i started there and after a year and a half it was gone... He was very vocal about promoting the holistic treatments and herbalism he was using. This was a man in his 60's that admitted to laughing at people that would push "hippy shit" treatments until he received that news from his doctors, then he became desperate to find any sort of treatment that would work....afterwards he began to truly enjoy every day. He gave money away to anyone in need and would say "i have no family, and i can't take it with me so i might as well enjoy it"....his personality beforehand was very depressed (as you'd expect from someone told they only had a few months to live) afterwards he became annoyingly overjoyous...

Conversely my stepdad put all his trust in modern medicine, his doctors put him on avandia and within a year he died from a massive heart attack, he had never had heart problems, no family history of heart problems...then avandia was pulled because it was proven to cause heart attacks...

RyuJin wrote: I was neither endorsing nor condemning either view. Merely pointing out that people are free to choose what they wish to believe in and spend their time and money on, no one has the right to choose for them or to force them to choose a certain way...you embrace logic and science, some people choose not to...

Yes, and some people go around promoting their choice to others, or encouraging the undecided to make the objectively bad one, and some people feel like those who choose to speak about it are really out of line. I have said it twice before, but I'll repeat it for your convenience again, it's not about what any one well informed person individually chooses, if they are the only person it affects. Thanks for pointing out that they are free to make that choice, and allow me to point out that nobody here whatsoever was questioning or challenging that freedom. Allow me also to point out that just as everyone is free to make a bad choice so am I free to actually give a damn about my fellow man enough to not "just shut the hell up", and I am also free to call out those "live and let live" "golden middle path" holymen who find it so absolutely unobjectionable to let vulnerable people be exploited.

And no, clearly, you were not "neither endorsing nor condemning either view" either. Your tale was one of "believe as you will, but magic really worked that time" initially. However, now you are expanding it to "oh, and by the way, not only did magic work that time, but medicine also didn't that other time". You are not on the fence about this. You are on the side of encouraging people to fool themselves or to get fooled into choosing fake treatments not just over none at all, but over effective ones. You are on the side of suffering and death, sir, and while I'll acknowledge your right to make that choice, I feel no obligation to respect it, nor to leave promotions of it to others unchallenged.

Maybe in Carlos' view I'm less of a "Jeddist" for it. That is a judgement I can frankly live with. I'm sure the desperate and suffering are most grateful to know that the two of you stood by their free choice to forfeit medical treatments in favour of quackery. I'd say the same of the dead, too, but alas those don't feel gratitude anymore.

Maybe in Carlos' view I'm less of a "Jeddist" for it.

This is obviously a deep and close personal idea for you. I thank you for sharing it with me. I couldn’t and prolly won’t ever find anyone else equal to your dedication to this subject and as valuable as your seek on the matter. I am terribly sorry you think that way. I would love to break that idea anytime. Wish I could change your mind but at last it’s been the same way for years. Any how won’t derail the thread. People have every right to choose or not to choose. Taking or making your opportunities to stand for what you believe in isn’t unJeddist in my opinion but a bit more. How we defend is sometimes as obvious as what color out saber is. To me - it’s obvious you glow this color and use this style. It IS opposite mine ( for this subject)!- two different color sabers —— heat and cool pitch and hue - can you feel and see them??... the zzzzzz and the Krashes like thunder every time they collide?
Thank you for always taking your side. Thank you for never being a “yes person.” I’ve never know you to be in all my years of knowing you here. Thank you. Please don’t think I personally think you less anything - oh no no no no if anything yout faithfulness to our faith has stood longer than most. Don’t make that mistake Gisteron.
I don’t need to fight. I try to be present most times. That’s all. Count me in but I will defend. That’s not the case here. I wish you well- I truly do and hope that we CAN be not the same and yet both Jedi. I can and I will after each post. That’s my decision, as much as each is to theirs as they do the same. People like you ... and me... Jeddist but - different. Same name different style. That’s the hardest and most common theme a modern day Jeddist has- being Jedi is easy - practicing it and figuring it out and being able to make and choose our own path ... while others do the same... can be challenging. I still enjoy the ebb n flow and have to remind myself - I’m never far from reproach or redemption. Force be with you still ... Gist, I know it is.

Maybe in Carlos' view I'm less of a "Jeddist" for it.

This is obviously a deep and close personal idea for you. I thank you for sharing it with me. I couldn’t and prolly won’t ever find anyone else equal to your dedication to this subject and as valuable as your seek on the matter. I am terribly sorry you think that way. I would love to break that idea anytime. Wish I could change your mind but at last it’s been the same way for years. Any how won’t derail the thread. People have every right to choose or not to choose. Taking or making your opportunities to stand for what you believe in isn’t unJeddist in my opinion but a bit more. How we defend is sometimes as obvious as what color out saber is. To me - it’s obvious you glow this color and use this style. It IS opposite mine ( for this subject)!- two different color sabers —— heat and cool pitch and hue - can you feel and see them??... the zzzzzz and the Krashes like thunder every time they collide?
Thank you for always taking your side. Thank you for never being a “yes person.” I’ve never know you to be in all my years of knowing you here. Thank you. Please don’t think I personally think you less anything - oh no no no no if anything yout faithfulness to our faith has stood longer than most. Don’t make that mistake Gisteron.
I don’t need to fight. I try to be present most times. That’s all. Count me in but I will defend. That’s not the case here. I wish you well- I truly do and hope that we CAN be not the same and yet both Jedi. I can and I will after each post. That’s my decision, as much as each is to theirs as they do the same. People like you ... and me... Jeddist but - different. Same name different style. That’s the hardest and most common theme a modern day Jeddist has- being Jedi is easy - practicing it and figuring it out and being able to make and choose our own path ... while others do the same... can be challenging. I still enjoy the ebb n flow and have to remind myself - I’m never far from reproach or redemption. Force be with you still ... Gist, I know it is.

At times, you know, I wish I too could speak here openly without suspension risks like you can. Mayhaps that day shall come eventually...

Suspension risk? Gisteron, please speak your mind freely, insofar as nothing runs into the realms of threats or personal insults. If anyone tries to pull a suspension on you simply for demanding scientific rigor in a health-related area, they'll have to deal with me talking their ears off about the sheer unprofessionalism of such an act until said suspension is lifted.

It is arguably immoral to promote miracle cures for serious ailments with a system of energy healing, as even if it is entirely effective there has not been a sufficient amount of research demonstrating its effectiveness. Consequently, it would be irresponsible for a doctor or medical scientist to prescribe reiki treatments. With that being said, I would love for the reiki practitioners here at TOTJO to contribute to medical science by actively testing their techniques and comparing outcomes with placebos and other treatment methods -- doing so on a large enough scale would put to rest any argument over the effectiveness of reiki and would benefit us all.

Until such research is performed, I will remain uncommitted to either the claim that it is helpful or dangerous pseudoscience, personally.

I would be hands down all in with a test and even a few basic lessons n such.