14: Reiki, part two

As it turns out...

The following summer Barrett and I drove to Maryland, where we took Reiki Level Two from the same Reiki Master who had taught us Level One in Chicago. In the Maryland workshop, we were the only two students, and along with telling us a number of incredible, personal, mystical stories, she taught us the Japanese symbols to direct Reiki to a client’s psycho-emotional body, as well as the symbols that would let us do long-distance, remote healings.

A couple months later, my dear friend confided that she had a tumor that would potentially require a hysterectomy. We were both under 40, and a hysterectomy seemed extreme. She’d had two ultrasounds, both of which indicated a hefty 4-centimeter tumor. She was scheduled to see her doctor again the following week to decide on the next steps. I asked if I could try Reiki. She said she had to work all week—she was a physician—and wouldn’t be able to come into the city. I said no problem, I could do it remotely, and quite frankly we were both doubtful, but neither of us wanted her to have a hysterectomy.

Despite the doubts, I did a Reiki healing on her every night for a week, and when she returned to her doctor, his ultrasound indicated little or no tumor. He suggested that her original ultrasound physician must have been mistaken. “My sister-in-law did it,” my friend had countered, “And she’s very good.” The doctor said he’d never seen a tumor go away on its own, not to mention in a mere week.

When my friend got home—this was pre-mobile phone—she called to ask if I thought it might have been the Reiki. “Well, if he’s never seen this happen before and the only thing you did differently this week was to receive Reiki, then yes.” Despite our success with Jeff, I considered this my first successful healing. I enjoyed knowing that she would be telling her brother and sister-in-law, as well as her father, all of whom were physicians. Even if they were unconvinced, it’s still a step in a positive PR direction for Reiki.

A couple years later, Barrett’s sister was diagnosed with a lump and called us before making any decision about the treatment. She said we had two weeks before her next appointment. Both of us did nightly remote healings, using the Japanese symbols, and when she returned to her doctor, she was told her lump had disappeared. These early healings happened 30-plus years ago, and I’ve done hundreds of Reiki healings since then. Over the years I’ve experienced that Reiki works best on an aberration: a lump or an infection, and less effectively on a chronic illness or a virus, which seems to have its own cycle and timing.

How does it actually work? No one knows. I read an article in The Atlantic a couple years ago called “Reiki shouldn’t work. So why does it?” (and I only remember the title because at the time I thought, what a clunky headline). I read the article despite the headline, but I didn’t learn anything new, and in fact I disagreed with a few points. The article relegated Reiki to energy that was somehow soothing for people who were suffering, whereas I found it to be an un-invasive fix for a health aberation. It didn’t seem like the most favorable article to send to doubters, if I even knew any, but more recently another friend said she didn’t understand how Reiki worked, and I remembered that article: Reiki shouldn’t work, so why does it? I sent it to her, but added my own description.

“No one knows,” I said. “Imagine a gutter, collecting rain and sending it downward. It’s like that. I’ve gotten efficient at catching Reiki and sending it to where it’s needed. Imagine Reiki is the same energy that makes the plants grow and the sun shine. The body sends the Reiki energy where the body needs it.”

That doesn’t even begin to explain how on earth I can do it remotely, though. But do we even need to know? From my vantage point, it doesn’t occur to me to ask. I honestly don’t care. Reiki just…is.

I know that I can merely “intend.” Just as I did 30-plus years ago, I literally just sit there. I am thrilled when it works, which it usually does, but at the same time, I can’t take personal credit. I am still literally just sitting there. (These days, though, it doesn’t feel like I’m faking it.) I love being able to direct Reiki energy and can’t imagine life without it.

When Lily was in grade school and her friend was over for a playdate, I heard her say matter of factly, “Oh, you have a headache? My mom can make it go away.” And indeed over the years, as long as we catch it before it takes over, I have provided mystical headache relief for my kid.

My sense is that quantum physics could prove Reiki (or some kind of mystical energy conduction), but there is little money in funding scientific avenues that don’t result in a profitable outcome. Nothing upsets me more than how thoroughly we humans have been taught that we can’t trust our own body, its messages, and its ability to heal. A person who trusts her body sounds sort of insane, and I realize that, so I rarely engage on this topic. No one needs to know my opinion. But my opinion, borne from experience, is that we can all heal ourselves and each other but that one, we’ve forgotten; two, we have been programmed to think that it’s impossible; and three, even those who believe God heals people sound like lunatics, because “God? no way! Only doctors can heal people!”

When I was checking in to the hospital to give birth, I was immediately put in a wheelchair for insurance purposes and handed a few forms to fill out. I clearly recall signing a release that said, and I quote: “Medicine is an art, not a science” (acknowledging that I wouldn’t sue them in the future for practicing their art form). Well into labor’s increasing pain, between contractions, from the wheelchair, this was news to me: as it turns out, medicine was actually not a science all these years, but an art! Surprise!

Yes, I signed the form. I know when I’m outmatched. See you here every other Wednesday.