Pearls

Ah the lowly bivalve. I'm talking about oysters, just for a minute - please bear with me.

The oyster is not a handsome animal, nor particularly refined in terms we humans can understand. It is not heroic or even notable except for one thing. You know what I'm going to say next. When something that doesn't belong somehow trespasses the fortress of the oyster's shell, the animal becomes irate, as much as bivalves can. It responds by creating something wondrous and impossible, the pearl.

Reiki is not dramatic or heroic, but it is wondrous and also kind of impossible. We Reiki practitioners lay our hands on our clients' bodies. If we are at level II or beyond, we visualize the Reiki symbols, but that's all we do.

Something happens. To the places where the receiver is irritated or hurting physically, emotionally or spiritually, a smooth, violet/white, not quite visible light flows from our hands. This pearly light wraps itself around pain, subsequently creating the energetic equivalent of a pearl. These Reiki pearls allow the receiver to regroup at every level. The receiver's energy settles, body softens and mind rests. A session of Reiki creates spaciousness, grace and a lustrous harmony. During a session of Reiki, the receiver has access to trust. It isn't heroic, but it definitely is wondrous and kind of impossible, like the pearl.

Surely this is the craziest thing ever written about Reiki, though that said, almost everything ever written about Reiki sounds ridiculous. Have you googled it? For heaven's sake!

Reiki is an art. As such, it can not be explained. What is beauty? What is love? What is healing? If you have language to accurately describe these ineffables, please write the book the rest of us have longed for throughout our history.

Reiki is subtle. What it does and how it works can not be defined by the language available at this moment in time.

My metaphor is poetic, hence not exactly scientific. The National Institutes of Health has completed several - at least five - studies of the impact of Reiki. The results are inconclusive, of course. The summaries always include vague statements such as: "Reiki aided in relaxation." So what?

Reiki does not fit into the prevailing medical framework of pathologizing, diagnosing, then treating according to a very specific plan. For those who demand answers when they get sick, I can see it would be easy to dismiss. I tell my students to consider wine aficionados, how they say a certain wine is heady or possesses floral notes, is redolent of earth, berries, with soft tannins or a soft finish. What is a soft finish? I've even heard wine described as tasting like leather. I can't imagine that's good, but apparently to wine aficionados, it is.

I could go on but I'm sure you get my point here, that people who really know and understand wine can only describe the flavors poetically.

Since my first attunement in 2002, I have used Reiki every day, allowing the pearly light to move from my hands to my clients, the earth, trees, animals, even the Washington Monument. Reiki is not a big heroic form of healing, yet it packs a wallop. It can never do any harm, that's for sure.

Reiki has become widely accepted in mainstream medicine, even though there is really no scientific data to support the practice, even though no one can explain or define it. That really speaks to how accessible it is, how helpful it is.

I am a Reiki Master/Teacher. I use Reiki every day, I teach Reiki as often as I can. I love words but words do not do it justice. Reiki will probably not save the world, but for those who need to wrap their aches and pains with light, it is just the ticket. Believe me.

Shalom.