by William Lee Rand
While not all Reiki practitioners believe in the power of prayer and prayer is not necessary to use Reiki, it's important that we consider possible ways to improve the help and healing provided by our work with Reiki. Hopefully, this information will be beneficial to you.
While Reiki is not religious, many who practice Reiki are and being inspired by their religious beliefs, add prayer to their treatments and feel this is beneficial. They feel that prayers strengthen their Reiki energy and also add additional beneficial factors to the healing process including receiving help from spiritual beings and God.
A recent study found that 45 percent of adults pray for health reasons. In addition, there have been over 10 scientific research studies in the past several years in the area of prayer and health. These include studies by the Mind/Body Medical Institute, Duke University, University of Washington, California Pacific Medical Center and others. The Byrd and Harris studies are well known for their positive results along with the work of the late Dr. Elizabeth Targ and Daniel Wirth. A soon to be published study by Dr. Herbert Benson which was carried out with rigorous methods will also be interesting to see.
So does this research give us any ideas on how to pray for the best results? The studies done by the Spin Drift group in which prayer was studied for its effects on plants (which are not affected by the placebo affect) indicate that praying for a non-specific beneficial result is the most powerful. In other words, rather than praying that a person will be cured of cancer, simply praying that the highest good will be accomplished for them will produce the greatest health benefit.
So with this in mind, what kind of prayers might be useful to include with Reiki treatments. Here are a few possibilities: "I pray that the greatest plan for this person's health that Reiki can conceive of be fully manifest now" or "May the greatest benefit be received by my client now" or "May my client be blessed by the greatest love and healing power possible." Or you could be inspired to create a prayer similar to these.
