by William Lee Rand
Here are the answers to a few frequently asked Reiki questions.
Q. Can pregnant women receive Reiki treatments and take Reiki training?
A. Yes, Reiki can do no harm and adjusts itself to the needs of the receiver. It works especially well for pregnant woman relieving lower back pain, helping the mother relax and sleep better and helping her to more easily adjust to the changes taking place in her body. It is also healthy for the baby and improves the baby’s health and prepares the baby for the birth experience. Breach babies often turn on their own into the normal birth position and complications are greatly reduced. During birthing women who receive Reiki experience a much lower rate of complications and a greatly reduced need for cesarean surgery as attested to by doctors, nurses and doulas who have given Reiki to women during childbirth.
Pregnant woman also benefit from taking Reiki training. Some worry that the attunement could cause problems, but it works the same as a treatment in that the attunement can cause no harm either. And the baby benefits too. After the training the woman can Reiki herself and her unborn child and develop an even greater loving bond with the child. Reiki babies are happy babies!
Q. Do you always have to get permission from the person you’re sending to when giving a distant treatment.
A. The concern here is about free will. Even though Reiki is healthy, we need to honor a person’s free will and let them decide if they’d like to receive a treatment or not. Therefore, it is often better to get the conscious permission of the person before sending distant Reiki to them. When you do the person is often more open to the energy and appreciative of it too. However, there are many times and situations where this could be difficult such as when the person is in a coma or is not near a computer or phone or the need is so immediate that it would not make sense to try to get permission. Under these circumstances it is possible to say a prayer and ask for permission directly from the Higher Power – then just follow your inner impression about whether to send or not. It is also possible to simply send Reiki directly to the Higher Power and ask the Higher Power to direct it to the person if it is appropriate or direct it to someone else who is in need and would accept the energy. Also, we often know our friends well enough to know that they like Reiki and would welcome us sending it to them anytime.
In addition to this there is an additional safeguard. Reiki is an intelligent and aware healing energy coming from higher consciousness and is not under our control, but guides itself. It will know if the person wants Reiki or not and will not affect a person who doesn’t want the treatment. This has been demonstrated to me through the use of a clairvoyant counselor I’ve worked with. This clairvoyant could easily see Reiki energy, discern between different kinds of Reiki, read the aura, contact spiritual beings and so forth. In other words she is very clairvoyant and her skill has proven useful and accurate in the many readings I’ve had from her. So we did an experiment in which I sent Reiki to various people. With some she said the person was open to the help Reiki could provide and the energy zoomed right in and began healing. But in others who didn’t want Reiki and weren’t open to receiving its help, it kind of hovered around on the outside of the aura and didn’t affect them. When trying this on your own, you’ll often feel if the person wants the energy because it feels good to send it but if it isn’t wanted, you may feel a kind of repulsion or other feeling that will let you know they don’t want it.
Q. How do we know the symbols work?
A. This is based on experience. In the classes taught by myself and our teachers at the Center, we always spend time in class using the symbols and comparing how the energy feels and acts compared with Reiki I energy which is done without symbols. In this way students experience the strength of their Reiki getting stronger and hotter with the power symbol and generally more mellow and peaceful with the mental/emotional symbol. The distant symbol can also be tested by sending to people and then finding out what they experienced. This is even more impressive if the person doesn’t know the time you’ll be sending and then is able to tell you what time they felt the energy.
I’ve also done experiments with my clairvoyant friend mentioned above. During a phone reading I asked her first to diagnose my energy field and tell me what it was doing and what it looked like which she did. Then without telling her, I began doing Reiki on myself and asked her what she saw. She said she saw a new stream of energy coming down through the crown and then into the aura which expanded and there was a beautiful flow of relaxing energy and she told me I was giving myself Reiki. Then I used the power symbol without saying anything and she said she could see a change happen and that the energy suddenly got a lot stronger. Then I used the mental/emotional symbol and she said the energy came down through the crown chakra, the some came out the solar plexus and some out the heart chakra and it was going into the aura and healing the mental and emotional bodies. Then I drew the distant symbol and began sending Reiki to a friend. At this point she said something different happened and that the aura got a lot bluer and expanded even more. She said she saw a beam of light coming from each hand and they went out to a point about 40 miles away where they crossed, and at this point there was a person and she said that I was sending Reiki to the person — which they really appreciated.
