The touch that heals

Have you ever heard the song by Elton John called 'Healing Hands'? The guy was truly on to something because at the end of your arms, you carry with you miraculous and medicinal tools in the form of a palm, a thumb and four fingers.

Today, I'm going to talk about Reiki. It is a safe, gentle and non-intrusive, yet unorthodox form of healing done with just two hands.

The work 'Reiki' comes from the Japanese word translated as meaning "universal life force", or "God-directed life energy".

This holistic approach to healing uses the hands that are placed - not pressed or rubbed - onto one's body and in different areas for different lengths of time to transfer positive energy from the healer to the person needing healing.

It has been used in Japan since the early 1900s and found it's way West in the late 1930s.

The way it came about resembles a Hollywood script, and if you suspend your beliefs in how the world works, you might just appreciate that the man who "discovered" Reiki was a Japanese Buddhist priest who was apparently struck by a great light at the end of a 21-day fasting retreat.

This 'great light' was said to have empowered him with healing hands.

However, to his credit, many people swore that their various ailments went away when he touched them. His teachings were passed on to other Japanese medical practitioners and academics and used successfully for many years after his death in 1926.

Today, one can take Reiki classes to become a healer or even a Reiki master!

Many naturopaths, homoeopaths, massage therapists, life coaches, and other self-claimed healers use this method to rid the body of all sorts of things from stress to suspected cancer.

When I first came to Bahrain, I tried Reiki to help me relax and battle insomnia. It certainly relaxed me while I was there and I felt my local muscle temperature elevate where her hands were - like she had put a hot pack on me.

One friend of mine had two weekly Reiki sessions because she said she felt "out of sorts" and Reiki helped to balance her inner self. Another female friend of mine said she went to the same healer and felt absolutely nothing.

So ... how can you have the same healer work the same way and have three very different outcomes. It's simple. Whether or not you believe that "universal life force" or "God-directed life energy" actually exists and additionally, whether you believe or not that someone can direct this into your body with the object of curing your ailments, greatly depends on your own inner energy, beliefs and how badly you WANT to believe that it works.

I'm not saying it is real or false. What I am saying is that if you have tried more traditional remedies and have been let down, and think that Reiki might work, it probably will because the power of suggestion may be stronger in you, exaggerating the perception that it will truly work. You have to believe to achieve!

I went to my Reiki session with an open mind. The body truly is an every day miracle and I needed help and didn't want to take sleeping pills. So I got an "average" result. My first friend greatly believes in self-healing; is more religious than me and genuinely believes in her heart-of-hearts that the woman who treated her has a gift. So she got an outstanding result.

My other friend was willing to try it but didn't have the same values and beliefs and therefore perhaps expected it not to work. So, she came out of the session feeling nothing at all.

A similar healing method is the use of crystals, vibration and sound, and light and colour therapy. If you believe it will work, then it probably will.

The mind always plays tricks on the body. Consider a magic show. We all know you can't cut a woman in half and have her suddenly become one again with no blood in sight, yet there it is right on stage in front of you!

We also know that a man cannot disappear into thin air, but right before your eyes - gone with an "abracadabra" wave of a wand!

Reiki does indeed have its place in healing. It gives attention to the mind, emotions; it brings the human touch into people's lives and comforts them.

It is a chance for the patient just to lie down quietly, or talk if they want. And energy in the human body and even in the air all around us is a very real phenomenon. Whether or not this energy can be 'transferred' from one person to another and with the goal of fixing the physical and mental problems the body is storing, is the underlying question that will maintain the credibility that the practise of Reiki has built up for itself over the past 90 years across the world.

If you would like to try Reiki, look for a therapist near you - there a couple of them here in Bahrain.

Don't be afraid to ask for their qualifications and experience and you do not have to let them touch you anywhere you do not want to be touched. Ever. It's your body. Good luck everybody.