light – Prayana

Pronounced “RAY key”, Reiki is a form of alternative healing. It is part of the family of techniques which are sometimes referred to as “energy healing”. The specific system of Reiki was developed by a monk in Japan during the mid 1800’s. However, the idea that healing energy can be transferred through one person to help heal another is much older than that, dating back to Biblical times and even before.

This energy can be thought of in many ways. Some view the Universal Energy as being their idea of God. Some believe it is a gift that comes from a specific God, as in the laying on of hands in a Christian service. Others view it as a physical, cosmic energy literally created by the expansion of the universe.

Is Reiki a Religion?

No. Reiki is performed by practitioners of many religious and spiritual belief systems, including atheists. It is seen as a form of spiritual healing by some, and may be incorporated into someone’s personal religious path, but it does not have the markers of a religion itself. There is no required belief in anything – not even in Reiki! Skeptics welcome!

Reiki practice can optionally include some terminology and ideas which stem from Buddhist and Hindu practices. However, this is not a religious ceremony, nor is Reiki a part of either religious path. It is an entirely separate practice.

“Energy Healing”, Huh? Sounds Like a Scam.

No kidding! It totally does, especially when you’re used to very intense physical medicine, like surgical procedures and actual pills that kill the bad bugs to make you better. I was a total skeptic the first few times I tried Reiki, too! But when it worked for me, I had to try to figure it out. I understand a placebo effect, but for that to happen, you have to actually think you’re doing something that might actually, work, at least somewhere in that brain. I totally did not expect to feel anything, much less have my anxiety mitigated for several days after.

Oh, you’re the kind of person who likes to see some evidence, rather than taking my word for it? Yeah, that makes sense.

From the National Institutes of Health (NIH):

Reiki is a safe, gentle, and profoundly relaxing healing modality… This review has found reasonably strong evidence for Reiki being more effective than placebo, suggesting that Reiki attunement leads to a quantifiable increase in healing ability. Reiki is better than placebo in activating the parasympathetic nervous system, as measured by reduced heart rate, reduced blood pressure, and increased heart rate variability. For patients with chronic health conditions, Reiki has been found to be more effective than placebo for reducing pain, anxiety, and depression, and for improving self-esteem and quality of life

From PsychCentral, by Deborah Bier, PhD:

Reiki is becoming an increasingly accepted presence in hospitals and clinics… It is seen as an effective and cost-reducing method to improve health outcomes and quality of care. Hospital staff, such as physicians and nurses, are adding Reiki treatments to their work. Scientific validation of Reiki’s effectiveness have helped bring this method to the mainstream, where it is able to aid patients in all realms, including those with mental health challenges.

Is Reiki Medicine?

For the purposes of legal definitions in the United States, no, Reiki is not medicine. One does not need a medical license to practice Reiki. Reiki practitioners do not diagnose disease or prescribe medications.

A Reiki practitioner may ask about physical or mental concerns. They may sense a different energy in some part of your body, and suggest you could have something going on there. This is to help you check in with your body, and notice for yourself whether there might be reason to seek medical attention. In other words, if a practitioner suggests they felt an different energy in your abdominal area, you might think “Yes, I have wicked gas right now.” You might also think, “Oh, maybe I should grab that pregnancy test”, or “Shoot, I was supposed to have had that follow-up with the gastroenterologist.” They’re not telling you that you’re sick, but that your body seems to need some kind of attention in that area.

Is Reiki Alternative Medicine?

In short, yes. If you consider medicine in terms of “allopathic” vs “everything else”, then Reiki is part of “everything else”. Allopathic medicine is what we think of as “modern medicine”, including the part before it got so modern. Surgery, medication, germ theory, Grey’s Anatomy, etc.

Alternative medicine is usually everything else. Chiropractic care, massage therapy, herbalism, homeopathy, Ayurveda, acupuncture, and many others can be considered “alternative”. But many people like to think of most of these as Health Care, rather than “medicine”. Yes, they may help you in the same ways as medicine, but thinking of them all as different paths for different purposes helps keep them separate.

Medicine will help you set a broken bone. Chiropractic care may help keep your body from getting other aches and pains while you’re favoring the broken leg. Good nutrition may help the bone knit together more quickly, careful yoga will help keep the blood flowing to the areas that need it, and Reiki can help with the pain and potentially speed healing. They’re different, and a person may make use of any or all of these methods to stay well, or to heal.

Up Next

Check out this excellent article on how to Find a Professional Reiki Practitioner

As Always

I am not a doctor (sorry dad!) I do not diagnose or treat illness. As an herbalist, I may make recommendations about which foods, herbs, and plants may best help you in your desired healing, but it is always recommended that you check with your doctor or pharmacist before you make any change to your medication, exercise, or diet routines. Don’t take chances with your wellness.

This recipe is so easy, I hate to even call it a “recipe”. It’s more of a method you can use to make lots of different creations! That said, I needed a good recipe to help me represent “light” this week, and since this is a favorite of mine, I thought I’d share.

Fresh strawberries in lemon cream? This delightful little trick saved me several times over the summer!

Also, you’ll notice that this recipe is not low-fat, and does contain sugar in the form of honey. It is not compliant with a Keto diet unless you substitute the honey. It is definitely SWYPO for those of you on Whole 30. As always, don’t assume any recipe is healthy for your body’s needs unless all ingredients work for you 🙂

Ingredient Notes:

I’m not aware of a non-fat substitute for the coconut cream that I would be willing to endorse, so if you’d like to try a substitute, please let me know how it works out! I’m not able to try many of the products on the market, and its helpful for others whose bodies are better able to tolerate those things.
Coconut Cream is NOT the same thing as “Cream of Coconut”, which is a heavily sweetened product. You can buy coconut cream on its own, or chill a can of coconut milk and scoop off the solidified cream at the top. Coconut milk products from the refrigerator aisle, such as “Silk” brand, cannot be used here – they just won’t work at all.
Dried lemon zest is really not a great option here. There’s not enough water to rehydrate the zest, and you’ll wind up with little hard chunks of blah. Grab a fresh lemon, zest it first, then cut and squeeze fresh juice. It’s worth it!
The zest is only the yellow part of the lemon peel. You can remove it with a citrus zester, or just use a small grater to grate bits directly from the lemon.

Make it look fancy so you don’t feel like you’re missing out when dessert time comes around!

Here’s What You’ll Need:

1 cup Coconut Cream, room temperature
2 tsp honey, preferably raw and local
1 tsp fresh lemon juice
zest from 1/2 of the lemon, finely grated or chopped

Here’s What You Do:

Put all of the ingredients into a mixing bowl, or the bowl of your stand mixer. Using the whisk attachment of your mixer, combine all ingredients and continue to whip until it gets fluffy. It won’t get like whipped dairy cream yet, so you’re looking for some added volume rather than any kind of “peaks” here. Now, grab a container, like a Mason jar, some Tupperware, or whatever you have. Pour in your lemon cream, and stick that puppy in the fridge. Wait an hour or so, and you’ll have delicious whipped lemon cream that’s way healthier than most of the flavored stuff out there.

After it has chilled, the whipped coconut cream holds up on its own, and can be used as a topping for almost anything you can think of!

You can eat a couple of bites straight out of the jar if you’re having an afternoon snack attack. Or, layer this with some berries for a lovely parfait. Use it as frosting on your healthy baked goods, or even freeze it for a few hours for a luscious, whole food ice cream replacement!

If you don’t love lemon, feel free to use this same method, adding cocoa powder, vanilla, orange peel, or maple syrup and cinnamon for a quick treat that won’t completely derail your attempts to eat better!

Tag: light

What Is Reiki?