Hello I have been a practising reiki for 6yrs I teach now and have done for 2yrs now,my father does reiki and is up to master level and my mother teaches reiki too,I used to be confused as to what the diffrence is with all these diffrent practises of energetics,basically they are all the same they come from the same sorce,we are all able to heal,hear spirit ect if we choose too,my father is also a fantastic medium and my mother and I hear spirit too.It just depends on which system you choose,they all have the same goal to heal, it just depends on which you prefer,reiki is and has been taught as a self healing practise,spirits do not come into it not if you practise the traditional japanese style.I get so sick of hearing this is better and stronger than that, it is so childish,it depends on the person,when it all comes down to it if you work hard on your self clearing away the emotional debree we gather,and we work hard with meditation and with the energy ,then we become clearer channels ,then our healing work is stronger ,just like un blocking a pipe. for that is all that we are,if you are interested in mediumship then join a class,but when I give healing I feel all sorts goings on ,be it angelic ,spirit ect,the thing is when we give healing we let the energy go to were it needs to go without trying to direct or control the outcome,if they are beings there when we do healing just say thanks,they know why they are there,I always say to my clients to ask to recive whatever they need to recive at that time and moment,that is up to the universe and the client for they know were they need healing .I have a spiritual development group were people come to exercise there senses ,psychic abilities intuition, by giving readings to each other ,working with various tools.then the following week I have my reiki share,the two are very diffrent.Reiki is an energetic system the side affects of these exercises is that it opens up our senses,but that is not the aim,the aim is self healing,and becoming one with the universe and all .for when we are clean and shining with love inside it helps all others around us.You choose which system works with you ,do not let other people tell you this is better than that,it depends on which one feels better or sits right with you,I have meet many mediums who were good at what they done but when it came to the self,they needed to ground and heal,if you are grounded in the beggining it is the foundations of learning and growing ,again with any practise it is practise that helps us grow.
love light and laughter
shelly xxx

I have trained in Spiritual Healing (SH) with the NFSH in the UK. This is an old and respected organisation, without denomination, whose patrons and supporters include Prince Charles. It is different to the Spiritualist Churches who also offer healing instruction and have brought many people into healing work.

By way of explanation, there are fundamental differences between Reiki and SH.
Reiki is an intiatory process, as introduced by Dr Hayashi, and with the Reiju Attunement introduced by Sensei Usui. Reiki is defined as a specific form of life force energy, the channel for which is opened and sealed with specific energies defined by mantra and yantra. These mantras and yantras are tools for personal growth as well as essential aspects of the initiation process. The Reiki symbols relate to ancient symbols from Tibet and India as well as the Japanese Kanji system and oral tradition which are based on mantra and yantra. Symbols and sounds are well known in healing work and intitiatory traditions. There are many of these specific energies which people feel as powerful healing forces in themselves (Om, Sri Yantra, Spiral, Star-Tetrahedron, Dodecahedron, Cross and Circle,....).
Reiki is a mystery school, with many specific teachings and processes, self-healing and meditations, manuals, hand positions, and with the potential for repeated attunements and classes, and accelerated growth towards enlightenment.
Reiki has the technique of placing the hands on a person and 'allowing' the energy to flow to where it is needed. It also has many other techniques which are clearly defined and available in manuals and books. Reiki is an extensive system which has been developed and expanded in Japan and other countries. There are pure Japanese lineages and groups and they have the original manuals of Usui and Hayashi as well as original symbols, teachings etc.

There are many people who learned Reiki via the Reiki Alliance, and other teachers, who said that if they trained with someone else then they 'didn't have Reiki anymore', or that teachers from other lineages were 'not proper teachers', etc. We know that these assertions were rarely true. We also know that many people who trained with Alliance lineages received inadequate teaching, very small manuals, only 3 levels to 'Master', no contact or information about Japan, denial about the extent of Reiki and its techniques, told that the only Usui lineage was the Alliance one, etc etc. Some of those poorly trained people have gone on to teach Reiki in its very diluted forms and the result is a kind of fragmentation of what is actually a full and evolving system. Various people have left Reiki in the belief that it is not complete and is not as good a healing system as various others (I have heard this many times). Many people have felt abused and exploited by the groups who went "for the money" (as Furumoto said), and told their students nonsense about burning the "secret symbols" and Sensei Usui as a "Christian Doctor" working with "beggars", etc etc. Furumoto even tried to copyright the term 'Reiki' in the UK (using expensive lawyers), and failed because of a concerted campaign by so many Reiki people here who object to megalomaniacs and egotists, with no connection to their roots, believing that they can control what is not theirs.

People who have received the Reiki attunements and have gone on to develop themselves in other systems, will continue to feel the benefit of their Reiki work and initiations, whatever they do. In that way, any judgement they have of Reiki as being somehow 'less' than what they are currently involved in, is mistaken. Their problem is not knowing enough and not studying with the groups who are doing so much to correct the dilutions and mistakes of the past.
Reiki has many techniques including: psychic surgery; healing attunements; Ki from the eyes and breath; at least 72 hand positions; mudras for healing and attunement; specific combinations of positions for specific conditions; movements, exercises and meditations; the teaching of the significance of yantra and mantra; specific techniques for layers of the aura, chakras, nadis, meridians; techniques which include massaging, tapping and stroking; work with crystals; colours and forms of Ki; as well as all the normally taught stuff with distant healing, scanning, beaming, self-healing, the 5 precepts, etc etc.. There is much more which can be learned through certain groups and lineages and all is part of the whole.

Spiritual Healing is a fine tradition of mainly auric healing. We were taught to use a 'feather touch' at certain positions which would, through specific prayers, invocations and guided meditations, guide the healing energy down through the body. This work was mostly to heal the 'spirit' of a person, in the knowledge that it is the spiritual layer of the aura where illness begins. Learning various well-tested guided meditations is vital for this work, and so the healer becomes a 'facilitator' of the life force and the receivers own innate self-healing ability. We were told not to place the hands directly on the body of the receiver, and had always to work with the same basic format of positions.
This way of healing is similar to Pranic Healing and Chi Healing, which often come through other disciplines such as Yoga and Chi Gung. These systems are based on the understanding of life force energy and how it can be guided, accumulated, circulated and empowered, through certain techniques and with invocations and setting of intention. You can learn a huge amount about this way with Master Mantak Chia, via his books and international classes.
I honestly believe that I learned valuable information during my SH courses, and recommend any person in Reiki to learn everything they can to become better healers. Ultimately you are doing Reiki for yourself and others, or just for yourself - and either is fine. I have met various people learning SH and Reiki only for animals and nature, and not for humans at all!

You can use any label you like as a healer, and some are more useful than others. Here we have the Reiki Federation which is attempting to unite all lineages, provides healer insurance and works to have Reiki approved as a healing system within CAM organisations, through evaluation and the setting of standards. This kind of work is vital if Reiki is to be used for Doctor referral schemes, hospital and hospice work, within education systems, and generally recognised as a complete system.

Some will say that Reiki is not necessary to heal, and of course they are right. Reiki is a choice, and is a life-path not just a healing system. Sensei Usui was very clear that Reiki is for "health and happiness" at the first 2 levels, and thereafter is to reach enlightenment. People who have problems with their Reiki path will be wise to learn more, just as the Japanese recommend, through a process of continous study and practice.
Reiki has never been a basic training in healing which somehow stops when you get to level 3, and it was not created to be learned in a few weekends. That kind of teaching is at the core of the problems in the 'Western' lineages.

So if you have the basic 3 levels, in the Hayashi/Takata system, try studying with other groups such as the teachings of Sensei Hiroshi Doi and the Japanese Reiki Oneness World Network, Jin Kei Do, Seichem/Karuna, Seichim, Sekhem, Raku Kei, and more. Perhaps visit Japan with one of the many groups going each year and connect with the roots of the system. Buy "The Spirit Of Reiki" by Petter, Rand and Lubeck, and learn what some of the wisest people in Reiki have to say. And consider study with Mantak Chia, in Shamanism, Metamorphic Technique, Shiatsu, Reflexology, Kinesiology, and any other energy healing systems. Without information there cannot be real choice.

I highly recommend ignoring people who suggest that one system of healing is better than another. All systems are part of the 'whole' which is 'healing' and leads to 'health'.

Namaste

Many thanks for the comments & input. I'll continue to keep an open mind. We're all students on the path & the progress will just keep unfolding.

Love & Light

Oh boy... do I even think about reading down?

lol

Scott

Years ago when I was more active in the Spiritualist Church, I used to serve as a church 'healer' - I had my reiki levels (I/II/III"a") and the minister would say "we're glad you're doing healing and we know you do REIKI and we do SPIRITUAL(IST) HEALING" and I would giggle to myself and continue on.

Of course, a position of privilege (and pressure) is to give the Minister a healing... and I was glad to offer hands/energy whenever the request came (or I felt to offer)...

After one healing, the Minister looked at me and said, "It isn't any different, is it?" and I said, "well, (minister), I never actually said it was!"

Yes, there are fundamental differences in how we learn and hold the systems and how we come to them, but to my mind, it's all very very close... My Spiritual(ist) development (aka mediumship) comes through healing - I was led to the Spiritualist church through Reiki - when I practise Reiki, sometimes I make mediumistic contact... I don't make (big) separations unless I'm needing to teach or explain one from th'other...

reikily

walter

Separation is an illusion.