Reiki Articles

Reiki Levels - Getting the Timing Right

These days we want everything fast. Fast Food. Fast cars. Fast degrees - fast Enlightenment.

Reiki is no different.

Look on the Internet and you will find dozens of websites offering ‘Master Training’ – not just in 24hrs, but online to boot.

It’s all gain and no pain – the most perfect of worlds.

Of course, few people – I hope! – actually believe that they can pay a few dollars and have someone transfer Reiki Mastery on them from afar without any practice or work.

Where things are less clear, however, is with regular – in the flesh – Reiki degrees. These days there seems to be no clear consensus on how long someone should wait before attending the next level.

Traditionally in Western Reiki, Level 1 students were advised to wait at least one month – preferably two – before taking Level 2, and then 1 year – preferably two – before taking their Master Level.

Nowadays, the time frames given by Reiki teachers are so inconsistent they are of little help. As a result, students are often uncertain when to take the next step.

The question we all want to know, therefore, is this: Is there an optimum time to wait before taking the next Reiki level? Or does it actually make little difference?

Rand’s Rocket

It would probably come as a surprise to many Reiki traditionalists to find out that William Lee Rand, one of the world’s most well known Reiki teachers, often teaches level 1 and level 2 together.

To explain why he does so, he uses the analogy of a rocket blasting off from Earth into outer space. When it does so it uses a huge part of its fuel just after take-off and much less after that. Indeed, once it has broken clear of the Earth’s gravitational pull it will hardly need any fuel to shoot immense distances through space.

The moral?

According to Rand, the Level 1 attunements can do a great deal of work in helping you break free from old energetic structures and behavioural patterns; but to experience really deep change you will often need an extra ‘boost’ .

In his opinion, second Level attunements - if done immediately following the level one attunements - will provide you with this boost. They are like the booster rockets that get you out of the Earth’s gravitational pull. Without them you would never quite be free.

Does the Analogy Work?

In theory, this sounds great. An extra boost and away you go. But is the analogy accurate? Can we really compare Reiki attunements to a rocket blasting off into outer space?

The problem is that in practice, level 2 tends to build on level 1. In other words, to get maximum benefit from level 2 you need to practise what you have been taught in level 1. And to get a good feel for what you have been taught you need to practise over a period of time. You have to increase your ‘energetic capacity’ until you can fully appreciate the intricacies of what you have learned. Otherwise you may well ride an energetic high for a brief time after the second level attunements, but it is unlikely you will get any longstanding benefits.

Think of it like constructing a building: one storey goes on the next which goes on the next. In particular, you need a solid foundation before the rest of the building can go up. You can have all the materials for the mainframe of the building, sure, but if the foundations are dodgy everything will still collapse.

What’s more, the attunements are actually a two-way energetic connection between the Reiki Master and the student. How powerful they are depends on both people. The student will gain little benefit if the master is low on energy; just as the amount of energy the student can absorb will depend on his or her very own ‘energetic capacity’.

As a result, students should find that second and third level attunements are more powerful, not so much because there is anything intrinsically more special about them, but rather because the student has grown energetically. This means that he or she can more deeply experience communion with the teacher (or, to be more precise, Reiki energy).

Reiki Levels 1 and 2 According to Dr Hayashi

To be fair to William Lee Rand, he does have other reasons beyond his rocket analogy for teaching level 1 and 2 together. An important one is that there is actually a famous precedent for it, namely Dr Hayashi who taught them together.

That said, Dr Hayashi taught levels 1 and 2 over five days - not two - so these extra days may have enabled students to make the energetic shifts necessary to get the most out of the second level, even without a substantial break.

Personally, I still feel that students will benefit more from a period of practice before doing level 2; but as William Lee Rand rightly pointed out to me, everyone should be free to act according to their inner guidance.

What's more, students will tend to be attracted to the teacher who resonates best with them; so it's quite conceivable that students who would benefit from doing the levels together will gravitate towards teachers who teach them together, and that students who would benefit from a gap between the levels will be attracted to teachers who provide one.

The Levels in Mikao Usui’s Time

In order to better work out what time frame is right for us, it is instructive to examine how the levels were taught by the founder of Reiki, Mikao Usui. If we do, we will soon realize that his method of teaching Reiki differs considerably from the way it is taught today.

The most significant difference is that Reiki for him was not nearly as rigidly structured as it is today. Instead, he taught it bit by bit - students only been shown new things when they were deemed energetically ready.

In other words, a student would be given a technique to practise and he would practise that technique for as long as it took to master it. When mastery was achieved he would be given another technique and so on all the way up the Reiki ladder.

The method was a patient one, because it was understood that you could only benefit from latter techniques if you had already mastered the earlier ones.

Of course, this style of teaching depended very much on continued contact between teacher and student and is less practical in today’s busy world. But while we may not be able to replicate it, we should nevertheless learn from it. In particular we might learn that it does not matter so much what ‘level’ you are said to be, but rather how deeply you connect to Reiki.

Your practice is what it is, regardless of the label you put on yourself. You can call yourself a Level 3 Reiki Master because you got an instant attunement on the Net; but if your Reiki stinks, it still stinks. Far better to be a Reiki 1 who has practised and developed her skills than a ‘cyber’ Level 3 without substance.

As such, we need to stop being greedy. We need to put the ego aside and stop worrying about how we will appear in the eyes of the world. Because when we come to heal either ourselves or another, the only thing that matters is the quality of our Reiki, not the quality of our Reiki tag.

Is it Always Bad to Progress Quickly?

That said, it is not always bad to progress quickly. If you are ready, there is no point dogmatically holding back because a rulebook somewhere tells you to do so.

Take Mrs Takata, the founder of Western Reiki, for example. She was attuned to Level 1 in 1936, Level 2 in 1937 and went on to get her Master Level in 1938. In other words, she did it all in approximately two years. And she could do that successfully - despite not having done any energy work beforehand - because for those two years Reiki became the centre of her life. She practised it. She lived it. She embodied it.

Timeframes will therefore vary from person to person. How quickly you can take the next level will depend on how much practice you do; what innate talent you have; how energetically evolved you were before learning Reiki – and many other such things.

If you had practiced meditation for ten years before encountering Reiki, for instance, you will most likely be ready to progress more quickly than someone who spent the majority of his last ten years downing pints in a pub.

Conclusion

If I had to give a general guideline, I would say that a student should wait anywhere from 2-6 months before taking Level 2 and a further 1-2 years before doing Master Level. In most cases, progressing more quickly will not accelerate your Reiki development.

If we wish to find the optimum time to do the next Reiki level, however, we need to throw away theory and trust our intuition. If we are honest; if we get rid of the ego, silence the mind and look within, we will almost certainly know whether we are ready or not.

The trick is simply to do what we are told.

(Jeremy O'Carroll)

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What to Do If You Lose Energy During Reiki Treatments

Some people grow tired after giving Reiki to another person. If this ever happens to you, then you are most probably doing one of two things:

Forcing the healing, i.e. straining to heal more effectively.
Creating a belief that you can lose energy when you heal.

If you are straining, relax and remember that you don't need to work hard as a Reiki healer. Your job is simply to be a channel. So empty yourself of thoughts and effort and let the Reiki flow through you.

The less you - as a healer - are present, the more the Reiki energy will be able to flow.

If you have somehow picked up the belief that you can lose energy when giving Reiki, replace that idea or thought - every time it comes into your mind - with another: Reiki can only fill me with energy, not deplete my energy when I heal another.

What we believe has a habit of manifesting, so if your negative beliefs are coming true, change them for positive ones.

If you are practicing Reiki then you are not using your own energy. Rather, you are 'channeling' universal energy. That means that if anything you should end a Reiki session with more energy than when you started it. This happens because during a session you receive the benefit of Reiki flowing through you before it goes into the recipient. This is definitely uplifting.

So don't strain and keep your mind focused on a positive result. If you do this you will find that your work as a Reiki healer is deeply invigorating.

(Jeremy O'Carroll)

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What to Do If You Have Stopped Practising Reiki

Practising Reiki can be a bit like going to the gym: you start off full of energy, you go three times a week for the first month, and then something happens to break your routine, you can’t go for a week, and after that you just find one good reason after the next not to go.

This happens, even though you know that going to the gym is not only good for you, but that you feel great when you do it, too!

Likewise with Reiki: a lot of people do Level 1, blast off into new energetic worlds, practise hard for a few weeks and then, for one reason or another, let things go.

After that they end up just telling themselves that they are too busy to practise, or that Reiki isn’t for them.

All that after experiencing just how much good Reiki did them!

If this sounds like you, then don’t worry. The good thing about Reiki is that it isn’t like the gym membership: it will never expire.

That means that once you have been attuned, you can never lose your power.

At worst it dims and requires a bit of practice to get it back into full swing.

Think of it like lifting weights after a time off: you can't lift as many of them and you can’t do as many repetitions.

After a few weeks back in training, however, your muscles recondition and things become easier. The weights seem lighter. Your muscles grow more powerful.

The same with Reiki. Spend some time each day for a week or two and you’ll find that your Reiki jumps right back to the level it once was.

Just be patient and don’t panic if at first you can’t feel much. Believe me, the energy will be bubbling under surface just waiting to burst forth.

If you have done the Om Reiki Level 1 course, a good idea might be to redo the 21 day e-programme. By the end of that your Reiki should be flying again at full strength.

If you can remember the secret page details, just enter them again, put your name and email address into the form box and away you go.

If you can’t remember the details, just email Om Reiki for the info.

If you haven’t done our course, you might like to just invent your own 21 day programme, or at least commit to practising consistently for a set period of time.

That should get the Reiki fires burning again.

Whatever you do, don’t give up. Don’t let negative thinking overcome you. Reiki is a gift for life. Use it and you will be happier and healthier.

Good luck!

(Jeremy O'Carroll)

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The Power of Intent

Imagine you are visiting a foreign city.

Now imagine that this foreign city has something you want, something magical that could fulfil your every need.

So you catch a bus to the CBD and start walking around hoping you’ll bump into this ‘magic’ thing.

You walk and walk, you cross over roads, you go up hills, you pass by 25 McDonald’s; but you still can’t find it.

After a couple of hours your feet hurt so you sit down on a park bench. In an ideal world you’d have a map that could lead you where you wanted to go, but unfortunately you don’t actually know what you’re meant to be looking for, so a map can’t help.

All you know are two things: 1) this magical thing is going to make a big difference to your life and 2) you will recognise it when you see it.

So after regaining your strength you get up from the bench and keep walking around the city: up and down streets, along alleyways, through the lunchtime crowds, past spruikers, all the while checking out every person, building and thing to see if it is the magic item you’re looking for.

But you can’t find it.

Without a clear idea what you’re looking for you just end up going around in circles.

But imagine that you knew that this magic item was a Microsoft Cyber Apple (yes, I know this is an unlikely example!).

If you knew that it would simply be a matter of doing some research, asking someone, maybe checking out the Net and no doubt you’d soon know where you could purchase the all fulfilling Microsoft Cyber-apple.

So what, then, does all this have to do with ‘intent’, i.e. the theme of this article?

Simply that it’s not enough to want something abstract – something ‘good’. If that’s the best you can do you’re like the person wandering about searching for a ‘magic item’ without having any idea what it is.

What you need instead is something concrete to head towards – the Microsoft Cyber Apple or its equivalent.

Now, its equivalent might be anything. It could be a new boyfriend, a new car, a great connection to your seven chakras, the solution to a health problem – whatever.

But you need to be able to articulate what it is in concrete terms. Because if you can do that then you’re much more like to get it than if you just start searching for something ‘good’.

Unfortunately, however, most people never do this. They leave their life to chance. They hope the ‘universe’ will give them what they want, but they never tell the universe what it is they want! Not surprisingly they usually don’t get the results they are looking for.

Of course, if you really want something you need to do more than just articulate what it is you want.

You need to ‘intend’ it.

‘Intention’, to keep things simple, is using your willpower to help you manifest a certain result.

Think of what you want. Imagine having it. Visualize having it. Will yourself to have it - and do so for a period of time. If you can do this consistently then you’ll probably find you end up having it.

Of course, all this talk of the ‘universe’, ‘intention’ and articulating what you want might sound a bit New Age.

If so, get scientific and do a test.

Spend a moment intending a concrete result, then analyse the outcome. Is it better than average? Can you spot a noticeable improvement? If so, keep it up. If not, either try harder or try something different.

Because that’s what it’s all about – doing field research. Never simply believe because Mr Guru Swami tells you something is the case. Believe because you’ve tested a technique and liked the results.

Finally, remember that although this technique works for material things (like getting a job with a bigger pay cheque); it just as well for so-called ‘spiritual’ work like Reiki and meditation.

So if you want have more powerful Reiki, set your intent that this will be the case. Better still, don’t just say, ‘I’d like to be great at Reiki’ (although this will help); say: ‘I’d like a stronger flow of Reiki energy every time I practice Reiki’.

Be concrete, not vague.

Because vague thinking produces vague results while concrete thinking concrete ones.

Naturally we have just scratched the surface of intention here. But the thing to remember is that it is hard to find something if you don’t know what you’re looking for.

So work out what you want (whatever it may be) and then intend that you will get there.

Surely that is better than leaving things to chance?

(Jeremy O'Carroll)

Less is More: How to Improve Your Reiki by Doing Less

In life you can achieve a lot by working hard. We've all heard the saying that 'success is 10% inspiration and 90% perspiration', and no doubt there is a lot of truth to that.

In Reiki this means that if we practice consistently, if we set our intent to improve, if we surround ourselves with teachers and friends who are travelling a similar journey, then we will no doubt make progress.

Problems arise, however, when we take this 'work ethic' to the healing table.

Why?

Because the more we strain to give 'great Reiki', the more we are likely to get in our own way.

Imagine it like this: you are a large pipeline through which the Reiki energy can flow.

If you get your mind and desires out of the way the pipe is empty - a perfect conduit for the Reiki energy.

If, however, your mind is full of desires and techniques, if it can't quieten down and needs to tell you how to do everything, then the pipeline is only going to get clogged and cluttered.

And a cluttered pipeline means that less energy gets through to your 'client'.

So if you really want to give 'great Reiki', then get out of the way and be very Zen.

Empty your mind. Don't try to achieve anything. Forget results, techniques and everything else.

Just let go and let flow.

That way you remove all the effort and stress from giving a healing and allow the 'spiritually guided energy' that is Reiki to flow freely through you.

That way you get maximum result, for least work.

(Jeremy O'Carroll)

Beyond the 7 Chakra System

Most people have heard of the chakras (the major energy centres in our body). Many have even had moments where they have felt the seven main ones, distributed from the base of the spine up to the crown of the head.

What most people don't know, however, is that we also have chakras that are outside of our physical body, but inside our 'energy system'.

While the exact number of these chakras varies depending on who you talk to, many people in the know suggest we have as many as 12 chakras - and possibly even more.

For the majority of us this might seem farfetched and impossible to verify - but if you put in some practice you should soon be able to connect to at least two additional chakras: the Earth Star chakra (found about 10-12 inches below the feet) and 8th chakra (found about 2 feet above the crown).

To do so, simply place your awareness on these chakra points and hold it there. If you don't connect after a minute or so, move your awareness around the general area to locate the exact spot the chakra is on.

If you do this, you should soon start to connect energetically to both chakras.

When you connect to the 8th chakra you will find it easier to channel energy in through your 7th chakra - and thus into your body.

When you connect to the Earth Star chakra you will feel more grounded and connected to the Earth.

In both cases, you should find the power of your Reiki increases.

(Jeremy O'Carroll)

The Three Keys to Energetic Self-Protection

It's a curious fact that many spiritual workers and healers spend much of their time suffering from health issues. These can range from chronic problems like asthma, severe allergies and obesity, to a simple cold or flu. In either case, it isn't what you would intuitively expect from those who are meant to be more connected to 'Spirit' than the majority.

Admittedly, health issues tend to be more of an issue to clairvoyants and psychics than Reiki healers; but a lot of Reiki healers do find their energy unbalanced by the work they do.

So are there ways to protect yourself from being affected by healing work? And are there ways to avoid taking on a client's 'crap'?

The answer is a definite yes, and there are three keys to your success:

Preparing yourself mentally and physically before a healing session.
Avoiding energetic self-sacrifice.
Creating a proper energetic base to work from before doing difficult healing work.

Preparing Yourself Mentally and Physically Before a Healing Session.

The single-most important thing you can do to avoid taking on a client's 'crap' is to decide that you won't.

This sounds facetious, but it is true. We tend to attract what we believe and focus our attention on, so if you go into a healing session fearing that you will take on 'negative energy' then there is a high chance that you will.

Not surprisingly, the common approach of 'protecting' yourself from negative energy doesn't work - something which explains why even though many healers go through elaborate rituals (grounding, white light bubbles etc.) to create an energetic shield that will protect them, in most cases what they are really doing is feeding their fear. This fear in turn feeds what they fear, so the dangers grow at a similar or greater rate to their protective shields.

As a result, their focus on potential dangers actually makes them more vulnerable to them despite their defences. (To understand this better, think of it as something like the 'nocebo affect' [the opposite of 'placebo affect']. Here, the belief that there will be negative side-effects to a drug etc. in many cases creates that effect - even when a sugar pill [rather than the actual drug] has been administered.)

That is what I do, and thus far I have never had any problems.

That said, you may wish to wash your hands or take a cleansing shower after a healing session. That way, should any negative 'energetic dust' accumulate on your physical body or aura, it will be washed off.

Don't make this a must, however, or you will once again be feeding your fear. Instead, take these measures intuitively. Sometimes you will just feel that they are the right thing to do. On such occasions you will find washing yourself with water to be deeply cleansing.

Avoid Energetic Self-Sacrifice

Sometimes you can be a little too well-meaning for your own good. This occurs when you feel such a wave of compassion for the person you are working on that you say a prayer (or have the intention) to take their suffering from them - even if you need to take it on board yourself.

This often works well for the client; the only problem is that it is at your expense.

As a Reiki healer, you therefore need to have more faith in the process. Believe that Reiki can do the healing work; believe that it works best if you get out of the way of the healing and simply act as an energetic channel - and leave the rest to fate.

You have as good or better chance of healing a client that way, and you are not putting yourself at any risk.

Create a Proper Energetic Base to Work from Before Doing Difficult Healing Work

Another key reason healers get sick from their work is that they are energetically unbalanced. They have well-developed 'higher' chakras, but have done little work on the 'lower' ones.

A clairvoyant might have a very open 6th chakra (3rd Eye) that helps her to see the future, for instance, but unless she is also grounded she will most likely find life in the material word quite difficult.

A general rule, therefore, should be to work on your lower chakras first, and only later on your 'higher' ones. By doing that, you will have created a solid energetic foundation to work from.

Think of it as something like a tree putting down large roots before reaching up for the sky. That way, when the winds blow and storms arrive, it will be able to withstand whatever nature throws at it.

So never neglect work on the lower two chakras. If you strengthen those you will find it far easier to navigate the difficulties of the material (physical) world.

If you neglect them, you will most likely find yourself struggling to gain mental, emotional and physical balance.

(Jeremy O'Carroll)

Hand Positions Or Intuition?

People love to take sides. They love things to be either / or.

This simplifies things. Allows them to create a rule.

Allows them to turn off their brain.

But life is naturally more complicated. It's full of shades - with few pure colours.

Likewise with Reiki.

As tempting as it is to say that things should always be done in a certain way - that certain practices achieve better results - there are always exceptions. Take today's topic, the argument on Reiki hand positions versus intuition.

It would be nice to say we always should, or should never, use them. But in practice a mixture of intuition and hand positions often works best - at least for Reiki practitioners without lots of experience.

That's where the Reiki hand positions can be used to good effect.

Since the hand positions work systematically (head to toe) to cover all of the main energy centres (chakras etc.) and organs of the body, then they guarantee a solid result.

Maybe not the best imaginable, but very good nonetheless.

So a simple rule of thumb for a Reiki practitioner might be to use the hand positions until something better - i.e. a piece of intuition - suggests itself.

An easy way to work this is by doing an energy scan of your client before a session (for those who have not taken any of my courses, this means moving your hands [palms down] from head to toe above a client's body. Your hands should be about 5 - 10cm above the body and they should be used as energy detectors. Their job is to notice any anomalies in the client's energetic system, any areas that feel as though they need a bit of work).

As you scan a client's body you will generally get a feeling that certain areas require particular attention. This might come from a feeling generated in the hands or it might simply be an intuitive hunch that occurs while scanning. In either case, you can then set to work healing those areas before moving back to the hand positions.

In other words, you will work on all areas that intuitively need attention and only then move to the first hand position.

If at any later stage you get another intuitive hunch, you can abandon your hand position to heal the area that needs attention. After that, you simply return to whatever point you were up to with your hand positions.

You continue this pattern until the end of the healing session.

With practice you will most likely find that you spend more and more time working intuitively and less working with the hand positions. That is fine. In fact, that is how it should be.

Indeed, most historical experts now agree that in Japan the hand positions were only used for students who hadn't yet developed their intuition fully. So they certainly weren't something to be dogmatically adhered to. Rather, they were something you hoped to graduate from.

So use the hand positions until something better comes along. Then let them go bit-by-bit as your practice advances.

That way you will always have something to fall back on should your intuition fall silent, but you will be flexible enough to use your intuition when it does sing out.

(Note: So that we don't dismiss the hand positions too quickly, we should be aware of two smart things that they do. First, they start at the head - thus relaxing the mind and, as a result, the body. This is important because some clients come so stressed and caught up in the hurly-burly of their own thoughts that they are unable to relax and become receptive until their thoughts slow down. Reiki to the head tends to achieve this.
Second, the hand positions work together, one complementing the next. Doing them in correct sequence thus enables the Reiki energy to more fully flow around the body. For instance, if you work from head to toe you will often find that when you reach the feet energy can flow up the body, sometimes all the way to the crown. If you start at the legs, however, this is very difficult to achieve.)

(Jeremy O'Carroll)

Can Reiki Harm You?

If you practise Reiki long enough you are bound to bump into a bunch of big don'ts.

Don't Reiki the people with jewellery on.

Don't Reiki the crown of the head.

Don't Reiki women who are pregnant.

Don't Reiki the spine etc.

Sometimes they get even more silly, like 'Don't Reiki anyone if you are wearing red'.

As ridiculous as some of these don'ts sounds, they are usually backed up with just enough rational explanation to make you wonder.

Red, for instance, is the color of the root chakra and - according to some - giving it Reiki might inadvertently get the Kundalini energy (lying at the base of the spine) to rise up when a person isn't ready for it.

Since this, genuinely, can cause people problems if their body isn't energetically prepared, then you begin to wonder whether the theory - no matter how crazy it sounds - might not have some validity.

Fortunately, almost every don't in Reiki is actually short-circuited by a very simple point: that it is the recipient who determines how much energy flows - and not the giver.

Think of the recipient like someone sucking on an 'energetic straw'. If they suck hard, a lot of energy will flow. If they suck gently, not much will flow.

It is all up to them and the only thing a Reiki healer can do is provide the opportunity for energy to flow. And the better the healer, the greater the possibility of a higher energy flow.

What this means is that there is a safety valve built into the system, because an individual will only ever take in as much energy as is healthy for him or her. Taking in more would be like pushing a dagger into your flesh - not something you are likely to do.

If you are talking to someone who can't accept this line of logic, you might like to get them to define 'Reiki'. If they know anything about the origin of the word they will tell you that the most literal translation (that makes sense) is 'spiritual' (Rei) 'energy' (ki). Does it make much sense for this 'spiritual energy' to be a destructive force?

I think not.

So next time you are anxious about giving someone Reiki, remember that it can never hurt them.

It might not be the right time to give them energy. It might never be the right time to give them energy. But if an accidental Reiki drop fell their way, I wouldn't lose any sleep.

If a drop fell, they summoned it.

(Note: While Reiki can't harm anyone, it can certainly produce a 'healing crisis'. This can bring on emotional upheaval, physical distress and other things; but ultimately it is good for the individual. Think of it as something like the cleansing process that takes place when someone undergoes a fast. They might get headaches, pimples, rashes and all sorts of other unpleasant things; but once the cleansing is done they feel better than ever before. Likewise with Reiki.)

(Jeremy O'Carroll)

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