There is a belief among some Christians that Reiki is 'the Devil's work', and I would imagine such a belief exists among followers of other religions also. There are probably many reasons why individuals will choose to believe this, and perhaps there are official doctrines from the religions that denounce healing work as unholy. I have not studied the major religions and as such do not know their teachings sufficiently to comment on their official policies towards healing.
I can however explain why I believe Reiki does not go against Christianity, or my understanding of Christianity at least.
Reiki is not a religion nor does it teach religious beliefs or doctrines. Reiki can be taught as a spiritual subject, but that is something individual teachers can add to the practice if they choose to. Reiki is primarily a means of connecting to naturally occurring energy and using this energy to heal physical, emotional and spiritual conditions.
Reiki can be explained in scientific terms which have no spiritual connotations or Reiki can be explained in spiritual terms which do have an impact on formal Christian beliefs.
In scientific terms, Reiki poses no more of a threat to religion or its teachings than any other therapy, whether it is Eastern or Western medicine.
There have been a number of studies into energy healing that have shown the energy channelled by healers is primarily electromagnetic with photonic and thermal elements as well. This energy has been shown to have a positive healing effect on both the physical and emotional body. This energy can be channelled in various frequencies, each frequency having a healing effect on specific conditions. For example, a broken bone needs energy at 7Hz, so by channelling energy at 7Hz a Reiki practitioner can stimulate the bone to recover. When viewed from this perspective it is hard for me to see why there would be a rejection of Reiki for religious reasons.
In healing terms also, I do not think Reiki threatens any Christian belief. Reiki healing must by its very nature be a force for good. Giving healing is a loving and caring thing to do, it is a Christian act above all others. Is this not in line with Christ's teachings? Remember the story of the good Samaritan? To me it seems strange to equate a loving act with the Devil.
I have heard this reason from at least one Christian that refused Reiki for her brother suffering from cancer. She believed Reiki energy came from the Devil. Now this does seem extremely contradictory to me, surely the Devil would be doing harm to people by his very nature. An act of loving kindness does not seem like the work of the Devil to me, it seems much more like an act of a loving God or a loving soul.
The fact that Christ healed many people should demonstrate that any kind of healing is a Christian act. There are no references in the bible that say the Devil healed people, as far as I am aware.
So why do I believe some in the established Church regards Reiki healing as something evil? Perhaps for some it comes from a lack of understanding of Reiki and once they know more about Reiki they will change their minds.
But for others I think it is a fundamental fear of peoples' spirituality.
Spirituality and Christianity to me are one and the same thing. It is the belief that we all have the Divine in us and we all are able to have a direct relationship with our creator without the need to go through an intermediary (i.e. the church). Further more it is my belief that we all know right from wrong and all we need to do is follow our true spiritual nature to live our lives as much as we can in a Divine way (i.e. Follow in Christ's path).
This is the essence of Christ's teachings to me, though it is very different from many Christian followers!
Even though I see Christianity and Spirituality as one, many do not. There appear to be two extremes of belief, I have met with 'spiritual' people that say 'there is no such thing as right and wrong, anything we do is fine because ultimately we all have our own truth' and 'religious' people that say 'we are all sinners and are all guilty and need to repent and suffer for our sins'
I feel the truth lies somewhere in there, but needs to be extracted from the dogma of both sides.
Unfortunately what has happened is that for many people the connection to their true spiritual nature has been stretched to the point where their intuitive voice that should be guiding them is a distant whisper they are hardly able to hear. Even worse, for some people this connection to their true spiritual nature is totally severed and for them there is no right or wrong, merely what they want to do, they do with no thought of consequences to themselves or others.
Firstly let me say there is such a thing as right and wrong on a universal level and we are all responsible for our actions. That does not mean I think we are all sinners and should spend our lives in guilt. I believe we need to all recognise that we have done some things in our lives we should regret, but all we need to do is accept this and learn from our mistakes and move forward in a better way. We need to seek forgiveness from our Creator and we must forgive ourselves too. Of course there will be a price for our actions, but that is it - we accept the consequences of our actions and grow from the experience. It's that simple, no lifetime of guilt, no punishing ourselves, no living in the past, just learning and moving on as a better, wiser and more Christian/Spiritual person.
In a spiritual sense, then perhaps there are reasons why the religious authorities would find it hard to accept Reiki. Perhaps Reiki is a threat to established religions, but not because of the healing aspects but simply because Reiki connects people to their true spiritual nature which brings them closer to their Creator, which diminishes the need for a formal religion to dictate the way they live their lives.
© Copyright Andy Chrysostomou 2007
