Over the last 18 years of teaching Reiki I have learned some strange phenomenon amongst some Reiki teachers. They have a belief which they pass on to their students that self-healing or self treatment with Reiki is only for what they call a 21 day cleanse. I have to admit that to me this is a very strange concept that limits the potential growth and development of students.
Firstly, the so-called 21day cleanse is not of a fixed time frame and it certainly isn't set at 21 days for each and every student or practitioner of Reiki. The 21 day cleansing process describes the healing effect of the Reiki initiation process. When a student receives Denju ie the correct initiation into the art of Reiki healing energy flows into the student supporting a healing process and an increase in vibrational frequency for the individual. The healing process can be supported by self-healing with Reiki as can the spiritual development of a student. Any healing crisis the student goes through is individual to that particular student and their individual level of emotional, physical and spiritual wellbeing at that time. There are some common experiences that are generally felt by students such as: tiredness, perhaps headaches and upset tummy, a desire to be by themselves or reflect and sometimes memories or dreams of past events. These experiences are generally very minor for most students. It is possible where Reiki teachers create a fear around the cleansing process and create a reverse placebo effect that causes students to have more challenging experiences as expectations of such are raised by the teacher, or through reading articles, books, the internet etc.
In reality as a Reiki teacher it is up to me to teach Reiki without fear and as a loving and healing art. In this way students expect and experience a positive healing outcome rather than a challenging healing crisis.
Mikao Usui said that Reiki starts with the self. Self-healing is essential to all Reiki students and Reiki practitioners throughout their life. There are three main reasons people self-heal with Reiki:
1. To treat, heal and repair any physical illness and injury or emotional condition as it arises.
2. To self-heal regardless of whether there is a perceived need or not to maintain health and well-being. Typically this will be perhaps an hour maybe two or three times a week.
3. Healing in addition to the above reasons to ensure the student or practitioner remains at the highest possible vibration or frequency to support spiritual and personal development and growth. Typically this will be one to three hours every day.
© Copyright Andy Chrysostomou and Dawn Mellowship 2004.
