Hi everyone,
Over the years as a Reiki practitioner I've heard it said that 'an intention' must be set. Whether the client thinks about setting one before they come to the practitioner or the practitioner and client work together during the session/treatment and create one.

The dictionary defines Intention as 1) a thing intended; an aim or purpose. 2) the action or fact of intending.

What if the intention that your client or the both of you set is not the 'issue' that needs to be addressed?

Also, if Reiki can't be manipulated or controlled wouldn't the use of intention be from mind and possibly the ego trying to manipulate Reiki?

I'm curious as to other's thoughts. Thanks, ___/ |___

Dokasan wrote:Hi everyone,
Over the years as a Reiki practitioner I've heard it said that 'an intention' must be set. Whether the client thinks about setting one before they come to the practitioner or the practitioner and client work together during the session/treatment and create one.

The dictionary defines Intention as 1) a thing intended; an aim or purpose. 2) the action or fact of intending.

What if the intention that your client or the both of you set is not the 'issue' that needs to be addressed?

Also, if Reiki can't be manipulated or controlled wouldn't the use of intention be from mind and possibly the ego trying to manipulate Reiki?

I'm curious as to other's thoughts. Thanks, ___/ |___

Hi,

So what if intuition defines the intention, instead of the mind calculating outcomes based on a preconcieved goal?

I think the way you approach the situation might be better defined by the thoughts and words taken from the one you are treating.

If it`s a sprained ankle then everything would seem obvious...the ego`s domain of problem solving.

If it`s repressed memories from an unresolved traumatic experience, then frankly, i would treat the individual while investing no conscious thought regarding outcome. I believe that we do direct things when we get attached to what we think is right for the person we are treating.


"My intention is to help this person"...(compassionate detachment)

"I know what`s wrong with person so my intention is to fix this person according to what i believe is right for them."...(A need to be in control)

A very big difference in approach.

Jim

="Reikijim]
"My intention is to help this person"...(compassionate detachment)

Jim

Compassionate detachment...one of my favourite phrases when talking about practicing Reiki!

Colin said:

Compassionate detachment...one of my favourite phrases when talking about practicing Reiki!

I probabley mentioned this experience in
another thread but its worth repeating

Compassionate detachment that's what I was taught
& what I practice ...however about 4 years
ago I forgot to do that when my dog was howling
during the wee hours of the morning. I gave him
Reiki to help relieve his distress until I could
get him to the vet. I stayed with him holding him
for hours until after dawn. Reiki was keeping him
relaxed and calm his howls had tapered to an
occassional whimper. I was helping him get better
It turned out that I left his side for a few minutes
and when I returned he was sprawled out relaxed and
so peaceful, he had passed on during the few moments
I was gone. What a powerful lesson I learned that
morning. Reiki energy was doing its job no matter what
my intent was.

Thank you for responding and sharing your wisdom.

Jim: I agree that intuition is important - this is what I use during a reiki session - what are the sensations my hands are telling me.
I was never taught by any of my teachers to set an intention, just put hands on and let the energy flow. (working with detachment)
Others may have experienced when they are working on a client that the more you try to "heal" the person the practitioner may develop a headache or feel drained after a reiki session. This is a further example of what you stated above.(using control)

Colin: what an excellent way to refer to Reiki - I'm going to incorporate that too. Thanks

Chi Solas: what an excellent reminder to help us stay detached from the outcome even though the human in us wants everything to stay the same.

Hi Dokasan,

You offered some very interesting insights and please forgive me if I have misunderstood something here

Dokasan wrote:What if the intention that your client or the both of you set is not the 'issue' that needs to be addressed?

Also, if Reiki can't be manipulated or controlled wouldn't the use of intention be from mind and possibly the ego trying to manipulate Reiki?

I'm curious as to other's thoughts. Thanks, ___/ |___

And ….

Dokasan wrote:
I was never taught by any of my teachers to set an intention, just put hands on and let the energy flow.

(bold is mine)

It seems to me (depending how one defines “manipulate”) that we “manipulate” reiki all the times. We decide when to start, we decide when to stop, we give it certain flavor (SHK, CKR) and yes we manipulate the outcome in different ways..one of it being the length of the session..if you hold hand position for one minute the outcome/experience will be different vs. if you hold that position for ninety minutes. Or will it not?

I am very surprised to find out that you never were thought to set an intention! For me the intention is of the extreme importance. I have difficulties to understand if there is no intention (conscious or subconscious) how you make “reiki flow” or how you put the end to it?? Regardless how we define reiki it always takes a reiki practitioner to start the process and it is done by the intent.

If there is no need for the intent than reiki could manifest itself without “us”. So, what am I missing here?

Regards,

Resko

Hi Resko;

I believe you are correct when you say we manipulate (handle or treat)Reiki regarding when we decide to stop and start.
Adding the symbols also changes the "flavour" of the Reiki we are sending but we are not forcing or bending the vibrational energy of those symbols to do our will or bidding. (manipulating to one's own advantage)

You are also correct in your statement of doing Reiki for 1 minute vs 90 minutes the outcome will be different but I don't see it as manipulation.
If the area in question only needs Reiki for 1 minute then that's great.
If the area needs Reiki for 90 minutes and you only do it for 1 minute then in my view the Reiki session isn't as productive as it could be.

My first Reiki class was 16 years ago and there was no mention of intention. We were told that Reiki flows when we put hands on a body and stops when we take hands off.
Just like a light switch, we may not see the electricity flowing but when we know when the switch if flipped the lights will come on.

My Japanese teachers (3 different lineages) do not mention intention.

If we can agree that we (practitoners) are the conduit through which Reiki flows then we are very important. Otherwise, Reiki would not get from source to the client.

Sort of like a lightening strike. The negative charge in the clouds needs the negative leader(s) coming from the tree or tall building in order to get to the ground.

Hope this helps, if not feel free to write me again and I will do my best to reframe.
Blessings.

Thank You very much for your reply. It appears that we follow totally opposite reiki path and yet have very civil conversation and I find it amazing and would like to thank you greatly for this opportunity.

I believe that this brings a lot of potential to learn something new and I was wondering if you wouldn't mind if we continue this conversation. I understand that this request may be perceived as “ego-driven” (:-) and to be fair I will go first. What will follow is my brutally honest approach to reiki but I want to make it perfectly clear that this by no way should be understood as criticizing some other approaches. My approach may be different but it is all what I am saying, different ..not better.

I am interested into incorporating reiki into “daily life” and when I couldn't find any info about it there was only one way to go...to experiment. Over the time this resulted in “shifting” my understanding of what reiki is. I come to understand it as a formless, sort of interacting with divine and even it is spiritual in its nature the advancement on the spiritual path was not at the forefront of my practice maybe in my case it could be said that spiritualism is rather the “side-effect” of practicing reiki.

Over the time I developed something what I like to call “practical approach”. Here is example of what I mean:

Let's say you are excellent computer programmer and there is great job opportunity. The company of your dream is hiring. BUT while you are the very best programmer you are very shy and get very nervous during the interview. And while great talking ability is not required to write some of the best software programs in order to get a job you need to be able to “talk” during the interview.

What if we could effectively “influence/calm down” our deep limbic system and basal ganglia via reiki. (or for this matter also the tripple warmer) And what if it could be done via so-called “intent reiki”. Would it be worth exploring? Let's for the sake of this example assume that it works. So, what did we just do? I believe it is right question to ask because to the extent and depending how one defines “ego” this could easily be said to be ego driven since we may (indirectly) influence the outcome (and I do not have any scientific evidence that this works). So, assuming that this works, the question is, is this morally right thing to do? Herewith I invite all RLL member to give their opinion on this.

And let's now create a little bit more of the “conflict” here and stay at the same example. Let's now look into two totally different approaches to this situation. One being “send” reiki to this and let the reiki wisdom decide what is the best for us and second being very specific and tell reiki what we would like to have.

It is fair to assume that unlimited potential that reiki intelligence is said to have could have different opinion at “what is the best for us” related to the above example than what we think is the best for us.

So, what will happen here? Will Reiki “override” our wish/will? Which option would you use? Let's bring this little bit further and say we let reiki decide what is best for us and instead of becoming great computer programmer that we wanted we become ….a taxi driver . Who is responsible for the quality of our social life? It is still us? Since we will be responsible for our acts than it seem appropriate for me to make also the decision.

Does it work? I only can say in my experience it does but can not offer any scientific evidence. I do not have any resource to conduct such experiments. Some support for this could be found in the neuroscience. It is also my experience that this works much better if we learn to “align” subconscious and conscious mind.

Some other example would be let's say ...we have a stuffy nose and while this symptom does bring some message ...who knows when and if we will “get it” and meantime we have problem breathing and if we take care of it immediately than we will miss the message and if we do not than we could miss a work day which than could affect our financial situation etc.

I just realized this is becoming rather veryyy long post so let's leave it here.

I would like to invite all who feel comfortable to respond.

Regards,

Resko

Hi Dokasan and Resko!

I think you are both right!

I also believe that Reiki is spiritual/divine in nature but, like, Dokasan, I was never taught to use a specific intent before laying my hands on myself or another person. However, I think that if we decide to lay our hands on someone for a Reiki session (or give an absent treatment) then that in itself is intent enough.

As Resko says, we may not always be aware of what may be the best outcome for our client.

However, there are two quite different tecniques within Reiki:

When doing a Reiki session for a client (in person or absent) we can follow a set of hands positions, or we can treat the area(s) the client complains of and also listen to our hands (as Takata and Yamaguchi said). They will tell us where to keep our hands for maximum benefit, through the sensing of byosen. We don't need to know what the manifesting or underlying issue is. The only intent we need is to keep our hands in that spot until the sensation seems to have died down and gone away. This is the traditional way to practice Reiki. We can fix a client's symptoms (e.g. stuffy nose, headache etc. but unless the client takes steps to avoid the same conditions that cause these things in the first place, they are likely to return eventually.

The other technique is the mental/emotional or psychological technique, usually taught at level 2. This is a different thing in many respects because the whole point of it is to create a specific change that is desired by the client. In this technique we often use phrases that indicate exactly what the desired outcome is. I can't really go into detail about how this technique works (because of promises to my Jikiden Reiki teacher) but there is a different process involved here than in the technique mentioned above.

They are both practicing Reiki in a traditional way yet they are both different in the way they work - so you are both right, in my opinion!

Also, as you probably know from experience, just because you are not performing a mental/emotional technique healing doesn't mean that a mental/emotional issue won't be healed by placing your hands in various positions as part of a normal Reiki session.

Thank You Colin!

I am wondering if you are aware of any research (controlled studies) on if and how reiki treatment affects our cell voltage?

Regards,

Resko

rzukic wrote:Thank You Colin!

I am wondering if you are aware of any research (controlled studies) on if and how reiki treatment affects our cell voltage?

Regards,

Resko

Hi Resko

I am not aware of any Reiki-specific research on how cell-voltage is affected but there has been research that shows healers emit:

sweeping electromagnetic (EM) fields,

Seto A, Kusaka C, Nakazato S et al, 1992 Detection of extraordinary large biomagnetic field strength from human hands. Acupuncture and Electro-Therapeutics Research International Journal 17:75-94.

Zimmerman J, 1990 Laying-on-of hands healing and Therapeutic Touch: a testable theory. BEMI Currents, Journal of teh Bioelectromagnetics Institute 2:8-17

Biophoton emissions from the hands,

Choi C, Hoo W.M., Lee M.B. et al 2002 Biophoton Emission from the Hands. Journal of the Korean Physical Society, August 2002 Vol.41, No. 2, pp. 275-278

and infra-red energy and heat,

Scwarz S A, DeMattei R J, et al 1990 Infrared spectra alteration in water proximate to the palms of therapeutic practitioners. Subtle Energies 1:43-72

Chien C-H, Tsuei J.J et al 1991 Effect of emitted bioenergy on biomechanical function of cells. American Journal of Chinese Medicine 19:285:-293

Then there is a lot of research about the effect of EM fields on the body and signal transduction pathways in cells (which can initiate biochemical cascades), Mobile Charge Interaction (by which EM fields and magnetic fields can change the rate of enzyme reactions), Injury Currents (set up at sites of injury through which EM fields can signal to cells involved in teh repait of traumatised tissue to congregate at the site), Harmonic Frequency (where the electric and elastic forces on the body can cause groups of molecules to vibrate in harmony at specific frequencies and propogate through the body, through signal transduction, which can also initiate a healing response) and humoral signalling (through agents such as Melatonin, which is produced in greater quantities when we are relaxed and plays a key role in the regeneration of specific body areas such as the Liver, skin, hair, brain, heart, eyes, GI tract/endothelium, neuroendocrine-reproductive system and muscles. Interestingly, melatonin has also been found to induce apoptosis or cell-suicide in malignant cells in areas such a breast, lung, ovaries, prostate, stomach etc.).

Putting those two sets of research together shows that hands-on healers could very well interact energetically and beneficially with the various healing systems within the body.

HOWEVER! All this research refers to electromagnetic energy and possibly Ki (or Qi)- it does not refer to Reiki.

I believe that Reiki and other healer practitioners are able to interact with the body's biochemical and energetics systems through the flow of Ki but that Reiki is an phenomenon that occurs when a Reiki practitioner is involved. This is a spiritual phenomenon which, although it can have an effect as seen through changes that can be measured, it is not physical and cannot therefore be measured in its own right.

Thank You Colin,

Not sure if you already read this article: Lightning Bolts within Cells

Thanks Again

Regards,

Resko

rzukic wrote:Thank You Colin,

Not sure if you already read this article: Lightning Bolts within Cells

Thanks Again

Regards,

Resko

Interesting stuff! I hadn't read that article! Thanks, Resko!

Greetings to all - Life got in the way and I couldn't respond until now.

Resko I am glad you are enjoying our conversation. I do find they help me organize my thoughts better.
I haven't taken the time to figure out your "quote" system so I am doing it the old fashioned way. Hope no one minds.

Resko wrote:
I am interested into incorporating reiki into “daily life” and when I couldn't find any info about it there was only one way to go

Oh my, one incorporates reiki into one's daily life by using the Gokai or the 5 Reiki Principles at the start and end of every day to help the student focus as in meditation. Every day a student is asked to give themselves a self-treatment. In this way it helps the student discuss Reiki with a potential client or family member. Second working on the self helps to eliminate small aches and pains and helps establish inner peace "Anshin Ritsumei".

When one reads the Reiki Ryoho Hikkei - it explains that Reiki is both a physical healing and a spiritual healing art.
Takata mentioned the same thing in a talk from 1979, Spiritual first, mind first then the body.
For these earlier practitioners of Reiki, this practice was a spiritual art with the added bonus of it being a physical healing.

I hope you and the other readers don't mind but I have two ways of discussing your examples. One from a Western Reiki perspective and the other from my limited Japanese perspective.

If I was a computer programmer who was applying for a new job, I would be using my reiki symbols and send energy forward in time to the interview so that it was a more pleasant experience. And hopefully a more positive outcome for me, ie: getting the job. While not exactly stated that would be the use of intent for a specific aim or purpose.

My other perspective would be for me besides doing daily self reiki, I would also use distant healing, and emotional healing but this time on myself. Trying to eliminate the blocks or fears I have regarding "selling" myself for this position. I think this is what your getting at when you refer to "calming down the limbic and basal portions of the brain".
If I am working on myself to become the best I can be the goal is me with the spin off benefit of being able to "sell" myself at the interview.

This issue of this being morally correct, is only something that the individual in question would have to decide.
Since I am only sending reiki either to myself in the future to be able to speak clearly and calmly about myself to the interviewer, personally I would have to say no. The interviewer still has choice - the option to view the interview in my favour or not.

If I was to with purpose try and manipulate the interviewer with intimidation or the casting of magick spells then yes, for me it would be morally incorrect.

Your examples of adding "conflict" are a little more complicated.
If a person's belief system agrees with and allows "send reiki and let the reiki wisdom to decide". Or the other scenario "being very specific and tell reiki what we would like to have." Then that is their belief and nothing will change that.

Personally, I can not respond to these scenarios because they are not part of my belief system.

As for letting Reiki take (what I perceive as) the blame for our shortcomings of not being able to "sell" ourselves at a job interview so now we become a taxi driver. In my view is giving away your personal power so that you can become a victim. It's like instead of blaming God for your bad health, relationships, jobs, etc now we can blame reiki instead. Once again in my view I would not think like this. Each one of us makes choices and we learn from these choices to make the same choice or different ones. (Sort of like the definition of insanity - doing the same things over and over again but expecting different results.)

Colin:
you make some very valid points. When sensing byosen it is not about us the practitioner it is about them our client. Our hands are sensing the subtle clues the client's body sends to us for assistance.


Thank you Both for posting the science links, looking forward to exploring the effects of reiki on our cells.

Blessings,
Komyo Kai Reiki Training June 24-26, 2011 with Hyakuten Inamoto

Here is a link to an article about Qi Gong and how it effects humans, plants and cells.
http://www.ichikung.com/pdf/QiHumansAnimalsCells.pdf

here's one with Reiki
http://www.omicsonline.org/ArchiveJCST/2009/Articleinpress/01/JCST-02-011.pdf