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1. Jeffrey, can you tell us a bit about yourself, your background with Reiki, who you trained with and what service you provide now?
2. How would you interpret the word 'Reiki'?
3. What do you think is happening in a Reiki session?
4. What do you think is happening, at a basic level, in a Reiki attunement/initiation/reiju?
5. Do you think Reiki can be used to help situations and inanimate objects as well as living things?
6. Reiki is now becoming popular within the medical system. What role do you believe Reiki plays in the traditional medical system?
7. Distant Reiki and permission has always been a topic with many pros & cons what's your view on this given the earthquake disasters in Haiti and Chile?
8. Many Reiki practitioners say you can go back into the past and heal it. What's your take on this issue?
9. Have you had any notable experiences concerning Reiki that you could tell us about?
10. Can you describe your relationship with Reiki, and how it's affected you?
11. Do you feel that Reiki needs standard guidelines across the board for practitioners to obtain certification?
12. Is there anything that I/we have not asked that you find is important when talking about Reiki?
13. What are your hopes & aspirations for the future of Reiki?
I learned Reiki at the beginning of 2001, just in time for the great events of that year. It was most comforting to have found a strong tool for healing in the midst of loss. Over the next two years, I practiced and learned, becoming a Reiki Master in 2003, just before volunteering with the SPARK folks to do Reiki in the parks of New York for 9/11 (see www.sparkenergy.org).
My teacher for all levels was Lindsley Field, a great soul and spirit, since moved south. I am most grateful for her dedication to her teaching of Reiki, and for her patience in “fielding” all my questions and soul-searching. You can learn more about her at www.lindsleyfield.com.
Today, I teach classes and give treatments in the Portland, Maine area. My passion and focus is bringing Reiki to elders under the EldersBloom program – see www.eldersbloom.org. To support that project, I drive a bus, serve as an EMT in my town, and do cleaning work at a local theater; whatever it takes to keep the dream going.
This is a far cry from my quarter-century career in corporate computer system design and project management.
2. How would you interpret the word 'Reiki'?
“Spiritually guided life force energy” works fine. I generally just tell people “hands-on healing”. Without a grounding in the Japanese language, I can’t pretend to any deeper understanding of its meaning.
A word about the word “energy”. I prefer to say “ki”, as that connects better with such practices as Qiqong, Tai Chi or Aikido. In English, our minds make “energy” into a noun, which makes us think of Reiki in terms of substance, and it is certainly not a substance. If anything, it is an absence – of worry, of struggle, of anger, of violence, of all those feelings that fill us with self-importance, strife and suffering.
Using the word “energy” also leads us to think of “positive” and “negative” energy, with the one to be desired and the other to be avoided. This is a dangerous metaphysical error, see “duality”.
3. What do you think is happening in a Reiki session?
I’m still wondering about that. The best words I have so far are: “awakening the body to its own amazing self-healing abilities”. I also like Pamela Miles’ simple use of the word “balance”.
Accordingly, the Reiki practitioner’s job is to allow the client to awaken, according to their own free choice. This means being moderate in offering intuitions, allowing the client to find their own pathways. It means not “fixing” anything, but rather letting the body be what it is. Most emphatically, it means not attaching to any specific idea of what is happening. This is not so easy – much mindful practice is needed.
4. What do you think is happening, at a basic level, in a Reiki attunement/initiation/reiju?
It’s a mystery. Everyone has a different experience. Any attempt to describe it directly would be an abstraction – as with the Western obsession to verbalize everything.
In terms of what difference it makes to one’s healing hands:
At every opportunity, allow yourself to experience hands-on healing from non-Reiki-attuned people. They do healing, too. Ask, explore with them what their experience is. Notice how it feels, as compared with receiving from a Reiki-attuned practitioner.
My very early impression is that Reiki attunement confers a way to balance the student’s natural empathy, so that they can continue to heal with their hands, without having to “take on” the recipient’s issues and feelings.
This is an important question, as so many studies attempt to compare “true” Reiki with “sham” Reiki.
If you teach, for Level I, always have your students try hands-on healing on each other before and after their first attunement, and talk about what feels the same and what feels different. Just a few minutes, hands on shoulders, will do the trick.
Hands-on healing is everyone’s birthright, human and animal alike. Reiki attunement somehow makes it easier, and more balanced.
Finally, it’s a mystery.
5. Do you think Reiki can be used to help situations and inanimate objects as well as living things?
Behind that question is another question. Please ask yourself, why? Are you trying to “fix” something? What is your motivation? Has permission been given, at the most expressive possible level of awareness?
If I want to help a situation, first I must be part of it, second I must have permission from all who would be affected, and third, the most direct action, not needing permission, is to send Reiki to myself in the present or future situation. As I come into peace and balance, those around me can benefit if they so choose.
I have been known to regretfully decline to help an animal who asked for Reiki for its companion, as I was unable to gain permission from its human caregiver.
When in doubt, Reiki yourself.
6. Reiki is now becoming popular within the medical system. What role do you believe Reiki plays in the traditional medical system?
I agree with Dr. Oz – it will change the future of medicine. Reiki’s exponential growth will make it happen. Clinicians are pragmatic; if they see a completely non-invasive modality that experientially gives strong benefits to patients and makes their job easier, they will support it. The science will catch up, eventually.
7. Distant Reiki and permission has always been a topic with many pros & cons what's your view on this given the earthquake disasters in Haiti and Chile?
Permission is paramount. Healing, as awakening, only happens within the context of free choice. Do Haitians all want to receive distant Reiki? If we don’t know, then we cannot “send Reiki to Haiti”. Notice the post-quake conflict between Christian and Vodou adherents. Do we know if either group believes Reiki is good for them?
Plus, sending Reiki and feeling fulfilled about it, misses the much greater opportunity, to work toward becoming partners with disaster relief groups. Do you think that a few of the Haitian amputees might have appreciated in-person Reiki practitioners, when they had life-saving surgery without anesthesia? Let us work toward credibility within those aid groups. Sending Reiki without permission won’t help that.
Remember, Dr. Usui is said to have become famous with his hands-on help for the Tokyo quake victims in 1923. He didn’t sit in his office and send Reiki, he went out to the streets.
You need permission, at the most conscious and expressive level possible, before you can do Reiki or send it. “Asking the person’s higher self” won’t do, and is incredibly condescending to their earthbound self – “you’re too unaware to make a good decision, so I’m going to ask your higher self”.
The highest form of healing comes in honoring the other’s freedom to refuse.
8. Many Reiki practitioners say you can go back into the past and heal it. What's your take on this issue?
Yes. Always an adventure. Be careful what you ask for, and set aside time and space to absorb the healing wave as it comes forward in time.
9. Have you had any notable experiences concerning Reiki that you could tell us about?
Bonnie Bercume’s “Medicine Cloud” or “Time-Release” technique was a mind-blower. I did it on myself before telling others about it. It triggered seven days of profound healing, lucid dreaming, and ended with a realization about my diet that, once followed, brought down my weight and cholesterol to healthy levels. I highly recommend that you Google the technique, with great thanks to Bonnie for its emergence.
10. Can you describe your relationship with Reiki, and how it's affected you?
Coming home to self: Reiki finally gave me the skills, energy and awareness to do self-healing at the deepest level. It gave me the EldersBloom project, bringing Reiki to elder communities around the world. It gave me a way to impress dentists, by not needing novacaine. It gave me a way to work through my body’s pains. It gave me a way to work with remembered trauma. It gave me confidence and intuition to seek out healers and methods that I needed, when I needed them. It gave me a community of gentle souls, wherever I may go. It opened up communication with my Earth. It gave me hope for the future.
11. Do you feel that Reiki needs standard guidelines across the board for practitioners to obtain certification?
Moot question; it’s too late. Reiki belongs to all; we cannot control its structure or practice. Where’s the need, other than to tame something wild?
Usually certification or licensing is required when there is a significant risk of harm to the public. So many people know and do Reiki, and it’s so non-invasive, that the burden of proof is on those who would support more restrictive standards.
That being said, if you want to do Reiki in particular settings, it’s a good idea to pay close attention to what works for other Reiki people in those settings, to be sensitive to the needs of those being served. If you’re trying to serve elders, for example, keep it simple, and check with EldersBloom or other successful projects that serve elders. In medical settings, follow Pamela Miles’ work, and try not using the word “energy”. In different cultural settings, communicate in a way that makes sense. Chinese, for example, are very comfortable with the “energy” concept – see www.sparkenergy.org and their outreach to Chinatown in New York.
Reiki is all about YOU being the expert in your body, in your emotional patterns, in your energy. Giving up our power to outside experts has been part of the problem with our health and wellbeing. Why would we want to repeat that pattern with Reiki?
12. Is there anything that I/we have not asked that you find is important when talking about Reiki?
Reiki, healing and spirituality did not arise in the last twenty years; there is a historical and philosophical context. For every new book you read, study a classic. Read the Tao Te Ching, the Sermon on the Mount, the Upanishads, Sufi stories by Idries Shah, Gurdjieff, Ouspenky, Krishnamurti, anything by Alan Watts or Aldous Huxley. The Seven Story Mountain, by Thomas Merton. And on and on. Go to the library, instead of Borders.
This will teach you, there are many languages to describe your experience and to put it in context. It will also help you avoid dualism.
Finally, there is no such thing as negative energy. You do not need protection from anything. Just do Reiki. Thank you, Mrs. Takata!
13. What are your hopes & aspirations for the future of Reiki?
Reiki has arisen because of a need, to remind ourselves of our intimate connection with our bodies and our world. My fondest dream is to live to see the word Reiki fade away, as the reality becomes so much a part of daily life, that we no longer need to speak about it.
Imagine, riding to work on the subway, wincing as your headache gains force, thinking about the pile of emails and voicemails that await you. Your seatmate turns to you, and politely asks, “would you like some help with that headache?”. You feel comfortable enough to accept hands on your head, because the social norm of compassionate, respectful, healing touch is now well established in public as well as private life. Before it has a chance to really cause deep pain, your headache has faded away. You thank your seatmate, maybe even share a hug, then go your separate ways in gratitude as the train doors open.
Jeffrey. 
