During my first trip to Germany, many Germans suggested that the discernment I was teaching was like reiki. I had not heard of reiki and simply said I did not know of any connection. This last year, the subject of reiki has again surfaced. A lady, who had grown in her ability to discern, started practicing and teaching reiki. I received a phone call asking about reiki and decided to investigate.

I found in my research that reiki is nothing more than a part of the Buddha religion and can be put under the general category of the New Age movement. You cannot say you practicing a Christian form of reiki. As you can see from the information that follows, reiki is permeated with eastern mysticism and new age jargon. It has nothing to do with the biblical gift of discernment.

What is Reiki

Please note that the following is the belief system of those who practice reiki and not my beliefs.

Reiki is the Japanese name for the universal life force, also known as Ki or Chi, the supposed subtle energy that enlivens all beings. The word is composed of two Japanese characters. Rei means ‘universe.” Ki means life-energy or light in the sense of information. The two characters together express the coming together of divine force and the human being, or the unification of body and soul.”

A Japanese Budhisht, Dr. Mikau Usui, discovered Reiki. He had fasted for 21 days on Mount Kurama in 1914. During this period he experienced a satori, a realization of enlightenment. He describes his discovery as follows: “When I fasted I touched an intense energy and in a mysterious manner I was inspired (I received the reiki energy). As in a coincidence it became clear to me that I had been given the spiritual art of healing.”

In order for Reiki to work it must be attuned. This is a short ceremony in which the reiki master/teacher acts as a channel to lift up a person’s spiritual frequency, which supposedly opens one up to the universal life energy. During this process something magical is happening on the spiritual, non-physical plane. The process is similar to the Tibetan Buddhist empowerment practice.

The Reiki energy enters the body of the master/teacher at the charka at the base of the skull, just above the neck. Through this chakra the divine cosmic energy streams through and connects with our physical existence. A connecting between heaven and earth is made through emerald green colored energy. As a result the first etheric layer of both the initiator and the one who gets initiated become one. This first etheric layer is our eggshell; it can be seen as a thin grey line against a white background. Opening our eggshell means that you truly open up for the other person, no longer holding back or defending yourself, or regarding yourself as a separate being. During this process the reiki energy rolls in like waves from the skull chakra of the master into both auric fields.

The universal life energy first enters the energy system of the healer who passes in on, usually with the hands, to the healee. In the physical body this energy travels through the brains and nervous system. In our energetical bodies it travels through the chakras, meridians and the central channel along the spine.

It is unknown what the origins, total quantity and ways of workings of the life-energy are. It cannot be defined more clearly than stating that it comes from Source, god/goodness, spirit, or the Force. It is an important connection with divinity.

One is best prepared to do reiki by doing meditation, yoga and other spiritual practices.

In order to do reiki at its highest level you must go through three levels so that you can reach the highest level of vibration.

The healing method consists of meditation techniques, breathing exercises, spiritual cleansing, the reciting of spiritual poetry, the reiki principles, regular empowerments which gradually opened up the students for reiki (later on the attunements were introduced), hands on healing with several techniques, distance healing, use of breath and the eyes in healing, and the use of mantras and symbols in activating reiki.

Most of the time reiki will be experienced as warmth, as if a blanket of loving attention is put over you. But other sensations like coldness, tinkling, prickling, throbbing, shivering, emotional release, or memories popping up may happen.

Reiki has changed over the years as masters have channeled information from archangels, ascended masters or other high spiritual beings. These masters also claim to be attuned to stars and planets.

Additional Information

The web has an enormous amount of information about reiki. Especially interesting is to do a search of the web using reiki + Christian. Many of the sites claim that reiki and Christianity can work together. I believe this is very dangerous. Light and darkness cannot dwell together. Here is what one ex-reiki master says”

 “Reiki is something that is very mis-stated, and misunderstood, by those outside of the Reiki circle. Having been in it, I can tell you everything you need to know. I will tell you right up front that it was a hard one to shake, that it was VERY real and beneficial, but that it is decidedly non-Christian.

“I highly recommend anyone looking into it to just stop. Prayer is very powerful, and is our direct link to God through Christ. If we petition directly for healing, it may come. If we have faith that it WILL come, our chances are far better. As with anything we are to test, does Reiki point either the practitioner or the client to Christ? No. Big no. It uses a Universal energy that is non-personal and can be manipulated. You can pray to God, to the Earth Mother, to Mother/Father God, etc. But it in fact leads you AWAY from Christ.

“It is all about what you FEEL in your hands, what you FEEL in your spirit, what the client FEELS in their body/emotions/spirit. In that regard it is very very real. My hands get hot, I hit a place of extreme peace and quiet, I heal people who feel a tingle or hot spot or whatever. Their headache, menstrual cramps, emotional distress, bruises, whatever, goes away. But is God glorified? No way. Is self glorified? Yes. “If it is so good and right, why do practitioners go on to other things once they hit Master level? The teacher who taught me was going on to [mystical] acupuncture and other new Reiki teachings. Always something else, something new, something you NEED to be a true master. Sound familiar? It is like everything else in this world, but Christ. There is no lasting peace, no connection with the universe, there is a big void in your soul that is not going away. WE ALL NEED CHRIST! I told my wife when she questioned my stopping in my search for peace once I found Christ (she had followed my years of searching through New Age theologies, etc) that Jesus Christ filled the hole. All the puzzle pieces fell into place and everything suddenly made sense. For a long time after that I tried to make Reiki fit into Christianity but it didn’t. I prayed a lot about it. God firmly and solidly showed me in Scripture how it couldn’t work. The two major things against it, regardless of how well it works, are 1) it does not point anyone to Christ and in facts points people away from a single triune God, and 2) it is no different than all the pagan rituals in the Old Testament that would have people pray to the rain god or fertility god, etc. They must have worked or people wouldn’t have kept praying to them, and God’s people wouldn’t have been attracted to them. But either way it isn’t what GOD has asked us to do. Everything we need is in Him. We can pray for any healing we need.”