Jikiden Reiki
To understand which type of Reiki I practise, we must briefly mention the history of the evolution of this discipline (in Japanese Jikiden means ‘directly transmitted’).
Reiki was founded in the 1920s in Japan by Mikao Usui, who formulated a healing system called Usui Reiki Ryōhō (the Usui’s system). This method consists of passing on a vital energy that has healing capacity on body, mind and soul by the laying on of hands.
Before his death in 1926, Usui trained 20 masters (in Japanese, Shihans), to hand down his legacy. One of these masters, Chujiro Hayashi, exported this discipline outside the borders of Japan for the first time by teaching Hawayo Takata, a Japanese woman who lived in Hawaii, to the Reiki Master’s degree.
Thanks to Takata, in the eighties, Reiki spread throughout the American continent and, later, almost all over the world. During this expansion phase, some variations were introduced to the discipline. They were the result of the influence of different cultures with which Reiki got in touch. This type of Reiki would be later called ‘Western Reiki’.
In Japan, the traditional Reiki continued to exist thanks to the Usui Reiki Ryōhō Gakkai, the organisation founded by Usui, and some families who practised Reiki at home.
In the 1990s, Western Reiki was introduced in Japan and began to co-exist with the traditional Reiki.
At that time, many Western Reiki Masters wanted to return to the roots of Reiki and rediscover the original techniques practised by Mikao Usui.
In 1999, a Reiki Master discovered that a woman named Chiyoko Yamaguchi had been a pupil of Chuhiro Hayashi and had been practising Reiki daily at home for 65 years. It was a unique opportunity to restore the ancient traditions of the original Reiki. Many Western Reiki Masters, who did not want this great cultural heritage to get lost, insisted that Chiyoko and her son Tadao found the Jikiden Reiki Kenkyukai (the Jikiden Reiki Institute) and began to teach Reiki as it was originally practised, with great simplicity and effectiveness, by its founder.
I was lucky enough to have Tadao Yamaguchi among my Masters and I can say with conviction that the techniques used in Jikiden Reiki are extremely effective and of a unique simplicity.
In Jikiden Reiki there are two types of therapy: the physical and the psychological.
Physical treatments
During a session of Reiki physical treatment, the client lies down on a treatment table (dressed and barefoot), while the therapist places their hands on the client’s body. The position of the hands on certain parts of the body – and the length of time that position is held – is decided by the therapist based on their perception of Byosen.
The latter is the accumulation of toxins in certain parts of the body (generally the areas that we use the most: arms, legs, joints, as well as the glands and internal organs of the body) and is perceived by the therapist through various sensations in the hands, such as heat or itching.
What should the client expect from a Reiki session?
Everything and nothing! The client can experience different sensations, like waves of energy, heat or a profound relaxation that leads to a deep sleep.
They might also feel nothing at all. Whatever the case, they should not worry, because Reiki is doing its job by reducing the toxins of the body and allowing healing to take place.
Reiki treatments are extremely effective in case of bone and muscle pain, flu and painful wounds, allowing faster recovery and reducing the need for painkillers and anti-inflammatories.
In my work with cancer patients in various hospitals and health centres, I have noticed that the regular use of Reiki significantly reduces the side effects of radiotherapy and chemotherapy, in addition to improving the mood of patients.
In my opinion, Reiki is also extremely effective in all diseases defined as ‘chronic’, because it works on the mental or emotional origin of the disease.
Psychological treatments
In Reiki, there is a technique called Sei Heki (in Japanese: ‘bad habit’) that can be used to carry out psychological treatments. The issues that may be involved are numerous and of varying severity: stress, insomnia, eating disorders, smoking, alcoholism, depression, etc.
Mikao Usui used to say that, to understand how Reiki works, we have to imagine the bed of a river: the water looks clear, but the riverbed is full of mud.
When we begin to apply Reiki, it acts if we were stirring the bottom of the river bed, allowing the mud to surface and gradually cleaning the dirt that rises.
At the beginning, therefore, the water will be very turbid because the amount of sludge stirred up is substantial. Then, little by little, session after session, the amount of mud that emerges decreases because Reiki removes the dirt layer by layer from the riverbed.
For this reason, it is impossible to determine in advance the amount of sessions needed to complete a psychological therapy.
We must allow Reiki to eliminate the cause of the issue that affects the client on the conscious and unconscious level, layer by layer.
In cases of psychological treatment, Chiyoko Yamaguchi always recommended to start with a complete physical Reiki session, continued by a session of physical and psychological Reiki and at least a third, full session of psychological Reiki. From the third session onwards, the therapist continues with the psychological Reiki sessions based on the evolution of the client. It is understandable that, the longer the client has lived with a situation, the more treatments will be needed to resolve it.