Catholicism and Reiki

The Guidelines describe Reiki as a healing technique "invented in Japan in the late 1800s by Mikao Usui,

Reiki was not invented by Usui, it is IMO a spiritual healing system that was around before the writen word. and they should remember that Jesus also used spiritual healing/reiki.

People in glass houses. 😎

Reiki was not invented by Usui, it is IMO a spiritual healing system that was around before the writen word. and they should remember that Jesus also used spiritual healing/reiki.

Good point about Jesus using spiritual healing, but I disagree with you about Usui not inventing it, although I think invent is the wrong word, perhaps discover is better.

I know plenty of Catholics who use Reiki with no issue. They use it just as much as they would any other complementary medicene. Reiki is a healing system, it should not matter what religion you are to use it.

Sx

My Reiki Master is a practising Catholic, and dares not mention it to his vicar. However, some of the parishioners know and go to him for healing.

I have a book about a church which uses Reiki as part of its ministry. It's by Stephen Epperly but I can't remember what it's called. They have a number of quotes from the bible which they use to support this: one of the verses is "and greater things than these shall you do because I go to my Father".

I also remember hearing that Kathleen Milner (I think she's the founder of Tera Mai Reiki?) is a Catholic and believes that her God gave her her Reiki.

I go to 3 churches one knows about me doing reiki thats spiritualist church, other two is evangelical and church of england they dont know and I feel I cant tell them...

Amethsytfairy:)

Hi all,

I found out an interesting story a few weeks ago regarding religion and Reiki.

A couple of lovely ladies I met had began helping The Church Of Scotland as volunteers years ago in the town centre giving people Counselling.

They both began to teach Reiki and The Church of Scotland offered them the use of the same building any time they needed to do Reiki and Attunements which I thought was wonderful although I have approached Church Of Scotland in another area in my town and was told no thank you.:(

I also asked them if they would allow me to hire a room for Angel Workshops but they refused this also.:p

This church have converted their building into flats , which they sold and they built an extention to the side that is for church use with lots of rooms,main hall and cafe. Very modern,light building which would be perfect workshop space and bring some money into the church , but there you are!:rolleyes:

On another note , I now book workshop space with another Church of Scotland facility and they are lovely to work with and have no reservations.:D

Opinions and attitudes are slowly changing hopefully.............

Love and light .

Margery.x

It's quite sad this really, but not terribly suprising...

Though the Catholic Church might be taking a formal stand against Reiki, there do seem to be many Christian practitioners in the world regardless. I found this site, with a few really positive testamonials from Christian practitioners, including two Catholic nuns and an Anglican priest:

As far as Mikao Usui "inventing" Reiki, well, that's probably not the most accurate way of putting it. I think the confusion over here in the west comes from the fact the we use the word "Reiki" to describe both the concept of spiritual energy itself, plus various methods of working with it. And of course, Usui didn't invent the concept of spiritual energy...no one did. But that being said, he did develop an original method of working with it for the purpose of healing and spiritual development.

I found an interesting quote from Usui's own teaching manual this morning:

"Our Reiki Ryoho is a creative idea, which no one has developed before and there is nothing like this in the world...it is an original therapy method using the power based on Reiki, which is a spiritual power in the universe."

Hopefully some interesting food for thought!

I shared the same link with my friend who is a devout Christian, aurorareiki.:)
It really helped her, and ultimately changed her view on reiki, and she is now even considering becoming a practitioner!:)

Previously she seemed to lump together all the things I do.... Reiki, energy work, crystals....into one big NO NO mass of meddling with 'weird' and 'strange' 'energies'.

She had actually been told that both crystals and Reiki were not of the purest energy and to keep yourself well protected from even their slightest influence.

When she looked into it, she realized that for her understanding, 'reiki', the actual living energy, as opposed to the practice, was another word for 'God', the universal all benevolent all loving flow of living energy contained within everything and oneness. She was delighted then about this technique which in her view enabled people to be the channel for that.

I'm not sure if she'll decide upon reiki or another form of healing, but I think she'd make a fantastic healer too because she already seems to be such a pure channel in her own natural way 🙂

That's a really inspiring story, Pure Ki...thanks for sharing that!

I'm glad your friend found the site to be helpful. I would imagine that it would be helpful for Christian practitioners to read some positive testamonials from fellow Christians...especially when they may feel uncomfortable about their church's formal opposition to the practice of Reiki.

I have been told many times over the years by Christians and Catholics that I am working with the 'Devil' so I was pleased to find the website mentioned above for Christians and Reiki. Since becoming a RM I print that off and give it to my students so that they are prepared to have a sensible answer when accused themselves in the future.
Surprisingly I have also had very positive feedback from Christian's who have been open-minded enough to experience it for themselves and quite a few have thanked me for making their connection to their God stronger!
I had a very long and interesting chat a few years a go with the vicar of the local church about what I did and although we called it different names we both also knew it came from the same 'place' and was given with unconditional love so he was quite happy and even recommended me to a few of his congregation lol.
I think ,as already has been said, that this statement from the Catholic Church comes from the fear of not having full control over what people do and worry that comparisons will be made and they will see to be falling short.
But, each to their own..live and let live is my motto!

Love and light

reikiangel

xxx

Hi

I'm sure many years ago when I got involved with the reiki scene, that there was/is a reiki book that tells a story of a catholic nun who was given special permission to practice reiki by Pope John Paul II, and that she had this document stuck proudly up on the wall. Has anyone else read this?

Cheers

RP

It's quite sad this really, but not terribly suprising...

Their guideline document just doesn't stand true for me.
On the one hand they say that the Catholic church recognises divine and natural healing, and on the other hand they dismiss Reiki after they've just said that it is referenced by some as divine healing.
Their reason is that it has no scientific evidence, yet we could just as easily argue there is no scientific evidence for the existence of God; or there is no scientific evidence for lots of the quantum theories that quantum physicists have come up with, yet without these theories we would not be talking to each other today on the internet as such technology is based around these theories. They can't explain how some of the things work, but they know it does, so they use it.

Using things that have no scientific explanation (mathematical formula) attached to them is something used in all walks of life, with positive benefits. Why single out Reiki? Methinks someone there has a bug-bear about it.

All I can say is, that this is their loss. I have only ever found Reiki to be beneficial and good. How can that go against anything the Catholic church believes in.

I'll send them some Reiki. 😉

All Love and Reiki Hugs

Hi

I'm sure many years ago when I got involved with the reiki scene, that there was/is a reiki book that tells a story of a catholic nun who was given special permission to practice reiki by Pope John Paul II, and that she had this document stuck proudly up on the wall. Has anyone else read this?

Cheers

RP

Not heard about that one. If you find out any information, please let us know.

All Love and Reiki Hugs

One of my students is a practising Catholic and spoke to her priest about Reiki. He was not keen on her using Reiki, but was opened minded enough to let her give him a treatment for his back condition. Once he experienced the loving and healing nature of the energy he told her to carry on using it as it felt 'right'. His back problem improved too!

My quote, if my memory serves me right, may of come from "Principles of Reiki" published by Thorsons/HarperCollins.

A colleague sent me a email last night about this RC statement, and I replied that the RC have the cheek to call Reiki superstitious, yet personally I find the eating the "blood & flesh" of Christ superstitious mumbo jumbo myself. Most Catholics I have met are more opened minded and don't follow the any particular teachings of the church if they think it's crap. Sounds like officials in the RC church in America are getting desperate.

Best Wishes

Reiki Pixie, who dabbles in the work of the devil (apparently) :speechless-smiley-0!

I have just double checked on the net and this is the right book.

Also googled reiki catholic nun and there are plenty of nuns doing it, prehaps they are nun-comformists;-)

Here's an interesting link:

RP

Some interesting points in this thread 🙂
Hi Healistic

Reiki was not invented by Usui, it is IMO a spiritual healing system that was around before the writen word. and they should remember that Jesus also used spiritual healing/reiki.

I agree with aurorareiki, I think you are confusing the modality of Reiki be the same thing as the creative energy, this is not the same thing.

Usui created a modality which was called Reiki, Reiki has the ability to refocus someones consciousness on the creative energy which we use to heal, although the two parts come together to allow healing to manifest they are not the same thing, the creative energy lives outside of time in the oneness, the Reiki modality come into being when Usui created it, in that context Jesus could not have used Reiki as a tool to connect to the creative energy as it had not been created in the time of Jesus.

At the end of the day a tool is only as good as the person who is using it 🙂

Why single out Reiki? Methinks someone there has a bug-bear about it.

If memory serves... the Catholic stance against reiki comes from a report compiled by a Bishop or some other high-level clergy in the Vatican, so yes, it's his bug-bear.

Personally, I have always believed that reiki healing energy comes from Source/God/Goddess/Whatever. I once discussed this with a Jehovah's Witness (my window cleaner!) who retreated convinced.... 😀

Moonfeather

Sadly it is not only Reiki which is rejected, there is a lot of fear in religion and any form of energy work that does not come from wherever their belief tells them it should come from, equates to it being evil or something???

Reiki and freemasonary

I have found this thread very interesting and was toying with the idea of starting a post similar. a number of years ago I was reading about hiram Abif and the freemason movement. recently I have become interested in how you can attain self help from Reiki. when comparing both there is a common thread in both concering something that is partitioned into three degrees of learning (in freemasonary this is the initial stage), and also secret symbols, signs and words that are used in both to obtain the knowledge which are not written down but passed by learning and not reading. it just makes me think that in consideration of both, and would welcome enlightenment, that when there are closed doors involved people get over sensitive. I have found that Reiki is something I want to focus more on and will be working to get level one completed....good link:)

Very interesting reading folks. Long before I encountered Reiki and trained as a reiki master I have been in search of 'something'. I tried religion but found lacking. The thing I found interesting, if that is the right word, is that Reiki has been rejected by this bishop because it lacks scientific evidence.

"Reputable scientific studies attesting to the efficacy of Reiki are lacking, as is a plausible scientific explanation as to how it could possibly be efficacious,".

My first point is that since when did the catholic church provide scientific evidence for the immaculate conception? miracles, turning water into wine?

Secondly I am a scientist with a PhD as well as Reiki Master. Just because there isn't currently concrete scientific evidence it doesn't mean that it doesn't exist. We just haven't formulated the correct hypotheses and do the right experiments or looked in the right places to gather the evidence.

Science isn't based on fact, it's based on the evidence to support posed hypotheses. When enough experiments have been carried out which further support the evidence, the theories (as that is all they are) are then relayed in a factual way - this takes years and years and a lot of man hours in a lab.

My theory, (as this is all it is until we have evience) is that the energy that we channel and experience as reiki energy is what the bible descibes as the holy spirit. Jesus used the life force energy from God or Source to cure the sick and heal.

Why do they need to dis it rather than accept other possible explanations and opinons.

Anyway, rant over, feel much better now! thanks for listening/reading!

Love, light and Reiki!:)

I go to 3 churches one knows about me doing reiki thats spiritualist church, other two is evangelical and church of england they dont know and I feel I cant tell them...

Amethsytfairy:)

Do you tell the evangelic and CofE churches that you go to a spiritualist church?

No!! I darent! they will say spiritualist church is bad etcetc !

Amedthystfairy:)

I thought not ... I know where you are coming from here and understand! 🙂 It's not the Church as such, some people in it are very tunnel visioned!

The trouble is, it forces you to compartmentalise your life and them not learning and expanding their lives esp with the reiki side ...... which I don't think conflicts with Christian beliefs but then I don't go to church anymore!

I have found this thread very interesting and was toying with the idea of starting a post similar. a number of years ago I was reading about hiram Abif and the freemason movement. recently I have become interested in how you can attain self help from Reiki. when comparing both there is a common thread in both concering something that is partitioned into three degrees of learning (in freemasonary this is the initial stage), and also secret symbols, signs and words that are used in both to obtain the knowledge which are not written down but passed by learning and not reading. it just makes me think that in consideration of both, and would welcome enlightenment, that when there are closed doors involved people get over sensitive. I have found that Reiki is something I want to focus more on and will be working to get level one completed....good link:)

I am a Knight Templar and 32° Freemason, Officer in my Blue Lodge (this year), and current President of our property management company (serving my second 3-year term, which completes in 2 years).

There is no connection between the degrees (and mysteries) of Reiki and the degrees (and mysteries) of Freemasonry in any way whatsoever.

Reiki and the devil

I once popped into a garage near me in Co.Wexford, Ireland. Im a full time Reiki Master/Practitioner. I asked the lady could I put my card on her window along with about 30 others. She asked what it was and I handed it to her, she looked at it and said straight from the devil and threw it in the bin. I questioned here, much to her discomfort and it turned out she did not have a clue as to what healing or reiki was!!! I asked for my card back and left. Some people eh!.

I once popped into a garage near me in Co.Wexford, Ireland. Im a full time Reiki Master/Practitioner. I asked the lady could I put my card on her window along with about 30 others. She asked what it was and I handed it to her, she looked at it and said straight from the devil and threw it in the bin. I questioned here, much to her discomfort and it turned out she did not have a clue as to what healing or reiki was!!! I asked for my card back and left. Some people eh!.

Yes 'some people' glad you got your card back from her stupid bin!

I once popped into a garage near me in Co.Wexford, Ireland. Im a full time Reiki Master/Practitioner. I asked the lady could I put my card on her window along with about 30 others. She asked what it was and I handed it to her, she looked at it and said straight from the devil and threw it in the bin. I questioned here, much to her discomfort and it turned out she did not have a clue as to what healing or reiki was!!! I asked for my card back and left. Some people eh!.

Ar least she was up front about it. I've had a couple of situations where people who run shops take my leaflets for shamanic healing or workshops, but never put them out. One is an organic food shop run by a Christian family, the other is a New Age shop run by a Reiki practitioner. When challenged, the Reiki Practitioner said, "We don't approve of shamanism." - but, of course, couldn't tell me why.

People are just people, I guess.

One of the previous nursing homes I worked at, the staff and residents loved that I could make aches and pains "go away" apart from two hardcore Protestants who were spouting that it was the work of the devil and complained to the manager. The manager reasoned that everyone gave their consent willingly and she thought it was all placebo effect regardless