From Experience to Evidence: Reiki's Healing Touch Explored
PC: miapowterr
Robin Fuerst first “taught” me Reiki. A good-natured middle-aged woman with thick steel grey hair, she is a former St. Charles pharmacist who was sick of handing out drugs. Now, she saw Reiki clients and led trainings from her home near the 27th Street entrance to St. Chuck's Emergency. That irony did not go unnoticed. I like to think her good mojo still radiated out to the places she’d already touched.
Eight of us sat in her living room while she rocked a little in her chair and told her Reiki story. What it was to her, how she was affected by it, how she uses it. I sat on the floor with two of my beloveds and listened. It was a traditional way of learning, in a small group, in a comfortable space, with people you love. I felt like I was at the feet of wise Auntie/Cousin/Grandmother Robin telling me about the good medicine – and I better pay attention.
So I did.
Robin spent a lot of time with Reiki. It’s not because she told us that, it's because you can feel it – in the way she speaks and expresses herself. She laughs often. She is passionate and positive. She is gentle and peaceful.
Image From: International House of Reiki
She told us the mystical tale of the birth of Usui Reiki. It’s a great story. She told us about how Sinsei Usui used Reiki to heal people after a huge earthquake in Japan. She told us how Sensei Usui’s inspired students changed the system to meet the needs of whole populations of people and how it came to be with us today. She spoke of wars, ritual suicides and sacred knowledge.
She explained Reiki in terms of universal, loving, life force energy. Ki is life energy. In other cultures it's called Chi, Qi, Ni or Great Spirit, Prana, Energy for the scientists or “The Force” for Star Wars fans.
Call it what ya will, I see it as the fabric that creates the energetic blueprint upon which physical structures can come into form. It all comes back to energy. Everything is energy vibrating at different rates.
She thought in terms of quantum mechanics, and so did I. I’d devoured the PBS series The Elegant Universe and it seems to me there were some very strong correlations between the world of quantum physics and energy medicine. I was curious. And I like being curious. It brings me joy.
She talked about her PEMS model as “layers”/auras of a person from the coarse form of the Physical body to the subtle body composed of the Emotional/Energetic, Mental and Spiritual selves. It made sense to me. It was a system that made sense.
But I still had my questions and doubts. I mean geez. It sounded like magic. And there is good magik and there is bad magik.
What were the strengths of Reiki, I asked myself and what were its limitations? What actually is Reiki to me? What would be my relationship to and with it?
So here goes: Here’s how I see and teach it. Or at least how I introduce and frame it.
If you've gotten this far, I guess you’re curious too. Stay curious my friends. Because that is key.
There are different ways of knowing. We know through our sense perception (empiricism), language, reason and emotions. We also know through intuition. Each has its strengths that lead us closer to the truth and limitations that obscure or distort the truth.
And so Reiki, too, of course must be examined up against multiple tests to its veracity and efficacy.
What’s the science behind Reiki?
How has it been researched and what conclusions have they drawn? (That is knowledge by reason and sense perception.)
What effect have you felt as a result of interacting with Reiki? (That is knowledge by sense perception and emotions.)
How do we know if Reiki works?
What constitutes proof that it works?
It depends on who you ask.
Top hospitals across the US including the Mayo and Cleveland Clinics and here in Bend, Oregon St. Charles Medical determined Reiki is an integrated therapy option for complementary and alternative care (CAM).
But there is certainly also criticism about this.
Medicine with a side of mysticism: Top hospitals promote unproven therapies
Written in 2017, one of the challenges this article refers to was the limited number and quality research studies and the challenges of running those studies. The following studies support this as well.
In 2005, Autonomic Nervous System Changes During Reiki Treatment: A Preliminary Study had concluded:
Results: Heart rate and diastolic blood pressure decreased significantly in the Reiki group compared to both placebo and control groups.
Conclusions: The study indicates that Reiki has some effect on the autonomic nervous system. However, this was a pilot study with relatively few subjects and the changes were relatively small. The results justify further, larger studies to look at the biological effects of Reiki treatment. (bold and italics added)
In 2014, Effect of Reiki Therapy on Pain and Anxiety in Adults: An In-Depth Literature Review of Randomized Trials with Effect Size Calculations concluded:
While the number of studies is limited, based on the size Cohen’s d statistics calculated in this review, there is evidence to suggest that Reiki therapy may be effective for pain and anxiety. Continued research using Reiki therapy with larger sample sizes, consistently randomized groups, and standardized treatment protocols is recommended.
In 2007, Anne Vitale, MSN, APRN,BC, agreed In Integrative Review of Reiki Touch Therapy Research by when she concluded:
IMPLICATIONS FOR RESEARCH AND PRACTICE:
Confusion about what constitutes credible CAM exploration is now the most pressing barrier to the integration of energy work into mainstream healthcare. The lack of empirically based investigations continues to be a common criticism by biomedical practitioners challenging the use of Reiki within the predominant Western allopathic healthcare delivery model...Entwined in this debate is the issue of whether the randomized controlled trial design considered the “criterion standard” in medical research is the optimal methodology for capturing the efficacy of energy work. As previously stated, the field of energy research does not readily lend itself to traditional scientific analyses…Fenton concludes that investigators must agree on the methodology and technology required to study the mechanism of energy touch therapies, and strongly recommends that research designs include the actual experience of recipients receiving these therapies as well. Engebretson and Wardell and Shiflett et al among others, concur that linear research methods applied to energy therapies such as Reiki are not complex enough to capture effectiveness. (bold and italics added)
“Linear research methods applied to energy therapies such as Reiki are not complex enough to capture effectiveness.”
That sounds to me like, “However, in yogic psycho-spiritual models, the challenge (the limitation) is that very few people are born with or can develop the ability to have such inquiry - the sensitivity to get access to the observable - subtle energies and sensations of the ‘body’.” (from my Usui 1 summary sheet - see above PDF)
In other words, are they saying we don’t have the medical equipment sensitive enough and the study protocol fine-tuned enough to empirically measure the subtle Reiki energy – and also few people have sensitive enough nervous systems to be able to feel Reiki and subtle energy in their bodies?
In others, do we need to get more sensitive??
Some stuff is hard to measure.
What we can measure is affect. The Positive and Negative Affect Schedule or (PANAS) is a scale that consists of different words that describe feelings and emotions. (Magyar-Moe, 2009) We can measure people's pain levels, drowsiness, tiredness, nausea, appetite, shortness of breath, anxiety, depression, and overall well-being.
In 2019, Harvard (computers) processed this study: A Large-Scale Effectiveness Trial of Reiki for Physical and Psychological Health
Results: A total of 1411 Reiki sessions were conducted and included in the analysis. Statistically significant improvements were observed for all outcome measures, including positive affect, negative affect, pain, drowsiness, tiredness, nausea, appetite, shortness of breath, anxiety, depression, and overall well-being.
Conclusions: The results from this large-scale multi-site effectiveness trial suggest that a single session of Reiki improves multiple variables related to physical and psychological health. (bold added)
In 2021, Effects of Reiki on Mental Health Care: A Systematic Review
Abstract: This systematic review aimed to identify the benefits of Reiki in mental health care. Eleven studies were included. Although the number of studies is limited, the results contribute to the potential beneficial role of Reiki in mental health care. Persistent studies using Reiki with broad samples, consistent randomized controlled trials, and patterned protocols are recommended. (bold and italics added)
Then in 2022, Does Reiki Benefit Mental Health Symptoms Above Placebo?
Conclusion: The results suggest that, Reiki may be more effective in treating some areas of mental health, than placebo, particularly if symptoms are clinically relevant. To date, there are a small number of studies in each area, therefore findings are inconclusive and more RCTs controlling for placebo in Reiki research are needed. Most included studies were also assessed as having a risk of bias of some concern. Incorporating Reiki as a complementary treatment to mainstream psychotherapy for depression, stress, and anxiety may be appropriate. (bold and italics added)
And also in 2022 came: An Evaluation of the Subjective Experience of Receiving Reiki: Qualitative Results from a Pragmatic Effectiveness Study
Results: Qualitative analysis revealed eight major themes: (1) deep relaxation and calm (68%), (2) body sensations/somatic experiences (53%), (3) emotions (29%), (4) spiritual or symbolic significance (18%), (5) changes in symptoms (17%), (6) changes in perception (11%), (7) sleep and drowsiness (10%), and (8) changes to breathing (4%). Significantly more males reported feeling relaxed and experiencing time perception changes, whereas more females reported body sensations, emotions, visual perceptions, and spiritual significance.
Conclusions: The findings from this study suggest that Reiki can elicit the relaxation response and alter emotions and perception in such a way as to facilitate a transformative subjective healing experience. Future work will analyze these themes as they relate to changes in symptoms and compare the experience of Reiki with other biofield therapies. (bold and italics added)
So where does this leave us?
For me, I am heartened to see research being conducted with Reiki while at the same time I recognize the limitations of empirically measuring its efficacy. It doesn’t mean because we can’t measure it, it is true or not true. It just means we can’t measure it to satisfy scientific standards. I also recognize the bias that infiltrate studies, especially the 2019 and 2022 study that listed William Rand as part of the research study team.
What is my conclusion right meow?
Reiki is a life-force energy guided by spiritual consciousness. It can have real and measurable impacts on the physiology of human and animal bodies and is correlated to the nervous system where it supports “positive affect, negative affect, pain, drowsiness, tiredness, nausea, appetite, shortness of breath, anxiety, depression, and overall well-being.”
It has helped me. It has helped my beloveds.
How it works, no one knows for sure, but I have my theories about that. Untested theories, of course.
I believe when we lay our hands on people or animals, in a quiet, calm environment, the receiver of the Reiki taps into the practitioner's biofield and essentially borrows or syncs up with their centered nervous system. Sometimes we purr.
We all know how we feel when we are with someone who puts us at ease. We also know how it feels to be around someone like we are walking on eggshells.
To me, it’s simple like that. Our body feels both energy and the energy that exists between people —or pets. Our body can read energy before our brain can articulate it. It’s sometimes called intuition which is another way of knowing something.
So whether the Usui Reiki origin story is totally true matters not to me. Whether the way the energy or the symbols work is objectively accurate is not as interesting to me.
What is interesting is how we see methods of hands-on healing in several historical and modern traditions. What is interesting is how the touch from a trusted being or beloved often helps me feel better in my time of need. What is interesting is the beauty in that simplicity. And that is enough for me. For meow.
