Reiki is a universal healing energy that's available to anyone whether you believe in it or not.  It works just as the law of gravity works whether you believe it or not.  If you were to walk off of a tall cliff without any aerodynamically designed apparatus, you most likely would not fly.

The Sedona Method works the same way.  If you have given or received Reiki and you have not experienced the healing you expected, the chances are that your energy or the energy of the Reiki practitioner is blocked in some way.  The Sedona Method can help by providing you a means to release those energy blocks.  In many cases, that release may be all you need.

Before you decide that Reiki Healing is how you want to be treated, there are a few things you should take into account.

First of all, consider the severity of your ailment.  For instance, if you had just had an accident with a chain saw and were bleeding severely, CALL 911 and get to a hospital as quickly as possible.  In such a case, you would likely need someone's help as you may be physically incapable of doing anything for yourself.  So in all cases, use common sense.

Secondly, understand that we all have a certain amount of healing energies within us.  If it wasn't so, we would bleed to death from small cuts, and we would never recover from colds or other bacterial or viral infections.  A Reiki practitioner is trained to focus those energies and share, or send, them to others.  Some people believe this is the same thing that happens during spontaneous healings by the Laying On Of Hands.  Regardless of what you believe or even want to believe, our bodies are tuned to energies that exist at different levels within everyone.

Reiki is NOT Faith Healing.  Reiki is a technique of focusing a Universal Life Force Energy and CAN BE LEARNED.  It works whether you have faith in it or not.  That being said, faith also has healing properties.  When faith is combined with Reiki, the results can be experienced at a greater level.  At the same time, if you are a Reiki practitioner, your skill will increase with practice.  In this sense, Reiki is an art and a science, just like medicine.  As a practitioner, it is not ethical to give someone Reiki who does not want it.  In some states there are laws against touching people without certain certificates of training.

Reiki practitioners don't diagnose illness; that's the job of trained medical diagnosticians (doctors).  You may, however, adapt your treatments given to clients based on what their complaints are.  In other words, if a client has a complaint of a sore throat, there are specific Reiki techniques that have been found to be more affective on throats than others.  These can be learned from available books, and Reiki Master teachers.  

If you're a client, please don't ask a practitioner to diagnose your illness.  Get some expert medical opinions that can be verified with a variety of tests.  Don't rely on the gobbledy-gook of some practitioner who may claim to know everything.  Always look for humility and respect in a practitioner.  Don't discount, however, the observations of a trained and experienced practitioners of alternative healing methods.  A lot of methods have been found to be medically sound after years of being ridiculed as quackery by modern western pill-pushers.  Some are still ridiculed.  Chiropractic and Accupuncture are prime examples.  There is a "best-use" for every practice.  Do your best to match your ailment with the proper treatment.  In any case, Reiki can assist whatever method you choose, and can't hurt you.

A story is told that Dr. Usui was a Japanese Christian minister who taught classes at a Christian Boys School in Japan during the later part of the 19th century.  He had told the boys one day of the healings that Jesus did, and when one of them asked if he believed that story, Dr. Usui said, yes, he did.  When the boys asked if he knew how Jesus did this, he said he didn't know.

This set him on a journey for the rest of his life.  For many years he searched and searched, and finally found a documented method in some ancient texts hidden away in a Buddhist monastery.  He learned this method, and passed it on to those who became his students.

His students have passed this on and today there are Reiki practitioners all over the world.  Reiki is translated from Japanese as "Spirit-Guided Energy", but most practitioners today refer to it as "Universal Life-Force Energy".

A lot has been learned about Dr. Usui since this story was first told.  It's likely that the story was made up by one of the early Reiki Masters to make the practice more palatable to western audiences.  The different opinions just make it all the more interesting.  What's important is the method of giving Reiki to your client.  The most important thing is to make them comfortable and leave them feeling better than when you began the treatment. 

I was attuned to Reiki Level III (master) on 30 September, 2001.  There is much to learn to become a practitioner, and some of it is not easy... but it is simple.  My teacher helped me understand that to be a Reiki Master, one really sets about on a course to become masters of themselves.  There are mileposts along the way, but the course is life-long.  The relationships you develop with your teachers and students are full of lessons and blessings.

Philosophically, I don't know that one can ever truly be complete masters of themselves in one lifetime.  But one can set a course, with help, to improve and to experience more abundance in their life.  This is not to say that we should or should not strive for more things.  Abundance comes in many forms.  For some it's financial, for some it's emotional, and yet for others it's family.

If you wish to contact me for more information regarding Reiki, or would like to be taught the basics (Level I only), I would be happy to hear from you.  I am currently studying aura healing, which is very similar to Reiki.  Aura healing is generally quicker to learn and simpler to practice.  I will be writing an article about it in our August newsletter.