Reiki

[Hodibiddy]

Am I being unreasonable to think Reiki is a load of tosh?!

Depends. Have you ever tried it?

YANBU. It's complete arse.

quackwatch.org/related/reiki/

I had a session yesterday and loved it! My first time. I wasn't really sure what to expect but I felt heat and something I can describe as energy waves!

Yes I have tried it.
I was offered it as wellness therapy after my cancer diagnosis.
I didn’t feel any benefit. I saw no colours of felt any warmth.
I was quite disappointed!

It’s pseudoscience with no empirical evidence that it works any better than placebo. In the grand scheme of things though, it’s pretty safe and practitioners tend to recommend it as a purely complementary therapy rather than a replacement for actual medicine - so I can’t get as worked up about it as other forms of quackery where charlatans claim they offer a cure for cancer or whatever and convince patients to reject medical treatments.

Was great for migraines as a teen.

I think its great, honestly though I think its all about your belief in it and if your open to it. It's not for everyone! I hate the claims it can cure such and such though, they shouldn't be able to make such claims.

If it doesn’t work for you, that’s fine. You don’t need to call it tosh.

I went to a session in Chatton my carpet in Northumberland, I felt kind of bright and elevated after it but I think it was a placebo effect more than anything

I haven't tried it but I meditate and I've always assumed it works in a very similar way. Being forced to slow down and focus on different areas of the body has a very calming effect on me. I don't believe the reiki side of it works but I think the act of slowing down is what makes people feel better.

It's complete horseshit. You can get the same benefits just by lying quietly in a dimly lit room for an hour without someone waving their hands around, telling you a load of crap about energy, then taking fifty quid off you.

Was at a loss with DDs health problems, so went down the alternative route. Was advised by a reiki practitioner that DD needed weekly visits at £50 a session..."and so does your other DD....weekly".

It’s nonsense.
Derren brown did a debunking of it years ago

I suffer from IBS and a friend offered me a free Reiki session. It was lovely and relaxing but I didn't feel anything really.
Afterwards, she said although she was trying to focus on my stomach but she felt 'heat' (or something similar) from and was drawn to my right knee.
Well...I'd been having a lot of problems and pain in my right knee but hadn't told anyone, not even my husband.
I can't say it necessarily helped my knee (it got better, but after taking arthritis drugs at around the same time for a separate issue) but it did make me think!

I had some and felt nothing. I much prefer reflexology.

I had it and was astounded. I was sceptical as I couldn't understand how that could possibly work (still don't, really) and yet when I had it I felt this intense energy and then spent the next 3 days crying out 20 years worth of trauma.

My friend had it and felt nothing at all though!

It has no scientifically proven worth. There might be a placebo effect .....just some value from somebody telling you they are helping you.

Placebo effect mostly, although the setting, closed eyes, pleasant music and being cared for in some way seemed soothing.
Curing physical ailments, no.

One of the best evenings of my life was listening to a down to earth 83 year old Sheffield woman recounting a talk she had just been to by a Reiki practitioner.

She was incredulous, and we were all hysterical as she described how this practitioner even claimed to be able to 'Reiki a parking place' every time she went into town.

We only met her one evening randomly on a spa weekend, and I can't even remember her name, but whenever I hear mention of Reiki, (or can't find a parking place!), I remember that night.

I snapped s tendon in my finger and had to wear a splint continuously for 6 weeks to fix it. My friend was a refill master (internet certificate I believe) and wanted to reiki it better and even wanted me to remove the splint. She said reiki is better than "modern medicine" - errr a splint is hardly modern is it.

She then wanted to become a first responder. She said she had to be careful as someone had an accident and lost an arm. They had reiki done while waiting for the ambulance and it was so effective that it was then not possible to reattach the arm - as the reiki had healed the wound too much in the meantime.

I'm not a fan!