Reiki... AIBU to believe in it ?

[onlyoneglass]

I had a session of reiki for the first time ever.
I went into it with an open mind and didn't do any research beforehand .
I felt very relaxed but felt a pang in one of my ovaries!. I'm
Menopausal for the last five years. I also felt intense heat going up
And down both of my
Legs as well as a short sharp pain in a tiny area of my head.
When the session finished the practitioner told me
That she felt a lot of stagnant negative energy in my womb area.

Now, I've gone through a lot of trauma with an abusive marriage, affairs and I won't bore you but the last five years have been horrendously traumatic .
I've done a lot of work, coaching etc and feel in a great place. Good things are happening to me
Lately !

I'm a little thrown as the lady advised me
To mind and
Protect my health and then she asked me To choose an angel card. We had discussed angels as I believe that they have got me through the worst of times . We spoke about archangel
Michael who I speak to a lot
Mostly and then Lo and behold I chose his card which again advised me to mind my health and protect myself .

I'm a little
Freaked out .
Does anyone have any experience with reiki please.
I've booked to go again in a fortnight .

Of course it's complete bullocks but the placebo effect is a thing.

There was a TV show called "Bullshit" that Penn and Teller made, which included a segment where they provided "alternative therapies" (that they had made up from scratch, and applied a smattering of "woo") and various of the people receiving those treatments (which I think included a massage with toilet plungers) felt like they really helped. Reiki is that, except even more stupid where it doesn't even involve touch.

Using big words to lend your opinion credence?

I thought metaphysics, by definition, referred to abstract theory with no basis in reality.

So on that basis I will say metaphysically my husband’s womb is leading him astray to the pub tonight. Let’s hope it lets him come back again relatively sober.

Could you please provide links for that building evidence? And for the NHS departments too?

My only experience with reiki was when I broke my ankle

I was hobbling around,on crutches and in a lot of pain when someone I knew got wind of what had happened

She shot round to my house,waffled on a bit and then asked if she could give my ankle 'some healing' (my dp.was giving me the side eye at this point)

I just wanted her out of my house but being English and too damn polite,I agreed

She wafted her hands about a bit,telling me her hands where getting warm (I didn't notice) and that she could 'feel' where the bone was broken and that she was sending 'healing' via her hands

Then,all of a sudden,she got funny with me and told me I was faking having a broken ankle (the hospital didn't think so-it was broken in 3 places) and stomped out of my house while yelling at me about what a fraud I was and how dp.should 'be ashamed of himself for backing up her lies' (to which he started laughing at her,so she left)

Never saw her again

I'd never bother again

The 'angel' card isn't giving you any new insight though is it? I'd be willing to bet my next pay packet that all the cards say something very similar in slightly different words.

@Agapornis have a little Google. It won't take long to find. I have seen a number of NHS jobs recently looking for reiki trained therapists too.

I'm a reiki practitioner (I don't charge!).

Watch the effects of reiki on animals and say it doesn't work.

It's just using energy directed to where it is lacking to heal.

Well this is the main evidence Google provides me... Effects of reiki in clinical practice: A systematic review of randomised clinical trials:
"Most trials suffered from methodological flaws such as small sample size, inadequate study design and poor reporting....In conclusion, the evidence is insufficient to suggest that reiki is an effective treatment for any condition. Therefore the value of reiki remains unproven."

doi.org/10.1111%2Fj.1742-1241.2008.01729.x

Total sceptic here. Until at an event for migraine sufferers that I tagged along to with a friend I was offered a 25 mins taster. I felt intense heat and pain at one point in my solar plexus. After the session the lady said she'd spent a lot of time trying to shift energy out through my feet from my solar plexus and it felt like I was spending a lot of time and holding much stress on something not medical. She was spot on!

I mean on one hand how can it possibly work, but on the other hand, belief can release endorphins, dopamine and serotonin. All of these have strong beneficial physiological effects.

But where does this energy come from and how is it harnessed? Does everyone have it? Can it be used to keep pensioners warm? Has anyone told Elon Musk? I'm sure it's exactly the sort of thing he would be interested in.

I believe it. I saw someone who told me things about my body that there's no way she could have known about. Really must go see her again

Reiki works.

But MN is very biased,

It's a right load of old woo bollocks.

It's bollocks unless you believe it. Then it works; called the placebo effect. Same goes for religion and healers etc. I wish I could believe their crap because some people are happy just believing in this "greater power".

Not enough qualified reiki practitioners.

This thread is reminding me of the time my lovely mum was given a gift of a very luxurious spa weekend for two, including three treatments each. My dad wouldn't go, because he is a 70 year old Irish man who is not under any circumstances walking around a spa in a dressing gown, and I only have brothers so it was up to me (yay, I love a posh spa).

Anyway my mum's main concern was not to have strangers "interfering" with her, so she chose Reiki as a hands off option. Then she had to spend an hour with a very sincere young girl who fully believed in the power of Reiki, and kept asking my mother if she is spiritual. As a 70 year old Irish catholic woman she does not consider herself spiritual at all and dies inside when people talk about spirituality. She was so traumatised she changed her other treatments to gel nails and a crushed pearl face treatment, neither of which are up her street. She still shudders when she hears panpipes .

Laughing at a catholic not liking spirituality when it’s one of the biggest woo-woos going!

If you’re already talking to angels on a regular basis, OP, then you’re clearly predisposed to believing in stuff like this, so why are you so freaked out about it?!

I think it’s utter bollocks - I once had a free session via my work and the bloody woman talked incessantly throughout (mainly gossipy speculation about other clients, all people I knew) whilst waving her hands around and claiming to be ‘moving negative energy’. She was the least spiritual, least empathetic person I’ve ever met and I felt nothing whatsoever except irritation at her gobshite-ery, which probably contributed to the amount of ‘negative energy’ in the room. But then, I’m not predisposed to believe in it, so it’s hardly likely to work for me.

Placebo (basically belief) is an enormously powerful influence on healing, though, and is currently being widely researched, including within the NHS. If you believe reiki is doing you good and it has a positive impact on your wellbeing, crack on with it. Doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks, and what harm can it do?

Strict traditional woo is ecumenically acceptable of course

I believe Reiki can be relaxing. It's a soothing experience and your nervous system can enter parasympathetic state. When we are in this state we can have a "healing" experience. I don't believe anything beyond this.

It absolutely has been used in the NHS and was funded in my local trust a few years ago

Yes I can back this up, there were funded courses in our Trust too.

Op you believe in it and that's what matters. Outside opinions are not your problem or business. It's akin to believing in god and millions do that.

I'm sure there was a trial once where very sick patients in a hospital were randomly assigned either to be prayed for or for someone just to think about them for a few minutes every day, and the outcome was that more or the prayed for patients died.