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 .

Sorry you misunderstood. It wasn't a friend, my friend lives abroad. It was someone I'd never met before. Yeah I'm still cynical about it though, but at least I felt relaxed afterwards, so not a waste of money!

Sorry cross posted!

Whatever works for you. It might well work, but not because of the reiki itself per se. I suppose it’s like a type of mindfulness meditation, which can be done yourself at home for free. The ‘energy shifting’ thing is nonsense. It’s just a way for people who claim to have special training that others don’t possess to charge people for it.

If you ask 100 women if they ever have pain in their lower abdomen, 99% would say yes. And the 1% would be someone like me being deliberately awkward.

Everyone will have their own opinions, of which they are entitled to. The only opinion you should factor in, is yours, OP.

Hey, if you find reiki comforting and helpful on a personal level then good for you - what others think is neither here nor there.

Enjoy it xx

I went through a stage of trying out various complimentary therapies, one being Reiki.

The couch I lay on was uncomfortable and I was cold. The 'therapist' was nothing special but nice enough. I was glad when it was over.

Yet as I drove home my one eye started watering such that I had to pull over because I couldn't see. A year or so earlier I'd had an injury to that eye that involved hospital visits and daily application of ointment. The injury eventually healed.

Something out of the ordinary happened with my eye after the Reiki session. My belief is that there's something to it and if the environment is warm and comfortable, and the therapist a highly skilled people person, Reiki could be helpful.

I’m not a non believer as such as I know Reiki has worked on a couple of people know, although I’m not 100% sure what ‘worked’ actually means in this context. BUT a lovely friend of mine trained to be a Reiki teacher and has offered to give me a (free) Reiki session over the phone which I have politely declined as sounds like the biggest load of bollocks ever 🙈.

I am on a equestrian related Facebook page where a " reiki practitioner" aka "Crook who preys on the gullible" advertises.

Not only can she reiki away every imaginable horse ailment or behavioural problem , but she can do it remotely without ever seeing the horse.
Presumably the "healing energy" is channelled down PayPal on receipt of funds🙄

@Crazyeight

Good question but not one I can help with I'm afraid. Maybe ask Brian Cox?

It wasn't that long along that people believed the earth was flat. Look how that turned out....

I think any benefit comes from being given ‘permission’ to lie down, relax and focus on your body. You’re likely to experience the same effect from meditation or simple relaxation.

I think most people are very detached from their bodies, often experiencing them as simply a collection of parts that function well or badly, experience pain, look good/bad, etc. So any treatment that encourages gentle, accepting focus on the body in a relaxed and caring environment is likely to bring attention to areas that may need focus.

I also think that emotional release and/or relaxation can have surprising after effects (a bit like feeling better after a good cry).

It’s probably very beneficial to give yourself space and permission for this stuff and if reiki is your way in, then great. Reiki itself, however, is obvious bollocks.

Similarly, if identifying with an angel, patron saint, spirit animal, etc is your thing, great - it is a long-established human practice to do that kind of thing and might be very helpful - the Archangel Michael is certainly a powerful figure so i can see how it might help you - but I would be very very wary of a reiki lady telling you any kind of message from an angel
etc. she sounds a bit dodgy to me! Totally agree with pp that a ‘stagnant womb’ is a classic for any middle aged woman!

I had an impromptu session free at a job I was doing and I had a very similar experience to you OP. I was amazed as I literally thought it was nonsense. I had a few sessions afterwards and would have more someday.

@ZippyDoodle "It wasn't that long along that people believed the earth was flat. Look how that turned out"

And then we discovered that it isn't. That's how progress works.

Err... that's the point I'm trying to make.

All the people reiki is a load of old tosh.

I don't believe in it beyond possible placebo effects / relaxation.

I would say if it makes you feel better then crack on but in this case it hasn't made you feel better. It's unsettled you.

This woman and the cards have no insight in to your health so don't be alarmed by the message to mind your health.

Every one of us should mind their health but this reads like this person has made you think there's something you need to be worried about and - I mean this kindly - they can not know that with hovering hands and cards.

I wouldn't go back to her.

I just wanted to
Come
On and report that all the positive energy in me and good head place that I was in, feels utterly drained since I had that session. It is either coincidental or not but my
Peace of mind, newly developed positive outlook and acceptance of many upsets over last few months have totally turned on their heads and I feel negative, anxious, unsettled and off kilter.
I feel obsessed with my health and worrying g about it , am ruminating everyday about a toxic situation that is unsolvable without breaking a very important relationship.
My mood is so low as is my
Energy and I am paranoid driving.
Not sure if it's related or not but every bit of me feels unsettled and anxious after months of very hard personal development and self care . Literally since I walked out of the therapy room.

Reiki is BS as are angels. Hope that helps!

With your update, perhaps you should see you GP and discuss how you're feeling. You're clearly not well.

I’ve had Reiki lots of times but on only 2 occasions I had felt heat, pressure and a cob web sensation and was very thirsty afterwards.

Couldn’t give a shiny shit what other people think about it. On one of the occasions I thought the woman had put a warm stone on my throat and went to pick it up and there was nothing there. Weird.

Out bodies are like a literal battery with electricity running through it. With out it the electric impulses our body makes we wouldn’t be able to read, stand up, breath ect.

So it’s not so far fetched that some people can push their energy onto you.

Would you say that to a person that followed another religion?

Yes. Any religion and none. It's normal to see a doctor when you are worried about your health and feel unwell.

Would Anyone of you think that these symptoms are coincidental?

I do have time for these things. I experienced reiki once as a favour to a friend (rather than as a believer) and definitely felt positive effects. I also love gong baths, which are different I know, but I do often feel absolutely awful the following day - so much so that I won't go to them on a 'school night'. I love the experience at the time, but not the after effects! So, maybe the fact that you're now feeling terrible is something to do with shifting energies. Give it a day or two - my guess is that you'll soon feel much better and be able to move on.

I wouldn't dream
Of going to my gp with three days of anxiety and unsettled mood. I'm
Pretty sure he'd send me away and tell me to come back six weeks later if I still felt awful .
This is a three day feeling of being anxious and unsettled .

OP, it’s not coincidental that you feel anxious and unsettled because that bloody woman has put a pervasive and unsettling idea in your head.

She’s talked about ‘stagnant’ energy. Stagnant sounds similar to malignant - a highly emotive and frightening word when used in a medical context.

She’s told you to be ‘mindful’ of your health - a totally bland and fucking idiotic phrase that means nothing at all but could also be interpreted as some portent of doom.

Reiki is no different to any other kind of woo bullshit or con-artistry. You can be stacking shelves in Tesco’s one week, then after a two day zoom course suddenly you’re waving crystals at people in your garden shed and charging money to ‘cleanse auras’ and dish out these kind of vague gnomic pronouncements.

Fine if the people you’re charging have a nice relaxing time and feel their well-being is enhanced. But really, really not fine if your charlatan bollocks is making people upset and contributing to health anxiety and fears.

There is so much suggestion involved, and if she’s put a worry in your mind you’re bound to be hyper-vigilant about your body and have instant confirmation bias when you notice things. Anxiety alone could easily be responsible for the symptoms you describe.

Please give yourself a bit of time to decompress from this experience. If you still feel unwell, see your GP. But FFS don’t go back to Mystic fucking Meg. She’s not helping you.

Absolutely.

OP, your story is testament to how Reiki practitioners swindle and harm vulnerable people.

I hope you have the intelligence and self worth to stop allowing this woman to manipulate you and your anxieties.