I think people should be careful doing Reiki

[lottieandmia22]

This post assumes a belief in spirituality so I'm not interested in debating that specifically. If you want to please start your own thread.

From what I can see, reiki is channeling occult energy through people's bodies and is therefore potentially risky. It seems to me that new age practitioners will repeatedly say they don't believe in malevolent entities but I think this is naive.

One of my friends told me that his dad was never the same after he became involved with reiki.

And also nearly everyone I've met who has done it was told by the reiki practitioner that they are 'special' have a 'gift' or could easily become a reiki master.

Why would I be interested in a book by a forester who thinks trees fall in love?

Those kinds of studies are so interesting, Magpie. And people who suggested such things would be considered deluded- until the point where science worked out what to look for and how to look, and discovered it was there all along

Um, not studies. Not scientists.

What about this one then, bfg if want a more academic tome

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Woodlands-Oliver-Rackham/dp/0008156913/ref=asapbc?ie=UTF88_

Oliver Rackham, OBE, FBA (17 October 1939 – 12 February 2015) was an academic at the University of Cambridge who studied the ecology, management and development of the British countryside, especially trees, woodlands and wood pasture. His books included Ancient Woodland (1980) and The History of the Countryside (1986).
_
(https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/OliverrRackham)

I've read this too and enjoyed it immensely.

And it isn't only scientists that can conduct studies...

I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss Wohlleben either.

"The documentary film Intelligent Trees[16] features several of Wohlleben's observations. It portrays him alongside Suzanne Simard, a professor of forest ecology at the University of British Columbia, whose research supports most of Wohlleben's observations about communication among trees."

(https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Wohlleben)

Oh he's been on TV? you should have said, that always lends credibility.

Please stop recommending books about trees. It's weird and I have no interest at all.

You don't seem to be interested in much bfg, apart from a (narrow) branch of your own science. Wohlleben's work was supported by Suzanne Simard's research in ecology and she co presented.

Interestingly what is your own scientific field?

I don't want to hear about your tree obsession so I'm not interested in anything?
You really do keep getting worse in your silly assumptions.

I'm a neuroscientist.

I didn't make my comment because you weren't interested in trees but because you appeared so dismissive of academic fields other than your own. Even inferring that only scientists can conduct studies. I did think, since you are interested in science, tree and plant intelligence/communication might interest you. Because language has traditionally been used as a measure of intelligence and it links to ideas about how we process information. Not wholly unrelated to neuroscience I would have thought.

I wasn't dismissive of an academic field, you linked to non academic books which you confused as science.

Only scientists can conduct scientific studies.

I didn't say they were all academic books, although they do include some scientific research which you'd know if you read them. I said I would recommend them. The last book I recommended, the Rackham one, details a significant amount of scientific research.

'You know what the naysayers would benefit from, to spend some time with the indigenous people of the world.'

YES! THIS!
So so true. Oh how the world would be a better place. You know there is a quote about how we treat the world reflecting how women of the world at the time are treated.
Maybe live and let live.

You're wasting electricity. This is a lose lose scenario.

Charlatans exist in all walks of life sadly and Reiki will undoubtedly attract the unscrupulous as well as the genuine.

Hypnotherapy works. MRI scans have shown alterations in brain patterns during sessions so it is a real phenomena. It is not a cure for everything (what is?) but used wisely within safe boundaries it is effective for some.

Mind power is an incredible force. We've all heard the stories of 80 year old grandmothers lifting cars of their beloved family member. Perhaps many of us will have experienced the psychic connection between mother and child? As far as I am aware there is no scientific study on this?

The original question was of the danger of evil spirits accessing through a Reiki session. I would have expected this to be virtually impossible given the purity of intention to heal and soothe.

Those experiencing high or unpleasant emotions, well this is always likely to occur during a deep session of hypnotherapy. Not usually the first session where there is unease and nervousness but almost always in the second or third. In the majority of cases the client feels massively relieved and mental blockages are diminished and their lives go on to improve.

Just my observations. I'm not looking to get drawn into spats about whose Science degree is better than their English one.

So so true. Oh how the world would be a better place. This is it, they have so much knowledge and wisdom. I was watching a video the other day of an Aboriginal man, he said they don't have words in their language for please and thank you, because there's no need as everything is shared, they are one and the same, with each other and nature. Beautiful people.

I agree too.

Well nobody is going to convince bfg, bertrand et al that they aren't always right. To my mind they have a very rigid nineteenth-century view of science. Science has disproved many of its own core beliefs in the last hundred years both in physics and medical science but they will continue to dismiss other people's experiences as lying or placebo no matter how much evidence is given.

“Well nobody is going to convince bfg, bertrand et al that they aren't always right“

I don’t think I am always right. I am happy to be proved wrong. But there has to be actual evidence. Not anecdote. And there is nothing wrong with placebo- it’s very powerful. Just don’t call it what it isn’t.

My last post to Bert was not about Reiki, it was about her contradictory claims regarding acupuncture. I have provided scientific evidence in the former of a meta analysis regarding the efficacy of acupuncture. She simply repeats her claim that it doesn't work.

bfg, what "science and logic" were you applying when you used the word "we" up thread? What knowledge do you have about beliefs, their formation, their importance and how they may be modified? How aware are you of your own beliefs? What insight does this give you into other people? What science and logic did you utilise when deciding to come onto a Reiki thread in the Philosophy and Religion forum as opposed to the Science and Nature forum?

“. I have provided scientific evidence in the former of a meta analysis regarding the efficacy of acupuncture.“

No you haven’t. You have provided a link to a meta analysis which shows that overall acupuncture performs very slightly better than sham acupuncture but not statistically significantly.

“Well nobody is going to convince bfg, bertrand et al that they aren't always right“

None of us said we were. Just that we can read and understand scientific evidence and are right that reiki is a pile of shit. You'd understand that too if you engaged your brain and just thought about it for a few minutes. It's not hard.

'You know what the naysayers would benefit from, to spend some time with the indigenous people of the world

That is offensive and racist.

“'You know what the naysayers would benefit from, to spend some time with the indigenous people of the world”

Blimey- I missed that gem.

I feel sadness and pity towards you.

What, because I don’t patronize “indigenous people”? Fair enough.