Alternative Medicine - Energy Therapies

Energy therapies that purport to influence energy fields in and around the body are among the CAM practices that arouse the most suspicion from the conventional medical community. Some skeptics attribute the health benefits reported by patients who have received energy therapies to the placebo effect (a perceived beneficial result that occurs from the therapy because of the patient's expectation that the therapy will help). Despite widespread lack of understanding and acceptance from traditional health care practitioners, some hospitals and pioneering practitioners are incorporating energy therapies into their treatment programs.

Reiki

An ancient Japanese technique, Reiki is bioenergetic healing intended to restore physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual balance. The unique therapy takes its name from two Japanese words. Rei means higher power, wisdom, and all that exists, and ki is energy—the life force that emanates from rei.

Based on the teachings of Dr. Makao Usui (1865–1926), Reiki is a universal healing vibration that flows from practitioner to client. The practitioner acts as a channel for Reiki energy, and as it passes through practitioners, it acts to strengthen and harmonize them simultaneously as it heals their clients.

There are more than a dozen styles of Reiki, each with its own subtle variations. Students studying with Usui Reiki masters receive a series of "attunements" and may progress through three levels or degrees of training. Level I connects the practitioner to the Reiki channel and initiates the flow of healing energy. Level II teaches distance or remote healing. Level III initiates the practitioner to the role of master and teacher.

Some practitioners use a variety of other therapies, including meditation, prayer, chanting, breathing, and movement education. Most often performed as hands-on body-work, Reiki is believed by its therapists to convey energy to calm nerves, relax muscles, and ease pain without any physical touch. During the second level of training, practitioners learn to deliver Reiki energy remotely, over long distances.

COMPLEMENTING TRADITIONAL MEDICINE.

Increasingly, clinics and hospitals across the United States offer Reiki to women in labor, surgical patients, and those suffering from pain, anxiety, sleep disorders, headaches, asthma, and eating disorders. The Tucson Medical Center in Arizona has been the home of a Reiki clinic since 1995. Initially, the clinic focused exclusively on cancer patients. By 1999 it offered Reiki to patients throughout the hospital.

In conventional medical settings, Reiki usually is presented as "a technique to reduce stress and promote relaxation, thereby enhancing the body's natural ability to heal itself." To gain credibility with traditional physicians and other mainstream professionals, Reiki therapists often downplay the spiritual benefits of the practice and judiciously avoid mentioning other CAM practices.

Although its effectiveness has not been documented in scientific studies, Reiki has gained acceptance because it is viewed as a complement, rather than an alternative, to traditional Western medicine. Considered safe by many health care practitioners, it is well-received by patients who seem to respond favorably to the time and attention, as well as the healing energy, offered by Reiki therapists.