Reiki and Christianity

 by Karen Harrison


Reiki is energy from God or however you think of your higher power.  I view it as energy from the Holy Spirit.  I am an open-minded Christian and Reiki has helped me to develop a closer relationship with God.  That is because, as the Bible says, as I give, so I receive.  Reiki healing energy flows through me as I give Reiki and help others.  Reiki is deeply spiritual for me and for most people.  I always begin and end my session with prayer.  The prayers I say are honoring and inclusive of all spiritual traditions.   With working with the energy so much, I often feel a great sense of bliss as I am working on others and when I am teaching Reiki.    

 

Everyone has the ability to use Reiki energy - the spiritually guided life force energy -  to some extent.  During the Reiki attunement that is given in class, the student receives the ability to use the Reiki energy to a greater extent.  The attunement opens up the energy centers in the top of the head, the heart, and the hands to more fully be able to utilize more of God's healing energy.  

 

Do you need to be Christian to take Reiki classes?  No.  People from all different spiritual paths and no spiritual path are welcome to take my classes.  I welcome and honor all.  

  

William Rand, who is the head of the International Center for Reiki Training, is a Christian and has created a website on Christian Reiki in order to address Christian's questions or concerns about Reiki.  


http://www.christianreiki.org/

 

William also created the World Peace Crystal Grid, which says, "May the followers of all religions and spiritual paths work together to create peace among all people on earth."

  

  

Here is an article William Rand wrote that is on www.reiki.org.  

 

 

Was Jesus a Reiki Master?

by William L. Rand

 

John 14-12: "I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me, can do the same miracles I have done, and even greater things than these will you do." 

 

One of the outstanding aspects of Jesus' life was the miracles he worked. According to the Bible, Jesus walked on water, fed five thousand people with five loaves of bread and two fishes, changed water to wine and raised people from the dead. However, the most meaningful of his miracles were the healings he performed. These healings include: paralysis, lameness, fever, catalepsy, hemorrhage, skin disease, mental disorders, spirit possession, deafness and blindness. Many of these healings were accomplished by the laying on of hands. This is indicated frequently in the New Testament 

 

Luke 4:40 states: "When the Sun was setting, the people brought to Jesus all who had various kinds of sickness, and laying his hand on each one, he healed them." 

In Matthew 8:14-15, Jesus uses touch to heal Peter's mother-in-law of a fever. In Mark 1:40-42 Jesus uses his hands to heal a man with leprosy. This is also mentioned in Luke 5:12-13. 

Matthew 20:29-34 describes how Jesus healed two blind men by touching their eyes and in Mark 8:22-25 Jesus uses his hands to heal another blind man. 

In Mark 7:32 35 he uses touch to heal a man who is deaf and can't speak. 

In Luke 7:12-15, Jesus raises a dead man by touching his coffin and in Luke 8:49-55 Jesus uses touch to return a dead girl to life. 

 

There are many similarities between the laying on of hands healing Jesus did and the practice of Reiki. One important similarity is the fact that Jesus could pass the power to heal on to others. We read in Luke 9:1-2 that Jesus gave his twelve disciples power to drive out all demons and to cure diseases. We do not know by what process Jesus gave healing power to his disciples, but the fact that he was able to pass it on to them indicates an important similarity with Reiki. 

Another aspect of Jesus' healing practice that is similar to Reiki relates to faith. While faith was required for many of the healings he performed, it appears that the healings Jesus did with his hands did not require faith. Mark 6:5-6 states: "He could not do any miracles there, except lay his hands on a few sick people and heal them. And he was amazed at their lack of faith." So, in spite of the fact that they did not believe, Jesus was still able to use laying on of hands to heal. This is one of the important aspects of Reiki: It does not require faith on the part of those receiving a treatment in order for the Reiki to work. 

 

The fact that Jesus had secret teachings he gave only to those who he had given healing power is clearly indicated in Matthew 13:10-11 and Mark 4:10-12 & 34. Secret knowledge is also part of the Reiki teachings in that the symbols as well as the process of doing attunements are secret. 

 

It is not known whether Jesus was born with the ability to heal through touch or if this was something he acquired. His activities between age twelve and thirty are not mentioned in the Bible. It has been suggested by several researchers that during this time Jesus traveled to the East and was schooled in many of the mystical teachings of India, Tibet and China. If this is so, it is possible that Jesus was initiated into Reiki, or a Reiki like practice during this time as Reiki has his origins in India, Tibet and China. 

 

The early followers of Jesus' teachings were made up of several groups. One such group was the Gnostics. They practiced laying on of hands and professed to have a secret knowledge that had been passed on to them by Jesus and his disciples. The Gnostics were made up of many smaller groups some of which were known as the Docetists, the Marcionites, and the Carpocratians. They were united by their core beliefs which included: a personal experience of Jesus or the "kingdom of heaven within," their freedom and lack of rules, guidelines or creeds and their reliance on inspiration and inner guidance. Their existence is attested to by the Gnostic gospels which are part of the Dead Sea Scrolls as well as a letter written in the second century AD by the early Church father, Clement of Alexandria. In Clement's letter, he spoke of a secret gospel of Mark which was based on the normal canonical one but with additions for special followers of Jesus, referred to as "those who were being perfected" and "those who are being initiated into the great mysteries." 

 

When Christianity became organized after the second century, its teachings were centered around faith and the official teachings of the church, rather than healing or "good works" and inner guidance as practiced by the Gnostics. At this time, those promoting the organization of the church began subduing and killing those Gnostics who would not conform with the authority of the newly developing Church. With the elimination of the Gnostics and the establishment of the Christian Church, the practice of laying on of hands by Christians was lost. 


Jesus possessed great confidence in his ability and was able to heal in an instantaneous way with spectacular results. It is clear that he had perfected many metaphysical skills and used them in conjunction to get the results he created. Was one of those skills Reiki? Was Jesus a Reiki Master in addition to being a spiritual Master? While it cannot be established in an absolute sense that Jesus was a Reiki Master, the available evidence clearly indicates so many similarities that it is likely the laying on of hands healing Jesus practiced must have been very closely associated with an early form of Reiki. The teachings of Jesus, as well as the example he set are a great inspiration for us. As we continue to perfect our spiritual awareness and allow our inner wisdom to guide us, it is likely that breakthroughs will occur, eventually bringing with them the quality of healing that Jesus had. 

 

We must remember what the Great Master stated as indicated in John 14-12, 


"I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me, can do the same miracles I have done, and even greater things than these will you do."