Reiki

Reiki is a method in which a person by meditation, and placement of hands receives "life energy" that is widespread in the Universe. With that method a person can be healed from different illnesses, and can also heal others. This method was developed by a Japanese Buddhist Mikao Usui at the beginning of the 20th century. After three weeks of meditation and fasting he "received the ability" to heal other people.

The name reiki comes from Chinese langugae. "Rei" means a soul, and "ki" or "chi" means energy or life energy.

First it is important to say that there isn't any "life energy" (sometimes they use the term "divine energy"). That is the term often found in New Age, because New Age never speaks about the personal God. It rather uses terms like energy, nirvana, prana, chi etc. It is also impossible to prove that there is such energy, or that it can be channeled through a person.

We know from the Bible that Jesus had the ability to heal people with the power of the Holy Spirit, but there is no method with which we can receive this ability. Christianity is not a method, but faith in the living God. Considering that reiki was developed by a Buddhist who do not even believe in the true God, means that this method is unacceptable for Christians. There are Christians who think that reiki can give a man a power of healing, but this opinion is completely wrong. Jesus gave his disciples this ability, but He didn't give it to all Christians and that is something that we have to accept.

In the whole New Testament Jesus never once mentioned reiki nor did He mention any Buddhist that will reveal Christians how they are going to be healed. That's why I find contradictory those Christians who think that they will receive through reiki the same power that Jesus had.

In reiki the energy is transmitted through the hands of practitioners. This form of laying hands on a person can have a very bad influence. In the Catholic Church laying hands on a person in unacceptable, and priests who are studying this matter claim that this can be a channel of the occult forces. This is one of the reasons why this method is wrong and it doesn't help people. Many clinical trials that were made in 2008. confirmed that reiki treatment didn't help anyone, regardless what illness did they have. The results of those trials were published in International Journal of Clinical Practice: Lee, Pittler, Ernst (2008). "Effects of reiki in clinical practice: a systematic review of randomized clinical trials".

In reiki there are three levels that a practitioner can achieve. It is still interesting that initiation on all of these levels is paid with money, and not a small amount. It is obvious that reiki is not a spirituality but an easy way of earning money.

For the Catholic Church reiki is unacceptable. Primarily, God is a person, not an energy or some abstract sense of bliss. It is also clear that there is no energy in the Universe that could be channeled through a person in order to heal him or anyone else. And the very fact that someone has to pay practitioners to channel this "energy" is questioning their meditation and fasting, because then this energy can be bought for money.