“I know you know this, but I just have to remind you that every year, the Reiki practitioners touch so many lives.

“I asked both groups (120 women) how many had never had Reiki and the majority of hands went up. You are truly doing a HUGE service to these women by introducing them to this amazing healing. I can’t believe that even after all this time and exposure, Reiki is still relatively unknown to these women challenged by cancer.”

These quotes are from the organizer of the annual JCC Spa Day for Women with Breast and Ovarian Cancer in New York City. This is an upliftingly ambitious event that offers 120 women a half-day of pampering; a delicious, healthful meal; a vision of wellness; and the experience that their quality of life matters.

2010 was our fourth year offering Reiki as one of the six wellness treats given to the Spa Day guests. Every year, the day flows even more smoothly. Every year, the experience is more profound. And every year, the women give their Reiki experience rave reviews.

Public Reiki events create community and build public awareness of Reiki, especially if they are well organized. Here are three tips from my 20+ years organizing events:

• Schedule far enough in advance to allow time for outreach and promotion so the community knows about the event
• Plan how you will support both the public and the Reiki practitioners during the event
• Follow-up with the organization that hosts the event, the practitioners, and the public.

If you have given public Reiki events, please leave a comment and tell us about it. If you are thinking about organizing an event, and have a question, click here to ask it. And if you’d like detailed coaching that takes you from choosing and contacting a host partner to the follow-up, click here.

Who in your community could benefit from an experience of Reiki? How are you going to connect with them?

Related posts: Smiles Said It All, 7 Steps to A Successful Public Reiki Event

My not-in-the-least-bit secret goal is to stir things up, to get Reiki practitioners thinking about what we do, looking more deeply into what we’re taking for granted, and considering how we can communicate our practice more effectively, so that Reiki practice is seen as a viable option in health care and by the mainstream public, and the response has been nothing short of thrilling. Toward a More Plausible Model of Reiki has over 100 comments and they’re still coming in. What Is Reiki? What to Do? and Recipe for Reiki Credibility are still getting tweets.

I hope you will continue to make Reiki Central a community resource where thoughtful Reiki practitioners can respectfully discuss the hard questions, and pool our diverse perspectives, experience, and wisdom to move the field–each of us–forward.

Could I trouble you take a minute to do something for me? I want to know how better to serve you, and only you can tell me. Please click here to post a comment letting me know what topics or specific questions you would like to see addressed on Reiki Central in the coming year.

And please celebrate this milestone with me. This Saturday, May 1, at noon Eastern time, we’ll meet on your computer screen for a free question and discussion webinar. If you mention in your comment that you’re available, we’ll send you the connection details.

To our health and our great well-being, with many, many thanks to all!

SPECIAL BIRTHDAY GIFT TO ALL: Click here to access the webinar recording, and come back to comment below.

Reiki-as-common-as-aspirin means Reiki available mainstream, maybe not at your local pharmacy, but available where the mainstream public hangs out.

You could help make that desire a reality. Are you with me?

Then it’s time to get vocal, time to speak up on social media. Do you hang out on Facebook, connect on LinkedIn, tweet, or read other blogs? And not just Reiki blogs, but health and wellness blogs, lifestyle blogs, hobby blogs, what-do-I-do-when-I-hammer-the-wrong-nail blogs–all kinds of blogs.

Why not weave Reiki into the conversation?

Look for opportunities to mention how Reiki helps you, your family, your clients, your pets. Have you lost weight since practicing Reiki? Stopped smoking? Improved your game? Maybe you’re less anxious, or sleeping better. You could mention that you practice in bed, as you’re falling asleep. Just the fact that a regular person like you is talking about Reiki gives it a mainstream persona.

And when you talk about Reiki, stay with your usual mainstream language. Talk about balance and relaxation, what you get from Reiki rather than what Reiki is. It’s challenging to speak about what Reiki is without making it look like a club Joe Q. Public wouldn’t want to be a member of.

If you want Reiki mainstream-available, credible is critical. Most people don’t believe in magic, or they’re at least convinced it won’t happen in their lives. Most people are not even secretly woowoo. But if you give them rational information about something they want–wellness and happiness–they’re all ears and eyes.

Let’s start a grassroots thoughtful Reiki movement. Start watching for chances to showcase a mainstream, credible approach to Reiki on social media, and share this post with some Reiki buddies so they join in too. If each Reiki practitioner reading this post participates, the public will get the message that normal people use Reiki, and they’ll see plenty of credible Reiki opportunities to join in.

I’m so committed to helping you find your way on social media that I’ve created a webinar for those who need help getting started, or who have their toes wet but could use some guidance about what to avoid, and a few simple strategies to have the most impact, and get the most out of it. If that is of interest, click here for more information about the webinar.

And you can kick off the campaign by leaving a thoughtful comment here.

This week, the Syracuse Post-Standard published a piece we can work with. Let me be clear: I don’t agree with everything in this article.

It’s still a good article, and I encourage the Reiki community to rally behind it. Please click here, read the article carefully, and post an intelligent comment (you’ll know why I specify intelligent when you see some of what’s been posted). When media about Reiki draws an unusual number of hits and thoughtful dialogue, it signals the media that the public is interested in Reiki, and that encourages more coverage.

What do I like about this article?

I like that in the photo, the Reiki practitioners are actually touching the patient.

I like that the human story is told, both by the patients and by some hospital personnel.

I like that opposition to Reiki was reported without going tabloid, and I commend both the writer and the paper for this (journalists are sometimes pressured by their editors to rev up the masses with a sensationalist slant).

And I like that the journalist spelled complementary correctly, even though this Reiki program is actually complimentary, given by unpaid Reiki professionals (more about that soon). For now, let us seize the moment, and vote with our clicks.

As Reiki becomes more visible to the public, Reiki practitioners and students will come across not only more people who are interested in Reiki, but also, those who dismiss or oppose it. It is critical that a mature Reiki practitioner understand the arguments that are made against Reiki and be able to address them reasonably.

A thoughtful discussion of the issues raised would benefit the Reiki community, and I hope you will share your perspective after watching the video. What are the points that you found particularly useful? Do you have a well reasoned rebuttal to any of the points made? Are there other questions or points that you would have liked to see raised?

Let’s use this as an opportunity to practice communicating about a controversial issue without being inflammatory or disrespectful of other perspectives. In this way, we honor Reiki founder Mikao Usui’s advice, Today only, do not anger. Only comments that honor this request will be posted.

Related posts: Bishops’ Syndrome, Reiki & the Bishops in the Boston Globe, Want Reiki, Have Nun?

How often do we hear that from people after a Reiki sample?

Just relaxed.

No big deal.

Wait a minute!

Just relaxed is a very big deal.

Just relaxed is a biochemical event, the beginning of healing.

And just relaxed is what you’re not getting enough of.

So get your Reiki hands on yourself (if you’re a practitioner), connect with a Reiki buddy, or make an appointment with a Reiki pro.

And just relax.

Give Reiki a try. Doctor’s orders.

Dr. Oz, that is.

Related Reading: Sleep Much?

Think of the people in your (extended) family who are most different from you (and put aside how many times you tried to talk to them about Reiki in the past). Thanks to Dr. Oz, Cousin Vinny is now encouraged that maybe this Reiki thing will relieve the pain in his arthritic joints. Aunt Sally is hoping Reiki treatment will help her sleep after years of insomnia.

They turn to the internet to learn more. Do they see much that speaks to them?

Probably not.

But they trust Dr. Oz, so they soldier on. Now they are standing in front of the community bulletin board at the local health food store, a store they may be visiting for the very first time, looking for a Reiki practitioner, and they see a number of listings. They wonder how to know who is credible. Common sense helps, but still, they’re losing confidence and wishing they had more to go on…

The public expects health-care professionals to have meaningful credentials, but Reiki practice is not regulated in that way. There are no agreed upon standards for Reiki training or treatment. Some people become “instant powerful Reiki masters;” others take longer training, but start charging for their services without having any supervision or professional training. How can people new to Reiki know who is credible?

And without meaningful credentialing in the field, how can serious Reiki professionals distinguish themselves in their communities?

Here’s the current situation. We have three groups in need of help:

1. The public needs help finding credible Reiki professionals.
2. Credible professionals need help connecting with clients.
3. Reiki practitioners need help developing themselves as credible professionals.

I made a short video that can help all three groups. Click here to view it on my Reiki video page.

If you agree with the criteria I mention, please share the link. If you find the video helpful, you are welcome to add the video to your site.

If  you have something to add, or you don’t agree with what I’ve said, please post a thoughtful comment so we can discuss it here. Let’s pool our collective wisdom and experience to meet the credibility challenge. We need to raise the credibility of our practice if Reiki is to become available in the mainstream.

Let’s address this challenge as a community. If we do this in a respectful, inclusive way, we can inspire Reiki practitioners of all perspectives and practice styles to raise the credibility of Reiki practice before the public. We want to maintain Reiki diversity so that individuals can make connections that are meaningful for them, and we need to maintain high professional standards if we are to earn the public’s trust and respect.

That’s not to say there isn’t a talented scientist or two engaged in cutting edge investigation of these mysterious realities. The scientific community has fringe elements like any other community. But fringe scientists doing frontier science don’t get a lot of respect until their data–and cause–are taken up by the mainstream.

Science is a group conversation, and in any group, what matters is what most people are saying. That’s called consensus, and that’s what carries weight. Consensus can be wrong, but it’s foolish to buck it, especially when trying to establish credibility.

Unless done skillfully, reaching for science to bolster your presentation of Reiki will likely backfire. Only people who don’t need “proof” will be impressed; scientists are skeptical by nature and training, and readily find the holes in an argument. So until such time as doctors are ordering kirilian photographs instead of CT scans and MRIs, don’t risk running your argument aground by confusing frontier science and conventional science.

If you want to lean on science, be humble. Deflect attention away from biofields, and focus instead on the research into how Reiki treatment can benefit people. Acknowledge first that this investigation is just beginning, then state that preliminary data suggest Reiki can help improve heart rate, blood pressure, and immunity, and reduce pain, anxiety, and depression. We do not yet have enough research evidence to say more than that, and if you try to, you run the risk of discrediting yourself, and Reiki.

If you are communicating with physicians or other health care professionals who want more information, you needn’t do the heavy lifting yourself; just hand them the top three articles in the medical papers section.

*NOTE:
The section of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) that studies the safety and efficacy of complementary therapies such as Reiki is the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM).

Here is what NCCAM says about biofields in the section on energy medicine: “Biofield therapies are intended to affect energy fields that purportedly surround and penetrate the human body. The existence of such fields has not yet been scientifically proven.”

I was the principal reviewer for the Reiki Backgrounder posted on the NCCAM website. This document has no copyright and you are encouraged to use it freely.

A colleague from the North Shore sent me an alarmed email, referring to it as a “horrid article.” I respectfully disagree.

There are only minor inaccuracies: depicting Usui as a doctor who developed the practice at the turn of the century (he was not a physician and it was the 1920s), saying Reiki came to the U.S. in the 1940s (it was the late 1930s), and saying Takata taught Reiki “to a handful of Americans” (I don’t know of any data on this but Takata trained 22 Reiki masters, and since, like Usui and Hayashi, she reserved such training for a very few of her students, she clearly trained far more than a handful of Americans).

Of course a Boston Globe reporter would reach out to local hero and early proponent of mind-body medicine Herbert Benson, even though Reiki is not mind-body medicine. It would have taken a bit more digging to find a medical expert qualified to comment on Reiki, someone such as the NIH’s Ann Berger. Benson clearly is not well-versed in Reiki; he’s much more of a placebo kind of a guy, so it’s no surprise that he brought placebo into his comments. But it’s a valid point, one that many discerning minds would raise.

The overall evenness of the article is evidence that Reiki practice now has enough mainstream recognition to be taken seriously, regardless what the Catholic Bishops think. Remember the first rule of advertising: no publicity is bad publicity. Although I feel for the patients who are being denied care as a result of the bishops’ pronouncement, it sparked a fire of public interest in Reiki that’s warming this practitioner’s heart. Bishops’ Syndrome is raising Reiki’s profile, and in a sympathetic context, no less (public perception of Catholic bishops vs. patients in pain?–my money’s on the patients).

I encourage you to read the article. When a story on Reiki receives a lot of public response, it signals the media that Reiki is a topic of interest, which leads to more stories on Reiki. If you take the time to comment on the Globe’s site, and to compose your comment carefully, all the better. Self-righteous Reiki practitioners leaving poorly thought out comments gives evidence to support the bishops’ prejudice. It’s much more effective for people to simply share brief personal stories of how Reiki benefited their loved ones.

That’s what I think of Reiki in the Boston Globe. What do you think?

Related posts: Bishops’ Syndrome, Reiki and the Catholic Bishops, Again

The article, which describes Williams as “230 pounds of new-age philosophy searching for a world view that resonated more closely with what he felt,” tells how the athlete was introduced to complementary therapies during rehab for a broken arm. Williams felt that an unconventional treatment used on his arm helped it heal faster. The experience inspired Williams to learn craniosacral therapy, and eventually enroll in an acupuncture and massage training program.

Nowhere in this healing saga is Reiki specifically mentioned, and Reiki may not be part of Williams’s experience (yet).

The use of the term “new-age” notwithstanding, the overall tone of the article is respectful toward holistic healing and spirituality. The lack of disclaimers in the article suggests a positive shift in mainstream media’s attitude toward healing and medicine, and makes the article worth a read. Here’s the online version http://bit.ly/eloXq.