O! Another Oprah-Reiki connection

As many of you will recall, back in February Reiki got a brief mention on the influential Oprah Winfrey Show. In a program on alternative medicine in which Oprah had acupuncture in front of a live audience, celebrity heart surgeon Dr. Mehmet Oz mentioned Reiki in passing when making his case that "the next big frontier is energy medicine." We were thrilled to report that news here and excited about what a mention on Oprah might mean for this natural healing practice. Alas, as far as we can tell, there's been no further mention of Reiki on Oprah, and no "everybody gets a Reiki session" shows as we had hoped.

This week, however, we discovered another Oprah-Reiki connection. Her name is Lisa L. Oz, she's the wife of Dr. Oz, and guess what? She's a Reiki Master. No wonder Dr. Oz knows about Reiki! Now if Oprah would just invite Mrs. Oz to appear on her program....

Like her husband, Mrs. Oz is a best-selling author, because she has co-written some of the "You: The Owner's Manual" series of books. She and Dr. Oz, along with RealAge.com co-founder Dr. Michael F. Roizen and personal trainer Joel Harper, are traveling the United States on their "It's all about YOU!" tour, answering questions and offering handy health hints in an all-day workshop. The tour comes to New York on August 5, and The Reiki Digest will be there (in the audience) for Mrs. Oz's presentation on "Energy, Spirit, and Making Sense of Life."

For now, we hereby name Mrs. Oz this week's Celeb-Reiki, and we thank the DC Express newspaper for publishing an interview with her.

On to the Reiki Roundup. This week we begin in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where the Post-Gazette features an item about a retreat center founded and operated by two Franciscan nuns, one of whom is a Reiki master.

On the other side of Pennsylvania, the Philadelphia Inquirer is the latest newspaper to report on Reiki for animals.

You'll need a tissue or handkerchief for our next stop, Seattle, Washington. A tear may come to your eye when you read about Tom Ingram, a massage therapist, Reiki practitioner and cancer patient who just had his last radiation treatment and is forgoing further chemotherapy so that he can make one more trip to Moldova, where he and his wife do volunteer work for children Ingram isn't using Reiki as a substitute for medical care. He seems to be trying to live life as well as he can while he's alive. The Ingrams were originally scheduled to go to Moldova in September, but his doctor advised him to go sooner because "she isn't sure he will make it until then," according to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer article.

On to Kuwait, where the Kuwait Times features an article headlined "Reiki: The infinite flow," in which we meet a pharmacist and Reiki master who says, "I don't believe that medicine and Reiki can be separated."

That leads us to this week's podcast of The Reiki Show, UK Reiki Practitioner Claudia Bonney talks with hosts Bronwen and Frans Stiene about "Demystifying Reiki in the Mainstream Health System."

In Missoula, Montana, we find a Reiki practitioner who tells a reporter about, among other things, her "Reiki baby."

And in Ocala, Florida, yet another reporter bravely climbs onto the table to receive a Reiki session and write about it.

The Prevention magazine article we told you about last week that mentions Reiki is now available free online, so you can read "The Best Zen for Your Personality" without buying the magazine.

There are still spaces available in the October Shinpiden (Master/Teacher level) workshop in New York City with Frans Stiene, co-host of The Reiki Show and co-author of The Reiki Sourcebook, The Japanese Art of Reiki, The A-Z of Reiki, the Reiki Techniques Card Deck and Your Reiki Treatment. The workshop is sponsored by The Reiki Digest, so if you're interested in reserving one of the remaining spots, e-mail editor@thereikidigest.com or go here for more information.


Rest in peace

Reiki Master Kathleen E. Passarelli, 46, Cumberland, Rhode Island