Introducing The Reiki Digest Live Feed

As you may have heard, The Reiki Digest staff includes a couple of robotic reporters who scour the Internet 24/7 for news about Reiki. Their names are Google and Yahoo, and now one of them is getting its own regular column. In the left-hand column on our web site, there is now a window with The Reiki Digest Live Feed from Google News. That is the raw, unedited feed of news items that our star reporter, Google News, is finding, and it will be constantly changing as the news breaks. Now you can keep up with developments in the world of Reiki in between weekly editions of The Reiki Digest just by checking the feed on our web site.

Or if you prefer, you can read our feed on its own web page.

Either way, you can see some of what we have to work with as we put together each week's edition, and you can see for yourself how accurate -- or not -- the reports about Reiki are.

Our first item didn't make the Google News, however. If you subscribe to The Reiki Digest by e-mail, you may have been accidentally unsubscribed after last week's article about Mega Millions winner (and Reiki Master/Teacher) Bunky Bartlett. I discovered the problem when our emailing service sent back a report saying that I had unsubscribed myself, so I had to resubscribe. Apparently some email filters are allergic to words like "lottery" in mass mailings. If you aren't receiving our mailings as usual, please let us know at editor@thereikidigest.com.

Megamillionaire Bartlett makes the headlines again this week, in interviews with his local newspapers the Dundalk Eagle and the suburban Baltimore Times-Herald. He tells reporters about winning the lottery again -- only $25 this time -- and about his future plans. After being interviewed ad nauseum by CNN, the BBC, the Today Show, and reporters from all over, he said he's taking a break from that. We hope it won't be permanent, as we'd love to talk to him about how Reiki fits into his plans.

That makes Bartlett our first Celeb-Reiki to be held over for a second week.

Reiki made the popular blog The Huffington Post this week in a post titled "The Real Alternative Medicine" by acupuncturist Karen Kisslinger.

In Springfield, Illinois, the State Journal-Register has a nice piece by Dave Bakke on Reiki distance healing headlined "Woman helps send good vibes to those in need."

In Bucyrus, Ohio, Reiki gets a mention in an article about a polarity therapy practitioner who also practices Reiki, written by a reporter who bravely undergoes a session.

In Detroit, Michigan, Reiki is one of the therapeutic extras being offered to patients at a new Center for Joint Replacements. That could be a growth industry as the baby boomer generation ages.

Next stop, Asbury Park, New Jersey, where the organizers of a walk to benefit autoimmune disease sufferers lament the fact that many of them don't know about Reiki and similar modalities. Unfortunately the article describes Reiki as "a form of gentle massage," which is not quite accurate. Gentle, yes, massage, no.

Then there's the article from Lakeville, Massachusetts on a pagan festival where Reiki was available that takes that mistake a step further, calling it "Reiki massage."

There are quite a few Reiki news items from Scotland this week, including this item about an insurance company that set up a wellness club for employees offering, among other things, Reiki.

In Glasgow, a "holistic sanctuary" for cancer patients also offers Reiki, among other modalities, while in Edinburgh, an article about Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) also mentions Reiki.

Our last stop this week is India, where Reiki sessions helped executives of the magazine Maxim come up with a new digital edition, eMaxim, on CD, that even has virtual pages you can turn. Who knows? Maybe The Reiki Digest will be able to follow suit someday.

Autumn in New York: There are still a few spaces available in the Shinpiden (Master/Teacher level) course with Frans Stiene of the International House of Reiki, sponsored by The Reiki Digest, October 19, 20, and 21, 2007. Contact editor@thereikidigest.com for details.