Reiki Roundup

We begin this week with a couple of updates on previous Reiki Roundup news items. One is about a plant; the other, an animal.

The oak in healthier days (2006).

Photo by Chris Nyborg. Some rights reserved.

UPDATE: Milton Keynes, UK -- There's good news about the ailing oak tree in the Midsummer Place shopping center here, which last month received a mass Reiki healing session from volunteer practitioners over the objections of the center's management. New leaves have sprouted! Midsummer Place manager Martin Hindson, who had previously refused to let the Reiki practitioners near the tree because he feared "we could be perceived as not taking the tree's difficulties seriously," seems to have reconsidered.

"The Reiki may well have worked. Who knows?" said Hindson. "The tree is definitely looking a little better and we are cautiously optimistic about its prospects."

The tree, which was originally featured in our July 10 Reiki Roundup, is also receiving more conventional therapy: a landscaping company will be performing a procedure to bring more air to its roots.

UPDATE: Rina, the white tiger with terminal cancer in Bhopal, India's Van Vihar National Park, continues to receive Reiki from volunteers as her condition deteriorates, according to The Telegraph in Kolkata. She was our Celeb-Reiki in last week's edition. No one expects Reiki to save Rina's life, but it does seem to be making her more comfortable. The latest story says the practitioners are actually reaching their hands into her cage, and park officials "say the treatment appears to be providing some relief" from the pain.



Billingham, UK -- The family of a mother who died of a brain tumor in 2003 has raised more than £2,6oo in her memory, to be divided between neurological research and holistic health care. Christina Hutchinson, who lived to age 39, received Reiki treatments regularly as well as conventional medical treatment during her illness.



Flintshire, UK -- A six-year-old boy with a rare form of cancer who has been receiving regular Reiki treatments in conjunction with chemotherapy will be traveling to Poland for scans to determine whether his tumors are shrinking.


Rochester, New York -- A 97-year-old woman who had written a living will asking to be taken off life support if she had no expectation of recovery is now comatose, on life support and the object of a battle between her daughter and the hospital. The New York Supreme Court will decide whether Dorothy Livadas should be kept on a ventilator. Her daughter, Ianthe, claims her mother is "not done" and will bring a Reiki practitioner into court to support her argument.

Cortland, New York -- Reiki is among the modalities featured in an article on alternative healing titled, "Going for the human touch."

Cooperstown, New York -- Reiki Master Ellen Sokolow will be providing therapy to contestants in the 13th Annual Leatherstocking Sheepdog Trials.

Donegal, Ireland -- A hotel that lost its liquor license is now enjoying success as an alcohol-free establishment, and the proprietor is looking into hosting Reiki classes there.

Sana'a, Yemen -- A Reiki practitioner who's also on the English Department faculty of Sana'a University writes in the Yemen Times about the practice. The article is mostly accurate, although it perpetuates the false claim that founder Mikao Usui was a doctor. The part about the precepts, however, is very accurate: "If followed faithfully, these principles will lead to a more positive outlook towards life because, though they appear to be mere concepts and beliefs, they are totally wholesome and life affirming when integrated with daily practice of Reiki."

Jeddah, Saudi Arabia -- A psychologist and family therapist interviewed in the Arab News argues that Reiki, Neuro-Linguistic Programming, graphology and other "sciences from the west" are not wrong, as some Muslim scholars insist.

Kuwait City, Kuwait -- An Arab Times article states that Reiki is not allowed in Islam because it involves "channelling spirits." That's not true, and the Reiki described in the article is not the practice I know. The article also states that "healing with universal (God created) energy through other hands-on methods, as long as they are not methods for channeling spirits, would be perfectly acceptable," so since Reiki doesn't involve that, can we conclude that it is permissible? Reiki energy is universal energy, not energy from spirits.

Roanoke, Virginia -- Samuel Strauss, the teacher of my first Reiki teacher, is featured in a Roanoake Times article on Reiki, headlined "Touch of Energy." I've never met him, but his name is listed in the lineage on my Level 1 and 2 certificates. We can only hope that this paragraph in the article did not come from Strauss, because it doesn't match what I've learned from my teachers in 3 Reiki Master trainings:

"Reiki started more than 2,500 years ago in Tibet, but was basically lost for ages until being rediscovered by a Japanese Christian monk named Master Mikao Usui in the mid-19th century." (Actually, the system was developed in 1922, it isn't from Tibet, it wasn't rediscovered, and Usui was neither a Christian nor was he -- as is all-too-commonly reported -- a doctor.)

Another common misconception about Reiki shows up in an article on This is London, which features a Reiki practitioner/palm reader who recently read Barack Obama's handprint and predicted "He will take on a new project that will affect his life and the lives of others in a big way." (Reiki is not fortune-telling -- some people practice both, just as some people practice Reiki and banking, Reiki and bricklaying, or Reiki and any other art or profession.)