The Science of Reiki Part 1 –
What is Reiki & the History of Reiki
Video version
Episode Notes
What is Reiki? Wikipedia calls it a “pseudoscience” yet hundreds of research studies have been done to see if energy healing is effective. In part 1 of the science of Reiki host Stacey, a Reiki Master trained in Usui Reiki, educates host Charity on what Reiki is and isn’t as well as the history of Reiki.
In part 2, coming next week, we will deep dive into the research that has been published on Reiki for anxiety, depression, burnout amongst mental health professionals, secondary trauma, and more!
“Westerners often find it hard to believe in the presence of an invisible healing energy, perhaps because the mechanism of energetic healing is not understood at this time. Reiki practitioners facilitate the balancing of the system as a whole rather than diagnosing in order to address specific problems in the ways that medical practitioners do.” Porter, et al. Effects Of Reiki Treatment On Anxiety And Depression: A Randomized Control Trial. International Journal of Healing and Caring (2012).
As mentioned in the episode:
15% of hospitals in the US offer Reiki. That’s more than 800 hospitals! International Association of Reiki Professionals . Reiki in the clinical setting. (https://iarp.org/reiki-clinical-setting/) as cited in Effect of Reiki on Measures of Well-Being in Low-Income Patients with Mental Health Diagnoses http://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11873885/
Resources mentioned in this episode:
- The Center for Reiki Research https://centerforreikiresearch.com/
- The International Center for Reiki Training (ICRT) https://www.reiki.org/
- International Association of Reiki Professionals https://iarp.org/
- “The effect of Reiki on depression in elderly people living in nursing homes.” Zeynep Erdogan & Sezgi Cinar. Indian Journal of Traditional Knowledge Vol. 15(1), January 2016, pp. 35-40
Additional Sources:
- Hiroshi Doi, Iyashino Gendai Reiki Ho, A Modern Reiki Method for Healing
- Cleveland Clinic https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/articles/24058-autophagy
- Society for Neuroscience https://www.sfn.org/sitecore/content/home/brainfacts2/thinking-sensing-and-behaving/diet-and-lifestyle/2018/how-does-fasting-affect-the-brain-071318
- Nutrition Reviews. The impact of continuous calorie restriction and fasting on cognition in adults without eating disorders. https://academic.oup.com/nutritionreviews/article/83/1/146/7585919
10.1038/s42255-024-01008-9 - Frontiers In Psychiatry. Severe Sleep Deprivation Causes Hallucinations and a Gradual Progression Toward Psychosis with Increasing Time Awake. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6048360/
- What is the History of Reiki? ICRT. https://www.reiki.org/faqs/what-history-reiki
- An Evidence Based History of Reiki by William Rand https://www.reiki.org/articles/evidence-based-history-reiki
A full list of 166 published scientific studies may be found at The Center for Reiki Research