DIVE INTO REIKI: Today I have a wonderful guest, Bill Stevens. Bill Stevens is a member of the Congregation of Christian Brothers and he taught 25 years in schools, before training to become a hospital chaplain. He served as a chaplain for ten years at three different hospitals in NY and NJ. While at St. Peter’s Medical Center in New Jersey he began to experience people with HIV/AIDS coming into the hospital in the 80’s, which led him to establish a nonprofit organization, Chrysalis Ministry, to reach out to those who experienced this disease as a death sentence at that time. It was during this twelve-year period of time that Bill incorporated Reiki into his ministry. After that, Bill worked with the visiting nurse supporting people at the end of life.  Bill has studied with teachers such as Khandro Kunzang Dechen Chodron, Gilbert Gallego, Hyakuten Inamoto, Frans Stiene and Kathleen Prasad. He still teaches at 88 from his home in New Rochelle, New York.  Bill, thank you so much for saying yes to the interview!
BILL STEVENS: You're welcome. Delighted to be with you, Nathalie.

DIR: I met you first at a play day with Frans Stiene, and then we had the retreat together in Lancaster. It was such a pleasure to practice together.
BS: Absolutely. Yeah, I remember that. That was a great weekend retreat.

DIR: I always start with the same question: when was the first time you came in contact with Reiki? What was your first experience?
BS: Well, it was with my teacher, Penny Nissen. As I started my ministry to people with Aids, I heard of a chaplain in San Francisco working in the hospitals out there. He was doing Reiki and I said, “What is Reiki?” I didn't know what it was. But he gave me the inspiration to find out. And I found the only Reiki master at the time in New Jersey—that was back in 1991—that I knew of anyway, there may have been others.

DIR: There was also no internet to look for them!
BS: Exactly. I made an arrangement to do a weekend course. I brought somebody who was living with HIV with me, and a woman, a social worker who was working with the community. The three of us went out and we did a weekend with this person, Penny Nissen. And we learned level 1 Reiki. I used that one class for the next seven, eight years, doing my work.

Bill Stevens,

DIR: Wow. I love that because we rush so much from Reiki 1 to Reiki 2 and Reiki 3. We go as fast as we can. And yet you did amazing work just with your Reiki level 1.
BS: Oh yeah, yeah. It was surprising to me. I didn't necessarily have any experience or was I able to talk with other people who were offering Reiki. I kept doing Reiki mainly because people were having such a positive experience. I wasn't feeling any big amounts of energy myself, but I just went into my meditation, followed the instructions that my teacher gave me for level 1 and just trusted [laughs]. And people just had some good experiences. I just was marveled by what they shared with me. I used to offer Reiki in various settings. I would go into a support group and while they were having their support group if someone wanted to have a Reiki session, I would be in another room. They could just slip out of the group, and come, and go back into the group.

I remember one person; he was really fighting an addiction and he had some mental issues as well. He came in for a session. At the end of the session, he just told me, “Wow.” He had a great experience, the most spiritual experience he ever experienced in his life. And I just said, “Wow” with him [laughs].

I would visit people in the hospital. I remember going into one particular person who had a lot of pain. I offered him Reiki and it helped his pain. It surprised both of us that the pain went away. And I visited him a few times, and he would just shout out, “Oh, here comes my pain medication” [Laughs.] I was afraid that the nurses would think I was bringing him some additional drugs!

DIR: That you were like the secret dealer of painkillers!
BS: But it was because of those experiences and similar ones, that I just persevered. I knew that it was making a difference for people

DIR: I appreciate you so much saying this. I have a lot of my students or people who approach me because of the podcast. They're so concerned about not feeling all those very strong sensations that some people feel. And when you say that you practice just trusting. And it works! I think it's going make them feel very much like, “I'm okay. I'm not doing anything wrong.”
BS: Yes. I think Frans Stiene, in his class, he taught me that. To let go of all [of that.] If you feel it, great. It's a gift. But don’t focus your attention on that, because it's not the essential part of what we're doing.

DIR: You sent me a lot of beautiful texts written by you. There was one where you were talking about taking your chaplain collar off and focused on holding the space. Could you elaborate a little bit on that experience that you had?
BS: Oh, yes. I was teaching for 25 years in our schools. I was in a very structured community life. You wear the black robes and the collar, and you tend to hide behind that. I mean, this is who you present to the world. That's all they see, whatever, whatever that means to them.

When I began my hospital chaplaincy, it was kind of like a clinical pastor education program. It's a very formal, structured training. We had three different sections of about 12 weeks each. We went through the first section of 12-week training and my counselor, the one running the program for our particular group of six people, she gave me the challenge to wear a suit the next time, without any collar. No black robes.

I was 45-50 years old at the time, and I said, “Oh, that's a challenge for me!” It was a big deal for me. I went into the hospital the first day, and I'd hear, “Hi brother. Hi brother.” No one made any remarks at all. But when I went in the room [without my collar], it was more of a challenge. But again, sometimes people threw me out of the room because of the collar! This time I had to go in as Bill Stevens, and that was a different experience. There's no agenda that people had put on me as I entered the room, you know? That was it was very growthful experience.

 DIR: Like you couldn't hide or protect behind anything. A little like our practice: you just place your hand and there is nothing to hide, nothing to do beyond trusting and being present.
BS: Yes, just going into your own meditation, and that’s all.

DIR: After many years of practicing Reiki Level 1 , what made you feel you needed or wanted to go further?
BS: I began to hear people speak about another level, and the opportunity arose. A teacher appeared. That always happens, when the student is ready, the teacher appears.  I did go to Leslie Mondou. She was offering a Level 2 class in the same lineage. And so I did take that. It was in that class that I heard of a teacher in in Maryland, Kunzang Dechen Chodron. She was an amazing woman. She was a nurse up in Vermont who was exposed to Reiki, but she had a transformative experience and was led to a Buddhist teacher who was giving a presentation. She became drawn to do to join by the Buddhist community in Maryland. And she was in Vermont. She left her profession, her friends, [and] her family. I think she was divorced at the time. but she did have a son. She made arrangements for him to be taken care of. I think he was going into college at the time. She went into this Buddhist community in Maryland and had incredible experience just for her own personal growth. She became involved with the Reiki Jin Kei Do lineage.

Seiji Takamori was one of the prominent people in that lineage. And he was a monk in Japan who got permission to go study over in Nepal and India. He went up into the mountains and studied with yogis for 20 years. He got deep into the Buddhist meditation practices and deep into the chakra work, energy work, and Qigong. That got all thrown into the teachings of the Reiki Jin Kei Do. And that's what my teacher experienced. She used to go over to Nepal maybe once or twice a year and spend a month in meditation with her teachers over there.

I did about 300 hours of study with her. I did the Reiki Jin Kei Do level 1, 2, 3, and two deeper teachings with what they called the Buddho EnerSense, which were a very deep Buddhist practices. It was challenging for me. I probably didn't understand it all [laughs], but I was very much exposed to it. I developed a deeper meditation practice, and I did do the master level with one of her students. That’s when I began to teach Reiki. Because the whole Aids development shifted at some point when people didn't have the medications, they needed to extend their life. And I was able to begin to teach some of the people that I used to serve with Reiki, so they could incorporate that into their lives and make that part of their recovery.

 DIR: We often practice Reiki with the expectation of becoming better, of enjoying a better life. But with end-of-life, it's a completely different perspective of what Reiki can offer. What did your practice offer them?
BS: The biggest part of the Chrysalis Ministry was to create a safe space for people. We had a wonderful nun who opened up a retreat house to us, and we did four-day retreat programs there. That was a time when people were afraid to come out of their houses, or even afraid to tell their family that they had Aids. There was such a stigma attached to it. Something very similar to COVID, the pandemic, that fear around it. So, they came together then at this retreat house. For 10 years, we did about four retreats a year, with about 50-60 people at a time. Some came back certainly more than once. Sometimes they would meet relatives there. They each had kept their secret from each other. It was people from all walks of [life], people who were homeless, people who were in shelters, people from Wall Street, gay men, straight men and women, people who picked up Aids from drug addiction. It was just a women and men together. It was just a great thing for them to come together and be safe. Then we broke them up into groups and they had all sorts of different programs going on. A big part of that [was that] every day we offered them a massage, and Reiki. Whichever they decided to choose and made that part of the day. We got massage practitioners volunteering their time to come at that time to offer this to them. It was really a wonderful experience for us and for them as well.

DIR: That is beautiful because they were not being touched a lot at the time. People were really scared of contagion. For them to receive touch it must have been very special.
BS: I became a massage practitioner as well for that purpose. Because [there were treated] almost like the leper, the untouchable, so they really appreciated that.

DIR: Reiki makes me feel safe in your body. The fact that you created a safe community where they could be safe, I find it a beautiful expression of the Reiki.
BS: Absolutely.

DIR: And from then you went to work with end-of-life services, right?
BS: Towards the end of the Chrysalis Ministry, I had open heart surgery, like an emergency. I took some time off. During that sabbatical year so to speak , I heard of end-of-life program that was being authored up in San Francisco by a Frank Ostaseski. I was kind of drawn to do that, probably because of my own experience around my open-heart surgery and my experience with the AIDS community. They’re very much end-of-life-issues. This was an opportunity to go deeper into that, to jump in and learn more about the end of life and how I could be with other people. And also just for myself personally. It was a great program and there's about 25 of us there. There were doctors, nurses, social workers, chaplains, volunteers. It was a great group of people.

We came together four days a month. And then we would go back to where our home was and do some field work. That threw us right into the situation so that we could come back with our experiences each month and talk about them. And also have that experience of being with someone at the end of life. There was a hospice, the Visiting Nurse association, in New Jersey. I asked them if I could volunteer there to do my field work. And so that's how that all started. That was a full year program. We went out there four days, each month and I learned so much. The teachers there were just incredible.

DIR: And can you share a little bit of some of your experience with of end-of-life care and Reiki practice?
BS: I asked the Visiting Nurses if I could get a job there as a chaplain. They said yes. I guess I was 70-years-old at the time. I think I said I would come in three days a week. I gave myself a little break [laughs]. No sooner I got into the work, I said, “Well, you know, I would like to offer Reiki to my patients. And they had a little problem with it, so they said, “Well, we have to go up before the board of directors and ask them about it.” So I had to leave my case before the board of directors and they put me on probation [laughs].

What I did first of all, I taught a group of nurses. I threw it out there, “Would anyone like to take a Reiki class?” Which they did and they enjoyed it. I would have someone send me patients, since they knew what it was and how they profited by it. Then I also asked the director. I said, “Whenever you have a real bad day, just give me a call, I'll come by, and I'll give you a session.” That happened pretty quickly; those days for her came up very often! So, she called me. I went in and gave her about a half hour Reiki session. She was convinced. I didn't have to I hide in my corner after that.

DIR: I love how you keep it so simple: when you have a bad day, come, and try this. That’s it.
BS: Right? Yeah. [Giving] an experience, right? Not to give a big spiel about it [laughs].

 DIR: What tip would you give someone who is working on an end-of-life program or in palliative services end of life?
BS: Well, yeah. I had to learn all that, you know, by making mistakes. When I called people, seeing if they wanted to visit, I got into the habit of saying Reiki is a spiritual, healing practice, which people find very relaxing and comforting. That's all the information I gave them on the phone. I had about less than a minute to ask them if they would like me to drop by. So, I couldn't go into a big history of Reiki. I felt that if a person was interested in spirituality or interested in healing, then they would be open to it. And if those words turned them off, then they would then they would say, “Thanks very much but no.” But that was okay. At least the door was open for people who were familiar with those words and wanted me to come and visit.

My only equipment was I had a little music box and my stool. When I came into the house, or the hospital room, I would decide where I wanted to sit. If I came into the house and the person was sitting in the chair, then I brought my stool over to the chair. If they're lying on the couch, I brought my stool right next to the couch. If they're lying in their bedroom, I brought my stool right there. And if I went into a hospital room instead of dragging chairs around, I could just bring my stool close to wherever the patient was in the bed.

It's amazing what little space you had there, but you could fit your stool right in there and set yourself down right beside them. And then that was where I would start offering Reiki to them. I wasn't doing a lot of hand positions. It was just placing your hands off the body or sometimes just being in your meditation. But the responses [were] very powerful in the sense of people being relieved of their pain or going into a very peaceful and relaxed place.

You never knew what kind of a situation you would go into. I remember once of just going into this room [and it] was almost totally dark. The whole room was lined with people in the chairs, and this bed was in the middle. The woman was in the bed, moaning very loudly. I had two of her children on the bed with her, and the husband on the side of the bed. I just went in and opened up my stool. I was at the end of the bed and began to offer Reiki without saying anything. At one point her husband had to leave the room and he signaled me to come closer. I was there about 45 minutes to an hour when finally the woman seemed to stop moaning and she seemed to be more peaceful. I stayed there another half hour, and then I left. Maybe a couple of hours after I left, she passed, and the husband told the social worker that she had been in this kind of condition, moaning and being very anxious, for a couple of weeks. And that was the most peaceful that he had seen her. And she died very peacefully at that time.

I always ask myself, what is Reiki? I don't know [laughs]. It's something very profound. It's not, not anything magical that you do because I know myself, [and] it's not anything coming from me. There's no magical thing that you're doing. You're kind of just becoming one with the energy. I love the way that Kathleen Prasad teaches Reiki: just becoming one with the animals. Just offering that space to them, but not pushing it on them. And Frans [Stiene] letting me know that this is a spiritual practice. The more you do your practice, paying attention to the precepts, opening up your heart, practicing your meditation and holding that space… the more you can do that, then healing is a possibility. But you don't have any expectations. You’re not to figure things out. You're not promising people anything. What is Reiki? A lot of times Frans used to tell us, “Just be Reiki.” Just be love, just, just be that. I think healing is like a side effect of your practice. The more you practice, the more possibilities there are.

 DIR: I love the way you expressed that, “The more you practice, the more possibilities, right?” Often new students try to understand what Reiki is with their head. But you can only understand through practice. What is your daily practice Bill? Like, because I know you also practice Tai Chi and Qigong.
BS: Well, each morning, I go for a walk. Then I come back home, and I'll do a half hour to 45 minutes of Tai Chi, and Qigong. That kind of quiets my mind. And then I will do a half hour to 45-minute meditation. I make sure I do that every day. But then I get to offer myself Reiki at night when I'm going to sleep [for] probably close to 45 minutes. When I wake up in the morning, I'll give myself Reiki as well. That's really my spiritual practice, you know?

DIR: I love your saying your spiritual practice being a chaplain. I often get emails from people who are worried about religion and Reiki. For those people who are a bit concerned about mixing religion and Reiki, could you share your point of view?
BS: Well, yes, I could. [Laughs]. At the hospice, I would be asked to do part of the volunteer training, talking about chaplaincy, talking about Reiki as well. When I mentioned Reiki as a spiritual practice, sometimes there would be a clergy person present, and they'd be kind of shocked that I would put Reiki as a spiritual practice, you know. Sometimes we would get into a little back and forth on it, but sometimes they would just be visibly upset with that. At one point, there was another chaplain at the VNA and he, very specifically, went into a discussion with me about Reiki being a spiritual practice. I think it's because of its Buddhist background. I think it's because like the church is the only one who has that authority, you know. That no one else can do healing but the person ordained.  That's very much there, you know?

There was a period of time, maybe in the nineties, that a group of bishops in the Catholic church came out very strongly against Reiki. After I left the hospital as a chaplain at St. Peter's they, they said the Bishop said it would be forbidden for anyone to do Reiki at the hospital. But how can they tell whatever you're doing in the hospital?

DIR: That's true, especially when you're in your meditation state.
BS: That there's nothing that they we’re doing [they can see]. But it went to that extent. I never let it interfere with my work in the hospital.  I think it's a matter of authority. But Jesus sent out his disciples to heal people in the village. He didn't grasp this as something that was only his. It was very spiritual thing. And the disciples went out into the villages and healed the people. So, it did come up for me, but I didn't allow it to interfere with anything I taught or anything I did personally. I think that the brothers never questioned anything, which was very helpful for me. They allowed me to do the things that I felt that I needed to do. They were supportive then in that way, so that was helpful

DIR: That was great. Thank you for sharing that. I always refer people who ask me about this to the Reiki principles of precepts, and I'm like, this is the embodiment of Reiki practice: Do not anger, do not worry. That is not evil. Thank you so much Bill for sharing you story. Is there anything you would like to add?
BS: Towards the end of my hospice work, I began to become more aware of Kathleen Prasad’s work. And during these last few years I've been becoming more involved in the shelters. She taught me so much. She and she has created the Let Animals Lead technique, where you just are there, and the animals come and take what they want instead of chasing after them. [Laugh].

DIR: She's wonderful. I think we should take the same approach to human treatments.
BS: Absolutely. That's why when you talk about distance healing, that's all you're doing, you're just holding that space for people. She was a great influence on me as well, and I really enjoy working with her.

DIR: And I love that you keep on training and keep on deepening your practice all the time. I find that so beautiful and inspiring as well.
BS: Well, thanks. Yeah. I have to do that. [Laughs.]

DIR: And you still teach, right?
BS: I was 40 years on my own in New Jersey and I'm 88 years old now. And so the community asked me to come back closer. So, I'm in one of our communities in New Rochelle, but I kept my contacts and I have zoom and I teach my Tai Chi classes on it. I'm teaching my Reiki classes on zoom. I'm doing a Reiki class this Saturday, and I do my healing circle once a month on zoom. So that's great. I keep in touch with a lot of people in New Jersey. I'm not pushing for anything here in New Rochelle. I just say whatever the universe sends me I'm here, but I don't go out and knock on doors anymore. [Laughs].

DIR: No it's, but I'll be sharing your website and all your details so people can reach out to you, especially if they're in new Rochelle—they're lucky people to be around you!
BS: Thank you very much.

DIR: Thank you so, so much for your time. And I'm looking forward to the Lancaster retreat in 2022. We're kidnapping you. I'm driving you down there. It's one year away but start packing. Okay?
BS: [Laughs].

Drawing inspired by Bill Stevens’s story.

DIVE INTO REIKI: I'm super excited to introduce my guest: Pamela Miles. Pamela is an internationally renowned Reiki master and the pioneer introducing Reiki practice to conventional medicine. She's collaborated with academic medical centers such as Harvard and Yale. She has been featured on The Dr. Oz Show, NBC, CBS, CNN, FOX, The Atlantic, US News & World Report, New York Magazine, Allure, and Self. Pamela is also the author of the award-winning REIKI: A Comprehensive Guide.

I went to Pamela's Reiki Clinic at the JCC in New York, and it really helped me find my footing when I first learned Western Reiki and was a bit lost.

PAMELA MILES: I always enjoyed having you [at the clinic]. I just want to clarify the term Western Reiki because I practice Western Reiki… it's not all "woo." I mean, my practice is not new-age at all. All of my Reiki masters were either trained by Hawayo Takata, or their Reiki masters were trained by Hawayo Takada. So, I learned the practice as Takata taught before Americans started, you know, making changes to it, which were mostly ad-ons—although they tried to make something simpler like you don't have to practice, which to me was the most fun part of it was actually practicing. 

DIR: I love that clarification: all Reiki is not the same. I love to hear your origin story. You're pretty unique compared to many beginner Reiki practitioners: you actually had a spiritual practice for years before you discovered Reiki. 
PM: That's so sweet for you to say I'm unique instead of odd. I like that spin on it, Nathalie. So yeah, by the time I came to Reiki practice in 1986, I already had been a student of meditation and yoga for almost 25 years. And I was a meditation teacher. I've lived in India in a monastery for a couple of years, doing really intensive spiritual practices, very serious practice. I was also a professional healer. I worked with people one-on-one doing what might now be called mind, body medicine, but back there was just odd. So unique is the word I'm going to stick with here. And the advantage that gave me was that I already had a daily spiritual practice. I understood that it's not enough to learn a practice; you learn a practice so that you can practice. And that the training that teaches you the practice, the teacher that teaches you the practice, you know, that's so special and you have at least regard if not reverence for that connection. But ultimately, if you don't practice, you're just tossing it out the window. To use marketing language, the practice is how you get that return on your investment. That's how you get your money's worth from your training. 

It always seemed odd to me that people finish one class, and they want to right away go to another class and get another certificate or whatever they get and go to another class. For me, I just couldn't wait to practice. I remember when I first learned to practice like I just couldn't wait till I had some time alone. [I did] my daily self-practice, my full protocol practice, first thing in the morning before I was out of bed. But then, during the day, I also wanted to practice. 

[…]

Compared to the effort involved in the other spiritual practices I had, this was very accessible. It was kind of fast and easy and fast and easy really aren't usually values of mine. But at the time that I experienced Reiki practice from a friend who had just taken the first-degree class, I had a five-year-old, and I was in early in my second pregnancy. So, I like to have spiritual practice every day. I just don't go a day without it. It's easier for me to fast or lose sleep. But I also remembered what it was like, when you give birth and in those early days, weeks, months, depending upon your baby. So, I was wondering how I was going to manage this. And then, I had an experience of Reiki from my friend. I quickly started to have the same inner experience and sensations that were very familiar to me because of all of my experience with spiritual practice, both at home and on retreat and such. Nothing that I experienced during my Reiki treatment was new to me other than the practice itself. This was a new way of becoming deeply indrawn and becoming more aware of my subtle being, my timelessness, and like that.

That gave me a very different perspective on the practice from the beginning. I could see this as a spiritual practice. Of course, we've come to know that. But it wasn't presented to me in that way or understood in the US in quite that way, with that language. From what I know, I think that Hawayo Takata did have that understanding. But she didn't put that language to it. And I'm sure she had very good reasons. You know, we all live in different times; we have to be ourselves of our time and carry the integrity of the practice. At least that's been a value for me. 

Pamela Miles.

DIR: No, absolutely. And as you said, we cannot really understand what it was to be her at that time. And she actually brought it here and spread it. But I think when you said, like, now we're coming to see it's a spiritual practice is still very new for many people watching this podcast. For most, it's still understood very much as an energy healing modality. But it goes a lot deeper. At the end of the meditation, you said something beautiful: bring it into your body and extend it into your life. This is so much more than just getting a session or doing your practice. It is about using it to transform your life. Can you talk a bit about the importance of the body in Reiki practice? 
PM: Well, the body is important because if we didn't have a body, we couldn't practice [she laughs].  

DIR: Yes, because sometimes we go into Lalaland with angels.
PM: People can practice in whatever way is meaningful to them, but the idea is not to disregard our bodies. The purpose of all spiritual practice is to be present and being present means being joyfully in our body. Because if we're not joyfully in our body, if we have discomfort with the body that we have, then we're not present. There's a part of us that's tied up with that, and that's worrying inside of us.

There's confusion or a lack of investigation into what spirituality is and what spiritual practice is in this culture. Many people have never thought of the difference between religion and spirituality. Or metaphysics and spirituality. We see that even more around Reiki practice, where people share their Reiki metaphysics. But if we ask people to see the world as we see it to practice Reiki, I think we're cutting out a lot of people who would otherwise really be interested in the experience and the benefits that Reiki practice brings. And the advantages it brings being uniquely accessible. I mean, it's just the easiest spiritual practice that I've come across. And I've been engaged in spiritual practices since I was a kid. There was a point at which I just said more than 50 years because that's enough.

Spiritual practice is to be present. To be able to live from our hearts. To keep our minds in good health too. I mean, a good intellect is important to discern and be a critical thinker. If you're engaged in anything around spirituality and you're not a critical thinker, you're going to fall for a lot of silly stuff. And you're going to be disappointed, especially if you don't have a daily practice because there are so many disappointments in life, right? I mean, this is something we're experiencing very acutely now with the pandemic and how long it's going on because people didn't think it would go on so long. They weren't quite seeing that this is a game-changer. This isn't a blip. And daily spiritual practice means that we step into our changes on a daily basis. So, we keep ourselves spiritually poised, settled in our bodies. And when something comes at us, we've got the resilience; we can roll with it. We can be creative. We don't forget who we are. We don't forget our timelessness. We don't forget our practice because our practice is the source of our resilience. 

DIR: I really admire people going through this without a spiritual practice. Before the pandemic was officially declared, you started a global practice group. Can you talk a bit about that? 
PM: Yeah. I had just come back. I had a few months with a lot of travel. I was in Europe, and then I was in Mexico, leading the Heart of Practice retreat. And then I was in Curaçao, and I was in Atlanta teaching, and I came back to New York, like March 1st, I think. I could see what was happening, you know? And I knew that people were going to be very frightened, and they were going to be isolated. I could see that we were going to wind up in some kind of a lockdown. Being frightened and being isolated is a devastating combination for your immune system. Either one of them compromises your immune function. And then those together can easily lead to depression, which further lessens people's immunity.

So, I was looking to see how I can support people in their self-practice and give them a sense of community. And since I'm kind of the queen of self-practice…

DIR: You were actually the first person who mentioned self-practice to me is like. I was like, "Am I supposed to have a self-practice? I didn't even know about that! 
PM: Well, I hear that from many, many people. That they've been through a class and either they were told to practice on themselves for 21 days, or it just never was even discussed. Whereas in my training, that's the core. You do a lot of self-practice. So, March 10th, I think, was the first one, the day before the world health organization declared the global pandemic. That was Tuesday at four, and then I added Saturday at 9:00 AM.  

Within, I don't know, six months or something, twenty-five thousand people had registered. And of course, not everybody registered and came back, but still, it was something that clearly was speaking to people. And the important idea for me was mixing care of self with community because everybody else wants to take care of other people, you know? And that's just more of maybe the thing that we need to change in this time. To change is our proclivity for looking outwards, like outwards for the Reiki energy as if it's something separate from us that we have to somehow trick into coming to us.

People say things like, I don't have my Reiki anymore. Well, do you practice? No. [Laughs] If we think of it asReiki practice instead of Reiki energy, it solves a lot of those problems. And also, we always know what's available to us, that accessibility and availability. It's so heartwarming because I get many, many emails from people who say, I've now been practicing every day for a month, for six months, for three weeks for—whatever is a landmark for them, something they never thought they could do. And they notice the difference. So the idea of healing the planet by healing ourselves and making that connection with the quote that we hear so often from Mahatma Gandhi, "be the change you want to see." Not fixing. And to get back to the idea of energy healing and practice: your energy healing is more along with the conventional medical fixing. Whereas spiritual practice reminds us of our intrinsic wholeness and wellness and lets all the disparate parts of ourselves come to rest in our spiritual self. Where we feel our core, and we remember who we are. And then mind, body, spirit, emotions, intellect, you know what, however, you want to name these different parts of ourselves that may be gremlins, they are all like, "Oh yeah!" They feel safe. And everybody behaves better when they feel safe. 

DIR: For me, one of the most significant gifts Reiki practice gave me was acceptance and compassion towards myself. Then by changing myself, I'm a lot kinder to my family and friends. So, as you said, the change starts inside, but it extends to affect people's lives. However, we tend to want to place our hands on other people and change them, so we like them more!
PM: And I think a lot of people feel that way. And, certainly, I've had my moments too. But compassion isn't for anyone. Compassion is a state; it's an attainment. And when we're willing to sit with ourselves and practice with ourselves, and we drop into our hearts, we experience the compassionate love that is our true nature. We feel it in ourselves because that's who we are first, but the way we are with other people is just a reflection of how we are with ourselves. Have you ever noticed that person who really pisses you off? If you're lucky, you'll catch yourself doing the thing that that person does that annoys you so much.

It's always just a reflection of how we feel about ourselves. So, as we feel unconditional self-love, even for a moment, it's a crack in the confusion. Then we just keep coming back to it, and we build a habit. This is another part of consistent daily self-practice that we're building a habit. We're building neural pathways. It's not just a good idea. You know, we're actually making it easier for us to take refuge in our center rather than refuge in our drama, which only creates more suffering. Life isn't always going to be easy. It certainly doesn't get easier when we start practicing, but we are more equipped. We're better equipped to be with the challenge because we feel safer. Feeling safe is a spiritual issue and spiritual attainment. Practice is the only way we can earn that experience and own it.

Otherwise, it's kind of like being on a diet where we're just having to say no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. And we're not even sure that this is really going to work for us. But when we practice, especially practice self-Reiki, we experience pretty quickly that something good is happening. Our systems start to settle, and it happens on a discernible level in our nervous system. Wow. That's a big deal and a big difference. 

DIR: I love that you have a science and medical background. I love to now know that a part of my brain is actually changing.

I will use this to segue because you were vital in bringing Reiki to mainstream healthcare. You did fantastic work, and part of it is that you have a very down-to-earth approach and know the science behind it. How did you just wake up one day and say, "Hey, I need to bring this to healthcare?"
PM: I never said that! [Laughs]. [If I had], no one would have listened because I don't have a medical background. I mean, I did original research as an undergraduate. I have a couple of undergraduate degrees, so I've always had an interest. And my mother is a nurse, my sister, my grandmother, you know, so medicine has always been in my background. But I think that what gave me a unique qualification and, and I kind of started medical Reiki, was this marriage of spiritual practice and scientific intellect. And a desire to serve. I was invited to create the first hospital program because I was doing community service at gay men's health crisis here in New York City, offering Reiki training. At that point, it was still all guys with HIV aids. This was before the protest inhibitors and the drugs that have been developed that have really helped people be able to live with HIV Aids.

I mean, then it was really a death sentence, and everybody knew it. So, I started teaching people to practice on themselves and the doctors in infectious disease—that's what the Aids specialists were called—noticed that whenever they had a patient who was doing better than expected… invariably they talked about Reiki practice, and usually they were students of mine. So, the department head at what was then Beth Israel Medical Center, which is now, I think Mount Sinai Beth Israel, was a very forward-thinking interested in integrative medicine and understood that even if we couldn't cure a disease, we could at least still help people. That's why I was asked to come in and present. It was my first medical presentation. My knees were knocking because I knew it would be easy to lose this opportunity. I knew it would be easy to step in the wrong direction, but I just kept my mouth closed. And when I was asked a question, I didn't try to pontificate; I answered the question briefly because I know doctors are very busy. I always tried to answer the question in a way that would make sense to them without compromising the reality of what I was offering. I've always spoken of Reiki as a spiritual practice because, by then, I was a Reiki master. So everything else came out of that. 

In fact, there were a lot of people in conventional medicine who were very interested in what else could be done. At first, it surprised me, but then when I thought about it, well, yeah, these people see so much suffering that they can't help, even now that they can do more in terms of the fixing part. It's almost as if suffering itself is not a medical issue. Again, like safety, it's a spiritual issue. Doctors may help you with your pain, but suffering is a spiritual concern. 

DIR: I love how you put it because you also give Reiki a role that feels very safe and useful in the healthcare environment. Sometimes we communicate Reiki in a way that could feel dangerous to doctors. 
PM: Yeah. I mean, that's such an important point that you're bringing up, Nathalie. That is the communication piece. I've been a writer since I was a kid. So, I've always been thinking about communicating not just what do I want to say, but how can I say it? Not just writing as self-expression, but writing to communicate. And that made a big difference in being able to bridge cultures. And when it came to medical Reiki, the practice itself is the same that I practice everywhere, but the culture is different. I was bridging spiritual practice culture with medical science culture and also bridging lay culture with licensed professional culture. There were lots of places where we could have made a wrong turn, you know? And I was on a pretty steep learning curve. I just kept my mouth shut, and I listened. And then I had my partner there, the staff person at the end of the day, he would always make time for me, and I'd go in, and I'd say, "What does this mean? What is that?" I find it makes a big difference if there's somebody in the hospital or the institution who has at least some experience of Reiki practice because they appreciate the value. 

DIR: You have mentioned some essential things: first of all, to experience the practice. Second, listening, understanding them, and then communicating clearly in your case. Those are great tips for people to follow. 
PM: There's a difference between self-expression and communication. If we want to communicate better, we have to be better listeners. I find this true in my personal relationships, with my one-on-one clients for comprehensive healing sessions, and with students. They'll tell you what they want to know if you listen. I always keep in mind those wonderful words from Steve jobs: it's not the customer's job to know what they want. I can't wait for them to use my language or my concepts. I have to hear their language and recognize what they're saying behind what they're saying. 

So, if they ask what Reiki is, mostly they don't give a damn about what Reiki is. Most people just aren't that conceptually curious; what they're asking is, "Can this help me?" Or "Can this help somebody I love?" They've got some suffering that they're not able to address. And if we, as the Reiki practitioners and especially Reiki professionals, can be quiet enough and safe enough, they'll spill the beans. They'll tell us what they want to know. Then we can say to them what they've been asking us, even though they weren't using the words we would have used. 

DIR: It's all about listening and holding the space, and it's not trying to go, fix it or impose what we think is needed. You have achieved a lot of bringing Reiki into mainstream healthcare. However, right now, we are facing a lot of regulatory challenges. You are part of the group actively fighting these regulations. Can you explain what's going on?
PM: It's a very complex situation. Something that I feel very strongly about is that spiritual practices should not be legislated. It doesn't make sense. Is the government going to require a license to meditate or to pray? Reiki is a spiritual practice. If you even think about the logistics, how would they do that? I mean, that's a whole other thing. But the fact is that there are states that are looking to regulate, and it's never just Reiki practice. In Massachusetts, which is the current battleground, it seems to be all subtle practices, all noninvasive practices that have been recognized as being safe. 

Noninvasive means safe. And that's why there's no licensing for them. Because licensing, ostensibly, is to protect the public. You don't want a surgeon who hasn't gone through medical school with a specialty at the end, right? Because if a surgeon makes a mistake, there are horrible consequences. But as Reiki professionals, certainly, we can hurt people, but it's through our mishandling of another human being. It's not through the practice itself. And that's human nature, and that's not something that can be really controlled through regulation. 

The Massachusetts legislature has bills introduced, which, if passed, would mean immediately that professionals [from all these practices] would become illegal because they would [require] licensing. There's not even a six-month transition period. If it's passed, you know, as it's written. That's the acute crisis, and we need to address that. There's a petition, and I hope everybody will sign that petition and share it. Nag your friends to sign it as well and share it!

But then bigger than that is how can we keep our practice available [and] accessible to the public? We all have different Reiki practices. I think we all want the way we practice to be available to our grandchildren and our great-grandchildren. If the government—and it would be at the state level because the states regulate healthcare practices—takes control of licensing these practices, that means that there will be a small board. And somebody on that board, who probably is a friend of somebody in the legislature, knows something about Reiki practice. That person would be responsible for deciding what the licensing would involve, what we're allowed to teach, what's our curriculum, how we are supposed to practice. Does it have to be off the body? Does it have to be on the body? Do we have the freedom to choose according to what we think is best and best for our clients? 

The solution that I am working to further is, first of all, Reiki practitioners [need] to get savvier about communicating. Because, as you mentioned so astutely before, the way a lot of Reiki practitioners speak about Reiki is very unguarded. For people who aren't of that mindset, it sounds scary. It sounds imbalanced. It sounds like something is taking them over. It's confusing at best. So, for Reiki practitioners to be more savvy in their communication, because a lot of the problems that we're experiencing date back to the way that we've communicated, you know, just kind of reckless and thoughtless. And then reaching out to our state elected officials: calling their offices, making an appointment, [although] you probably won't get to speak to the actual official. Does it matter? You can speak to their gatekeeper. This is their job. And to be able to speak very succinctly, you know, "My Reiki practice is important to me." "I don't know how I could have gotten through my cancer treatment without my Reiki practice. The doctors certainly addressed cancer, but that's what helped me heal in a very profound way." End of story.

People want to make it big. No! Big makes doctors and legislators who are conservative [nervous.] No matter whether they're Republican or Democrat, they're conservative by nature, right? So, when people speak big, in an exaggerated way, it makes them nervous. It discredits us. We want to be very sober and simple. Your little Reiki story. How it helped you get your child to sleep at night. That's huge. But they need to hear from a lot of us, and they need to hear about Reiki practice in a way that's not scary and off-putting. Not going in there and saying, "Well, let me give you some Reiki." No, no, no! Please, don't do that!

The only reason we ever talk about Reiki practice in a situation like that is to shorten the distance between where that person is now and when they're going to have their first Reiki experience. Because once they have an experience, the conversation changes. But let's be realistic, our elected officials will probably not have a Reiki experience. We need to get their attention first of all and then equip them with some simple language and stories so that they see, "Oh yeah, this is important to the people who have voted for me and will vote for me again." 

DIR: And it's also safe. I think those stories you mentioned actually feed the clear distinction between alleviating pain and suffering, the latter of which should not be regulated. 
PM: Yes. There is another option; it's called Safe Harbor law. And it's something that has been conceptualized and actually passed in Minnesota. I think it was in 2005. That means we can practice these noninvasive practices as we see fit within reasonable parameters. Not interfering with any existing licensing but specifying noninvasive practices as not needing to be regulated. There's a woman, Diane Miller, and she has a new book called Health Freedom: The Greatest Freedom of All. And she has an organization helping people in different states to do this. 

DIR: I really appreciate you giving us the tools to help fight for our freedom to practice. I will post the links so people can reach out to their representatives. 
PM: Yeah. And you want to know before you make the phone call. You never know; you could get right through to somebody. It could be a slow afternoon. So, you want to know what you're going to say and rehearse it with friends. Reiki practitioners who know each other can get together and coach each other. It will help make us better Reiki practitioners because we'll be better able to represent what we do to people who aren't like us in some ways but are like us in other ways. [People] who—as his holiness says—want to be happy and want to avoid suffering. It's very simple the human condition.

DIR:  And that is the essence of the Reiki precepts at the end. Sometimes we get very lost when it comes to explaining Reiki practice. But, in the end, it's letting go of anger and worry, becoming more grateful, and finding that space of compassion. It's that simple. So simple that it's very complicated to get there. 
PM: You know, it's true. I tell my first-degree students that the hardest part about learning to practice Reiki is how simple and easy it is. Because all your life you've worked hard to get anything. Believed you should have worked harder for the thing that got away. In Reiki practice, the skill and the effort are really of self-restraint. Just place my hands [places hands on her body]. Now I'm practicing Reiki, and [lift her hands from her body] now I'm not. Hands-on, I'm practicing Reiki. Hands-off, I'm not. If it's that simple in the foundation, you won't get lost in your practice.

DIR:  Then you can actually extend that to your life. Like you lost the subway, you just lost the subway. Don't add, and don't complicate it. Yet Reiki is deceptively simple because you can actually go very deep, just by placing your hands repeatedly day after day. 
PM: I think the only way we can go deep is through repetition. Sometimes clients will come, and they'll say, "I'm with this old issue again." They're so disappointed in themselves that they haven't solved something. I try to help them appreciate it and be grateful that's it's an old issue because if you kept having new issues, you'd be overwhelmed. We have these old habits, and we keep revisiting them with new understanding and greater compassion. Things melt a little bit, and then we're doing better. Then something happens that takes us by surprise or frightens us, and we fall back into these very old habits a little bit. We usually don't fall so deeply. But what if we fell into new bad habits? How would we ever get ourselves out from under the suffering? If we always had to find a new plan, right? 

DIR: Oh, wow! I never looked at it that way. 
PM: It's so human. I mean, people are putting themselves down because they still have these old issues instead of like, "Thank God I still have this." For me, the simplicity of the protocol that I use for my practice, which is just an eight-placement protocol, creates a container for each practice that I can just drop into. I can practice with absorption and abandon. Not focusing, not concentrating, that's working too hard. I placed my hands, and something in me says, "Okay, now we're going home."

DIR: Yeah. I know many people go with intuition, and I'm like, "Learn your protocol because then you can always fall back on it and practice free of anger and worry. 
PM: People who say they practice intuitively, in my experience, there's nothing intuitive about it. They're thinking. They're engaged in a lot of stuff. They feel something and think they have to move their hands there. Just because you feel something doesn't mean it needs any more attention. Wherever we place our hands, it's not just that part of the body that responds. The initial response on a physical level certainly seems to be through some combination of the nervous system, the endocrine system, and likely the endocannabinoid system. These are the three most subtle systems in the body, and they're always playing with each other. So once that is set in motion, that's everywhere in your body. Where is your nervous system not? I place my hands on my chest; it's not just the nerves under my hand that are responding. It's my whole nervous system. This downregulation from the stress response, the sympathetic response to the parasympathetic digest, and heal response, and that involves everything. 

So you're going to feel things throughout your body as your body downregulates itself. We don't have to make that happen. We give our systems the invitation or the necessary information and then let it respond in the way that is meaningful, appropriate, and doable at that moment. And that's something we can't possibly know or even intuit, but our bodies know. We know how to heal. So, I think a big piece of Reiki practice, and certainly Reiki self-practice, is getting our minds out of the way. What we think we know. Being a little humbler with what we think we know.

DIR: Thank you, Pamela, so much for this interview. I learned a lot, and I'm sure everybody reading this will do, too. 

Drawing inspired by the interview with Pamela Miles.

DIVE INTO REIKI: Frank Arjava Petter is a world-renowned Reiki historian and teacher. Based in Greece, he travels worldwide, lecturing and teaching Jikiden Reiki workshops. He is a Dai Shihan in Jikiden Reiki and vice-president of the Jikiden Reiki Association founded by Tadao Yamaguchi in Kyoto, Japan.
His spiritual journey started at a very young age with meditation, spending 7 years practicing with Osho. Later, he moved to Japan and began teaching Reiki there in 1993.
He is the best-selling author of Reiki Fire, Reiki, the Legacy of Dr. Usui, The Original Reiki Handbook of Dr. Mikao Usui, co-author of The Spirit of Reiki, Reiki Best Practices, The Hayashi Reiki-Manual, Reiki ganz Klar, This is Reiki, and One with Reiki. Frank, thank you so much for taking the time to chat with us.
FRANK ARJAVA PETTER: Thank you very much, Nathalie. It's a pleasure. I love talking to people. Like all of us—all of you listeners and we included—[what] I miss the most is the contact with people. The one-on-one contact, the hands-on contact. But we have the technology to at least keep in touch like this, and I appreciate it.

DIR:  Agree! I wish we could this in person. Hopefully, we'll do it soon. You have a fascinating origin story because you started your spiritual search young. Can you talk about your first experiences?
FAP: I'm not like a lot of people who are into spirituality and will say, "Oh, you know, I remember when I was three years old, and suddenly, I saw the light." Not at all. For me, it started when I was around 15, 16 [years old.] I started reading books on Zen, which I liked very much. I hated school, so, in my mind, after school, I was not going to go to university. I was going to go to Japan, enter a Zen monastery, and never be seen again. Ever. That was my secret plan, but of course, it became completely different. 
About the same time, I went on vacation to Brittany, France, with my parents. I remember one day sitting on the beach was in the spring break. There were no tourists there, and you had like miles of to your left miles of beach to the right. There was nobody. And I just see this dog from, I don't know, two miles away. A big white kind of retriever or something. And he comes to me like dogs do: he walks on the beach, going left, going right, sniffing here and there. But he went straight for me. I stretched out my arm, and he sniffed my hand. I looked at the dog, and I thought, I want to be like this: straightforward, fearless, and tender. 
A couple of years later, my parents and I got some letters from my brother who had gone to India overland from Germany and ended up with Osho, who, at the time, was the antichrist for everybody. There was very bad press about him everywhere. Whatever you heard or saw was just horrendous. We thought, "Oh, my God, my older brother has gone nuts. We got to do something about it!" So, my parents decided to send me there just to check up on him. to take a look. To see if he was okay. If he was okay, fair enough. If he wasn't okay, try and persuade him to come home and leave all of this craziness behind. I went to India to the Osho ashram in March 1979. I took one step into that place, and I thought, "I don't ever want to go anywhere else ever again." That's how [my journey] really started. At the time, I was 18. It hit me hard.
Ever since that moment, my sole viewpoint in life is spiritual development. For me in the first few years, and then—after I started teaching in the early and mid-nineties—also for my students. This is what I'm concerned with: spiritual growth. People waking up with me. Waking me up. Being present, showing people how to be present, how to deal with themselves, and how to live a beautiful contented, happy, conscious, and peaceful life.
This is my whole purpose, but at the same time, I am not out there in space. Thinking only about all these things. I'm a super simple person, very simple-minded. I'm here living in a small Greek village with about a thousand people, a very traditional place. It's super easy. I love everybody. The people like me, we can talk about the weather, about potatoes. We can talk about nothing at all. We can have a glass of whiskey together. I'm really a very simple-minded person. 
My intention is to do everything in life with a spiritual attitude. If you do a mundane thing with a spiritual attitude, it becomes like a prayer, a meditation, a celebration of life. And if you do something "spiritual" with a mundane attitude, it just becomes a waste of time.

DIR: I love that because when we practice Reiki, we have trouble accepting our "regular" life. We keep it separate versus seeing our everyday life as practice. The other thing we do is overcomplicating it. What is your perception of Reiki right now? 
FAP: Reiki is the simplest thing in life at all. I learned Reiki in 1992. I became a teacher in 1993 and started teaching after five, six months or so after I digested all of that. I thought Reiki was this complicated thing. Then seven years later, I came to my third Reiki teacher to Chiyoko Yamaguchi. When we asked her a complicated question, she always looked at us and said, "You think too much." Like a grandma would say to you and not like, somebody's arrogant from a place of "I know better than you, and you will learn one day when you're my age." Don't think so much. Reiki is such a simple thing. It's the simplest thing in the world. You know how it works? She said, "It goes like this: on [places his hand on his body], off [lifts his hand from the body]." That's all you need to know. Go out and touch people. There's nothing you need to do: no rituals, no prayers, no symbols, no nothing just: on, off. This is how I practice it. 
And this is how I practice it here in the village too. In all the Greek villages, at least the ones on the islands that I know of, people get nicknames. And they get them very quickly, but they stick…. My nickname in the village is the German doctor. This is how people see me. When somebody has an injury or feels sick, they come, and [my wife and I] treat them. We don't do anything spiritual, like talking about energy and all that. We go, Okay. Sit down or lay down and so on. And that's it. It's very simple. Reiki is very, very simple. I completely avoid all the esoteric stuff when I talk about it—not only with simple-minded villagers—but in general, because we don't need it. It's not necessary. 

DIR: Agree. Reiki is so simple, but that doesn't mean it's not deep. In Western culture, we often confuse simple with shallow or uninteresting, but Reiki has a lot of depth. Can you talk about that?
FAP: The only thing that really matters is what you have here now and what you have and what you are here and now. Just you, in your simplicity, breathing in, breathing out. That's it. Nothing else matters: tomorrow never comes; yesterday is gone. So, what have we got? We've got this moment. In this moment, we have a choice. Whether we want to spend this moment dreaming or being present. And Reiki is a wonderful tool to help you be present in this moment. All bodywork is like that, really, because touch anchors both the person who gives the treatment and the one who receives it in the present.

DIR: I love that concept of touch as an anchor. Often, we're touching to heal, to do something anchoring both of us in the moment. That is beautiful.
FAP: Yeah. Let's say somebody experienced something traumatic. You give them a hug. The more you hold them in your arms, the same thing happens. They immediately come to the present and maybe come out of their traumatic movement. They come back to the now. And when you're in the now, you're okay. 
Reiki brings you here. And when we are here, what problem do we have here? We don't have any problems. Problems are always either far ahead or far behind.

DIR: And when you're in the middle of a problem, you're present. You have to be.
FAP:  Right. For example, when you have an accident, suddenly everything turns into slow motion. You function perfectly. You do everything right. And then afterward, when it's finished…. [it's another thing.]
The first and foremost thing about Reiki is that it brings both the giver and the receiver into the present moment. And only in the present moment can things change. Things can happen.
The next thing people often get confused about is that they think, "Uh, this or that person is such a great healer!" Somebody asked me recently, "Who's the greatest healer on the planet at the moment?" And I said, "You know, I will tell you who it is. It's the human body. The human body is the greatest healer." 
It's not the Reiki person or the shaman, or someone else who does the healing. The body heals itself if it can. But there are obstacles to healing, and those must be removed. And this is what the Reiki person or the shaman does. He energizes the body so that those obstacles can be removed. In terms of Reiki, those obstacles are toxicity, and the removal happens by detoxing. The body begins to detox, and then healing happens if it's still possible.
When the time is up, the time is up. You can stand on your head; do all sorts of tricks, and it's not going to work. The important thing for us as Reiki [practitioners] to understand is that this is not our business. We're not here to decide who stays and who goes. We don't know what the situation for our client is. We know nothing. We may know that they have a certain illness, but we don't know why they have it. We don't know what purpose that may serve in the long run… You don't know where they are on their journey from ignorance to self-realization. And this is not for you to judge. All we do is place our hands on that person and trust that the healing will happen in due time. Whenever that might be.

DIR: I resonate very strongly with this. There is a lot of pressure on Reiki practitioners to "diagnose" or "read" the situation in some lineages. What advice will you give to a practitioner who feels they need to get the "healing" right?
FAP: In Jikiden Reiki, what we learned to do is called in Japanese byosen, the body's reaction to the incoming energy. We evaluate with the perception in our hands. So there's some kind of natural diagnosis happening, but it's not medical. And it's not that we look for it either. It's just perception the same way that you say, put your hand in the fridge, and you know that it's cold. You don't have to sit there and think, "Oh, I'm going to check the fridge from the inside and see what that temperature is." No, you just put your hand inside, and you know, "Uh, cold!" It's like that. 
From an Asian point of view, they would say your ego is not required in the work at all. Now, if we define this from an Oriental way, it becomes very uncomfortable. So, from a Western, let's say psychological understanding, maybe we think of ego as the negative aspects of our psycho-emotional selves. Arjava is egoistic. He thinks only of himself. He wants more and more money! He is like this. He is an a$#*!
From an Oriental point of view, because the Japanese are Buddhist and they believe in emptiness being the source of everything, they believe that there is no separate identity, no separate self. There is no ego. That ego is the only thing that doesn't exist. The only thing that is not [ego] is that spaciousness. That is your presence, that blue sky. Everything else is clouds passing in that blue sky. 
So, if I, during the treatment, go and do all sorts of stuff, the Japanese traditional Reiki practitioner would say, "Get the hell out of there. What are you doing there? This is not an ego trip here. You're supposed to just be emptying. Let that pass through you and leave it up to people upstairs." That's how they would look at it there. From a Japanese point of view, ego is everything that we would call "I." Everything that defines us has nothing to do with a Reiki treatment. You leave that outside.

DIR: Which is a practice per se—and it's hard! But the good news is that, in time, you start feeling a little bit of that. For me, emptiness also means inner spaciousness. We're so crammed with things, by creating the little space with meditation and Reiki practice is such a relief—because we always think of practitioners helping others, but we must start with ourselves. So, I love the concept of emptiness. 
Once we were talking about Osho, you mentioned something that I love. When I asked you how the Osho ashram was, you laughed at me because I imagined you attending like 300 orgies. And you're like, "Nathalie, every teacher is a mirror." Would you care to elaborate on the concept of the teacher as a mirror when it comes to Reiki?
FAP: Not only is the teacher a mirror, but everybody in every situation in life is a mirror. This pandemic situation is a mirror. Let's start here because we are all concerned with this at the moment. 
Let's say you have some fear of survival during the COVID situation; that's going to come up. If you have some unethical business ideas in the COVID situation, that will come up. Whatever there is inside, whatever is hiding under the surface will come up. It's like, you're looking at this thing all the time, and you see yourself. So, what is required of us to do is to be aware of what is happening: when you're being mirrored, when to be reflective, to look, not to judge.
If you're in the teacher's role, then, of course, that becomes vital. Because, first of all, you are mirroring your students, but they also mirror you. It's not one-way traffic. It's two mirrors looking at each other. Two pieces of emptiness looking at each other. That's an amazing thing. And it requires great awareness not to project anything into the other. You cannot ask your students to do this practice, but you can ask it of yourself, so you don't project into your students and don't bring them down. You don't force your worldview on them but give them space and encouragement to always reflect. To look at themselves, learn from all their clients, from all their friends, from all situations. This is the real job of a Reiki teacher. [Teaching the system] is the smaller part.

DIR: What you are saying is very important, but often training consists of attunement and a manual or a video, or a few hours of in-person training. What do you think about the current state of Reiki training today?
FAP: What I think is just my personal opinion. I always filter everything through the wisdom of my own heart. I learned that very early on. But one of the things I learned from Osho is don't believe anything that anybody says, but always check it. To know if it is valuable inside or not. If it works for you.
So, I would say, as a Reiki teacher, what do I feel comfortable with? How do I feel comfortable teaching it? I feel comfortable teaching Reiki in person. I don't feel comfortable teaching Reiki online. So, I don't do it, but it's not a judgment. If you're comfortable doing online courses, that is your business, and you have to live with it…
For me, it's not an option. I don't like it, and I don't do it. That's what I'm very happy [online] talking to people and discussing things around the topic of Reiki, but no actual teaching. I wait until I can touch my students again... For me, it's almost more important to go and eat lunch together during the workshop because that's where you really see what is happening inside people when there are no facets, no concepts. When there are no roles of teacher and student, when we are all the same, I think is when you really see things changing. To me, that only happens in the presence of one another. This is how I see it. I know that many people like to teach online. It's easier. It's convenient. You save all the airline fees, the hotels, the venues. I understand all that. People need Reiki a lot. I understand all that, but I'm not going to do it. I wait. I prefer to starve.
DIR: No, please, don't starve!
FAP: This is my truth. And I'm not saying it's the truth. There is no truth. There's only subjectivity. What I suggest is that you go inside and see, "What do you feel comfortable with?" And then you do that. Don't listen to anybody else. There's nobody smarter than you. There's nobody who knows better than you. Ask yourself what to do, how to do it, and then you are good. 
In our tradition, the teaching guidelines are quite serious and severe, but teaching, let's day starts with Shoden-Reiki 1. One then goes to Okuden-Reiki two. And then the different levels of the teachers. To become a fully certified teacher will take at least two or three years under tutelage. Plus, we have rules about how many hours of treatments one has to document in writing. It's like 120 hours of treatments with at least 40 different clients. You have to document it all and send it to the Institute. And then we decide whether we take somebody. So, we take that very seriously. You cannot do this on the weekend with us because we don't feel comfortable with that.

DIR: But I think this is good for the student. I got those eight-hour training, and when I started offering treatments, I was so insecure. I didn't have the proper training and support. And when I called to have a mentoring session, the answer I got was, "You don't need mentoring; you need a session to balance your chakras!" I knew then I was not going to do my Reiki master with that teacher. I feel we want to go through levels fast, but then we crumble. We need to start building a solid foundation. I think training for more hours is a better idea and waiting before becoming a teacher immediately.
FAP: Let's look at the traditional way that this was done. When I learned from Chiyoko sensei, you couldn't even ask to become a teacher. You would learn and learn and learn and learn. At some point, she would say to you, "Okay, now it's time." That was the traditional way. Of course, the Western world is not going to work like that. People don't understand this concept, especially where you live [in New York City.] People are so competitive, and they want everything right now. 
But what I'm saying is to get a good and solid Reiki education. There's no rush anyway. Why do you want to reach something? There's nothing to reach. You are not a better person if you're a Reiki master or a Reiki 1 practitioner. You're the same. It makes no difference. The difference is made by the work that you have done.
It's the inner work that we do [that makes the difference.] And, of course, the practical work that we do.
In Lesvos Island, where we live, we built a dojo training center. In the summer, that place is open for treatments every day, between 4:00 and 7:00 PM. Sometimes there are 30 people giving treatments every day all summer. So, we have maybe three, four, or five clients. And then a whole bunch of people, four or five on each table treating and treating, learning and learning. This is how you learn: by practicing. 

DIR: You mentioned your teacher Chiyoko Yamaguchi. Can you explain who she was?
FAP: Chiyoko Yamaguchi was my third teacher. And after I met her, I just taught what I had learned from her and left all the other [learnings] behind. She was a student of Hayashi sensei and learned Reiki from him in 1937. By the time I met her in 2000, she had 60 some years of daily practice. 
I asked her once how many treatments had she done? She said two or three every day for 63 years. I calculated it once. That's a lot. She was like an encyclopedia. You could ask her anything, "What do you do with fibromyalgia?" "Oh, yeah, in 1952, I treated this woman, and you do this. And then you do this and that." 
When I met her, I was already a well-known Reiki teacher. I had written three or four books. Everybody at that time knew who I was. And she said, "Okay, so you've been practicing for a while. Do you give treatments? I said, "Yes." She said, "Have you witnessed any healing?" I said, "Yes." She said, "Well, what?" I was like on the witness stand. I couldn't believe it because usually, Japanese people are not so inquisitive. "I'd been treating people with cancer or with whatever." "Have they gotten better?" she asked. I said, "Yes." She said, "I always ask people who are teaching Reiki, do you do treatments? Usually, they say, "No, I'm too busy teaching. And then I ask him, what in the world do you teach if you have no experience." 
I think that sums it up here. If we teach, especially if we teach, we must continue doing treatments. We must learn from every new client. The moment you stop learning, you're dead. You're finished. You might as well stay home and retire.
In my Reiki practice, we do it the same way as [all Japanese arts.] The focus is on the work. If you do your work, you progress. If you don't, you don't. It is not a judgment. It's not for everybody. But Reiki is not something that you need to take off some degree or something. It's not about that. It's about reaching a certain maturity in your practice, and you get that only by practicing. It's as simple as that. 

DIR: Often, I get questions, and my answer is to go and practice. Why? Because I can talk my head out, but it will still just be a concept. If you don't practice, you will come back with the same question because some questions are only answered by practice. And only have specific questions when you practice. 
Changing course, I like to ask my guests about their biggest Reiki oops. Because most practitioners look at someone like you and think you are so advanced that you get everything right all the time. You went to Japan, have practiced for years, wrote books… "I will never be like him!" 
But Reiki teachers are human too. Can you share one mistake that ended up being a great lesson?
FAP: That list is long! I will tell you the one I did regarding my writing. I have no journalistic training at all. In 1994, a long time ago, I found the Usui memorial in Tokyo, which at that time we thought nobody had ever seen before, no foreigner. We translated the inscription. It said something about the Usui sensei's life that he had a very loving character, and he was humorous and was a very good speaker. And the people were hanging on to his kimono to get some of his energy, that he was married, had two kids, and so on. And that we should follow the legacy of the Meiji emperor. Period. A full period. The next sentence: Kyo dakewa. Ikarus na. Shinpai suna… the Reiki principles. So when I read it, I thought, "Wow, the Reiki principles are the legacy of the Meiji emperor." And I wrote that.

DIR: Oh, that is the source of the confusion. [Laughs] I've been researching that, and I kept hitting a wall every time I was trying to find the relationship between the Meiji emperor and the Reiki precepts!
FAP: It wrote that. And then, just after the book was out, we found out that those two parts of the inscription have nothing to do with one another. That was one of the big mistakes I made. And even now, people in their classes say that the Reiki principles come from the Meiji emperor. This was my fault, my fuck up. Sorry guys!
Usui sensei put them together from what we can call the zeitgeist, the spirit of the days. That was kind of common in spiritual circles. I researched lots of other spiritual groups, and they all have these kinds of precepts. It's a very Japanese thing. Even elementary schools will have some kind of ethical backbone or precepts hanging in the principal's office or general assembly.

DIR: This may have been my favorite mistake ever! It's precious! 
Talking about another thing, Reiki practitioners are often confused: the symbols. Some lineages draw them. Some meditate with them. How do you work with the Reiki symbols? 
FAP: The Reiki symbols are tools given to the student at a certain level after they've acquired certain skills. In Jikiden Reiki, the first symbol [is given in] the first level. We get the other symbols in the second level. It's all done differently. 
Perhaps one thing that is good to say is that we seem to think that we are initiated into a degree or initiated into a symbol in our Western Reiki lineages. And if you ask a traditional Japanese Reiki practitioner or Reiki teacher, they will say that you are not initiated into a degree or a symbol, but into Reiki again and again and again.
In most Reiki lineages, there are four symbols. There are the three for the second degree and the master symbol. In Japanese lineages, there is no master symbol. It was added by students of Takata sensei after she passed away. There was recently was an interview with Phyllis Furumoto [Mrs. Takata's granddaughter and heir] before she died where she finally said it. I've been saying it for 20 years, but nobody believed me. 

DIR: I love the difference that you made: we are initiated in Reiki over and over again, not attuned to a symbol. 
FAP: The symbols are very specific. They have a purpose. You use the first symbol for this, the second for that, the third for that. You don't mix them in the traditional school because they have each a purpose of their own. There's no need to mix anything. It's not that mixing is bad or will make you explode or something—it's not necessary. 

DIR: Every lineage has a different approach. I love minimalism, so the Japanese style fits me better. 
FAP: If you ask me, "What kind of Reiki do you practice?" I will say, look, the Reiki that comes out of my hands doesn't have a label. It's just pure unpolluted life energy. And [it's the same as] what comes out of Nathalie's hands, out of everybody who's listening or not, out of every mother's hands when she's treating her child. There is no label. 
There is only a difference in practice and philosophy. Think of what we talked about earlier: the mirror. Look at the practice and choose the one that suits you. I have had a long history of Japanese culture in this life. I lived there for 12 years. I had my first Japanese girlfriend when I was 18. I have this predisposition to all things Japanese… So, I choose that [style]. But if you ask me if it's better than any other kind of Reiki… Ph my God! How can my Reiki be better than yours? Only somebody who doesn't understand the basics of Reiki would say that. Reiki does not have a label. If you think that you're better than somebody else, you really need to look at yourself, work on that first, and better not teach others.

DIR: I feel like I am going to quote you like 300 times in the future! I wanted to close the interview by discussing your two most recent books.
FAP: I published in November a Reiki book called One with Reiki. It explains Reiki's background: Japanese [culture and] spirituality. So, people who practice Reiki can understand it better. 
A few weeks ago, I published a book that's called …Is… about living in the present, being present, living a meditative and fun life. It has lots of breathing techniques, meditation techniques, etc. It's really a fun project. The editor was laughing. She said, "Oh, my! The word Reiki appears for the first time on page 156!" 
I wrote it because I see the Corona [pandemic] as a chance to do introspection, to grow. For self-realization and to do all the things that you have not done until now. Maybe some of which you have avoided until now. To fix problems that you might still have not addressed and let go of your baggage.

DIR: I've read a couple of chapters, and I really enjoyed the tone: it's joyful and warm.
FAP: For me, what is important…is to have awareness. To be present in everything. Otherwise, you cannot do your practice. Reiki is the same. But what you also need is tenderness. Tenderness for the people that you're working with, but also for the steering wheel of your car while you're driving, or for the rocks, or for the animals—for everything. If you mix awareness, mindfulness, tenderness, and kindness, that's really an incredible mixture. And that will break your heart open like a pomegranate.
DIR: Your appreciation of tenderness really comes through in the book. It's a word we don't hear a lot about Reiki. We hear a lot about doing techniques, but tenderness is much more important than perfect technique. I'm just grateful we can have these conversations and your wisdom with the world and share your tenderness. Thank you so much for all your time and wisdom!
FAP: Thank you!

Dive Into Reiki: Kathleen Prasad is the founder of Animal Reiki Source and president of the Shelter Animal Reiki Association (SARA). A Reiki practitioner for over 22 years, Kathleen Prasad teaches and shares the healing benefits of Reiki meditation for animals and their caregivers. Kathleen has created the Let Animals Lead® method of Animal Reiki. This method represents the world's first specialized, extensive, and professional curriculum in Animal Reiki and meditating with animals for healing. Kathleen's non-profit, SARA, shares and teaches Animal Reiki for rescued animals and their caregivers in shelters and sanctuaries worldwide. 
I have to say that basically, Kathleen, you created the modality of Animal Reiki. I wasn't a thing before you came up with it. So, I'm really grateful you said yes to this interview. I want to start as I do with everyone, with a little bit of your origin story: tell us about the first time you came in contact with Reiki?
Kathleen Prasad: Yeah. Thank you so much for having me, Nathalie. I'm really happy to be here. My Reiki story is, I guess, similar to a lot of people that I've heard where it's unexpected, and it sort of takes over when you had other plans. Maybe the best things in life are like that! 
I originally discovered Reiki through my mother-in-law. She wanted me to get a [Reiki] treatment because she had had one. She lived in Denver at the time, and I lived on the West coast. So, the next time I visited her, she set up this whole thing, "Oh, you have to go get this treatment." I'm like, "Reiki? That sounds weird." And I was like, I'm like humoring her. That's why I did it. I got that first treatment, and it was so relaxing and peaceful. More than peaceful, like filled with well-being like filled with goodness and light.
I had grown up with severe anxiety disorders. So, I was always stressed, always nervous. And when I had my Reiki treatment, I felt just good. Like everything was okay, you know. I got up off the table, and I felt like I was levitating a few inches off the ground. I felt so light. Like all my burdens had been lifted. I just felt so good. And I'm like, "Oh my God, this is going to heal my anxiety." I never thought I would be able to be healed. I almost never even put that in my mind that I could heal my anxiety. I was just like, "I'm an anxious person. Oh, well, I have to live with it." The door opened that there was a possibility that my anxiety could be healed. I immediately dropped everything and had to learn Reiki. I found a local teacher. I also ended up studying the next time I went to Denver with a teacher in Denver, Martha. And it was Reiki from thereon. I literally started every single day practicing Reiki and just totally dove into it. I dove into Reiki, Nathalie!

DIR: Oh my God. I love that! Many of us who suffer from anxiety embrace Reiki as it is one of the few things beyond medication that actually help us. It gives us the possibility of feeling fine and not scared, which is beautiful. So how was that training? And what lineage did you train it at the beginning?
KP: The two lineages I learned originally for the first seven or eight years were Takata lineages or Reiki Shiki Ryoho. One of my teachers was Reiki Alliance [and was] actually very strict. It was very "Hands-on, Reiki on; Hands-off, Reiki off." That was like how I originally learned. 
And my practice that I began immediately was hands-on, self-treatment every day, as soon as I learned. And then my other teacher in Denver, Martha, was much less traditional and much more intuitive. She's also an acupuncturist, so she kind of brought in a lot of Chinese medicine philosophy and that sort of spiritual teachings along with intuition. She was much more like, "Well, you know, your hands will guide you. You have these hand positions to start with, but you can be more flowing and freer with it." I think it was nice to have both of those teachers and perspectives in the beginning.
I think it gave me a really good foundation for what Reiki is, and mostly for my own healing. What I always teach my students now is that Reiki actually starts with you. And even though you're here for your animals—because everyone who comes to me wants to help their animals—it starts with you. 
I learned that really strongly from my first two teachers about self-practice. I was able to really focus on myself. And it was interesting because when I was doing my hands-on self-practice, that was when my dog, Dakota, came and laid on top of my feet in this really weird way that he never did. And he only did it when I was doing Reiki. And I'm like, "What are you doing?" And finally, it dawned on me that he was like taking the Reiki space. He was like helping himself to some lovely healing energy. So, I sat down on the floor and put my hands on him. He rolled on his side, and he was like, "Finally, mom, jeez, I've been trying to tell you, I want Reiki."
It just didn't occur to me. I was so focused on my own healing. Dakota showed me that animals love Reiki. The other thing it showed me, which was kind of like a light-bulb moment, was that animals already know what Reiki is. For me, I had to take a class, I had to read about it. I was like, "This is confusing." And then my teacher would be like, "Well, just practice it, and then it will make more sense." And my dog's like, "Oh yeah, Reiki, totally. Totally get it. I'm taking this for healing. This is great. Thanks, mom!" And I'm like, "How do you know?" It was fascinating to me how animals are so energetically sensitive and very wise about energy. And so that kind of brought me onto a little different trajectory with my Reiki practice. I mean, I was so immersed in Reiki, and I loved it so much, and it was helping my anxiety so much that I thought, "I want to do this. I want to teach this." It just became bigger and bigger in my life. But then the animals were coming forward and saying, "But Kathleen, don't forget about animals!"
I was volunteering at shelters, and I was walking dogs and working with cats. I was seeing amazing responses to Reiki from these animals that were very stressed. I knew exactly how they felt because that was like my inner way of being stressed. And I'm like, "Oh, I know Reiki can help you because it's helping me." I would do Reiki with my horse, and people would walk by the stall, look in and go, "What are you doing? Can you do that for my horse?" And I'm like, "I don't know. I guess so." It just started taking over. That was kind of where it really began. 
I still remember going to dinner with my husband and my brother-in-law, and I'm like, I thought I would teach middle school my whole life. Now I feel so inspired about Reiki and also animals. And my brother-in-law said, "Well, why don't you do animal Reiki?" And I'm, "Because nobody does animal Reiki. That's not a thing." And he's like, "Well, why don't you make it a thing?" And I'm like, "Well, yeah, okay. I can. Why not? I can make it a thing, you know?" That conversation over dinner created something in me that [felt like] "It's okay that I'm the only one who does this. It's okay that nobody understands." I just knew at the core of my being that this is my purpose. This is what I'm supposed to bring to the world. This is what I'm supposed to do. So here we are, 23 years later, and animal Reiki is a thing now!

DIR: You made it! I am amazed because Reiki was already not that well-known 23 years ago. You mostly invented the modality of animal Reiki. It was really a big breakthrough at the time. Reiki is becoming one with the universe, but we keep it very much limited to humans. I love that you had that breakthrough. And I loved that it was someone who was outside who could see with fresh eyes and give you that insight. In our pre-interview, you told me your teacher's reaction to the idea of focusing on Reiki practice with animals. 
KP: Yeah. My very first teacher was like, "No, you can't do that! That's not a thing. You have to do all your training with Reiki. And then you have to teach Reiki to people you can't do [animals.] That's just not a thing." And I was like, "Okay."
Then I went to my second teacher in Denver, Martha. And I'm like, "Is this a bad idea? I want to focus totally on animals… What do you think?" And she's like, "Kathleen, that is the most amazing idea. And if anyone is going to do it, you're the person to do it. And I support you 110%." That was how I [started] because you have to have a teacher who will train you in Level 3 Reiki to be a Reiki teacher to go any further. I had to find that person, and Martha was that person for me. I'm really grateful that she saw potential and possibility where other people were like, "Oh no, no, you can't do that."

DIR: I just love that. When it comes to the Reiki system, we have to respect the core and the modalities, but we have to express it through who we are in our practice. For you, that's your expression. For me, it's a lot about our reporting and educating or mixing it with martial arts—we all have very different expressions of Reiki. As long as we do it based on who we are, not for marketing. So I think that is lovely. Can you tell us how your protocol to share Reiki with animals evolved from your practice with people?
KP: Yeah. So, you know, I love people too. After all, we are animals also. My first teacher gave me a lot of experience. She would send clients to me. I was going to hospices. I was working on hospital patients. I was going to people's homes, and people will come to my home. So, I was doing a lot of human treatments for the first seven years of my practice. And I had a lot of really beautiful experiences with that. 
I think some of the most moving ones were the ones with hospice patients and really seeing a deeper connection than just hands-on for a sore knee or a sore leg. [There was] something more important, something bigger kind of going on. I think that that really moved me. Some of those treatments were not conventional because they couldn't be touched if they were in a hospital bed. You could just sit and hold their hand.  
I remember my neighbor got hit by a drunk driver, and she got a brain injury. I went in to see her in the ICU to do Reiki. I sat down, and I just put my hand on her foot because that was the only place [I could.] I mean, she was so banged up! You couldn't touch her anywhere. And I'm like, "Well, my teacher would not approve this. This is not strict." I put my hand on her foot; I felt so much Reiki flowing through me. I got like pain all the way up my arms to my shoulders, and I was buzzing all over. I knew that that healing connection was happening.
The nurse had said, "She's out cold. She's on meds. She's not going to wake up, but you can sit with her." So, I'm sitting with her, and about 15, 20 minutes later, I hear this little voice, "Kathleen, I knew it was you." She's awake. She could only open one eye. She was all swollen. Her name is Stella, and she has this adorable cute little voice, just adorable… She said, "Kathleen, I knew it was you. I felt like I was at the bottom of this black hole, and I wanted to give up because I was in so much pain. And then I saw this light, and I knew I was going to be okay. It felt like you pulled me up into the light." It was so amazing to hear that, you know? Because we don't get that kind of verbal feedback from animals, right? And I was like, "Wow."
I didn't even do the right positions or anything. I was just sitting there with [my friend]. And I thought that is what is happening when I go to a shelter, and I sit with a dog, and the dog is depressed and listless, and there's nobody home in their eyes. Their eyes are just tuned out. I sit with them outside the kennel, and all of a sudden, they see me, and they come over and wag their tail. I would even have dogs roll in their back for me to reach through the bars and rub their belly at the end of the session. They would just come back to hope, into positivity through Reiki. It was pulling them up into the light—how she described. When she said that to me, I got the vision of all these shelter animals that I could see felt so much better after Reiki sessions.
The human practice gave me verbal feedback for what people experienced and felt that I could see in animals. It helped me make that bridge and trust a little bit more. But when I worked with animals, a lot of times, I couldn't touch them in the beginning. I tried to just use the hand positions that I'd learned for people and put them on animals. I would never start at the head because animals don't like that. I would start at the shoulders, and I moved down the body, and then I would end on the head when they were really relaxed from Reiki or something. So that's how I began. My first book, Animal Reiki, really shows that type of thinking; it was really taking human protocol and modifying it for animals.
But I had a little problem with that because some animals were like, "Sure, that's great." As I was doing it, some animals were looking kind of uncomfortable. And then, after two minutes, they would run away. I'd only get in like two minutes of Reiki. Then some animals would be like, "Oh hell no, you're not doing that to me." They would totally run, and then I'd be like, "But then you don't get any Reiki. There's no healing happening." 
That feeling of wanting to help and create that beautiful space of pulling you into the light, in a moment of suffering, bringing you into that well-being. How do I make it so that every animal feels safe and comfortable and I'm not pushing too much. Like, "Here's some healing energy, come back. I'm trying to help you!" And running after the animals. "Come back; the healing is for you!" right?

DIR: I've run after a few cats myself!
KP: I thought that it just didn't feel satisfying. It didn't feel right. It just wasn't good. So I'm like, "Whoa, what do I do?" if I would think, okay, who's like the most sensitive animal, like, let's say, a feral cat, right? A feral cat is afraid of humans. Doesn't want to be in a cage; he wants to be free. Their eyes get all big when they see a person. What do I have to do so that a feral cat feels the peace of Reiki and trusts me to step into connection. I want every animal, even the most fearful ones, to feel safe. I don't want to push my will or my agenda on them.
It was finding the instances where I was modifying the protocol for people because I had to. It worked and then tried to make it more comfortable for animals. Respecting them more, not wanting to dominate over them as the Reiki healer, but seeing it as shared decision-making—they can decide yes or no. That was where my protocol started to really go in a different direction. And the first thing I had to do is let go of hands. That was so hard because remember, my first teacher taught me, "Hands-on, Reiki on; Hands-off, Reiki off." That was really ingrained. 

DIR: Many teachers still teach that even though there is no mention of hands-on in the Reiki precepts—it's all about your state of mind. In your case, your practice forced you to let go of the hands because it's difficult to use touch on animals who have been abused. 
KP: Hands are bad for a lot of animals. They've never known kindness. They've been abused. So, when they see you with your hands, they look at [them] like they're weapons. It's really heartbreaking. I thought, "What if I just put my hands in my lap? Where's Reiki coming from?" These were thoughts that I had. If I looked at my own practice of hands-on Reiki, what was it doing? It was changing my heart. My heart that was so anxious and had so much fear was relaxing and opening and just feeling so good. I'm like, "Reiki really touches this [points to the heart.]". So that's what I say now to my students, "Reiki is about touching hearts, not hands." That was really my first scary, like, "Oh my God, am I still doing Reiki now that I'm letting go of hands?"
[Hands up] is a predatory position. I wouldn't even be across the room [holding my hands up] because I look like I'm going to pounce and attack. The hands had to be on the lap, not beaming, not doing anything. 
Hands-on the lap: animals would be like, "Oh!" Then I had a couple of animals I knew had surgeries or a torn ligament. They would come over, and they'd actually look at my hands on my lap, and then they would turn around, and they back up their stitches and sit down on my hand. They would literally be doing their own hand position. I never saw that coming. Animals will choose physical touch, and they will choose it in their own way. And you know why I never saw that before? Because I never made space for it to happen.

DIR: Because it's contrary to what we learn. When I learned Reiki for animals initially, it was about hand-placement, chakras for animals, and not doing them for more than 10 to 15 minutes. I was told that because they don't have limiting beliefs, they absorb energy faster.
When I trained in Japanese-style Reiki, I realized I no longer needed hands. But I love the fact that these animals actually wanted touch—albeit in their own way. You must have been so surprised.
KP: It was the weirdest feeling. I'm like, "Why didn't I do this before?" A horse would come and lean into my hands, and then they would move their body around. It wasn't in any order. It was just where they felt good. And I'm like, "Wow, animals actually have a way that they like to be." And not all animals came up and touched me. Some animals would lay down five or 10 feet away. Some fearful dogs would come and lay down behind me and lean against my back. And it was really important that I didn't turn around or look at them. I didn't even see them the whole treatment, but I would feel them very gingerly lay themselves. And I would hear them [sigh].
Some animals didn't want to be in my line of vision. Some animals wanted to be further away, some closer, some in my hands. And I'm like, "Wow. If I just hold space, animals decide what's comfortable for them. If I'm not pursuing some agenda, then I never scare them. If I just sit quietly, then they're always comfortable. They're always safe. The trust is built so quickly. That was a huge change in my protocol. I'm like, "Well, we can't do hands. We can't do hand positions anymore because we might offend somebody. We might come on too strong. We might make an animal uncomfortable. We might lose trust."
By the way, what you said about timing. The first ten years of my practice, when I was really just trying to do as many Reiki treatments as possible, an hour, 60 minutes, that was the ideal time.
A lot of that idea of short treatments is about our lack of ability to hold space. We get impatient because nothing's happening. We're not doing a protocol so that if the animal gets up and leaves, let's just finish. But guess what? You just continue to hold space. They come back. It's like an ebb and a flow. They walk in and out of the space, and they come closer, further away. But if you never just sit and hold the space, you never see them come back. Because you're like, "Oh, it's been two minutes. They got up and walked off, so I'm done. Bye. And you leave, and the animal comes in and goes, "Where did she go? I came back for more Reiki. She's gone already. It's only been two minutes!

DIR: I remember they told me if an animal leaves, it's because it's ready. It's funny because I easily hold focus on space for 15 minutes. I've learned to concentrate and hold the space for an hour, two hours, but 15 minutes—when I'm busy—it's the amount of time I can hold without effort. And probably that is common to many of us. But we blame it on the animal!
There is something I love that you mentioned: respect the animal. And your big Reiki aha or oops that change your perspective on sharing Reiki with animals even more. 
KP: Yes, that's like the second major change in my protocol that happened. And it happened from this mistake that I was making for such a long time, in human Reiki. I'd always learned to talk to the person about their issue and then focus on that issue. If they come to you and they say, "My knee is really sore," then you're going to focus the energy and place your hands around the knee. If they say I'm really sad, maybe you would focus on the heart. You're kind of trying to figure out what the issue is. Of course, Reiki goes where it needs to go. Still, you're having a conversation about what is wrong and focusing your protocol around that to some extent, right? That's kind of the way that I learned from both of my teachers initially. 
I noticed with animals, especially horses, taught me that the opposite was true. If a horse had a sore leg, and I went anywhere near that sore leg or even thought about that sore leg… their ears would go back. They would turn and look at me like, "Ugh, don't think about what's wrong with me. I'm totally fine." And they'd walk out. With cats, it was funny. I would go to someone's house to do Reiki on their cat, and the cat would be sleeping. I would stay across the room. I wouldn't disturb them. And the person would tell me, "You know they have this kidney disease, they're not able to eat, and it's making them very ill," or whatever. And then I'd sit down, I'd start Reiki, and I'd start going, "Okay. So, they have this kidney disease, and we want to heal." They'd wake up and be like, "I don't know who you think you are coming into my house and thinking about me as if I'm not perfect, but I'm out of here." And they would run off, you know? And I'm like, "Oh shoot. Are they really hearing my thoughts?" Yeah. They were. And they don't like you to focus on their ailments!
That's really scary that I have to monitor my own thinking because they're connecting, not only with what my body's doing… [but with my mind.] But how do I monitor my thoughts? So I would give myself affirmations. So if an animal was really anxious, I would think about affirmations of courage. I was trying to like create positivity, but I was missing a piece. I was missing something, and this did not come clear to me until I got breast cancer. 
I had the terrible experience of having the diagnosis and then going home and telling all your friends and family and seeing their faces and how they look at me completely change. Like no longer am I Kathleen. Now I'm a tumor. When they look at me, all I see is fear, pity, sadness, worry—varying degrees of that from everyone who looked back at me. 
It was the worst feeling. I felt I had lost myself. You don't realize how much you identify with the way people look at you, especially with people that are close to you, that you love. The way they see you is really part of who you are. When that is completely gone, I was like, "Where did Kathleen go?" It was extremely painful. I was already terrified of what was going to happen to me. And all of this made everything so much worse. 
Let me tell you, who in my life could see me still? My dog and my horse. When I went to see them next, they're like, "Hey mom, great to see you. This is awesome. What are we doing today? Let's go for a walk. We're going to ride today!" And I'm like, "How come my animals can still see me?" Then I realized, "Oh my God, I have been doing this terrible thing to the shelter animals and to the animals and hospice. I've been seeing them as broken, as less than. I've been defining them by their ailment. When they look at me, they see it reflected in my eyes everything wrong and broken!" It broke my heart. I realized I was in the shelter trying to do the right thing there to help. To support—and I was actually adding to their burden. I would never have seen it had it not happened to me.
That was the biggest mistake I ever made in my practice: defining animals and people by what's wrong with them and focusing on that. That's where my protocol completely shifted again in a whole different way. 
I say now—it's the third pillar of my Let Animals Lead method—is that we focus on the animals' perfection at this moment. Seeing that essence—like my dog sees when he looks at me when my horse looks at me—is always perfect. Doesn't matter if I'm in a bad mood. If my hair is messed up, if I have cancer, whatever it is—I'm perfect. And they look at me, and I'm like, how do they see that essence? I need to see that essence in myself so that I can get better. And I need to see it in the animals that I'm with. I just vowed I will never do that to another being. It's so painful. 
That's such a big thing that I teach now. It's so different: a protocol where you basically let go of whatever the diagnosis is, whatever the issues are. You acknowledge them and go, "Okay, yeah, but now we're doing Reiki, so in this space, you are the light. All is well. You're perfect in this space. It's filled with love and compassion. I think you have to see that in yourself before you can really see it in others. 
My cancer journey really taught me, "How do I see myself as the light in my darkest moments?" That was just a lot of what I learned through my journey. It's something that I always tell my students: "I don't want you to have to go through cancer to figure this out. So, I'm telling you right now. This is how you see. Let go of everything wrong. Nothing can diminish and dim that beautiful light within. It's still there. Even in the little dog who's passing away, that's very sick. I want you to see deeper than that. See their beautiful light shine. Be a mirror, reflect it back to them, remind them of that beautiful light. And then whatever's meant to happen in their journey—if they get well if it's their time to pass—they will be embraced in the light. Just like my neighbors, Stella said, pulling them up into the light. We can't control what happens, but we can create a space filled with love and compassion, and light in every moment. Peace in every moment. It's possible.

DIR: Thank you so much for sharing that. I know it's a very vulnerable story, so I really appreciate you sharing it. And again, I think he's great for animals, but for me, what you're saying is basically the essence of Reiki. You actually created the Let Animals Lead method, which has six pillars. Can you explain what they comprise?
KP: The Let Animals Lead method is something that represents the evolution of my own journey. The little lessons that animals have taught me along the way.
The first pillar of this practice is that it's based on Japanese Reiki techniques. Of course, that was my teacher Frans [Stiene,] which I know you've also studied with. When I studied with him, he presents Reiki as a meditation practice. When I learned that aspect and slant on the different tools that we have, that really opened things up. Because, of course, with animals, you can't use the hands-on protocol anymore. So, it's all meditation-based. All those Japanese teachings are really at the foundation and core of what kind of meditations I do—I do Reiki meditation. So whether it's the symbols and the mantras, Hatsurei Ho, the precepts even, are taught as like a mantra.
[You use them to] go inward and create that radiance that the animals can step into and step out of. The Let Animals Lead method is really about meditating with animals for healing. But at the base, the first pillar is those Japanese Reiki techniques. 
I always tell my students, there are six pillars. Only the first one is Reiki. It's really evolved into something more and different. Why? Because wanting to empower animals. Wanting to make them feel safe. Wanting to be able to deepen my trust with them. That sacredness of animals has really driven the rest of the pillars. 
The second pillar is about touch. We use touch only when animals initiate it. That is very different than what others have done in the Reiki community. In the beginning, you know, touch was just done. And then people started to realize, "Oh, some animals don't like touch. We should give them a choice." Which is good. Now the normal teaching is to put your hands on the animal but let them walk away. That's kind of the way that the human teachings have been modified for animals. In the Let Animals Lead method, that's not far enough. We never want to even go there with the touch if the animal doesn't 110% want it. How do we make sure [of that?] Let them be the ones to do it. 

DIR: It's like #metoo in a way.
KP: Totally. And especially when you're talking about animals who have trauma. This is not a mistake that you can afford to make because it may be very difficult or impossible to regain their trust once you've crossed that line. Your animals at home may forgive you, and it's not a big deal. 

DIR: Yeah. They forgive everything!
KP: Yeah. My philosophy about that is that if I'm going to give the utmost sacred respect and choice to a traumatized animal, why wouldn't I do that to the animal who is my partner in life? Wouldn't I afford them the same respect? Just because they're nice, I shouldn't take advantage of that. It's always animal-initiated. We never cross that line. Trust the animal with that. 
The third pillar is about that state of mind change. We focus on the animals' perfection. And that is very different as well. What's taught a lot in the animal Reiki community now is finding out the diagnosis, figuring out the issues, and then focusing on those areas. Some people use the chakra; some people just visualize light beaming to the sore ankle or whatever it is—but they focus on what's wrong. 
Because of my unique experience with how that feels negative when you're suffering, I said, "Hell no, we're not doing that." We're going to stand in the light. And we're only going to see the light, and we're going to reflect the light back. We're going to be one in the light. The light is all there is. Everything else just dissolves in that light. I call it seeing with your Reiki eyes, but that is really seeing. That's not easy. That's why we have to practice. So the focus of our state of mind is really important with animals, because, again, [they] sense your thoughts. They're going to become uncomfortable and resistant to connecting with you if they sense your thoughts going to what's wrong with them. Your vibration totally changes when you start going, "Oh my God, they have this skin condition." Or if you look at them and say, "You're perfect and beautiful." You're not denying that they have a skin condition. But you're saying that doesn't define you—I see more. I see that beautiful essence of you. 
The fourth pillar is something that working with animals will teach you: meditation is a way of compassion. It's not a physical body position. You do martial arts. When you learn your forms or even your meditations to prepare for your forms, it's very strict. Your back is straight. Everything is in alignment. And that's very important. 
When you're working with animals, you might be in a barn with a horse. You could be in a pasture with a cow. You might be sitting outside, under a tree with a bird. You could be in a shelter environment, and there's the public walking in and out, so you have to shift where you're going. You could be walking in a forest with your dog. In all these places, it's possible to be Reiki. If we understand that Reiki is not a physical position, it's our state of mind and heart. It's our way in the world. It's like a way of compassion. Animals understand that. 
If you have ever taken a yoga class or something, everyone's meditating at the beginning. You have your cute little outfit on, and they have music, and everybody's all shiny and looking good. But for all you know, everybody in the class is thinking about something else entirely, totally distracted, not even focused. And the teacher will look out and be like, "Yeah, look how great the class looks." And you look around you go, "Yeah, everyone's so namaste. It's totally awesome, right?" Nobody knows. Well, let me tell you if you were standing in a pasture of horses and you look perfect, but mentally you're out to lunch, your heart is not in it, the animals will know like that! And they will not tolerate it. They'll just be like, "Whatever," and they'll just leave. 
I work at the care foundation usually in February. Although I didn't get to go this year, I've been going there for 10 years, working with exotic animals, rescued animals like alligators, crocodiles, monkeys, like everything. They're so sensitive to your state of mind. If you don't have your whole heart in it if you're not completely open and in that grounded space, forget it. They will have nothing to do with you. No way. It doesn't matter how great your yoga outfit is and how perfect your posture is. They're like, forget it.
It doesn't really matter whether I'm sitting or standing; my eyes are open or closed. If you're with horses in a pasture, you have to keep your eyes open to be safe. You're going to be aware. They can spook; you have to keep your wits about you. How do you meditate while you're still present? Well, the point of meditation is to be present. I know some of us meditate to go off into Lalaland, but animals show us that that's not why we meditate. "You do your thing, honey, but I'm not going to be involved." Animals will be involved when our meditation brings us here. 
Again, meditation is our way of compassion; the physical position of our body is not. In fact, with animals, we have to be really flexible. If we want to be in the barn with pigs, we have to sit on a bucket and move around. My students at Bright Haven used to go out with the goats. They would come back, and their hair would be green because the goats love to chew on their hair, but they had been chewing on alfalfa. They'd come back, and I'd be, "How was your treatment?" They're all, "It was awesome" with a big chunk of green slime.

DIR: That is holding space, right? You're not distracted. They're chewing your hair, and you still sitting with compassion and not worrying.
KP: And they're there with you because you're with them. It's an honor that they chewed on your hair because they didn't run to the other path. 
The fifth pillar is developing mindfulness with animals for peace and healing. For me, the essence of Reiki practice with animals is mindfulness. Learning to be here. Now in this moment and everything we do with Reiki—if it's the precepts, Hatsurei Ho, the symbols and the mantras, if we're doing hands-on healing for ourselves in the presence of animals—we're creating this space of I'm letting go of all the other stuff. I'm here with you now, 110%. I'm here with an open heart and open mind. 
To me, that mindfulness is ultimately the quality that animals seek in us. I remember once I took some students to Guide Dogs for the Blind to train and meditate with the dogs. They were so like perfectionists about their meditation practice. They were sitting in a room with the dogs walking around. They're inward, totally focused. At one point, one of the dogs came and sat in front of my student and looked at her. She opened her eyes, and she's like, "No, I'm meditating. Don't bother me; I'm meditating. Then the dog puts one foot on her, and she's still [trying to meditate.]. Then the dog licks her on the nose, and she's still [trying to meditate.] Finally, the dog goes, "Whatever." He just walked away. Afterward, I was like, "Why didn't you engage with the dog?" And she's like, "Well, because I was meditating." I'm like, "But what's the purpose of your meditation?" And she's like, "Well, to connect to them…Oh! Okay!" It was like a light bulb. 
Mindfulness, being here now, being present—that's what animals teach us. We can't zone out and be floating in space if we want to be with animals. 
The sixth and last pillar, I think, is maybe the most important one. And that one is that we honor animals as teachers and healers in their own right. If there's anything that could heal the human-animal bond on this planet, it's seeing through those eyes. We often see animals as products. We dominate them. We see them like we're taking care of them, but they don't really know any better. We're like the smart ones. Spiritual practice with an animal teaches you that animals understand energy more. They're more expanded in their view. They are spiritual teachers to us. If we can see the world through the eyes of animals, for example, a butterfly, we can learn so much about transformation, right? 
To me, that is the path towards healing for our planet. That is what our planet is missing right now: that harmony, respect, and seeing the sacredness in beings that are different from ourselves.

DIR: That is such a change of paradigm. Because we always feel I going to offer Reiki to animals to save them. We never let them be our teachers and healers. In that sense, you had a beautiful experience with snakes and healing. Would you mind sharing that?
KP: Sure. A lot of people hate snakes, and I have to admit that I am afraid of snakes as well. And They're just different kinds of beings, and some of them are venomous. So, there's this whole thing between humans and snakes, right? "Oh my God, a snake!" Right. You hear the old Buddhist teachers tell stories about how you kill the snake, and that represents something. Culturally in folktales, [snakes are] always the villain. Look at the Bible! The whole cultural paradigm with snakes is like a negative thing. Right.
After I had my surgery, I went to the Care Foundation. I was still pretty weak and in a lot of pain. But I'm like, "No, I need to go and be with the animals because it's so healing to be there!" That year I decided to go into the snake room to do Reiki with Leah, the vice-president of SARA, and my best friend and partner. We haven't seen that [room] before. They have like three walls in a room, floor to ceiling of the glass, you know, cages with the snakes in them. They have a few that you can hold that are tame, but a lot of them are like rattlesnakes, cobras… a lot of venomous snakes.
It's a little intimidating to go there and have the Cobra come up with the hood. But we're like, "No, all the animals are beautiful, bright lights. We should go in to do Reiki." Leah was on one side with the back wall, and I was on the front wall. We were setting our intention to do Reiki, and all of a sudden, instead of saying, "I'm here to help you and support you with Reiki." I'm like, "I could actually use some healing. I'm feeling like crap. I have been through a lot in the last six months." 
I just had this intuitive feeling that these snakes were healers and teachers. There was a rattlesnake right in front of me. It was all curled up, sleeping. As soon as I set my intention and put my hands on my heart, he woke up and brought his head up. Intuitively I brought my arm up, which was in a lot of pain after my surgery. We looked at each other through the glass, and he started to dance, to slowly weave back and forth. I followed his movement with my arm. We were like dancing together. It was like such a powerful, energetic feeling.
I felt almost like my heart was going to explode. My lower belly felt really dense and weird. But I'm like, "This is the snake sharing. This is an honor that he's dancing with me." It was kind of overwhelming, but [I let the fear go.] As soon as I did, it felt good. We were just doing this.
His name was Kane. He was a cane back rattler and was about six, seven feet long. I had this weird feeling that of like a bigger view. I looked at the wall, and every single snake was dancing with us. There were like two or three cobras. There was a boa on the bottom part. There were like… 10 snakes all doing this, all of us together. I said to Leah something weird is happening. She turned around, and all the snakes went down, back into their sleeping pose… I felt so much gratitude. I'm feeling like, "Oh my God, snakes show compassion to humans and are willing to connect after what we've done [to them in] our culture... They are dancing with me!" When I walked out of that room, my head felt really spaced out, and the pain in my arm was 80% gone. I was brought to tears.
I think that all the snakes felt that I didn't see them as scary, bad, or creepy. They probably thought, "This is weird, a human that's looking at us with different eyes. She sees us as the light. That's really interesting!" 
That's what I've really noticed with animals: whatever species it is, they sense and feel the way we see them. It's so important for us to open our eyes and see the light because we are all the same thing. We're all this beautiful part of this web in the universe. We all share that, and nobody's left out of it. A lot of people are like, "Oh, snakes, no, I can never get in the snake room, Kathleen." And I'm like, "I respect that. That's okay. You don't have to go to the snake room. But I'm just saying, if you did, you might be amazed."

DIR: It's about letting go of separation and feeling compassion. I'm so grateful you shared this story. If I could beam your message to every brain in the world, I would! Because for me, that is the core of the practice.
I want to finish the interview talking about SARA, your non-profit. I know it's very relevant to you. What are some of your goals for the future?
KP: The Shelter Animal Reiki Association (SARA) was something I started after my dog Dakota passed away. He's kind of our mascot. It's sort of dedicated to his memory because he was a rescue dog. He was also my first animal Reiki teacher and my most profound animal Reiki companion for 16 and a half years. 
I thought of all the animals in shelters that never find a home and have faced so much trauma in their lives. Nobody realizes all the gifts they have to give and all of the wisdom they have to share. All the light that they bring to the world— it's like this untapped reservoir of wisdom and compassion in the world. Dakota was that for me. I thought, what if I never adopted him? I would never have known. 
I thought, what could I do to help and support [all these animals]? To recognize their light, their gifts, their wisdom. Share Reiki. When I'm sharing Reiki with animals, when I'm meditating with them, I see them as my teacher. I see them as the light. I shine that back to them as we've talked about. And maybe others will see it. If they can see me seeing it, maybe they'll remember it, even though they've been traumatized. And maybe the next person who walks through looking to adopt will see it too.
My goal with SARA to share Reiki with is as many rescued animals on this planet as possible. We should be in the shelters, in the sanctuaries sitting opposite them and being the light with them. We started out in 2008, so this is our 13th year. We went from about 10 members to now about 200 members. We started out as a program of volunteer practitioners going in and offering treatments. Now we have educational programs we offer to staff to volunteers in many different organizations across the world. It started out just in the United States. Now we're also in Europe, India, Canada, and South America.
I'm so proud of SARA. We're the only organization that does what we do. Not only do we volunteer treatments and teaching—but we also give back a percentage. When we teach a class to the general public at a shelter or sanctuary, we donate 25 to 50% back to the organization. We've donated hundreds of thousands of dollars over the last ten or 12 years. 
I'm so honored: the crew of volunteers in SARA are the best people in the world. They're amazingly selfless people. If you want to find out more about what we do and how to be involved, you can go to shelteranimalreikiassociation.org.

DIR: Where can people find your regular training and books?
KP: If you want to learn animal Reiki with me, animalreikisource.com. I have tons of different programs on there. I have a blog with tons of articles. I've got all my podcasts on there that you can listen to. And all my books are on my website and also on Amazon.

DIR: Kathleen, I really appreciate your time, Katelyn. For me, it's been a very moving experience. And I hope the whole world hears a lot more from you.
KP: Thank you for giving me this platform to share what I love and, hopefully, bring more people into that possibility of seeing animals in a more sacred way. I think it's what our planet needs right now.

Before joining the Zen monastery in Japan for my training, I started reading Buddhist texts, specifically the teachings of Master Dogen, the founder of the Soto school of Zen in that country. In his texts, and later on other Zen writings by the likes of Dainin Katagiri, there were mentions of “transmissions” between Zen master and student. 

“Just understand that when a master who has attained the way with a clear mind authentically transmits to a student who has merged with realization, then the wondrous dharma of the Seven original Buddhas, in its essence, is actualized and maintained. This cannot be known by those who study words.” —Dogen Zenji.

These silent, energetic transmissions and the fact that they help establish your lineage in the Buddhist tradition, felt so close to Reiki’s initiation or attunement process that I was utterly surprised. 

Later, studying with my mentor, Frans Stiene, he mentioned the link between attunements and a Shingon Buddhist ritual called kaji. Although commonly translated into English as “blessing,” in Shingon practice, it means far more: adding the power of Buddha and holding that power—as implied by its characters ka (adding) and ji (holding). 

“The Shingon practice of kaji is generally understood to be a mutual empowerment of self and Buddha. This… definition, however, neglects the important role that kaji has historically played as a hands-on healing technique,” explains Pamela Winfield in her study Curing with Kaji: Healing and Esoteric Empowerment in Japan.

Hands-on healing. Empowerment. Healing. Wordless transmission of wisdom. Finding and holding our Buddha-nature (true essence, bright inner light). All the elements of the Reiki attunements are present in these rituals. Given that Mikao Usui, the founder of Reiki, trained in many of these spiritual practices, it’s not surprising that transmissions and kajis could be the basis on which he evolved the concept of attunements.

The beauty of retracing the origins of attunements is that it points the way to a deeper understanding of the ritual. For example, in the West, we often see attunement as the master empowering and offering a gift (connection to the Reiki energy) to the student. However, in these Japanese traditions, the student is already enlightened. The blessing helps her or him shed the layers of false perceptions that obscure this knowledge. 

Furthermore, the translations of the characters that compose the word Reiju (Japanese for attunement) point directly to the concept of no giver, no receiver:

霊 Rei – How to give, spiritual

授 Ju – How to Receive, receive, hand down, give, impart, instruct, grant, offer, bless.

During Reiju, nothing is given; nothing is received. It’s an opportunity for both student and teacher to awaken, to be aware of what exists deep within.

The Japanese origins also point towards the fact a Reiki master can share this ritual of attunement or Reiju any time it feels appropriate, not just for initiations. “If by performing Reiju a student were to become magically enlightened, have an energy centre ‘opened,’ or ‘receive’ a specific level of Reiki (these are just some of the claims made about the modern-day attunement), why is it that the Usui Reiki Ryôhô Gakkai performs Reiju at every single meeting between student and teacher? It is because magic is not the answer, but rather the commitment to personal practice from both the student and the teacher,” explains Bronwen Logan Stiene in her article Everything About Reiju.

Often Reiki 3 practitioners see the teachings at this level as tools to be shared with others. Performing Reiju, however, is also a form of self-empowerment and exploration. By letting go of the preconception that we are blessing just the student, we can open the door to that exploration. The ritual of Reiju then becomes a personal practice, one that takes us deeper and deeper into our Reiki journey. 

Performing Reiju.

This post was written originally for Reiki Rays.

When I learned Reiki, almost 15 years ago, I took a weekend course that included the first two levels. I loved it, but the following years made me realize that there was a lot more to Reiki practice than what my teacher was able to provide on that weekend. Here are five things I wish I had known from day one.

1. The need for self-practice

That first training was fun, emotional, and magical. But also all over the place, cramming information at warp speed and leaving out some fundamentals. For example, although we took the time to practice hands-on healing on others, we didn’t go over self-care protocol. We were just told to practice.

As a result, I focused mostly on offering sessions, which left me weirdly drained and emotional.

Another teacher pointed towards the importance of self-practice, and it changed my Reiki journey. I became more grounded and started to shed layers of anger and worry, and offer a brighter light to others.

2. The meditation side of Reiki

I went to many classes—most focused almost exclusively on hands-on healing. The only meditation we were taught was Gassho, and we probably did it for like… three minutes.

I still remember one teacher saying, I practice Reiki and meditation. She meant it as separate practices.

But Reiki is meditation. During hands-on healing, we need to be mindful, to be focused and fully present. On top of that, there are several specific Reiki meditations to stimulate and connect more deeply with energy. For example, Joshin Kokyu Ho (Purifying Breath), Seishin Toitsu, or meditating with the mantras and symbols. Even the Reiki precepts can be tools for contemplation.

Adding these meditations to your Reiki practice helps you experience the system beyond hands-on healing and take it to a deeper level: reconnecting with your true essence.

3. I am not doing the healing; I am holding the space for healing

I spent my first years trying so hard for people to feel better, blaming myself if they didn’t. My energy wasn’t “strong enough,” “I didn’t place my hands in the right places,” etc. Understanding that my job as a practitioner was to do my own work first in order to be able to be fully present during sessions, was a complete game-changer.

4. Reaching a plateau is ok

Sometimes our practice becomes blah for a bit. No significant insights, few sensations, just regular, old practice. And that is good! We are processing and integrating. It usually ends with a big aha (you only need patience). If it lasts, it may be a sign that it’s time to reach out to our teacher or mentor who can provide guidance to help us move forward. Which leads me to…

5. The need for mentoring and continuing education

When I did my certifications, I was told that that was all the training I needed. The rest was practice, practice, practice. The thing is that when you practice, that’s the moment questions pop up.

When I was researching to do my Reiki master, it hit me: Mikao Usui studied Japanese spiritual practices for decades and we expect to learn his system… in a couple of weekends? So I called my teacher and asked if she would provide long-term mentoring. She answered that it was not needed. That if I felt stuck, she would be happy to give me a chakra balancing session.

After taking Reiki level 3 training four times, attending many retreats, and training in Japan, I understand – she wasn’t able to provide mentoring because she literally didn’t know any more than what she taught in those two weekends.

Reiki practice seems simple. You get an attunement, learn a few techniques and voila, you’re done. But this simplicity is deceptive. There are many layers to the understanding of the system. We need to shift our mindset towards one of continuing education. Of questioning and contemplation of the practice. Of having a mentor and serving as a mentor.

Think about it; it happens in yoga, martial arts, and most practices. Why not Reiki?

If you just started your Reiki practice, I hope these five lessons I learned the hard way, help you have a smoother road towards a deeply fulfilling practice.