Human Reiki Stories
Dian had slipped on a patch of ice on her back stairs and taken a bad fall. She’d landed flat on her back across two stairs-one just above the small of her back, one across her upper back. She had been in pain and unable to sleep for several days. I suggested Reiki, and she decided it was worth a try.
I worked with her across distance that evening. As I worked, I could feel a tremendous amount of Reiki energy being pulled into her back, but when I spoke with her the next day, she said she was still in pain. Further, she said she hadn’t felt any energy entering her back during the session. Puzzled, I asked her if she had felt anything at all during the session. She thought a moment, then said that her right leg had twitched quite strongly throughout the session. “Why is that?” I asked. “What’s going on with your leg?”
“I had varicose vein surgery on it last week,” she said. After a moment, she added, “Oh!”
That night, I gave her another Reiki session across distance. This time, I didn’t feel anything in my hands; nevertheless, I knew that the Reiki was working. When I saw Dian the next day, she did a little happy dance. She said that her pain was completely gone and that she had slept through the night for the first time since her fall.
***
My friend Cathy and I had walked into the diner for lunch and were preparing to take our seats when an elderly man sailed through the air and slammed, head first, into the wooden frame of our booth. I was immediately kneeling next to him, coat still on, purse still slung on my shoulder. Pale and extremely agitated, he clutched his chest and cried out over and over that he had a bad heart. I asked if I could touch him.
The moment I laid my hands on the top of his head, he noticeably calmed. His frightened voice became softer, and the fear left his eyes. After about a minute, he had completely relaxed.
When I asked the man what had happened, he said that the stool had broken. Indeed it had. I saw that the metal pipe that connected the seat to the floor had snapped in two.
I continued channeling Reiki while we waited for the paramedics to arrive. The man told me that he lived next door in an assisted living community, that he came to the diner several times a week for lunch, that he needed to pay the check. (I told him he didn’t.) He told me again about his heart, but he said it calmly and no longer seemed worried.
After a few minutes, he kindly said, “I’m better now. You don’t need to keep touching me.”
But with his permission, I kept my hands where they were until the paramedics arrived. By then, the color had returned to his face, and he was sitting up (at his insistence), talking about his home, and breathing calmly.
***
My great aunt Hilda had been in a nursing home for quite a few years. She suffered from an auto-immune disease as well as a condition that dried out her mucous membranes: mouth, throat, nose, eyes. She was blind and in constant pain.
She loved horses and used to ride as a child. One day, I brought my saddle to her room. She ran her hands over it and over and over it, crying and laughing.
Later, when her condition worsened, I would place my hands on her head. Her pain would leave, and she would fall into a quiet sleep.
***
Even though the couple was thrilled to finally move into the big, beautiful house they had built in rural Wisconsin, they felt that something was wrong. They couldn’t put their finger on what it was, but they felt uneasy. They were worried for their children. Even the cat prowled and growled, unable to settle in. They sent me a photograph of the house and asked if there was anything I could do. I offered to clear it with Reiki. As they lived too far from me for an in-person visit, they agreed that I would work across distance from my home.
While the house was quite pleasing to look at, it unsettled me. I decided to work with it out in the open air, wanting to be sure that the heavy energy didn’t lodge itself in my own house. Using Reiki, I cleared each room, one by one. The areas most in need of clearing were the mud room (the area between the house and the garage) and the master bedroom. There was a heavy gray presence in the bedroom, primarily in the wall that faced the front of the house.
When I later reported this to the woman, she said that their bed was up against that front wall, and that neither she nor her husband had slept well since moving into the house. She also said that the cat had steadfastly refused to step foot in the mud room.
The next morning, she called to tell me that she and her husband had slept better than either of them had slept in years. She said that the whole house felt lighter, and that they were no longer afraid. This was the last I heard from her but assume that the benefits extended to the family cat as well.
***
A friend, Jeannette, is a member of a community singing group that gives performances twice a year. Jeannette often sings a solo at these performances. Some years ago, she confided that doing the solos caused her intense anxiety. The reason was that one night many, many years before, as a fledgling actor, she had completed a performance that included a solo and while heading home was accosted and raped. The trauma of that event followed her into every subsequent solo performance.
After telling me about this trauma, she requested a Reiki session. She was performing a solo the following evening and hoped that the Reiki would help alleviate her fear. It did. And the fear has not returned.
***
My friend and colleague, Tom, was a beloved high school teacher. Over 50 of his students were present at his funeral, some of them participating in the service. One young woman approached the podium to read a poem. She began well enough but was quickly overcome with grief. As her voice cracked and dipped, several of the young women in attendance began to quietly cry, then several more, and several more. I could feel the grief beginning to swell and sensed that the students were on the verge of hysteria.
Just one week before, I had been attuned to Level II Reiki and had learned the Reiki signs that allow one to send Reiki healing across distance and that assist with emotional healing. There was nothing to lose in trying. I covered my right hand with my left so as to shield what I was doing and quickly made the signs. The swell of grief pulled back. The crying stopped. The young women at the podium regained her composure, and the service continued.