Part II

Reiki was the next phase of my enlightenment.  After two years of working with acupuncture in my practice, a seventy-year-old patient, whom I had previously treated for an osteoarthritic neck condition, came into my office under emergency circumstances.  She had fallen down half a flight of stairs and wanted me to check her neck.  The whole right side of her face was a sorrowful, swollen, black and blue mass.  Only minor treatment of her neck was needed, however, I told her to come back the next day to make sure that post traumatic swelling hadn't built up around the cervical nerve roots.

Her spirits seemed fine.  I told her that she shouldn't be surprised or worried if over the next few days, the black and blue facial bruise turned green then yellow.  That normally occurs once the capillary blood ruptured from the trauma starts the absorption process, or migrates to other areas due to gravity.  She laughed about it, as it was her nature to do so when she was worried.

She came back the next day and my examination of her neck presented a stable status. However, to my astonishment, there were no signs of any facial discoloration or swelling. I told her that I was amazed!  She replied that her neighbor had just taken a Reiki course in California and had treated her the night before. "What's Reiki?" I asked.

She could not explain it to me.  But she told me that John and Beth Gray, church ministers from California, were coming to New York for the first time to teach a Reiki class.  As I stared at her healed, once-grotesque bruises, I thought, "Okay, why not take the class?" My acupuncture techniques had improved my success rate with a very demanding Fortune 500 and celebrity heavy caseload.  Maybe this was something I could use to get even better results.

That year, 1977, John Gray taught our class of ten people.  He explained that in the late 1800's, Mikao Usui, in Japan had developed the Reiki procedures during a solitary time of fasting when visions of a healing treatment came to him.  After he had died, a nurse who had been taught by him, had traveled to the United States in order to teach Reiki to others.  She was staying in California with the Grays, and John explained at that time, that there were only twelve people in the U.S. who were doing Reiki.  Today there are tens of thousands of practitioners worldwide.

The two-day session was very informative.  Reiki is a healing treatment in which the practitioner places their hands over designated areas of the body.  The training enables the practitioner to channel what is termed a Universal Life Force through their hands to the person receiving the energy.  That energy does not deplete the energy of the practitioner, as it does not come from them, but flows through them to where it is needed. The practitioner's own energy is enhanced as hot water that flows through a pipe warms the pipe.

When working with patients, I had often felt a tingling and warm sensation in my hands that I dismissed as just incidental.  After the Reiki classes, which affirmed what I had been abstractly experiencing, I concentrated on enhancing that warm energy sensation and it intensified immensely.  At times my hands felt like they were burning before I even placed them on a patient.  It was as if something in my patient needed to receive the "energy" and I needed to channel it to them.  When I placed my hands on them, I felt a relief of that built-up charge as that current of energy was transferred to them.  It was exquisitely comforting to my patient and me.

After a while, the flow dissipated and I knew the treatment was completed.  It left me energized.  As time went on, I modified the Reiki treatment by focusing my hand placement on the head, channeling energy into the brain through the nerve systems down the spiral cord and out to areas of the body in need.  My busy waiting-list practice did not allow a half hour or longer for each individual Reiki session.  However, by using Spinal Mobilization Techniques, adjustments and "shiatsu in motion" movements, I now realize in retrospect, that I had physically opened up blockages in my patient's body, and to complete the treatment, I was able to use my modified Reiki technique to great effectiveness, if only with just a few minutes of hands-on contact.

I think that the high level of quality and quantity of Universal Life Force "energy" that I was able to impart in a short time was due to the fact that in my ten to twelve hour workdays, I was always in a healing state of consciousness, and constant use of the "energy" had elevated and reinforced my inner mechanisms to work automatically at a high level of effectiveness.  From mid-1970 through the late 1990's, I calculated that I had treated approximately 30 patients a day, 5 days a week, 48 weeks a year for over 20 years.  That equals approximately 150,000 Reiki (Universal Life Force) energy treatments that I have had the privilege to give to my patients and that I receive the personal benefit of having that energy flow through me.

Acupuncture first introduced me to the concept of "energy" and the balance of Yin and Yang to restore harmony and health.  Reiki was able to help me recognize and feel the "energy" that was a pillar of Traditional Chinese Medicine.  I knew "energy" could flow through me to another person, but I still didn't really know how it worked.  What more could I learn about the healing powers of "energy"?