There has been plenty of scientific work done already to bridge the gap between Western science and Eastern energy work, particularly in the field of health. Therapeutic Touch, acupuncture, and Reiki are now practiced in hospitals and medical clinics alongside traditional Western doctoring and surgery. Here's a quote from the Reiki article ...

The word, "Rei", means variously - universal, spiritually guided, and divine. Additional research shows that it also means supernatural consciousness or spiritual consciousness [some would say simply "ghost-like, non-physical, spiritual]. In the West, one might speak of God-consciousness without the connotation of religion, if that concept is possible to the Western mind.

The word "Ki" is a Japanese word referring to life force or energy [some would say pervasive internalized universal energy]. In Chinese it is "Ch'i" or "Qi". In Sanksrit, in Hindu thought, it is referred to as "Prana"; in Hawaiian it is "Ti" or "Ki", in Polynesia it is "Mana", in Iroquois it is "Orenda, in Greek it is "Pneuma" or "Nous", in Hebrew it is "Ruah", in Islamic countries it is "Barraka", and in the West it has been called the Light, cosmic energy, odic force, orgone, bioplasma, Universal Radiant Energy, and Vital Life Force.

Western scientists, such as Einstein, Heisenberg, Bohr, and Planck have said that energy is the essence of the material world. Quantum physics demonstrates that solid matter and separation into "things" is somewhat illusory; there are only varied states of energy. This view is inherent in the Unified Field Theory ....

Research in the fields of psychology, oncology, immunology, and cardiology has shown that the reduction of stress has immediate important positive effects on the immune system and cell changes, as well as in the avoidance of pathology. Many diseases are related to excess stress. Can Reiki be of help, since it reduces stress?

Reiki is currently in use as a complementary therapy at the Tucson Medical Center in Arizona, the Portsmouth Regional Hospital in New Hampshire, and at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Hospital in New York. The Hospital at the University of Pennsylvania (HUP) Medical School, Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center, Marian General Hospital, and the California Pacific Medical Center all offer Reiki to their patients. In Cleveland, hospitals are considering setting up a Reiki clinic. In Vermont, there is already a Complementary Medicine clinic at Windsor Hospital where Reiki practitioners are working. A recent newspaper article indicates that there are at least 65 Reiki practitioners among the doctors and nurses at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center. There are other hospitals in Vermont, New Jersey and California which have permitted Reiki as a stress-reduction modality. New hospitals are being added to this list almost daily.

I am neither a "skeptic" or a "believer". I am (among other things) an energetic healer - a Master of two traditions of Reiki (Tibetan and Usui Shiki Ryoho) and a HUNA practitioner/instructor. I, my teachers, students and clients have witnessed and experienced many many MANY successful healings using both Reiki and HUNA, healings that could not possibly been accomplished using today's Western medical techniques. Neither I nor they need scientific journals or prizes from Stockholm to "prove" that what we do WORKS! It will be very interesting to see the scientific explanations unfold as years go by.

To illustrate my point (at the risk of boring you with another anecdote), a couple years ago I was visiting my cousin, a Registered Nurse, in Nanaimo BC. She was telling me that in her hospital, Reiki practitioners are welcomed in the surgery rooms as the doctors cannot but agree that patients receiving Reiki energy during surgery recover many times faster and with far less complications. All the nurses at her hospital are encouraged to take courses in Therapeutic Touch as well.

Then she told me her daughter, 10 years old and a promising young figure skater, had been suffering with painful plantar's warts for about a year. SHe had been religiously taking her daughter out of school for weekly chemical "burning" treatments at the doctor's for months. The girl's foot had become a godawful painful mess of angry red inflamed sores, and the child was getting ready to quit her figure skating because of them.

My cousin asked me to use Reiki to help the child's foot, and I did. I passed Reiki energy to that foot about 6 times, a couple minutes each time, over a period of 48 hours. I got a call from her mother a week later thanking me profusely -- she said the child's foot had healed up completely, no more visits to the doctor and she was back to her old routines at the figure skating club.

Well, at the time I was new to Reiki, and found it hard to believe that those few little treatments could have had such an effect - that kid's foot had been a real mess! So I drove the 100 km back to their house to check it out for myself - and sure enough, there was only the faintest little pink scars where those sores had been. WOW -- I was one impressed camper, and she was one happy kid!

Here's a couple more links about energetic healing and the inroads Western science is making, right now! - to document and understand how it works. Enjoy!

Reiki and Science

Eastern vs Western Logic

On Energy work for the Doubter

Measuring Life-Force Energy


SUGGESTION: If you'd rather not wait (and suffer) for years for Western medical science to catch up to Eastern energetic healing methods, try this. Next time you have a headache, a toothache, or any other complaint that you're good and ready to get rid of, PM me. I'll pass you energy, wherever you may be and you can check out the effects and results for yourself.

YOu don't need to "believe" a thing, and you certainly don't need "permission" from Stockholm to try it. You've got nothing to lose except your pain and your skepticism - because the worst these techniques can possibly do for you is .... nothing.

daylia