D e s e r t E x p o s u r e
June 2008
Tuning In
Silver City Reiki Master Vicki Allen channels "Universal Life Energy" that benefits not only those being treated but also herself.
By Peggy Platonos
Imagine a healing modality where both the person receiving the treatment and the person giving the treatment benefit, on all levels of their being. Imagine a healing modality where the practitioner is required to do nothing more than offer himself or herself as a channel for an inexhaustible supply of healing energy pouring in from the universe, and winds up energized rather than depleted after giving a treatment. Imagine also that anyone can be taught to channel this energy.
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Vicki Allen demonstrates a Reiki
treatment on her husband, Silver City ophthalmologist Dr. Neil Apple,
who is himself trained in Reiki. (Photo by Peggy Platonos) |
Too good to be true? A passing fad that will eventually leave a trail of disillusioned and disappointed people behind? A New Age parlor game?
That more or less sums up Silver City resident Vicki Allen's skeptical response when she first heard of Reiki in the 1970s. She was homesteading in the Slocan Valley in British Columbia at the time — a remote valley named for a lake, which, she says, was so clean you could drink from it. She had moved there from Pennsylvania in answer to "that call to live a cleaner, more harmonious life, closer to nature" and had found there a community of like-minded people, most of them enthusiastically embracing an alternative lifestyle.
Eventually, as the interest in Reiki increased rather than diminished among her friends, Allen's curiosity overcame her skepticism. "I asked a friend for my first treatment, and so began my long, loving and enduring relationship with the energy of Reiki," she says. Twenty-six years later, she is a Reiki Master, certified to teach Reiki as well as to give treatments, and she lists among her students a number of physicians, nurses, nurse practitioners, physician's assistants, hospital administrators, psychotherapists, massage therapists, occupational therapists, physical therapists and social workers.
The word Reiki (pronounced RAY-key) is an amalgam of two Japanese words meaning "Universal" and "Life Energy," and "Universal Life Energy" is the name given to the energy that Reiki practitioners channel during treatments. Allen explains: "The source of this 'Ki' or life energy is universal not personal, so a person giving a Reiki treatment does not get depleted. The person giving the treatment is simply a channel for this gentle healing energy to pass through them to the person they are treating."
Actually, Allen amends, it's more accurate to say that what's happening in a Reiki treatment is that "the person receiving the treatment is drawing the energy to them through the person treating. Because of this, both people are getting the benefits of the energy and get recharged whether receiving or giving the treatment."
Trying to document the effectiveness of Reiki treatments is something of a nightmare for scientifically minded researchers, because it's all rather nebulous. "The benefits most often recognized in a treatment are a very deep level of relaxation and openness, a blissful state that supports the person to feel grounded in love and safety, and allows energy blocks to release," Allen reports. "But each time it's different, and different people feel it differently."
Try measuring that in a scientific manner!
Allen goes on to say, "Reiki works on four levels of a person's being: their physical body, emotions, mind and spirit. For this reason, the results of a treatment could show up in any or all of these areas. The energy goes to where it's needed and is not controlled or directed in the treatment by either person. The person receiving the treatment does their own healing, drawing this energy to them, and the person giving is simply a channel, not 'the healer.'"
Scientific assessment of Reiki's effectiveness is also hampered by the fact that there is often a delay in observable results, particularly when a chronic condition is involved. "You tend to see results more quickly when Reiki is used immediately to treat acute injuries or conditions. Generally, with chronic conditions, a series of Reiki treatments is needed before you can really notice a change," Allen says. She goes on to explain that while human logic may dictate that healing take place in a certain order, starting with the most prominent symptom, the deeper wisdom of body, mind and spirit may decide that healing must take place from the inside out and begin in some deep recess where no outer sign of progress is visible.
The situation is further complicated because Reiki is never offered as a substitute for other forms of either conventional or alternative treatment modalities. "Reiki is never taught to be used in place of other forms of medical treatment but instead as a complementary support for the patient's natural healing abilities and their other treatment choices, which often include medications, surgery or other healing modalities," Allen says.
Nonetheless, anecdotal evidence keeps rolling in that credits Reiki treatments with pain relief, accelerated healing, reduced levels of anxiety and stress, increased energy and even the miraculous disappearance of "incurable" diseases and conditions. It has reportedly been effective in treating such ailments as headaches, burns, dental problems, cuts and bruises, depression and damage to muscles, tendons and ligaments. Reiki is also increasingly being used to reduce the debilitating side-effects of chemotherapy and radiation treatments.
In the face of all the testimonials about the beneficial effects of Reiki treatments, and no reports of any kind of adverse effects, a growing number of hospitals and medical centers throughout the United States are offering Reiki as a "complementary" or "alternative" healing modality. In fact, just last year a committee was established in Grant County to consider a proposal to add Reiki to the services offered through the Billy Casper Wellness Center, located in Silver City. According to Brian Cunningham, director of rehabilitation and wellness at the center, as a result of the committee's findings and recommendations, Reiki is now being offered at the Billy Casper Wellness Center on a fee-for-service basis, along with other alternative healing modalities like massage therapy and meditation training.
Among local health professionals who wrote letters of support for the proposal to make Reiki treatments available through the Wellness Center was Silver City ophthalmologist Dr. Neal Apple, who is Vicki Allen's husband and a trained Reiki practitioner himself.
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