REIKI TREATMENT & THE NEED FOR PERMISSION
Copyright ©
2005 James Deacon
[Addition, Jan, 04, 2007].
A question that frequently arises is:
Do
we need to ask an individual's permission before 'sending' them
Reiki ?
[For:"'sending' them Reiki", I feel we should
read: "giving them a distant Reiki treatment"
- afterall, that's what it is]
I
usually reply something along the lines of:
Well,
would you grab hold of someone and give them a hands-on
Reiki treatment with out asking (and getting) their permission?
No,
of course not.
So
why should a 'non-contact' treatment be any different?
[NOTE:
here I am specifically talking about situations in which the individual
is capable of giving a response to an offer of Disant/Absent
Reiki Treatment. I will leave situations where the individual
is incapable of response to another article]
And
why would you want to treat an individual without asking
their permission first?
Is it that you are actually unwilling to ask their permission?
Are
you perhaps embarrassed in case they think you some sort of 'new
age weirdo'
Are
you afraid to ask because you already know they will refuse?
Do
you think that you know best - that you have the
right to decide for them?
Many
people seem take the stance that it is OK to 'send' Reiki ( -
give an absent Reiki Treatment) without the individual's permission,
so long as it is done with the intention that the individual's
'higher self' only accept it if it is for that individual's 'higher
good'.
IMO
sending without permission to an individual's '"higher self'
should only be even considered - let alone acted upon -
as a very last possible resort.
OK,
so the thinking seems to be that the individual's 'higher self'
knows what's best for them, and will only accept the Reiki on
these terms. But even if the 'higher self' does indeed know what's
best for them, does this justify your intervention?
We
all (well, almost all) consciously know what is best for
us - not drinking alcohol, not smoking, not eating too many cream
cakes, etc. Making sure we get plenty of sleep, exercise, water,
and so on.
But
what if I don't want what's best for me?
(well,
at least not all the time)
What
if I choose to compromise between what is ultimately 'for
my higher good' and what makes me happy - in the 'here-and-now'?
What
if I don't want someone to Reiki away every little ache
or pain that lets me know I'm alive?
What
if 'just for today' I want to feel a little miserable -
want to be childish and wallow in a little self-pity concerning
how ill I feel cos I got some itsy bitsy complaint (well, it is
the prerogative of the 'male of the species', after all!).
Surely it is my right to make this choice?
Now (and I know this is almost certainly an Urban Myth, but),
to give a drastic example of the consequences of not respecting
an individual's conscious choice to refuse Reiki:
I'd
like to share with you the following story, about an unnamed guy
who used to live in New York.
One
night he came home feeling really unwell - wasn't sure if it was
due to flu or something he ate at lunch - but either way, he felt
rotten.
His wife was a Reiki practitioner, but (as was his right) the
husband, as he put it, "didn't really go for all that alternative
therapies stuff"
Of
course, his wife knew what his response would be if she
suggested a Reiki session to him - he would say no. Then he'd
probably just take a few asprin - go to bed, take the following
day off work and go see his doctor. That was his usual routine
when he felt this way.
So, being a Reiki practitioner - which of course meant
that she knew best - she decided to just go ahead and treat him
anyway (even though she knew he would not want her to,
and would have refused if she had asked him ).
As
soon as the husband went to bed, she sat down in a comfortable
chair in their lounge-room and began to carry out an absent treatment
for him.
As
expected, the 'secret' Reiki treatment worked, and the next morning,
when the husband got up he felt fully recovered
.
But he couldn't understand it. He knew his own body - usually
when he had been hit that badly by a flu or stomach bug, it lasted
a couple of days at least.
Surprised
at his own recovery, he decided not to bother with the usual visit
to his doctor. He had planned to phone his office and inform them
he was taking a day or two 'sick leave' - but there was no point
now.
So, as usual that morning, the couple - hand in hand - left their
apartment to catch a shared taxi to their respective places of
work.
As
the cab crawled its way from one red traffic light to the next,
the husband commented that he was really amazed how well he felt.
Even the grime and fumes of the rush-hour traffic couldn't dampen
his spirits that morning.
The
taxi drew up to the kerb to let him out (before taking his wife
on across town to her place of work);and his wife watched
as, with a spring in his step, he walked towards the tall building
which housed his office.
She
smiled a knowing smile and shook her head - "If only he wasn't
so foolish" she thought to herself "then I wouldn't
have to treat him with Reiki without his agreement."
As
the cab pulled out into the traffic, she just knew that,
thanks to her intervention, he would have a wonderful day.
She
thought she caught a final glimpse of him as he entered 'Tower
2' at the World Trade Centre where his office was situated.
The date was September 11th...
* * * * *
In
my personal experience, I have come across more people who are
willing to accept Reiki when it is offered than people
who choose not to accept it.
So,
if someone refuses Reiki, I honour their right to do so - and
move on.
If
I ask twenty people and they all refuse, so be it.
Eventually,
someone will accept the offer of assistance.
In Reiki, there should be no ego
-
no belief (conscious or otherwise) that being a Reiki practitioner
means you know what is best (or even simply what is timely*)
for another sentient lifeform
-
no belief (conscious or otherwise) that being a Reiki practitioner
gives you the right to dishonour another by imposing your
will on them
-
no fear of clearly asking for anothers permission to treat
them
- no fear of rejection, should they choose to say no
[*
just because someone chooses to reject your offer of Reiki now,
doesn't mean they might not choose to accept it at a later
time]
One of the greatest lessons that Reiki can teach us is the
power of letting go - the power of learning to transcend the
need to interfere: the need to 'do something' -
to attempt to 'fix' things.
- the realisation that sometimes, much as it may pain us ourselves,
the greatest help we can be to the particular individual, lies,
not in intervention, but in honouring the divinity of their
existence by accepting their right to live through the
experience of their unwellness/injury/dis-ease, rather than attempting
to 'heal it all away' [a desire that - if we are true to ourselves
- may be perceived on occasion to have as much to do with liberating
us from their suffering as it does with liberating them]
.REIKI - WITHOUT THEIR KNOWLEDGE ...
THE CHALLENGE OF SECOND DEGREE REIKI ... ON
THE SUBJECT OF AN UNINVITED HEALING INTERVENTION
THE HIGHEST GOOD ...