Tuesday, January 1, 2008

Where are the Boundaries?

As I've been venturing around the Internet, exploring different websites, message boards, and blogs relating to Reiki (note my growing Blogroll!), I've come upon many different types of people, and different views about what Reiki is and how it works.

And, I've received some interesting responses to some of my posts, as well as a very strange email. I'm going to share this email with you here. Please note, it's not an endorsement.

I'm pasting the contents here:

Dear Friend: Thank you very much for having such monumental faith in God's Love and Healing. Please, look up my website: www.wolfscience.com In the upper left hand corner you'll find my picture. Lock your eyes with mine for 3 to 4 minutes in order to receive a truly powerful Distant God's Love Healing. I would also strongly recommend our new service: "The Healing Shield" program, which you can subscribe to. Please, spread the God's Love Power through-out the world, tell at least 10 more people about my website and The God's Love Healing will come back to you tenfold.Please, reply with your positive results. Thank you, Yours truly in God's Love and light, Master and Healer, Walter Michael Wolf

I knew that I had not written to him first, and still, I was curious enough to click his link. Now, I'm asking you, friends, can healing and/or Reiki come through a website to whoever clicks on it and stares at it for a while? I decided to try for myself and see if I felt something.

I clicked, and stared. And, yes, I did feel something. Am I crazy? I was surprised to feel warmth, as in receiving Reiki, spread over my stomach, chest and head. My hands got warm. The music was kind of soothing. As I stared at the guy (he's strangely looking over his shoulder, holding a hand on his chin as if contemplating something), his picture seemed to fuzz in and out of my focus. It was me - I coudn't keep him in focus as I stared.

I had my 8 year-old daughter look at him. She said she felt tingles. She squirmed and giggled, and called him the Reiki guy. I had my nearly-4-year-old stare at him. I asked him how he felt. He said, "the guy is sending me Reiki." I asked, "Where do you feel the Reiki?" He replied, "All over my body!" I'm shaking my head back and forth.

I keep asking myself, "Where are the boundaries between what is real and what is fanciful about Reiki and the various ways people are using it on the internet? Can Reiki really be received by looking at a picture on a web page, or a person sending Reiki watched on a DVD? In either case, the sender has no idea who the recipient is, or even when he/she is going to be watching. And, if one can receive Reiki by looking at a website, what need is there for Reiki practitioners to give distance treatments?"

See, Reiki has shaken up my belief systems in a very serious way. In the last 8 weeks, I've come to believe in energy I can't see, because I've felt and experienced it working. I've had repeated testimonials from people I've sent Reiki to that they've felt it, been helped by it, would like to receive more, and learn more about it. I've even been able to send Reiki to someone without knowing the person's full name. So now I'm wondering where the boundaries are. How much more is there, and what can I believe/ experience, (or experience and then believe - much more my style)?

I know I have lots more to learn, and I've ordered a Reiki book my RMT recommended, so I can try to get more educated. There will be more reading to follow, too, of course. This is ongoing.

I welcome comments. If you try the Reiki guy's page, please tell me if you felt it too.

Peace & Happy New Year 2008.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

The Anonymous link works! Though you know I'm not anonymous - this is Carole WorldAngel. Yes, Reiki can be mindblowing at times - so much too opened up for me during my Reiki days - it totally shook up everything and made me question everything. Like, how you received the picture and what you felt - i've learned energy vibration is in everything and for me I learned to decide what was true for me and what was not (i was given lots and lots of lessons in discernment on that one - not just human discernment but of heart, soul and angel) - so yes, I've learned it can be felt through pictures etc. Take a peek at the picture of me at www.bebo.com/carolescottage
and you will feel what I felt that day and that is why I quickly picked up my mobile phone and took the piccie (ive explained this in the Reiki Message Board when I was told my picture was missed since I'd changed the picture there to a new vibration so many could feel the energy of The Lagoon here). I've learned that all energy vibrations are important be it Reiki or something else (i tend to share much more on soul levels now - and i feel you may have felt a kind of soul healing through the photo from that site you looked at too). I feel the soul feeling around most things these days (for example I have not looked at the picture you looked at because it doesnt feel right for me to do - and what is good for one person might not suit another - that's why discernment was a good lesson for me!). I also live life very simply so I can now align my life with the energy vibrations that are the true me.
Not sure if I make any sense or not - just felt to comment!
Happy zaps!
Carole WorldAngel

Alice Langholt said...

Thank you, Carole WorldAngel. Your comments are always so thought-provoking! You feel everything with such spiritual certainty, and always make me think!
Please continue to visit, comment, and stay in touch.

Peace and gratitude.
Alice

Arati said...

Dear Alice,

If you are new to Reiki I would suggest that you not get to overly focused in Distance work right away.

It's easy to get caught up in channeling and receiving Energy other than Reiki if one gets attuned and kindof speed-bumps past the basic training of Level One.

Level one Reiki training/practice is the boring and the most challenging. And it's the most important. It is the foundation of one's evolving Reiki Path and how that will go.

'Mindfulness' for example: Reiki kindergarten starts there the true Masters agree. It takes most people a few years just to understand what that is and it's importance.

'Intention' : another Reiki 101 term/concept that get sped past. Sounds like Mindfulness but a whole different skill set. Minimum prerequisite : Mindfulness 102-105.

Bit none this is what your post was looking for (about the site in question). I might have alot to say about your original query but I opted for a kitschy song quote:

Kansas-" If I claim to be a wise man, it surely mean's that I don't know"




Namaste,
Michael

Alice Langholt said...

Hi Michael,
Thanks for your comment!

A little background on me: I became attuned to Reiki I just over a year and a half ago, when I was pregnant with my daughter, who is now 15 months old. I used the Reiki daily on myself, and the developing baby, and also at times on my other children. That lower key energy work helped build my experiential foundation. Just after Thanksgiving this year, I was attuned to level II and started sending distance Reiki and channeling the energy in a whole new and amazing way. These new experiences with Reiki motivated me to start this blog. And here I am. I agree that one should not rush from I to II, but get familiar with using the energy on oneself and learning before even deciding to take it to the next level, so to speak.

I absolutely agree with you about developing an understanding of mindfulness and intention. That awareness, respect and reverence for life and the energy is part of the essence of Reiki. And the learning grows with the experience, at least in my own experience thus far.

Thank you so much for your insightful comments.
In peace and gratitude,
Alice