Does anyone know about reiki?

[Mickey]

The I will leave you with the words of scripture “What fellowship does light have with darkness?”. You have been warned, Mike, I will not hound you. I will pray for you and your wife.

Blessings,

Mel

Jesus healed to show those on earth that He had authority. His healings were also intended to lead others towards a knowledge of the True God. He is the Healer we all need and we receive His Body and Blood in the Blessed Sacrament.

I will follow your lead Mel and continue to pray.

 

[Malcolm_McLean]

I have known alot of Reiki practitioners over the years. Most were hostile to Christianity. Now actual Christians are being duped. If someone is chaneling something, Mike, and it is not God, then what is it? I have seen the dark side of Reiki.

Plus, essential in Reiki is seeing people auras and the color to determine their major malfunction. There is nothing Christian in this. If one is a Reiki practioner, objecitvely speaking they are Buddhist practitioner. There is no middle ground on this. Disagree all you want, but you are offering nothing in support other than your wife does it. That is not a reasonable defense. Not that I want you on the defensive, I want you to be aware of the spiritual danger for your wife’s sake. Is she a Buddhist or a Christian? There has to be a decision there at some point. My wife had to make that choice and she went kicking and screaming.

In fact she tried to “Reiki” me when we dating and was shocked that she could not perceive any aura around me or effect me in anyway, she got good at some Reiki tricks that I will not mention. This shoock her and she determined to was the presence of the Holy Spirit protecting. This was instrumental in her conversion to Christ. She saw the evil of Reiki for what it was. And I am sure you know that if people practice Reiki, then 9 times out of 10 they practice other new age arts as well.

It is not innocent.

Gibberish about “energy levels” or whatever often has a scientific aura. It is hard to say exactly when pseudoscience turns into magic, and when magic ceases to be superstitious and becomes the manipulation of spiritual forces.

It is pure folly to believe that you can heal people by examining non-existent auras. When you start believing that you are specially gifted at reading the auras, or tie the healing to various moral positions, the danger should be very obvious, regardless of whether there is any attempt to involve demons or not.

 

[Melchior]

Jesus healed to show those on earth that He had authority. His healings were also intended to lead others towards a knowledge of the True God. He is the Healer we all need and we receive His Body and Blood in the Blessed Sacrament.

I will follow your lead Mel and continue to pray.

Good posts, Mickey.

 

[Nan_S]

We have to be careful when we consider using faith healing and spiritual energy. Are we offering praise to God and trusting in His grace, or are we trying to harness ourselves what is beyond ordinary human ability?

We’re doing it right if we follow scripture:

James 5:14-16 Is any among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord; and the prayer of faith will save the sick man, and the Lord will raise him up; and if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man has great power in its effects.

(Sounds a lot like a certain sacrament, doesn’t it?)

But we’re doing it wrong if we’re trying to harness and channel spiritual energies, regardless of our intent:

CCC Paragraph 2117 All practices of magic or sorcery, by which one attempts to tame occult powers, so as to place them at one’s service and have a supernatural power over others—even if this were for the sake of restoring their health—are gravely contrary to the virtue of religion. These practices are even more to be condemned when accompanied by the intention of harming someone, or when they have recourse to the intervention of demons. Wearing charms is also reprehensible. Spiritism often implies divination or magical practices; the Church for her part warns the faithful against it. Recourse to so-called traditional cures does not justify either the invocation of evil powers or the exploitation of another’s credulity.

Bottom line: Stay away from Reiki.

 

[Reformed_Rob]

This is relevant to some extent I suppose.

The force that people discuss is real. Chinese call it “chi” and Japanese call it “ki.” And there’s probably other names for it, such as “electromagnetic field.”

But regardless of what you call it, it’s real. There is a force that you give off, well everybody gives off, and you can train yourself to pick up on other people’s presence by sensing this radiating force from others.

I learned to do it when I studied karate. If you actually spend time developing it outside of normal karate class (which I did) then you can get pretty good at it. That was years ago though.

If the “ki” can be radiated and sensed, it can surely be manipulated in other ways. Personally, I think it’s one of those completely natural phenomena that some religions pick up on and use in their “spirit world” stuff and I believe such use has no part in Christianity.

Maybe one day people will be able to understand it better and good uses can come of it. Until then, I’ll just use it to block strikes from people that attack me before they attack me.

 

[IamPatrick]

I am a follower of Christ and am a Reiki Master practitioner and teacher. I communicate with the Holy Spirit and was told by the Spirit to lay on hands and heal while at my church’s Christmas party about 4 years ago. At that time I knew very little about Reiki but through further guidance from the Spirit I was pointed to learning and practicing that healing modality. I use Spirit healing (laying on of hands, Reiki or whatever one will call it) in my position as an elder at my church. So far I have seen nothing but positive, Godly results from it and have faith that the Spirit would never lead me wrong whether in Reiki or anything else in my life. I concur with the posting that references www.reikiforchristians.org . It lists biblical references for many of the healing styles and procedures; check it out.

As far as reiki being Zen Buddhist, it was “rediscovered” by a monk in Japan but he was well read and familiar with Christianity and made no limits in his style of reiki that favored one religion over another. While it is very spiritual in nature, reiki is not a religiion and should cause no worry for anyone who accesses the Holy Spirit through reiki to heal another brother or sister in Christ.

Thanks for listening, God Bless all of us!

IamPatrick

 

[rtconstant]

I agree with ReformedBob actually. I think its actually just a natural thing. I studied Aikido and like Bob said Ki is a natural energy in everyone. It isn’t spiritual as much as bio-chemical. Anyone that practiced martial arts can attest to this. When you use ki you aren’t channeling, or summoning spirits. I’ve never considered Reiki to be anything more than a different use of that energy.

Now the other stuff like spirit guides and the like to my knowledge these are things that were added later as New Agers jumped on the Reiki band wagon. They’ve made several changes to the original discipline.

So if taken in its original form I think it’s harmless. If however you’re standing in a dark room with a candle looking into a mirror and asking your spirit guide to help you that would likely become an issue.

 

[AlegreFe]

There is nothing evil about Reiki that I am aware of. … Now if they claim it comes from somewhere else then there might be a reason to be concerned.

You call yourself a Catholic?! How can you say that this is of God?! It is NOT from God. Someone practicing Reiki opens himself up to Satan whether he believes it or not.

You do have reason to be concerned. Please read the quotes that I have from certain Catholic websites below in this post.

Do you believe in Buddhism? If you are Catholic then you should not believe in Buddhism nor in any of their practices. Reiki is from Buddhism.

Here is web site that might help clarify it,…

And those “Christian Reiki” websites are just the devil trying to get in by means of the name “Christian” just to fool you. So don’t let the devil fool you.

Many nursing schools and hospitals are starting to conduct reiki classes. The Govt’s alternative medicine center has started studies on Reiki.

Just because they are schools you think it’s okay? And the Gov’t doing this is okay?

My wife is a nurse and a Reiki master herself and there is nothing evil about her. While I don’t fully understand it myself, I don’t think “evil” is in the equation.

Just because your wife is not evil does not mean that Reiki is not evil. What she doesn’t know CAN and will eventually hurt her.

When someone drinks poison and they don’t believe or know they are being poisoned, they will still be harmed by that poison whether they believed or knew it was in the drink or not.

BTW, nobody conjures up any spirits as far as I know.

Well then you might want to read this;

Reiki - A Catholic Perspective
…I was recently at a function where I met someone who said
that he practices some aspects of Reiki along with regular
massage and I began to realise just how many people - even
Catholics - accept this as perfectly normal. Not one Catholic I
spoke to that day could understand why I perceive such
practices as potentially dangerous or why I was concerned
about what they saw as a natural form of healing that has
nothing to do with spiritual practices. And little wonder, when
many practitioners either say they haven’t a clue where the
energy they profess to “channel” comes from, or completely
deny that there is any spiritual element involved. Yet the entire
concept is based on New Age thinking, which, according to
the Vatican, is not compatible with Christianity, and the very
name “Reiki” belies any claim that it can be regarded as a
purely natural method of healing.

So the person practicing Reiki might not have any idea that they could possibly be “conjuring up” spirits of which they have no idea and could possibly be “evil” ones.

This too;
Evil Spirits
I don’t believe that most Reiki practitioners set out
to deliberately use evil spirits. Many don’t believe in
the existence of evil spirits, while those who are
practicing Christians believe they have protection from
these spirits, simply by invoking the name of Jesus.
But not believing in something doesn’t make it cease
to exist and being a disciple of Jesus Christ also
means being obedient to our Heavenly Father.
New Age practices and beliefs … including Reiki …
take us into realms forbidden by God.

Part Three - God By Another Name? is a good one and should be read.

Cont…

 

[AlegreFe]

…cont.

Try not to fall into the trap of “It’s different, I don’t understand it, so it must be bad”. I tend to fall into that trap myself at times.

You are right now with this Reiki garbage. The Catholic Church forbids this practice. Did you know that? The Church forbids this because God forbids this.

You’ll find, most here on this board are naysayers about Reiki. This is their opinion and they are welcome to it.

Nothing to do with opinion. The Catholic Church is totally against Reiki.

Q: Is the practice of reiki morally wrong? A relative is
starting to become involved and I am concerned for her.
A: Reiki is **not **a Christian religious practice.
It is from Japanese Buddhism and involves non-Christian
religious principles (e.g., moving around one’s life energy
or ki- the ki in reiki). The practice of reiki is not consonant
with Catholic spirituality.

Someone can say that Reiki has been “renewed” or rediscovered and changed and therefore is now okay to practice. But unless Jesus Christ came down on earth and told me Himself that Reiki is now okay because some human changed it, I will stay away from it.

Heb 13:8
8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday
and today and forever.
9 Do not be led away by diverse
and strange teachings,

Bottom line: If you don’t approve, then stay away from it.

You better believe I’ll stay away from it, far far away! And it’s not so much that I don’t approve, which I don’t, but it is more that the Catholic Church does not approve. So continue to be pompous about it and if you want you can leave just because the Church does not approve. But something tells me that you are a lot smarter than that and you won’t leave on a count of this being forbidden and that’s because you know that this is the ONE and ONLY Church that Jesus Christ built on Peter the Rock.

My prayers are with you and especially with your wife.
Peace and God bless.

 

[master_catholic]

The Devil is a brilliant strategist, he will repackage things to make them appealing and to appear harmless. Reiki is one such example.

Now I just have to brainstorm a response to the blog that this issue arose from.

Thanks guys, thank you very much for all your imput!

 

[Maryam]

Ah… I see the Christian Reiki website getting promoted again by mikew262…

This subject matter was dealt with on a Reiki thread in the Spirituality forum forums.catholic-questions.org/showthread.php?t=121901

I will re-post my response on that thread to how Reiki is not compatible with the Catholic Faith or Christianity no matter the demonination in using the example of** Ki**…

First of all if you look at the different parts that make up Reiki it is easy to see that you cannot possibly say that God at least in the Christian sense of who God is, is giving any healing power through Reiki healing sessions.

In Reiki they use the life-force energy** “Ki”** and if you understand Eastern spirituality and what exactly Ki is you will see it is not compatible with the idea/concept of a God. Ki is the life-force for everything in the universe and is divided into two aspects called “Yin and Yang”… Yin and Yan to explain it in a simple way is to understand that everything has its opposite… Light/Dark, Good/Evil.

In Reiki illness is due to negative energy blocking the energy channels of the body. So, as I explained “Ki” has the two aspects of “Yin and Yang” … how is this energy coming from God? And even if you tried to use the Holy Spirit as an example… it would be a moot example because God is 3 Divine Persons, but still one God. God cannot be divided into Good and evil.

There is no way that God in the Christian sense can contain this duality of Light/Dark… Good/Evil. And even in the Eastern understanding of it… They don’t use the concept of a creator God to describe “Ki”. If you look at other Eastern energy methods “Tai Chi, Chi kung, Shiatsu… etc” Ki (or Chi in Chinese) is a universal life force, but it is impersonal and not compatible to the concept of a Creator God.

I don’t understand how you can use a method of Reiki described as “Christian Reiki” when just in using my example of “Ki” you can see it is not compatible with the Eastern concept of how the universe functions.

Plus, you have over 40 different kinds of Reiki that exist today. **Doesn’t that raise the red flag that this is not of God? **If Reiki and its methods of healing is from God, why are there over 40 types of Reiki? I think too many people jump onto the alternative therapies bandwagon without looking at the origins of all these therapies or breaking it down to really understand the ideas and concepts at their foundation.

No matter how you try to go around it… Reiki is not compatible with Catholicism… nor with Christianity. Many non-Catholic Christians believe in the Trinity. And if you believe in the the Trinity… Father, Son and Holy Spirit you will see no duality of energy like you do with Ki in Reiki. **God is not divided He is ONE. **

God bless

So, there you have it… Ki is the Universal life-force made up of Yin and Yang (Opposites) and not just some electromagnetic “force” (I think there are some Star Wars fans here lol). Unless you can completely change the Eastern concept of what Ki is… which you can’t… because it won’t be Ki anymore… It will NEVER be compatible with the Catholic faith or Christianity in general.

Finally, to add to what I said on the Holy Spirit… You cannot “access” the Holy Spirit by an energy method. Unless you are willing to look at the fact that the energy you are manipulating, accessing or however you want to call it… Ki… is about opposites containing both Good and Evil (which God cannot be both Good and Evil)… You can’t call yourself a Christian and say Reiki is good for me as a Christian to use when it is clear what the Eastern definition of Ki is.

I wish people would take the time to study the concepts of these methods they are using and not just use the excuse that because it did some good it is from God. :nope: I can be taking a medication that for a short time does me some good and then later I start having all these bad side effects that ruin my health. **Not everything that looks good on the surface is good for ones soul. **

God bless

 

[Maryam]

Good Articles on **Reiki **and on Yin and Yang… Ki (Qi)… from a Christian source CANA (Christian Answers for the New Age). An absolutely wonderful 4 part article on REIKI… The best one I have seen…

REIKI: HEALING WITH THE FORCE
by Marcia Montenegro
First written in 2001

cana.userworld.com/cana_reiki1.html

Snippets from the article:

"Reiki theory holds that practitioners can channel the universal life force as a healing energy into the client’s body in order to “balance and enhance the flow of vital energy,”

“Some may object to this classification of Reiki, pointing out that it is no different from Christian faith healing.”

“However, true Biblical healing is not based on a belief in one’s own power or technique, but is dependent solely on God’s ability and willingness to heal.”

“Reiki and Jesus: There is no evidence that Jesus used Reiki, as many Reiki books and teachers assert.”

"Jesus was not channeling a universal energy, but was acting with the power of God. "

"Reiki, however, is about a force or energy which is often called and variously spelled as chi, ki, qi, or prana (seen as the ki at the end of the word ‘Reiki’). "

"This force, or ki, replaces the personal God and reduces God to a mere energy that is a substance in the universe [see CANA document on http://cana.userworld.com/cana_yinyang.html”]Yin-Yang

]"

YIN AND YANG: GETTING INTO THE FLOW
by Marcia Montenegro

cana.userworld.com/cana_yinyang.html

I find that the article as a whole is very accurate and although there is alot about Taoism, Accupuncture, Qi and not Reiki, it will help others to see that just in using the concept of Ki as an example one can see that Reiki is not compatible with Christianity.

What it has to say about Ki (or Chi, Qi, Ji as it is also called) is very informative and pretty much gives one alittle of an idea of how Qi works.

Snippets from the article:

“The forces of yin-yang arise from a belief in dualism, a state in which the universe is seemingly equally divided into two opposing but equal forces.”

“The qi (also spelled chi, ki or ji) is an Eastern name for the universal energy supposedly flowing through the body.”

“36 major and minor yang channels in the body are the “Celestial Deities” while the yin elements in the body are the “72 Terrestrial Deities.” The combined total is 108,”

“the full 108 symbolizes the harmonious balance of yin and yang and therefore lead to health.”

“The union of all yin and yang elements represent the return to the holistic and undifferentiated state of the Tao.”

God bless

 

[AlegreFe]

Good Articles on **Reiki **and on Yin and Yang… Ki (Qi)… from a Christian source CANA (Christian Answers for the New Age). An absolutely wonderful 4 part article on REIKI… The best one I have seen…

REIKI: HEALING WITH THE FORCE
by Marcia Montenegro
First written in 2001

As good as this can be I advise Catholics not to read some parts of this website that are anti-Catholic. That is why I prefer to look for Catholic websites. But this website does have good information about reiki.

 

[Maryam]

As good as this can be I advise Catholics not to read some parts of this website that are anti-Catholic. That is why I prefer to look for Catholic websites. But this website does have good information about reiki.

Doh… I knew I forgot to mention something… and this was it. It does indeed have some anti-Catholic stuff… but the two articles I linked to are pretty good.

Thanks for pointing it out AlegreFe… Appreciate it.

 

[Malcolm_McLean]

This is relevant to some extent I suppose.

The force that people discuss is real. Chinese call it “chi” and Japanese call it “ki.” And there’s probably other names for it, such as “electromagnetic field.”

But regardless of what you call it, it’s real. There is a force that you give off, well everybody gives off, and you can train yourself to pick up on other people’s presence by sensing this radiating force from others.

I learned to do it when I studied karate. If you actually spend time developing it outside of normal karate class (which I did) then you can get pretty good at it. That was years ago though.

If the “ki” can be radiated and sensed, it can surely be manipulated in other ways. Personally, I think it’s one of those completely natural phenomena that some religions pick up on and use in their “spirit world” stuff and I believe such use has no part in Christianity.

Maybe one day people will be able to understand it better and good uses can come of it. Until then, I’ll just use it to block strikes from people that attack me before they attack me.

I know how to measure an electromagnetic field. If it is strong enough, the energy can be converted to do useful work.

So how to you measure chi?

 

[Reformed_Rob]

I know how to measure an electromagnetic field. If it is strong enough, the energy can be converted to do useful work.

So how to you measure chi?

EASY - By how many bricks you break without touching them.

Don’t you ever watch Jackie Chan or Jet Li movies???

 

[Mickey]

I use Spirit healing (laying on of hands, Reiki or whatever one will call it) in my position as an elder at my church.

Do not be deceived!

 

[esherborne]

Hi

there is an excellent website which has links to the vatican offical web site, to do with reiki etc. If the link doesn’t work, then type in “Reiki and the catholic faith” in google search and then click on the first web page which is CUF.org, this makes it quite clear what the problems are of these things. here is the link if it works:
cuf.org/faithfacts/details_view.asp?ffID=200

God Bless you and you will be in my prayers.
Eileen

 

[ralphinal]

I have studied martial arts as well, and the style that I currently study is based on a Buddhist system. The coursework, however, has had almost all Buddhist context removed, by the governing body. They do have a preist class, but it is almost exclusively Japanese. When the style was brought from China to Japan after WWII, it had to be a religion to be taught to get it around the ban on martial arts. The philosophy itself is compatible with Christianity (or else I would not study it).

All that said, I have seen/read about some wild stuff. Yes, your personal energy can be changed or used in lots of ways. But, this reiki is different. I do not see any development involved, other than the classes. In most martial arts, the use of ki takes years of training and mastery. Seems like a con with some placebo effect

Is it evil? All I will say is this: anything that leads you away from Christ is questionable. Start there. Does this add to or take from your faith? If we can heal by internal power, why do we need an external God?

 

[justinthemartyr]

reiki is not something that is in line with Christian teaching, as it somehow claims power or energy other than God, or even electricity.
Where does this supposed energy come from?