Reiki Healing Practices

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In my second book “Calliope O’Callahan and the Dowsers”, Callie befriends a Brazilian healer by the name of Isabelle. Brazil has a long and tolerant respect for psi-related abilities with at least two parapsychology facilities studying the phenomena. What Isabelle practices is a form of healing called Reiki. 

This is what the Google AI chatbot found:

What is Reiki and how is it done?

It’s a gentle, non-invasive energy healing practice that promotes deep relaxation and inner peace based on the belief that there is a universal life force energy that flows through all living things and can be harnessed to promote healing and well-being.

The philosophy of Reiki is rooted in the belief that we are all connected to a source of universal energy, which is often referred to as “Ki” or “Chi.” This energy is vital for our physical, mental, and emotional well-being, and when it is flowing freely, we are healthy and balanced. However, when our energy is blocked or disrupted, we can experience pain, illness, and emotional distress. This is often stated as having a blocked Chakra point in the body. 

Reiki practitioners believe that they can use their hands to channel this universal energy to help heal others. By placing their hands on or near the recipient’s body, they can help promote relaxation, balance the energy flow, and support the body’s natural healing processes.

It is typically administered in a series of sessions, each lasting for around 60 to 90 minutes. During a session, the recipient lies fully clothed on a massage table or sits comfortably in a chair. The practitioner places their hands on or near the recipient’s body and uses gentle touch to help promote relaxation and energy flow.

Although psi-related healing practices are accepted in other parts of the world, especially in South America, the issue is how Reiki may be adopted into the current medical practices and hospitals in the United States. Since medicine in the U.S. is arguably a for-profit model, with the insurance companies paying the practitioners, and it is highly regulated requiring medical personnel to be educated and certified, Reiki is not easily accepted. 

The Rhine research meeting had a Reiki practitioner discussing how the Cancer Center at Duke is integrating other forms of healing (acupressure, acupuncture, meditation) into its program for a more “integrated” healing experience. Before the Enlightenment, spiritual and natural healing practices were the norm, but scientific materialists removed those instead of scientifically sound medical practices. But humans are not machines and medical knowledge encompasses about 30% of what is going on in the human body, an integrated system. 

What is frustrating for physicians and pharmaceutical companies is the human’s ability to spontaneously heal from a disease state, or to use natural functions to reverse a chronic condition. We do not understand the process because there is little money to be made in either of these situations so little money goes into researching them. 

One of the arguments made during the research meeting is that non-medical healing techniques shouldn’t be part of the overall medical establishment and that it was never intended to be partnered with the for-profit medical model. I’m of two minds about this. On the side of keeping Reiki in the hands of the Reiki practitioners, I agree that if you have healing hands, give freely of your skill to those in need. On the side of regulating non-medical healing practices, some people are egregiously taking money from the desperate and those who are self-deluded into thinking they’re healers and advertise erroneously. The work that the Forever Family Foundation is doing might serve as a template for Reiki and other styles of non-medical healing techniques. They test the mediums that work with the bereaved friends and family of those who have passed on to make sure they are the genuine articles. It need not be as strenuous a certification as a medical practitioner requires, but at least provide a level of trust that is otherwise currently lacking.

Note: This blog post does not recommend that you forego medical treatment by a licensed medical provider. 

Dowsing or Divining

What is this? The psychic equivalent of getting your friend soaking wet? Well, to dowse or douse (as you can see, the spelling is interchangeable) does mean to dunk something in water or to put out a candle flame. However, in the psychic world, Dowsing is a means to finding what you’re focused on finding. According to Tom Graves who wrote “The Dowser’s Workbook” now called “Discover Dowsing: Understanding and Using the Power of Divining”, dowsing is a way of using your body’s own reflexes to help you interpret the world around you”.

Remote viewing and Dowsing are close siblings of one another but utilize different methods toward the same goal. Remote Viewers might be given a set of coordinates or told to find a person and determine their location. They claim that their conscious awareness travels to the place in question to take a look around. They are able to describe the target location where they sent their awareness once they’ve finished traveling there. Dowsers use special tools but keep their consciousnesses firmly in their heads. They are not able to describe a location but can find whatever they’re looking for such as metal, water or lost objects. They believe the mind is so aware of its environment, that it can subconsciously perform the task that the conscious mind is requesting it to do. The subconscious mind sends messages to a set of muscles, usually in the wrists. The movement in the wrists is too small to see so a special instrument or mechanical amplifier is often used such as a pendulum, Dowsing rod or bobber. Remote Viewing is more like visiting the surface of the moon and taking a look around whereas Dowsing is like successfully finding a needle in a haystack.

Dowsing appears in ancient history, in the Bible, and is used in a lot of cultures. The Oracle of Delphi was said to have used a pendulum to answer questions. John Locke coined the term “Dowsing rod” back in 1650 to describe the forked tool used to find water. It’s probably one of the only widely accepted uses of psychic ability in the world because it has more monetary value compared to Remote Viewing, Clairvoyance or Mediumship. There are several organizations throughout the world where dowsers gather to learn. One such organization helped a UC Berkeley professor find a dowser who was able to locate her daughter’s stolen harp from 2500 miles away! The U.S. government employed many techniques to spy on the former U.S.S.R. during the Cold War era which included psychic spy techniques such as Dowsing and Remote Viewing. Police have also employed dowsers to find missing persons though they may not admit that openly. Geologists may use Dowsers to pinpoint mineral ores or oil underground which is far cheaper than drilling to find the material. However, the most commonly known reason to employ a Dowser is where to dig a well.

In my second book “Calliope O’Callahan and the Dowsers”, Callie learns more about her friend Siobhan’s family who also Dowse. In the first book, Siobhan learns to use a pendulum over a street map to find missing people. Dowsing is not just used to find objects, water or minerals, it was and still is used to answer questions psychically either with a yes/no answer or using an alphabet in a semi-circular pattern to spell out the answer similar to that of a Ouija board.

American Society of Dowsers

Siobhan’s uncle is successful as a forensic accountant by using his Dowsing skills to find irregular expenditures in accounting documents that may be from money laundering schemes. When he doesn’t arrive at the Southern California Dowsing Convention, his family become worried and employ Callie’s aid to help. If you’re interested in learning more about how to Dowse, please look up your local Dowser’s Association.

Remote Viewing versus Out-of-Body Experience

“Is it live or is it Memorex” said the twentieth-century advertisement for that brand of audio tape. According to Memorex, Ella Fitzgerald could shatter a glass even if her voice was a taped recording. Yes tape, not digital. This is a metaphor to describe the difference between Out-of Body-Experience (OBE), and Remote Viewing.

Continue reading “Remote Viewing versus Out-of-Body Experience”

Mentalism versus Telepathy

Calliope (the main character in my series) grew up among a special group of entertainers in unusual venues such as local State Fairs or Renaissance Faires. In North Carolina the State Fair can have over a million people attend during the week it’s open in October and the Carolina Ren Faire can have even more. Clair, Callie’s mother, is like the Carnival Medium in a semi-darkened tent surrounded by symbols of the mystical. She might have a small table with two or three small chairs or stools surrounding it. If she were a Tarot reader, her deck of cards would be arrayed over the surface of a tie-dyed cloth in a pattern well known to Tarot experts everywhere. There might even be the smoke of patchouli incense wafting through the close quarters as you sit in rapt attention awaiting news of your fate. The question in your mind is whether this Carnival Medium, Palmist or Tarot card reader truly has the Second Sight or if they are just really good at observing human behavior. Continue reading “Mentalism versus Telepathy”

Poltergeists: Psychic or Something Else?

If you’re a fan of the so-called Ghost Hunter shows that are all over cable television, please move on. There isn’t anything for you to see here. I require a lot of evidence before I will agree there is a possible haunting. This blog article is based on information from established Parapsychologists who have researched the phenomena known as Poltergeist hauntings. Many of them would tell you that there is not a discarnate entity involved in a majority of them, the rest simply may shrug their shoulders and respond “Could be anything.” That’s the fun part of Parapsychology: it’s open to possibilities. Continue reading “Poltergeists: Psychic or Something Else?”

Mediums

Mediums are considered to be the conduits for those spirits that have “shuffled on from this mortal coil” and Hamlet, who had a lengthy conversation with his deceased father, might have been one. I talked with Dr. Julie Beischel of the Windbridge Research Center about her experiences with Mediums. She is a Parapsychologist who has written several books on the subject. ” Among Mediums: A Scientist’s Quest for Answers” has a concise description of her quintuple blind study confirming that “certain Mediums can make accurate statements about dead people that they couldn’t reasonably know”.  Dr. Beischel discusses the experiences of thirteen of the certified Mediums she has worked with in her book “From the Mouths of Mediums”asking how they experience information from the “other side”. Basically, each Medium experiences this phenomenon differently. Continue reading “Mediums”

Precognition

“Well, if you can see into the future, why haven’t you won the lottery?” Gosh, if only it worked like that. Imagine a world where psychic ability was an on-demand, accurate and clear sense: we’d all be millionaires and never make mistakes! That being said, precognition is all about seeing possible futures. J.B. Rhine tried to study precognition using the famous Zener cards. The test subject would write down what order the cards would eventually be in once the tester shuffled the deck. Then the tester would shuffle the deck and turn the cards over from the top of the deck comparing them to the predicted order of the cards. If the test subject guessed correctly higher than statistical average through a series of runs, they would be considered a Precog. As with telepathy, there are levels of ability and accuracy depending on how skilled the Precog is.

What are Zener Cards?

When J.B. Rhine was developing the precognitive card test, he was originally using playing cards. Magicians have long known how to identify playing cards and so did some of the test subjects. As a result, J.B. created the Zener card deck which has five of each geometrical shape. Some decks also have the shapes colored to include one more possible variable. This prevented most of the cheating that had occurred with playing cards. Continue reading “Precognition”

Psychokinesis

If you’re anything like me, you have probably focused all your attention on the T.V. remote control willing it to move into your hand so you wouldn’t have to get up off the couch. If you’ve succeeded in making that happen, congratulations, you’re a Psychokinetic. One of the most famous Psychokinetics in fiction today is Eleven from “Stranger Things”. It’s a great show with compelling characters and a creepy storyline, but it isn’t precisely accurate. Eleven is a pre-pubescent girl who was taken in by a shadow organization because of her incredible and innate ability to move objects simply through concentration. In one scene, Eleven is able to move a soda can a short distance across a table, something that hyper-talented Psychokinetics might make happen. Later in the show, Eleven wrecks her room with the sheer power of her mind. That’s never been proven to happen anywhere in Parapsychological research. However, the prevalent theory of Poltergeist hauntings is the acute psychokinetic activity of a young person living there. Continue reading “Psychokinesis”

The Clairs

No, I’m not talking about a group of Millennials that share the name “Clair” and happen to finish each other’s sentences or manage to wear the same color clothing on the same day. This term is parapsychological shorthand for the psychic senses. As you know, there are the five main senses: touch, smell, sight, hearing, and taste, but there are also the psychic equivalents of these each with their own “Clairs”. There are three main types of Clairs: clairvoyant, clairaudient and clairsentient as well as other Clairs that I will refer to later in this post. Continue reading “The Clairs”

What is Telepathy and is it Paranormal?

Parapsychologists who study psychic ability say that telepathy is gaining information from someone else without using one’s senses. If you see a picture without viewing it with your eyes or you hear something in your head without your ears picking it up, that is the definition of telepathy. The question that creates a rift between the parapsychology community and the skeptical anomalistic psychologists is whether the source of telepathy is paranormal or if it’s due to some subconscious awareness or other psychological phenomena. Continue reading “What is Telepathy and is it Paranormal?”