The Reiki Cafe 

Good Afternoon my Friends,
I was wondering how some of you might have handled this situation.

I scheduled a reiki session for a friend who is going thru a rough time with depression and is on some pretty heavy drugs. She was looking forward to our session tomorrow until I saw her today and explained that she should be mindful of how she is feeling after the reiki session and to have her husband (a doctor) keep an eye on her for a couple of days as the reiki could affect her meds and their effectiveness.

When I explained this she suddenly changed her tune and said she may not come now.

I felt I was being a responsible practitioner by warning a person on meds that there could be some side effects of the reiki on medication and the body's reaction to them.

My husband says I should have kept my mouth shut and nothing would have happened.

What situations have you all experienced regarding clients on meds?

I look forward to hearing from you.

Love and light,
Tracey

Oroharo!

Tracey, you did exactly what i would have done. Some meds reiki increases by 10%. Of course, you had to tell her. The difficulty is seeing this as a side effect of reiki. It is rather a side effect of her meds!

finality

You did absolutely the right thing telling her that reiki might affect her meds. BTW if she had gone ahead with the treatment, you then could have intended that the reiki be given with the medication taken into consideration. I have done that in the past, and that mitigated side effects.

BTW I had a sort of similar situation where I was asked to give reiki to a 93-year-old woman who was very depressed and who had, according to her concerned friends, "given up on life". I said I'd be happy to give reiki, but I had to warn the concerned friends that reiki did what was best in any given situation and that it was possible that in this situation it might have the result of easing their friend's passing, if that's what was meant to happen. After that the reiki treatment never happened, and I can certainly understand why the concerned friends backed off, but I must also say that I was relieved, because I felt uneasy with the idea of maybe unwittingly contributing to someone's death, even if it was meant to happen.

It's quite a quandary, because then of course I felt bad about not helping someone who clearly needed help ...

Just some thoughts ...
Judith

Tracey,

/*\ Namaste :-}}

- if she is a serious pyschiatric risk then giving her a heads up that Reiki "may" produce some effects that cannot be predicted is proper

- but to say that Reiki will affect her meds is simply plain and unsubstantiated guesswork

- the fact that people on meds react to Reiki is in no way the same as saying the Reiki affected their meds

- that is irresponsible speculation - there are no proofs of this that I know of

Reiki All Around,

All Blessings,

Firekeeper

So where does the notion come from? It's one of the two cautions I was taught when I learned reiki: one was that it may affect medication, the other was not to apply it to broken bones before the bones were properly set back into place because they might heal improperly. I've read it in reiki books as well. Does anyone know the origin of the idea? Or is it just a long standing myth? Like the woman who always cut off the ends of her ham before putting it in the oven because that's how her mother did it, and her mother did it because that's how the grandmother did it, and it turned out that the grandmother only did it because the pan was too small?

Cheers,
Judith

hi Judith,
that 'ham' story is so funny....
I must be honest I have never heard of warning people about any re-actions to reiki when on meds (as I myself an on meds)..I mean where do you stop with that one, what about women on the 'pill'& nearly all my patients are on blood pressure meds..but if 'YOU' FELT THE NEED to tell her then of cause you were right....I also reiki my medication to get the most out of them, & destroy bad chemicals in food & water with reiki.
you are right also in making sure there are no broken bones before treating after say, an accident, (best just to treat for shock)....
but I sure love that ham story.....
if you go with your inner feelings you can't go wrong IMO.
luv yer wendy xxx

Hi everyone,
I was taught about the broken bones, but as far as the medication side of goes, it was only homeopathic meds that were a caution as these treat like for like. On the other hand reiki would enhance the healing qualties of other medications,

Light and Joy (seasons greetings to) Ray.

Good Morning,
I have worked with this person before and I am aware of her mental status. I simply advised her of the possibilities and that she should be mindful. I never state absolutes with Reiki. That would be irresponsible thing to do.

Tracey

Haha. good question!! Anyone?
Tracey

Thanks so much for all the replies. Interesting how we were taught diffrent things, isn't it? I was taught to be aware that reiki could affect the effectiveness of meds as well as the broken bones. The broken bones issue can be substantiated in one way per my own EMT knowledge. Bones begin to knit back together within hours on their own, set or not. So if reiki is applied before proper setting it could speed up that process.

Just thinking, if I had not advised her of a possible issue with her meds and went ahead with the reiki, what if she did have a serioud problem with the meds or psychiatric episode? No, I hold my ground that I was right in telling her what I did and feel good about that. If she is meant to have reiki she will come today or another day.

I love you all,
Tracey

I think that, that is the problem thou. If reiki does enhance the heling quailty of the meds, then there is a possability that doseage would have to be monitered in case less was need.

There is somre growing evidence that Reiki can alter the need for medication, or at least lead to the need for reduction. A few Doctors over here are refering people to Reiki practitioners for pain relief, or pain management as part of their overall treatment and early results have shown in some cases that less pain medication is needed. This could be for one of many reasons i.e placebo effect, people feeling more content because they have some unconditional touch or what ever else it may be.

From a personal perspective. I have been on meds for hyper tension for some years, no amount of reiki has led to me needing less med's.

Perhaps the way to word this when you are telling someone about it, is that "In some case's Reiki has reduced the need for so much medication and as such you should consult your medical provider to make sure that the level of med's does not need to be altered". This of course also has the effect of getting the person to take more responsability for their condition and in doing so may actually lead to a better frame of mind and thus less need for so much medication.

There are some who will also warn their clients that they may expeiriance an emotional release as a result of their treatment. This of course may happen, but on the same count, because it has been suggested it may of been planted in someones mind that this may occur and thus make it happen because of that

Namaste

Rob
Truth is not a property of language because language has not been able to express abstract ideas as efficiently as concrete items

So where does the notion come from?

Well there are lots of things that we get told that may have a grain of truth in them.
The broken bone one for instance. There is a medical technique where for bones that are being stubbon about mending, that small electical charge is applied to the break. This has the effect of ecelerating the healing process.
Commonsense does however dictait that in the event of someone breaking a bone, that you get appropiate medical attention as soon as possible. i.e. get them to someone who can set the bone.

I think that what happens is like a game of chinese whispers. One person says something as a possible explination, because they don't know for sure. That gets repeated and altered and by the time it is 5 or 6 away from the original then it is seen as true.
We can choose if we blindly accept things like this or if we are going to question them.

Namaste

Rob
Truth is not a property of language because language has not been able to express abstract ideas as efficiently as concrete items

Dear Tracey,
I applaud the fact that you are trying to do the right thing & be responsible.
We were taught alot of "things" about Reiki. How many of us have found out that what we were taught wasnt exactly on the mark? Reiki is not medical care & any recommendations regarding medical care should come from a medical professional. If in doubt, refer the client to that person or persons.
Medications go through scientific testing before they hit the market. We are all aware of how often an undiscovered side effect or adverse reaction will be discovered years after millions of people have been on these drugs.
No matter what we may have been taught about Reiki, how much of that is anecdotal information? Do we really know? Reiki is not a science & at the moment, not supported by enough credible research for any of us to truly make claims or predictions regarding what it does or does not do. The effect of Reiki on medications has not been reliably studied to my knowledge & even if so, has it been studied with all classes of drugs? There is also the X factor to consider: the individual who doesnt fit the parameters of the tests.

Hypnosis involves accepting a suggestion, often given by another person & most of us are capable of being hypnotized.
People are suggestible. If we tell them Reiki may affect their meds or it may cause a hastening of death, some will believe that & that belief is very powerful. There is a reason that doctors do not like to predict the amount of time left to a terminal patient.

So many factors affect the way an individual responds to medicatons: even the food we eat! If I believed that Reiki was going to intervere with medications I would never Reiki anyone because some patients are dependant on their meds to deliver the same effect with each dose or involve monitoring of the patient's response by a nurse or doctor. It may be true that some people are able to reduce their meds or eliminate them after receiving Reiki, but that might have been possible without Reiki. Sometimes people improve on their own for no known reason, it just seems to happen, Reiki or no reiki.

Reiki may be an art, it may be a spiritual belief or a healing modality...but at the moment it is not a health profession. Refer people to their doctor if they are concerned about effects on any treatment they are taking but dont suggest that there may be side effects ahead of time.

About the only thing Im sure of is that Reiki promotes a sense of well being and/or relaxation, a state of being conducive to healing.

peace & joy,
holobon

jks,

/*\ Namaste :-}}

- cooking a ham is not, I would submit, at all in the same league with doing energy work with people. Even I do not ask a cut of steak or a red bell pepper permission to roast them (however, I do thank my bay laurel tree and rosemary bush each time I snip a leaf or sprig or two for the pot)

bagl

- now, if you want some experimentally verified debunking of cooking myths try Alton Brown. And, he is a hoot to boot.

bagl

- however, I agree with your question, if I may re-phrase it slightly?? Why do we take tradition as "correct fact"?

- as far as I know there is no verifiable evidence that doing Reiki to a newly broken bone would "inspire" the bone to knit (or croche) - bagl - improperly. And, yes, I heard that too in Reiki 1 a long time ago. The issue is that we don't actually know that the bone might not kinit properly so since we are dealing with people and not hams the path was that of caution (not necessarily a bad thing but not actually based on fact).

- and to some extent this is also where the Permission issue came on stage

>:-}}

- or, how about thre one that says that doing hands-on with a burn will cause it to blister more?? In fact, blistering is the body's proper way of protecting the damaged tissue so, it seems to me, might not promoting this be a good thing??

- now, does Reiki actually cause more blistering? Over the years I have done Reiki on any burns I get trying to roast those decapitated hams and find the burns are less painful and heal more quickly. Is this proof of anything?? Not really. But I keep doing Reiki nonetheless, bagl

>:-}}

- or, how about the one of immediately putting heat on a sprain?? Nope. Ice first - then heat later

- so, just as the so-called intelligence of reiki is a myth so, likely, are many other cute reiki dos and don'ts

>:-}}

- now, do people sometimes heal more quickly with Reiki?? It seems so. But, since we cannot go back in time with the same person and the same condition and 'not do Reiki' to compare rate and quality of the healing time, the question cannot really be properly answered in this manner

- now, if one were to treat the same person over time for various issues and also omit Reiki on some occasions and keep a diary then one might get a more accurate sense of how Reiki is used by this one person to help him\herself

>:-}}

- and, in my view, all this business about "intuiting" Reiki this or Reiki that is mostly Ego stuff and really has more to do with Practitioner than Client\recipient

>:-}}

Reiki All Around,

All Blessings,

Firekeeper

Here's another way of looking at it: with some people, if things get better after reiki, "it got better by itself", but if something gets worse, e.g., a drug reaction, or a panic episode, "it's your fault" :) Then there are the people who want to prove to you that it doesn't work ... and accept it just to be able to tell you that it didn't do anything :) Then when it gets better a day or so later, whatever "it" is, reiki had absolutely nothing to do with it. I've been very generous for years at offering reiki to anyone who looked to me to be in need of it, especially friends and family, but I learned that it's not necessarily a good idea...

Cheers,
Judith

Hi, I think I would have done the same, every one reacts to Reiki differently and to suggest that it COULD have some effect on her reaction to things in general including her meds is being responsible, have you thought that perhaps she wanted an escape route from the treatment and you gave it to her? Does she have a vested interest in being unwell?
perhaps you could work on some undercover issues with her? If her husband is a doctor could it be she feels she needs to be ill to get his attention? All this is just thoughts off the top of my head...but maybe worth a thought.
Namaste
Annie

rob,

/*\ Namaste :-}}

- the issue is: does Reiki enhance (or reduce) the "effects" of the meds or does Reiki allow the person to respond to them more effectively (or not)?? Not the sames thing at all.

- yes, I know several RMs taking hypertesive meds and Reiki has not altered their condition one way or another, it appears

- for myself? If I have a strain from workout that is sufficient for Ibuprofen I can easily test the efficacy of Reiki alone or Reiki in concert with the OTCs or Ibuprofen alone

- in my experience, Reiki + Ibuprofen is better than either alone if the initial discomfort warrants OTCs in the first place - which is not always the case

- and sometimes I can get by with reiki alone or less OTCs + Reiki

>:-}}

Reiki All Around,

All Blessings,

Firekeeper

"the issue is: does Reiki enhance (or reduce) the "effects" of the meds or does Reiki allow the person to respond to them more effectively (or not)?? Not the sames thing at all."

How so FK? If the meds have become more effective, then the body would possibly need less surely?

Namaste

Rob
Truth is not a property of language because language has not been able to express abstract ideas as efficiently as concrete items

Yep, you put your finger on a big problem with reiki -- that we often cannot know what would have happened if we hadn't done it. On the other hand every once in a while it turns up incontrovertible evidence of its effectiveness, such as when it heals whiplash in 30 seconds (and the recipient actually feels it working), or when something that is pronounced to be permanent nerve damage by the medical establishment suddenly disappears after a reiki treatment, or when a hand, swollen, red and distended with osteoarthritis, visibly returns to normal in the course of treatment and regains full mobility. Hams are not nearly as satisfying :) Gotta love this stuff!

Cheers,
Judith

Rob,

/*\ Namaste :-}}

- I am not sure I follow your logic? Or at least your wish for an attribution of efficacy

- if you are suggesting that Reiki will actually alter the meds, chemically, - make them "super-meds", so to speak, then I might agree with you IF, as a result, it was shown that the chemical properties were enhanced AND that people actually needed less as a matter of course for an extended period

- but there is no evidence to suggest the meds are actually altered - so I think in some ways we are sort of putting the cart before the donkey

- and, I also have read many reports of people who thought Reiki was reducing their needs for meds and so stopped taking (on their own) - later, of course, when the condition deteriorated they had to go back on meds and trhen wondered why the Reiki had "failed"

>;-}}

- for myself? I do not feel Reiki will alter the chemical composition of medications, RNA, DNA, etc, etc (this apart from lack of any verifiable and reproducable evidence for such effects of Reiki)

- I do feel that each of us is ultimately responsible for our own healing - so how we are able to use Reiki to more effectively use meds (respond more efficaciously to them) is the KEY - if the result is that less meds are needed, fine

- one of the few decent "wholelisitc" cancer treatment outfits here, if one can believe their ads, ho;d tot he notion that each person is, botoom-line, responsible for their own well-being

>:-}}

Reiki All Around,

All Blessings,

Firekeeper

jks,

/*\ Namaste :-}}

- I would not be doing Reiki if I personally had not seen some effects such as you describe

- yet, there are also many mis-diagnosed issues and also cases of "exaggerated" pain, eg, or simply excessive need for attention (where any 'help' may be reported as amazingly effective' by the recipient)

- instant successes, so to speak, also seem to be at least as ego-important to practitioners as anyone else - a matter that can certainly 'distort' one's persceptions of efficacy (whether recipient or practitioner) and make the focus of our reiki us and not the client

>:-}}

Reiki All Around,

All Blessings,

Firekeeper

Otoharo!

About my statement that reiki affects meds. Xaris is the being who uses someone's body to communicate with us. She is someone I knew very well before I became human again. She told us to beware reiki when a cleint takes medications. It was her statement, that reiki may increase the effect that the meds have by as much as 10%. She did not mean that all meds are affected to that degree. She recommended that we not be reiki with someone on chemotherapy for cancer until the chemotherapy is done. I have stated these things on threads on this issue a number of times and have been refuted by other's experience. I believe Xaris. Others can do whatever they choose.

finality

Hi Firekeeper,

Most of the people I work on seem to require instant successes -- they are quite willing to give a physiotherapist (for instance) a 6-treatment window, at say $40 a pop, but if reiki doesn't work in one session, well, clearly it's bunk :) I am a great collector of success stories from reiki practitioners so I can tell people it works. Your success stories would delight me almost as much as my own :) :) :) Having said that, yes, the old ego gratification thing does give one a bit of a nudge too :)

Cheers,
Judith

PS: Generally speaking, it is my opinion that reiki does not get as much respect out there as a healing modality as it deserves. In the States especially (and argue with me please, anyone, if I got this wrong) it seems viewed as an airy-fairy thing that has very little "real" application. I collect stories of real healings to counteract this view.

judith,

/*\ Namaste :-}}

- if one reads enough Posts (and I have been reading them here since the Summer of 2000) and engages some of the authors and responders it becomes very evident that Reiki can be associated with all sorts of "inflation" of Ego or Self or Persona or some combination of these

>:-}}

- a few grains of Reiki Salt is often a healthful seasoning for some of what one is served up around here

>:-}}

Reiki All Around,

All Blessings,

Firekeeper

Hi FK
Ok get you now LOL
I to do not believe that Reiki will alter the effecincey of medication, but may help the body need less. So meaning that less meds need to be taken.
I do think that what does happen could possibly happen on a level that we don't fully understand yet. I would go for a better energy balance thruout the body.
But who really knows what happens on a moleculer level to us or the meds when Reiki is applied?

This is really what I was trying to put across without over complicating things.

Namaste

Rob
Truth is not a property of language because language has not been able to express abstract ideas as efficiently as concrete items