Book summary “Reiki for dummies”: summary

Introduction

You often seek natural ways to manage stress, restore inner balance, and support your physical and emotional well-being without invasive methods. Modern life depletes your personal energy and leaves you searching for gentle tools to promote deep relaxation and holistic healing.

Nina L. Paul presents Reiki as an accessible, non-manipulative energy healing system that channels universal life-force energy. You learn how to work with subtle energy fields to foster self-care and personal transformation.

The book guides you through the history, foundational principles, training levels, and practical hand positions of Reiki. You discover how to integrate these techniques into your daily routine and professional practice.

• What is the history behind Usui Reiki Ryoho?
• How do attunements and sacred symbols unlock healing channels?
• What steps are involved in giving a treatment to yourself or others?

1. Understanding Reiki and Subtle Energy

Reiki channels universal life-force energy through attunements and sacred symbols, interacting directly with the human body's subtle energy fields.

Mikao Usui developed Usui Reiki Ryoho in early 1900s Japan. Reiki translates to spiritual energy where rei means spiritual wisdom and ki means energy. It is gentle, harmless, natural, and intelligent, meaning it adapts to whatever the recipient needs without requiring any equipment.

What is Reiki

Reiki is distinct from massage, reflexology, and other energy healing modalities due to its specific use of symbols and the attunement process. While other systems like Johrei, therapeutic touch, acupuncture, and qigong utilize energy healing, Reiki specifically relies on attunements and sacred symbols to connect practitioners and recipients to universal energy.

Manifesting with Reiki involves visualizing desired outcomes while surrounding situations with light, sending Reiki energy, and surrendering to the greatest good. Practitioners can combine visualization with Reiki energy to bring desires into form. Difficulties or emotional blocks that arise are treated as useful feedback from the subconscious.

• Picture or visualize the event happening by seeing and feeling the desired result.
• Observe any emotional blocks or difficulties as a blessing revealing subconscious states.
• Picture bright light or Reiki symbols surrounding the emotions or event.
• Imagine that all parties involved experience happiness and joy.
• Use the phrase for the greatest good of all: I ask for your request for the greatest good of all.
• Use the phrase this or something better: I ask for your request or something better.

Body Energy Systems

The human body is composed of subtle energy fields that science validates through Einstein's mass-energy equivalence equation. While the body is physical matter, Einstein's equation E=MC 2 demonstrates that matter and energy are identical. Subtle energies surrounding the body, also called biomagnetic or electromagnetic energy, interact with physical health.

• Hold your hands out from your body, palms facing each other.
• Try putting your hands together — slowly.
• As your hands get closer but without touching, can you feel different sensations?
• Try moving your hands closer together and then apart.
• As you move back and forth, you can feel the energy sensations.

The human body's energy system is organized into layers within the aura, a network of meridians, and central spinning vortexes called chakras. The aura contains physical, etheric, emotional, mental, and spiritual layers. Meridians serve as an energy highway system tied to organ systems, while the 7 major chakras act as energy centers transforming information between spiritual and physical planes.

• Hold your hand in front of you.
• If possible, use a blank or white background.
• Look softly at your fingers; try to close your eyes halfway.
• Take your attention to the space surrounding each finger.
• Move your eyes out a little until you see a color or line.

2. Roots and Principles of Reiki

Mikao Usui discovered the system of Usui Reiki Ryoho in 1922 in Japan following a 21-day fasting and meditation retreat on Mount Kurama.

Mikao Usui was born in 1865. He sought spiritual enlightenment and total awareness, returning from the mountain with the ability to heal himself and others. He later trained approximately 2,000 students and certified 21 Master Teachers before his death in 1926.

Mikao Usui used his healing system to help many victims of the 1923 earthquake in Tokyo and Yokohama.

Chujiro Hayashi was born in 1880 and brought a medical approach to Reiki by incorporating anatomical hand positions and establishing the first multi-bed treatment clinic. A retired naval medical officer and surgeon, Hayashi studied under Mikao Usui for ten months. He created a manual of hand positions for specific illnesses and operated a clinic where multiple patients were treated simultaneously by teams of practitioners.

Chujiro Hayashi died by suicide in 1940 to avoid World War II service at age 40.

Hawayo Takata was born on Christmas Eve in 1900 and preserved and introduced Reiki to the Western world, training 22 Master Teachers before her death in 1980. After being cured of her illness at Hayashi's clinic in Japan, Takata brought the practice to Hawaii and the US mainland. Although some historical details she shared were embellished, her pivotal efforts established Reiki outside of Japan.

Hawayo Takata was directed to Chujiro Hayashi's clinic in 1935 after hearing a voice on the operating table telling her not to have surgery. She traveled to Japan that year, became a client of Chujiro Hayashi, and later brought Reiki to Hawaii in 1937. In 1976, Takata trained her first Master student, Virginia Samdahl, out of 22 total Masters.

The Reiki Principles

The five Reiki Principles serve as a daily moral and spiritual guide for personal development, anchored by the premise of living strictly in the present.

Engraved on Mikao Usui's tombstone, the principles require practitioners to release anger and worry, practice gratitude, work with integrity, and display kindness toward others. The prefix 'just for today' demands that attention remains anchored in the present moment.

• Do not anger.
• Do not worry.
• Be grateful.
• Do your work.
• Be kind to others.

Anger should not be suppressed or unleashed recklessly, but instead recognized and processed as a signal for personal and emotional truth. Unchecked anger often masks underlying emotions like fear and insecurity. Transforming anger requires recognizing the trigger, taking a pause, identifying the underlying root, and executing constructive actions to resolve the core conflict.

• See the anger by recognizing that you are angry.
• Take a timeout, count to ten, breathe deeply, and avoid knee-jerk reactions.
• Decide what the anger means by looking for underlying emotions such as fear.
• Take action to address the root problem, such as setting boundaries or solving financial insecurity.

Receiving professional Reiki requires finding the right practitioner through personal recommendations, public circles, or hospital programs, followed by a careful interview regarding their training level, combined therapies, and approach. Professional Reiki practitioners range from friends and volunteers to paid professionals working in spas, offices, or traveling to homes. When selecting a practitioner, you should interview them about their Reiki degree, supplementary healing systems, session philosophy, experience duration, and practical considerations like location, cost, and personal comfort. Gut intuition serves as your ultimate guide.

• What level of Reiki are you?
• What healing systems do you use alongside Reiki, if any?
• What do you see as the value of Reiki, especially for me?
• How many sessions do you think I'll need?
• How long have you practiced Reiki?

3. Training Levels and Sacred Symbols

Reiki training progresses through three distinct degrees, utilizing four sacred symbols to focus universal energy and unlock healing channels.

The Three Training Levels

Reiki training is traditionally divided into three successive levels that progressively teach self-treatment, treatment of others, symbols, attunements, and teaching methods. A Reiki practitioner has studied at least the first or second level to give treatments. A Reiki Master has completed the master level, and if they are a Reiki Master Teacher, they are qualified to teach others.

• Take 1st-degree (Shoden) for history, principles, self-reiki, and basic hand positions.
• Take 2nd-degree (Okuden) for distant techniques, emotional healing, and the first three symbols.
• Take 3rd-degree (Shinpiden or ART/Master Teacher) for master symbols, giving attunements, and teaching.

Reiki attunements are a permanent initiation process that opens a practitioner's energy channels, often followed by a temporary physical and emotional cleansing period. The attunement connects the practitioner lineage back to Mikao Usui and enables the effortless flow of universal energy. Following this initiation, many experience a detoxification phase as the body adapts to higher vibrations.

• Avoid alcohol, illegal drugs, and nicotine for at least a day or week before class.
• Eat lightly and avoid stimulants like caffeine or sugar on the day before and day of class.
• Drink water, meditate, keep a journal, and use self-reiki during the integration period.

Discovering Symbols

Mikao Usui designated four specific symbols that act as tools to focus consciousness and unlock the flow of universal healing energy. While energy flows regardless, these symbols serve as subconscious associations or triggers. The first three are typically taught in 2nd-degree training and the fourth at the Master level.

• Draw the Cho Ku Rei power symbol to focus energy, ground yourself, and protect or purify.
• Draw the Sei Hei Ki emotional symbol to heal psychological problems and promote balance.
• Draw the Hon Sha Ze Sho Nen distance symbol to transcend space and time.
• Draw the Dai Ko Myo master symbol for empowerment and attunements.

Reiki symbols can be activated and applied through visualization, physical drawing in the air or on the body, and the silent or spoken chanting of their names. Practitioners use various methods to anchor the symbol energy, such as visualizing them on closed eyelids, tracing them in the palms, or drawing them in the corners of a room.

Theresa Sarin starts her morning by standing before her sacred space, tracing the Tibetan Master Reiki symbol over herself, chanting its name three times, and reciting a morning prayer poem.

• Draw the symbol in your palm and say its name three times while clapping three times.
• Draw the symbol in the air in each of the four corners, ceiling, and floor to cleanse a room.
• See the symbol in your mind's eye on your closed eyelids.
• Draw the symbol on the roof of your mouth with your tongue.
• Imagine the symbol entering a body part and enveloping cells with its energy.

4. Treatments and Self-Reiki Practices

You can apply Reiki to yourself and others using full-body hand positions, breathing techniques, and intuitive scanning methods.

Approaching a Reiki session with clear intentions, comfortable clothing, and a light stomach enhances the treatment. A full Reiki session performed by one person takes 30 minutes to an hour. Recipients remain fully clothed while removing restrictive items, while practitioners act as open channels for energy. Common physical and emotional responses include temperature changes, emotional releases, involuntary twitches, and vivid imagery or deep relaxation.

A young man at a Reiki circle described his first session as allowing him to detach from reality and feel completely safe and pure for the first time in at least five years.

• Write down intentions or things you want the Reiki session to accomplish before arriving.
• Avoid heavy meals or lots of caffeine just before a session.
• Remove shoes, tight belts, jewelry, watches, eyeglasses, or restrictive outer clothing.
• Speak up if you are uncomfortable, too cold, or need the music turned off.

Post-session integration requires grounding, hydration, and capturing inspirational insights. Ongoing treatments may be necessary to address lifelong patterns or chronic health conditions.

• Take time to sit, breathe deeply, or take a short walk to get grounded.
• Drink lots of water to help the process of detoxification.
• Bring paper and pen to sessions to write down inspirational thoughts and insights before they slip away.

Treating Yourself

Practicing self-Reiki regularly helps maintain physical health, mental relaxation, and spiritual alignment. It prepares you to better treat others. Mikao Usui spent 21 days meditating on Mount Karuma. A 21-day period, or 3 weeks, is the recommended duration of self-Reiki practice to build a new habit.

• Schedule self-Reiki sessions in your appointment book.
• Give yourself Reiki every morning before getting out of bed by putting your hands on your eyes.
• Give yourself Reiki every night before going to sleep for 5 to 15 minutes.

Beginners should follow a specific 15-position sequence starting from the head and moving down the body. You spend between 30 seconds and 5 minutes on each self-Reiki position.

• Begin by covering your eyes with your hands and fingers pointed upward.
• Cover your crown at the top of your head with fingers touching.
• Place your hands on the back of your head or alternate at the base.
• Place your hands on the sides of your cheeks in front of your ears.
• Cup your hands around your throat with wrists together.
• Place one hand over your throat and one over your heart.
• Place both hands on your upper chest above your breasts.
• Place your hands on your upper abdomen just under your breasts.
• Place your hands on either side of your navel.
• Put your hands in a V shape pointing downward over your belly.
• Put your hands behind your head down onto your shoulders.
• Put your hands on your middle back around your waist.
• Rest your hands on your lower back parallel to your hips.
• Cover your knees with your hands.
• Place your hands around your ankles and hold the bottom of each foot.

Healing Others

Treating another person involves a standard set of 19 full-body hand positions. These locations cover the head, torso, back, and feet to address various physical and energetic imbalances.

• Start with the recipient on their back on a massage table.
• Keep your fingers together for all Reiki positions to amplify energy.
• Move gently from one position to another, keeping one hand on the recipient as the other moves.
• Cover the eyes and face, top of the head, temples, ears, and beneath the head.
• Transition down the body through the jawline, throat, collarbone, heart, and abdomen.
• Ask the recipient to turn over to treat the shoulders, shoulder blades, waist, and lower back.
• Conclude by treating the knees, ankles, and soles of the feet.

5. Advanced Techniques and Professional Practice

Advanced applications include distant healing, crystal integration, everyday uses, and establishing a professional healing practice.

Distant Reiki allows you to send healing energy across boundaries of space and time to people, places, or situations that are not physically present. Using the Distance symbol, you can transmit healing to recipients far away, send energy ahead into future events, or heal emotional wounds connected to past experiences.

The author sent distant Reiki to a man in a hospital bed with an artificial heart after finding his picture online, and the man eventually recovered and contacted her months later.

Distant sessions utilize visualization, proxy objects, or photographs to replicate the structure of an in-person treatment from afar.

• Obtain permission from the recipient.
• Visualize and say the names of the Distance symbol, Emotional symbol, and Power symbol aloud three times each.
• Say the name of the receiving person three times, picture them in your mind, and repeat the symbol sequence.
• Begin the Reiki session, perform an aura cleanse, use standard hand positions, and end with an aura cleanse and Kenyoku Ho.

Crystals can be charged or programmed with Reiki symbols and intentions to continuously amplify and transmit healing energy.

• Hold the crystal in your hands and send Reiki out while visualizing the Cho Ku Rei power symbol and saying its name three times.
• Arrange a set of quartz crystals in a geometric formation such as a circle or octagon with photos or names placed nearby to build a healing grid.

Professional Standards

Becoming a professional Reiki practitioner involves fulfilling specific training requirements, obtaining relevant certifications or branch documentation, and adhering to regional regulations. Minimum requirements usually dictate at least first-degree training for hands-on healing and second-degree training for distant healing. When the author wrote the first edition in 2005, she found four clinical trials, whereas by 2022 there were 37 listed Reiki clinical trials.

• Get the training you need.
• Use a mentor or other professional feedback.
• Join professional organizations.
• Follow the laws in your region.
• Practice from the highest level of integrity.
• Ask for feedback.
• Continue your own healing.
• Plan your classes or sessions.
• Respect money.
• Figure out a schedule.

10 Key Ideas

1. Reiki is an accessible, non-manipulative energy healing system that channels universal life-force energy through attunements and sacred symbols to foster self-care and personal transformation.
2. The human body's subtle energy fields, validated by Einstein's mass-energy equivalence equation, are organized into layers within the aura, a network of meridians, and central spinning vortexes called chakras.
3. Mikao Usui discovered the system of Usui Reiki Ryoho in 1922 in Japan following a 21-day fasting and meditation retreat on Mount Kurama.
4. The five Reiki Principles serve as a daily moral and spiritual guide for personal development, anchored by the premise of living strictly in the present.
5. Reiki training progresses through three distinct degrees, utilizing four sacred symbols to focus universal energy and unlock healing channels.
6. Mikao Usui designated four specific symbols—Cho Ku Rei, Sei Hei Ki, Hon Sha Ze Sho Nen, and Dai Ko Myo—that act as tools to focus consciousness and unlock the flow of universal healing energy.
7. Practicing self-Reiki regularly helps maintain physical health, mental relaxation, and spiritual alignment while preparing you to better treat others.
8. Distant Reiki allows you to send healing energy across boundaries of space and time to people, places, or situations that are not physically present using visualization, proxy objects, or photographs.
9. Clinical trials evaluating Reiki have expanded significantly over the years, accompanied by professional standards that involve fulfilling specific training requirements, obtaining certifications, and adhering to regional regulations.
10. Common misconceptions about Reiki are dispelled by understanding that it is distinct from massage and reflexology, operating safely and naturally without requiring any equipment while adapting to whatever the recipient needs.