The term Reiki, pronounced 'Ray-Key', is the name given to a particular aspect of energy and a way of healing that transmits this energy.  The word Reiki is of Japanese origin and literally means:

• Rei = Universal Life Force
• Ki = Energy

Every living thing contains and transmits energy, or Ki.  This energy is the life force, whose presence indicates the existence of life itself.  

The essence of Reiki, that particular aspect of the universal energy utilised in Reiki healings, is truly beyond a definition of words and therefore not always easy to conceptualise.  However, we may think of Reiki as divine unconditional love, intelligent in nature and alive as consciousness.  This divine unconditional love restores the perception of wholeness, dissolving the illusion of disease.

Reiki Healing

The act of laying hands on a human or animal body to comfort and relieve pain is as old as instinct.  When experiencing pain, the first thing most people do is place their hands on the area affected.  When caring for others, touch is instinctively used.  A mother's instinct when a child is feverish or ill leads her to place her hands on the child's forehead.  Human touch conveys warmth, serenity, caring, love, and healing.  Reiki healing is a form of hands on healing.

Reiki healing takes place when a Reiki practitioner acts as a channel for Reiki (energy), transmitting the Reiki though the hands to the recipient.  The Reiki practitioner is not the healer but a catalyst, along with the patient, for the healing process to occur.  It is Reiki and unconditional love that is the healer through the compassion of the practitioner, and the willingness of the patient to re-harmonise with the true divine essence of self.  The threshold is set for a healing environment, thus love is allowed to flow into the situation, rebalancing energetic discord, reinstating a state of natural harmony and wholeness of being.