My Reiki Journal:

A 32-year-old woman with a history of acne had a baby and was unable to resume medications to control her acne after delivery as she was going to be breast feeding. Her skin was okay during the pregnancy but once she delivered the baby, she began to experience intense breakouts of acne on her face, upper chest and back areas. Her acne condition was chronic, dating back to teenage years, therefore she would require a more frequent program of receiving Reiki. A 3-month time period was agreed on to see what progress could be made at that point. Distance Reiki was sent to her and by the 8-9th week she noticed a dramatic improvement in her skin. She had been somewhat unsure that Reiki was even going to help her but was willing to give it a try. She was so happy, she decided to learn Reiki so she could give her self Reiki and also her baby boy. She said her hair even improved from receiving Reiki! That's was wonderful about Reiki, you don't even have to receive the sessions in person....just ask for distance Reiki.

A fellow had an attack of gout in his big toe and was in excruciating pain. With just a couple of Reiki sessions, the gout was gone. He was very happy because the medication the doctor had given him for gout was causing stomach upset.

A gentleman was experiencing shoulder and upper arm discomfort. It even hurt if he layed on that side at night. He had a similar problem in his other shoulder 5 years ago that required surgery. It was a torn rotator cuff so he was sure he had something similar in his other shoulder because the discomfort was the same. He is planning to have surgery at New England Baptist Hospital when he can get the appointment and clear it with worker's comp, but in the meantime he was receiving Reiki sessions while he awaited potential surgery in the spring and his pain was relieved. This does not mean he will not need the surgery, but Reiki provided pain control while waiting to have surgery. If someone has been diagnosed with a torn rotator cuff, ligament, tendon, etc. Reiki does not replace conventional medical therapy as Reiki cannot repair such things. Reiki's purpose is for pain control, reduce swelling and restore balance and harmony to the body. When he does eventually have the surgery, Reiki can be given before and after surgery to reduce the healing time of surgery to one-third of what it normally would be for that type of surgery. The Reiki can be given in person but it is much more convenient to do distance Reiki in this case as one probably would not have access to someone about to go in for surgery to even be able to give a Reiki session.

Amanda was loading wood for the first time in our wood-burning stove. The stove was very hot and while she was tossing the wood into the stove, the underside of her wrist came in contact with the opening to the stove and she sustained a severe burn. Her skin was actually melting (dripping). She trusted me to give Reiki her wrist area. I did this for about 15-20 minutes. She initially was extremely uncomfortable and experiencing a lot of pain from the burn. I explained to her that it was imperative to treat the area right away because after an injury it takes 5-10 minutes for the injured cells to become disorganized from the injury and to send messages to the brain and once the injury is registered in the brain, there is a memory of the injury. But, if Reiki can be done in that 5-10 minutes of time,

Reiki blocks the memory of the injury and the cells return to the state they were in before the injury. This reduces the healing time to one-third the time it normally would take an injury to heal and with less pain and swelling. Well, to continue with the story, during the week that followed, Amanda had minimal discomfort with decreased pain. The first day of the burn was the only day she had any discomfort. Her wrist healed without a trace of a scar in one-third the time a burn of that nature would normally take to heal.

I was on a weekend camping trip with my family at Lake George. We wented a good size boat to explore the lake. On the floor of the boat was a large door covering a storage area. My daughter, Kristen, opened the door to get something out and in a flash the wind blew the door shut right on her big toe. I was sitting right there and my first reaction was to give her Reiki right away. She was in excruciating pain. It would take another 30-45 minutes to get back to our point of origin. We had a few ice cubes left in the cooler so we put these over the toe and I gave her toe Reiki. We were all certain the toe had to be broken. There was a long cut at the base of the big toe. I gave Reiki to the toe until we reached shore at which point the pain was gone and she was able to walk on it. There was no swelling, no bleeding and no pain. Kristen was now a true believer in Reiki.

Another wood stove accident: Harry was adding more wood into a wood stove which had been going for a while and was very hot. As he was tossing the wood into the stove the fingernail side of his index, middle and ring fingers made contact with the stove and he was burned. Reiki was performed for 30-40 minutes to the fingers and as a result, there was no pain or swelling and the only telltale sign of the incident was a small half inch square of skin on each finger that was blanched white. The skin never broke down or opened in this case as it had in the accident above. Probably because the skin on his fingers was a lot thicker than the delicate skin on the underside of a wrist.

Anita came for treatment of a migraine that had been ongoing for over 24 hours. It initially started out as a 10 with the usual side effects of a migraine - excruciating pain, sensitivity to light and vomitting. When she came the next day to see me, I asked her on a scale of 1-10 what level her pain was at and she replied "7". I began to give her a Reiki session and gradually the migraine diminshed down to a 4. After an hour and 15 minutes of treatment the migraine was at a level 2, low enough for her to be able to drive herself home. This was around noon. By 2:00 PM, 2 hours later, she was back to normal and feeling "great".

On Easter Sunday, my 27 year old son, Gary, was watching TV when all of a sudden a 5 pound speaker that was mounted to the wall about 10" over his head fell and hit him squarely on the top of the head. Ouch!!!! I immediately applied Reiki for about 20-25 minutes. He had developed a small lump from the injury but this disappeared, as did the pain, after the Reiki treatment.

Rachel, an 8 year old little girl, was born with congenital craniofacial syndrome. She had undergone approximately 16 surgeries to correct the anomalities spaced over 5 years, from birth. The surgeries were all successful without any complications with minimal blood loss. Then she had a quiet period of 3 years with no surgery. At age 8, her doctor convinced her mother to have one last surgery to reshape her forehead. The mother agreed feeling the doctor was right, that Rachel, when she was a teenager and as most teenage girls are conscious of their appearance, would thank her mother for allowing the surgery which resulted in a dramatic cosmetic improvement. Well, what was supposed to be a relatively problem-free procedure ended up being a life-threatening ordeal. Blood loss amounted to approximately 12-14 pints of blood with Rachel ending up in Intensive Care on a respirator. When I talked to her mom and offered Reiki, she was willing to try anything. At this point, Rachel had been in ICU for about 4 or 5 days. Her head was swollen, her tongue had swelled to such a degree it would no longer fit in her oral cavity. She was heavily medicated so she would not pull out the respirator tubes. Absent Reiki was sent (meaning it was sent over a distance and not in person) twice a day for 2 days in a row. By the third day, the tongue swelling had disappeared, all swelling had gone down and the respirator was removed. Rachel was taken out of ICU and went home a couple of days later but not before her doctor came to see her before she left wanting to take a picture of what he called "his miracle patient." I feel with all my heart that Reiki helped Rachel. The Reiki practitioner is only the bridge for the energy to pass through. Several months after the surgery Rachel had one area along the suture line of the scalp where the original surgery was that would not heal. It was a hole about the size of an eraser tip and extended down to the outer membranes of the brain. The doctor said it would not heal on it's own due to the very minimal blood supply this area of the head receives. He gave it time to heal on its own, 3 months, and manipulated the area, but still it would not heal. He said it had to be closed surgically or bacteria or infection could reach the brain through this opening. Reiki sessions were offered again. Rachel received multiple absent Reiki sessions and after about 6 weeks the hole closed on its own. Rachel's mom told the doctor about the Reiki but he wasn't too convinced, or at least didn't say that he was. But the good news is Rachel avoided having another surgical procedure. Modern medicine is miraculous in its accomplishments and is a necessary part of our well being. Therefore, Reiki is meant to be a complimentary therapy of regular medical therapies and its intention is not to replace it, especially in life threatening situations. For example, if someone was in the midst of an appendicitis, a Reiki practitioner would not supercede the necessity for a surgical procedure and would immediately tell the person to seek a medical doctor/surgeon. Reiki then could be used after the surgery as complimetary therapy to reduce pain, swelling and discomfort and to relax the body. Had the hole in Rachel's head not healed, her mom would have definitely followed the doctor's advice. No surgical date to close the hole had been set so Reiki treatments were begun until it got to the point where the doctor insisted surgery was necessary immediately, which point never came as the area healed in.