Reiki: good health, spirituality - or only superstition?

...so much for the "laying on of hands" to confer apostolic succession of the priesthood. That's superstitious!

Whatever happened to the Incarnation? Reiki is a tool, only that, for integrating the human person. What truly Christian representative could object to that. Or have we spawned a new breed of gnostics in the hierarchy?

I have been a Reiki practioner for almost 15 years. It has been a most beautiful way to pray both in giving and receiving. And I have seen and experienced the healing effects of Reiki. So much of our faith is mystery and is not based on solid science - in fact most of our faith is mystery. And so why would the Bishops think that Reiki could not also be part of the mystery of God's presence among us. For years I have heard conservative Catholics (EWTN) refer to reiki, acupuncture, centering prayer and yoga as purely superstition. These are ancient healing modalities that have brought peace and healing to many.
I am terribly disappointed that a group of men who have no experience of any of these methods of healing and wholeness have made this unilateral decision. God forbid that they look at more important issues like poverty, AIDS, violence against women and any number of social justice issues that beg the churches attention. They obviously find power in sending down an edict such as this. It is just another edict that moves me further away from the church. I hope Catholic retreat centers, will continue to offer Reiki and other healing modalities and ignore.

do you not see the irony in this??

superstitious is as superstitious does..
unless it's not 'your' superstition....

I could hardly believe my eyes as I read, "Reiki Therapy Inappropriate" in our local diocesan news paper. On what planet do these bishops live?
I learned Reiki during a course called'Alternative Modes of Healing' at a Catholic college as part of my graduate work in Pastoral Ministry. We were instructed to recite the Lord's Prayer slowly and reverently as we practiced laying on of hands on a client.
There are many forms of healing, but I believe that only God can heal! In Mark's Gospel 9:38, Jesus admonishes John when he tells Jesus he tried to stop a man from casting out demons because he was not of their company. Jesus said, "Do not try and stop him. No one who performs miracles can speak ill of me. Anyone who is not against us is with us."
I rest my case.
(Mrs.) Mary Jean Smith

"While Christians believe in the efficacy of prayer for healing, they do so with a reliance on divine power, not with the expectation that the person engaged in invoking that power can cause the release of that power, it says.
“For Christians, the access to divine healing is by prayer to Christ as Lord and Savior, while the essence of Reiki is not a prayer but a technique that is passed down from the ‘Reiki master’ to the pupil, a technique that once mastered will reliably produce the anticipated results,” it says."

So, how does this differ from praying to saints? Will such statements eliminate looking for miracles to help name saints?

Here we go again - or continue with the bishops. Isn't there more for them to be concerned with (ie; war, hunger, prevention of HIV/AIDS, etc.) rather than attacking something which brings people healing and peace. Perhaps it's because they (the bishops and their priests) want to be the only ones to "lay hands" (they even deny the deacons, most of whom are not celibates, from anointing those in need and therefore again denying comfort to the sick, dying, and their families). So reiki is “a technique that has no scientific support — or even plausibility.” I wonder what they would have said about Jesus'laying on of hands and using his universal life energy? Oh yeah, we do know what they would have said - their Phraisee' brothers spoke for them

I've never even heafd of Reiki! I guess I am just not tuned into what is going on at retreat centers.

This situation would be funny if it did not impact so many people. The members of the committee did not interview anyone? They did not go to one of the centers that they wish to censor. They did not experience a Reiki session to see if there is anything to worry about? Once again the hierarchy of the Church has made a powerful statement which asks Catholics to contract. It baffles me. I was taught that catholic means 'universal', that there are 'many mansions'. Do all Catholics experience God and the Holy Spirit the same way? Apparently not. It grieves me terribly to see the official Church turning more and more to the 'law' and away from confidence in the 'Spirit'.
This document will have a grievous impact. I know nurses who give Reiki sessions in hospitals and have found that for many people their pain is eased. Catholic bishops are arguing with mystery? Can Catholics only use Catholic-approved techniques? It makes no sense. Do they think these nuns will become animists? Please.

So many people are deprived of human touch and closeness. As a nurse, I see this and recognize that 'hands on' therapy of any kind done with compassion transmits the healing (not necessary curative) powers of the Almighty! The boys in the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops need to focus on relieving the pain in the general population that prevents them from seeking Christ. Why are they wasting their time on Reiki?

Do you suppose that statements like this were what Donald Cuzzens had in mind when he spoke of creeping infallibilism in his book, Faith that dares to speak?

I have decided that the Catholic Church is just plain parinoid. This latest judgement by the Bishops of the Church on Reiki is just nuts. Bet it has something to do with Reiki being practiced and used by mostly women. How in the world could anyone think that those that use Reiki would/could allow this alternative method of relaxation replace their belief in God? I would use Reiki anyday over a prescription drug, and Reiki has helped a lot of people. Half the battle with any illness, physical or mental, is battling stress and fear. Any form of relaxation promotes more positive thoughts, etc. Postive thinking helps in all healing processes. The Church needs to take a step back, and focus their energies on what is really needed to have a heathly religious organization. Maybe the Bishops should try Reiki !

In the face of the shortage of priests which has reached the crisis level, and in the face of the closing of about 1,500 US parishes in the last five years, it appears that Reiki is the USCCB smoke-screen to make believe the bishops are doing something to re-establish and uphold the church and Cathoilc values. It is utterly unbelievable that they should occupy their time with Reiki. This is laughable.

Reiki is a friendly,harmless placebo at worst -- and is often psychologically beneficial. Oriental medicine has long used the chakras as healing sites. Reiki comes from that Eastern setting and has nothing to do with Gnosticism.

I have been a Reiki Master for many years and have not regularly practiced it. But my children have from time to time asked me to offer it to them.
Many nurses now use it, and it is popular at retreat centers. Reiki is simply a means of human contact. One person giving a natural blessing to another. The ill person benefits from the attention given.

HMO's now approve Reiki as an alternative and support to regular medicine.

There is no scientific proof that Reiki works, but there is no scientific proof that prayer works. Yet, the church recommends prayer for those who are sick or suffering. And for many, prayer does works. For others Reiki also works to restore health.

What is surprising is that it took the US Bishops so long to find out about this technique and to denounce it. I have known about it for years, and have never saw it otherwise than as a form of gnostic application of life-force.

Why do I get the idea that this is simply more smoke and mirrors being used by the ecclesiastical leaders of the Holy Roman Catholic Church to divert everyone's attention from the most serious and continuing problem of the sexual abuse of children, young girls and boys and vulnerable adults including women religious all around the world and the problem which the bishops refuse to deal with as it exists? They refuse even to hold their fellow bishops accountable. What's to be done?

An interesting excerpt from, "Sex, Priests and Secret Codes" (Doyle, Sipe and Wall,) 2006 pps.64-65:

The church teaches that its heirarchical governmental structure is of divine origin. Ultimately all real power rests in individual office holders and not in collective bodies. The pope is the embodiment of all judicial, legislative, and executive power for the entire church (Canons 331, 333) and each diocesan bishop possesses similar fullness of power in his own diocese (Canon 381). Since there is no separation of powers there are no effective checks and balances. In effect, the hierarchical structure takes on many of the characteristics of monarchical government. For centuries, the Catholic Church has claimed to be a "perfect society," a juridical term denoting its independence and self-sufficiency. That claim made way for the introduction of juridical and sociological categories into ecclesiological thought (135) and was adopted at a time when papal authority was being centralized, lay control was being weakened, and the church's legal structure was evolving. Consequently, the church's governing structure and the clerical sub-class that held all positions of power within it took on an absolute value. The concept "good of the church" meant, in effect, the good of the church's governing structure and its power holders.

135. Karl Rahner, editor, Encyclopedia of Theology: The Concise Sacramentum Mundi (New York: Seabury Press, 1975), p.207.

Another case of a "little knowledge" being dangerous, only this time the "little knowledge" is in the committee who drew this up. Why didn't they take the time to talk to actual Reiki practitioners who were Catholic and also some non-Catholic ones to gain some real insight into this technique. Many non-Catholic practitioners even call on such well known Catholic healers such as St. Francis, Padre Pio, etc, as well as Jesus in their work. Let the people do their work in spreading God's love, healing, and joy to the world, whether laity or clergy. There is certainly a great need for this.
I have done a bit of Reiki work, and also received it. Like any true healing it depends on the state of consciousness and openness of the recipient.

I'll close with my favorite Mark Twain quote:
"It's better to keep your mouth shut and appear stupid than to open it and remove all doubt."

In what direction is this doctrinal group going? Are they going to go after the charismatics who practice something akin to Reiki? Or are they going to go bit by bit after practitioners of tai chi and yoga? Or maybe both directions? They do need to investigate in order to legitimize their existence. What would they say about bishops who ask everyone at confirmations to extend their hands and pray over the candidates? Evidently we have a new and important tool for witch hunts in the American Church - the USCCB Committee on Doctrine (COD).

Here we go again is right. This is another example of the hierarchy of men finding fault with the women whether they are lay or religious. These men would not know true love, compassion, or anything else that resembles living out our Catholic faith if it bit them on their collective noses. Their heads are obviously up in the clouds because they can't possibly be aware of what is happening down here in the real world where people are sick and suffering and in need of a gentle touch and healing. Everything that comes from the U.S. Bishops makes my head spin! While my Christian faith remains strong, my Catholic faith is hanging by a thread.

The fact that this issue stirs up so much anger is a sign we are all in need of prayer and reconcilliation.
Restore the church do not attack each other.
Be at peace and model the life of Christ to the world.

Per Relevant Radio I hear the bishop's don't approve of yoga, either. I'll have to remember that the next time I'm saying my Morning Offering everyday while doing my "AM Yoga" DVD. Namaste.

And the hierarchy wonders why it has lost credibility with the people in the pews. A perfect example of rearranging the chairs on the deck of the Titantic.

I BELIEVE THAT -

A declaration by the U.S. bishops’ Committee on Doctrine that Reiki is based on superstition and incompatible with Christian faith could force scores of U.S. congregations of women religious who run Catholic retreat centers to reevaluate programs that teach or use Reiki therapy.

- IS AN ATTEMPT BY THE HIERARCHS TO STOCKPILE THE AMMUNITION THAT WILL BE USED TO SHOOT DOWN THE LEADERSHIP CONFERENCE OF WOMEN RELIGIOUS AS A REPRESENTATIVE BODY AND WEAKEN THE UNITY OF THE WOMEN THE LCWR REPRESENTS.

So long as Rome and the hierarchy continue to challenge the efforts of many good people, acting in good faith, to provide comfort to their fellow human beings, the real evil of war and pestilence and all sorts of violation of others, printed daily in our papers and seen on television....will contine.

Apparently they just don't get it, just as they "didn't get it" for 5 or more decades of priest pedophilia.

AS a married priest I come in contact with many, many "former" Catholics who have been driven from the Church not by it's preaching of the Gospel but by it's insensitivity to struggling humanity...struggling with their faith, struggling with illness, struggling with family tragedies, struggling with the
burdens placed upon them by modern Pharisees.

When I heard my first confessions in 1956 (perhaps a hundred or more in one session,) I came away with the revelation that most people are close to Sainthood

Here we go again! The Bishop have "theory" as their proof---"academic study” of how Reiki therapy is understood by its adherents. The committee based its conclusions about the incompatibility of Reiki with Catholic teaching on “a purely academic type of research, in the sense that we read books and went to Web sites and we amassed a huge amount of material, but we didn’t interview anybody.”

It is a good thing that our Bishops are not detectives, or involved in forensic pathology in crime scenes. They would have theories, not based upon hard evidence. People would be jailed, tried in courts based upon their 'theories', condemned, spend years in prison, maybe even executed---based on theories---nothing that smacks of the hard work of collecting physical evidence.

Oops, I forgot---that's how the Inquisition was held back in the Middle Ages--all based upon 'academics----but hard physical evidence----talking to people, seeing for ourselves how this works----oh, my no!

But we'll condemn the method based on our theorizing! Oh, we've so very good at doing that!

God forbid that people find a way to experince the healing popwer of the Holy Spirit without a priest... It's all about control in the Church lately. If the men in charge can't control it, they condemn it.

I used to study with the secular Carmelites and they freaked out over a retreat center having a labyrinth as a form of walking meditation (Hello? Chates cathedral, anyone?)I used to work on the grounds of that retreat center adn often walked it while praying the rosary at lunch. It was relaxing and benefical and it brought me closer to God. Why the midieval fear over anything unknown? Fear is bred by ignorance, but the problem is that no one in the Church hierarchy is willing to open their minds and listen. Perhaps after some education, they would see how harmless (and helpful) Reiki can be.

And the Church calling anything superstitious is laughable. I could name at least a dozen things endorsed by the Church that smack of superstition.

I'm not familiar with Reiki therapy, but this whole bruhaha sounds like one regarding transcendental meditation in the sixties. At that time, a Dr. Benson published a slim volume called "The Relaxation Response," which effectively extracted physical exercises from the Hindu philosophy and religion so that Westerners could realize the benefits of lowered respiration and pulse rates. I have used the technique for forty years, substituting Dr. Benson's mantra with various prayers (In manus tuas, Domine,...) and words (Jesus, Peace, Truth, Love, etc.), to great spiritual benefit and consolation. Doesn't the Church teach that there is but one (trinue)God who is the ultimate quest of all the world's religions?

Those darn bishops! They keep shooting themselves in the foot and wonder why we're bumping into each other running for the door. As a nurse and a proponent of integrative healing modalities I am astonished at the ignorance of this group of men. Do they really believe they can control women, women religious, and the laity in general by making more rules? I think THAT horse has already left the barn...not only do they shoot themselves in the foot, but they shoot their people in the heart. Let's let the good old boys have their meetings and make their rules, but let the rest of us move on doing the work of the Healing Body of Christ.

Didn't we go through this sort of thing with Yoga some years back, and now Catholics can go to Yoga classes.

Those darn bishops. They keep shooting themselves in the foot with crap like this and then wonder why we're bumping into each other trying to get out the door. As far as making more rules to control women, women religious and the laity in general, I think THAT horse has already left the barn. I say let the good old boys meet and make new rules while the rest of us get on with being the healing body of Christ.

Imagine this headline: US bishops condemn nuclear weapons -- and Catholics are warned against participation in any level of their design, building, plans or use. Extra grace for those involved in dismantling. That's the message the bishops should proclaim right now to support US and Russian moves and intentions for complete nuclear disarmament. Until then, I'm not so interested in their uninformed conjectures about Reiki.

The timing is exquisite, with the stormtroopers soon arriving from Rome.