The Reiki practitioner conducts vital energy from the universal energy field into the human energy field, where the energy is transmuted into a form that is usable at the cellular level. The vital energy recharges, realigns, and rebalances the subtle bodies, bringing harmony and wholeness to all the recipient’s systems.

Unlike other forms of energy medicine, Reiki does not involve diagnosing imbalance in the recipient’s energy field or intentionally repatterning the system. There is no possibility of misdiagnosis or energy overload with Reiki, because in any session it is the client who is in charge, her cells drawing in the amount of energy needed to bring the mind/body back to homeostasis. This all happens beyond the conscious mind - the client does not need to exert effort to pull in the life force energy. It happens independently of belief system, emotional state, or religious preference. The body’s inner intelligence orchestrates the entire session in accordance with the creative intelligence of the universe.

Because the theories of quantum physics are not yet universally accepted, the concept of energy healing confounds many, and so we speak in metaphor when we describe the effect of Reiki on the body. To introduce the ideas of the new physics, and yet stay very literal in our descriptions, we characterize the Reiki process as the body’s cells pulling in the universal force. We like to compare this process of the cells to that of barnacles living on the rocks along the seacoast, opening when the waves come into receive their nourishment to relinquish their waste. Similarly, during a Reiki session the client’s cells open to pull in the universal life energy. As the cells open, they release the energy of all that is old, outmoded, irrelevant – all they have held onto that worked against that person’s highest good. This process of opening and releasing mirrors the flow of the universe – a continual taking in and letting go – with the ultimate goal being the balancing and harmonizing of the entire system. When the body is in balance, it can heal itself.

Not only does the recipient determine healing in a Reiki session, it happens on a priority basis; thus, the result may differ from what the client wants or expects. Healing always happens during a Reiki session although the effects of the healing may not be immediately perceptible to the client or the practitioner.