Reiki in Wisconsin

Follow this link for email link and links for all other Reiki in Wisconsin Pages

Should we share Psychic Perceptions during Reiki Sessions?

by Arline Rowden, Reiki Master Teacher © March 2012

Since there’s no central authority for Reiki teachers there is a lot of difference of opinion around Reiki issues. So before I share my opinion about whether or not it’s a good idea to share psychic perceptions during a Reiki session, I want to share a little about my background with Reiki and psychic perceptions.

When I took Reiki I in 1987 my Reiki teacher suggested that we share information that was perceived by us during Reiki sessions on others. When I took Reiki II and the Reiki Master Teacher training in 1990 with another Reiki teacher, she had pretty much the same opinion. Until I started a Reiki business in August 1990, I did a lot of “practice” sessions and exchanges with people that I knew rather well and we all would share what we “perceived” during these sessions. But no one was in awe of anyone else’s abilities and just disregarded what didn’t make sense to them.

My clairvoyant (seeing) and clairaudient (hearing) skills are minimal. I’d probably describe myself as clairsentient (feeling) with a sense of inner knowing and being a pretty good conduit for higher energies including Reiki. I used to go for psychic readings years ago and I still love to work with intuitive and tarot cards. In 1991, I even took a channeling course and did a little verbal channeling for a while. I feel I have a pretty good feeling sense of what I need to know for myself these days so I don’t rely on the opinion of others to a great extent any more.

Even though I love doing energy sessions, (Reiki, acupressure & chakra balancing), I feel like I’m a teacher at heart. So in my interactions with my clients and students, I feel drawn to offer information and examples that will help them to make informed choices in their lives. I want to empower others, not make them dependent on me.

I understand how fun and intriguing psychic readings can be and helpful many times, too. But when you have a reading and the psychic is pretty accurate about past and current events, I ask people not to make the assumption that they will be just as accurate about the future. What they are “reading” is a probable path which can be changed by what you do in the present. I have had experience with knowing this is true.

Years ago, a very good psychic in Milwaukee, who also did astrology and numerology, was concerned that I was heading into a very difficult situation in the process of divorcing my first husband. I acknowledged that what she “saw” could have been a probable path for me but I knew I had changed enough that it would not happen that way. A couple of years later, she remembered that conversation and told another person in her shop that I had changed my path. It was a lesson for both of us. We don’t want to give our power away to someone else just because that person has psychic abilities. And, of course, even the best psychic’s accuracy is never 100%. So we always need to take responsibility for the choices we make; your favorite psychic is not going to rescue you if you get in trouble by following the information given in a reading.

At this point, I’ve attuned close to 900 people to one or more levels of Reiki and have had many more people as clients, too. What I’ve found is that people like to tell me about their experiences with other practitioners and teachers. And as is often true in human nature, we tend to remember the experiences that were less than helpful more than the positive ones. When someone feels they have been hurt by a session or class, rather than helped, they want to heal and make sense out of it, so they talk about it. Without revealing names or identifying information, I do share some experiences that others have had to make a point about how thoughtful we want to be when we share with others. We only want to help, not harm, the person who is receiving Reiki from us.

One example is a woman who came to me for an individual Reiki II class years ago. She had moved from another city and took Reiki I from a different teacher about one year earlier. At the beginning of the class, I asked her if she had any questions. She asked if her heart chakra was still closed. When I asked why she was asking, she told me that the other teacher had evaluated her chakras with a pendulum at the beginning of a Reiki session and told her that her heart chakra was closed. As we talked I got the impression that the other teacher hadn’t explained the workings of the chakras. So I explained that chakras were always changing and wouldn’t be completely closed or stay mostly closed for any length of time in most people. But this woman walked around for about a year with a judgment about herself that her heart chakra was closed. She was a very sensitive person, so perhaps she was trying to protect herself as the teacher scanned her chakras with a pendulum. This is one of a great many experiences that people have shared with me that have been the basis for my opinion about whether or not psychic perceptions should be shared during a Reiki session.

Another example is a woman who took most of her Reiki training from another teacher and felt that she became clairaudient after her Reiki attunements. She said that she would hear messages when she would do Reiki on others. She told me in one session she heard that the woman should go for a mammogram and she told the woman this during the session. I asked her what happened after the session. She said that she called the woman a few weeks later and she had not gone for the mammogram. I asked this Reiki practitioner, if she felt that sharing that message might have made the woman fearful? What I suggested is a more indirect approach. For example, rather than telling the woman the message, she could have acknowledged her for making a positive step in her life by receiving Reiki but encouraged her to not throw out western medicine. And if she hadn’t seen a doctor recently, then to encourage her to continue with positive self-care by scheduling an appointment with her medical professional for a check-up.

If you have experienced a Reiki session, you most likely noticed how relaxed, open and perhaps even vulnerable you felt during it. It’s not the same space you would be in if you had gone for a psychic reading. During a psychic reading, you would be in your usual waking reality and would be more likely be able to discern how what you were being told could be helpful to you. Plus, you would be expecting that the reader would be telling you psychic perceptions since you had asked for that information. It seems that many Reiki practitioners share psychic perceptions during Reiki sessions and often don’t even ask if the person receiving Reiki would like that information.

When I teach Reiki classes now, I advise my students not to share psychic perceptions during Reiki sessions, or even after the session. But if they decide to share, then I encourage them to only share after the person has come back to their usual waking reality after the session, and only if the person gives them permission to share. I also encourage them to explain to the person how they perceive information so the person can make an informed decision. If psychic abilities are new to the Reiki practitioner, I really discourage them from sharing in connection with Reiki. It takes time to develop one’s abilities and get a sense of their level of accuracy.

As I talk about this in my Reiki I classes, I sometimes find that a student in the class has had strong psychic abilities all of his or her life and has a good sense of their abilities and accuracy level. And most of the time that student says they have discovered two things if others know about their abilities. One is that many people don’t want to be around them because they feel like the person is invading their privacy. And the other is that some people are always wanting information from them rather than trusting their own sense in life. So after having many of these experiences they tend to not share about their abilities with most people and they are glad that I discourage sharing psychic perceptions with Reiki. They tend to like the idea that Reiki is about focusing on healing, not psychic information.

Using a pendulum to check chakras at the beginning and end of a Reiki session could be a way to demonstrate the positive change that results from a Reiki session. If the Reiki practitioner educates the person about the chakras, it could be a positive experience. I understand why people like to do this. But I prefer allowing the person receiving Reiki to notice how they feel before and after the session and encourage them to trust their internal sense rather than an external device. Again it’s about not giving your power away to another person.

Why are we so fascinated by psychic information? I’m sure there are many reasons. Not everyone has strong psychic abilities, so it’s not common place. We wonder how someone can tell us our past and present or what’s going on in our bodies without knowing us. Most psychic information comes from the astral or emotional plane. And when we look around us there is so much emotional drama in the world. It can be rather addictive. Often what people want to know about is their relationships, or lack of them. They want to know if there is hope for the future. They want to know if their energy is flowing well. I understand all of this. But there are other ways to determine all of this by taking time to focus within one’s self. Doing self-Reiki and meditating are great methods for developing inner awareness.

So whether to share - or receive - psychic perceptions during or even after a Reiki session is a personal choice. But I encourage you to make an informed choice. Ask yourself why you want to give or get psychic information in conjunction with Reiki. When someone is receiving Reiki and they can just focus within themselves, it’s always amazing to me what they experience. Just being the best conduit that I can be and holding a space for another person, in my opinion, should not be devalued as an experience. Just receiving Reiki during a Reiki session is enough, in my opinion. It’s an intelligent energy that knows where to go and what to do. And I trust that.