Threshold Notes -- Reiki As Music

In my Reiki 1 classes I get asked a variety of questions about Reiki.  Most often students are trying to wrap their heads around the concept of what Reiki is.  So I might suggest they think of Reiki energy as being just one type of music, making use of many, many instruments from around the world (both modern and ancient instruments).  Then they might think of how this music would have its own kind of signature or flavour, perhaps like Classical music might have versus other music like Rock ‘n Roll or Jazz.  I suggest that in each genre of music we find there are quite a few styles as well.  For example, I like to listen to www.jazzfm.com and www.jazz.fm and I find that their various DJs certainly present a wide variety of jazz styles and preferences for each of their shows. Sometimes I even wonder how a certain DJ feels he/she can include music I think of as coming from another genre.  Yet over the years there has been quite a lot of overlap from other music styles, and that just enriches the possibilities of jazz overall, doesn’t it?

So too, with Reiki and other healing energy systems where we often find similarities in the effects of the different healing systems (e.g. Seichim, Magnified Healing), yet the feeling of the individual energy and the methods used might be quite different from Reiki.   Of course just within Reiki alone we can find a variety of styles, each based on certain beliefs, preferences, methods, even variations of Reiki energy.  They might have a common thread – a sort of lineage back to one of Usui’s students, but somewhere along the way they attained their own individuality.

If you can accept all that, now think of this: consider that the ceremony of a Reiki 1 attunement might be something like a music teacher playing and teaching an overall tune or music piece for the student to learn and then use.  The teacher sets this musical space and the student benefits from it. The student then goes home and practices with this music.  When he/she returns for the next lesson (or for a recap) the teacher plays the same piece again and the student then picks up on more of whatever was missed the first time around.  The student again goes home and practices with this.  You might have read on my web pages how the original Reiki society would do something like this by giving each member a re-attunement (or re-reiju) at each monthly society meeting.  

Using the same music analogy, Reiki 2 attunements differ a bit in that they might be more like playing the same tune, but now the teacher highlights a few of the instruments from the music.  This is something like what we might hear in some jazz or classical music pieces where certain instruments have a brief solo.  In the music analogy the student is encouraged to work with each instrument so as to discover his/her own experiences with them, and thus find his/her own preferences.  In Reiki, each instrument might be equated to a musical instrument, each with its own vibrational range and purpose.  Like instruments, some symbols overlap others in their purpose or use.  Some might even be changed in their outer form but they still have the same energy use.  And Reiki practitioners often have their own favourites.  Some rely on many in their Reiki work while others use very few, if any.

Just as new instruments or modifications over the years have extended the range and quality of music overall, sometimes even lending to a new genre, so too within healing work do we find that new energies and tools have presented more possibilities for our own healing and development.  Within Reiki this led to the creation of new or specific styles of Reiki, like Alliance, Karuna, Threshold, Ascension, Komyo, Gendai, TJR just to name a few. The traditional Reiki symbols have evolved from the original purpose of personal development to also become healing tools and a focus for many other uses.  This has also happened to some modern symbols

Note too, that not all music or sound can be thoroughly appreciated by all. Some of us have challenges hearing certain frequencies, almost as much as we have with the sound of a "silent" dog whistle.  But even if you can't "hear" the music, it doesn't mean you are not playing it or not receiving its benefits. We find this happening in Reiki as some students (or recipients) are unable to get a sense of what Reiki feels like, yet other people they practice with can definitely feel the Reiki energy coming from the same practitioner.  This can certainly lead to frustration.  In my own experience teaching Reiki I have come across this a few times.  In most cases, over time and use the practitioner does develop a sense of what Reiki feels like for him/her.  In one case however a master level student did manage to discover he could feel the energy of another type of healing system.  He was quite excited about this after years of not feeling anything from any energy, Reiki included.

You have most likely noticed that music is used for more than just entertainment like listening and dancing.  It has been used in the military for marching, as a sort of foreground focus for subliminal suggestions in stores and shopping malls, as part of a healing therapy, to assist meditation, and many other purposes.  So too has Reiki gone well beyond just the role of a healing system.  It can be used to set an energy space in a room or area, to assist in a person’s own personal and spiritual development, to help with calming the mind so as to better remember things, to assist the growth of plants, to assist in setting a protective space, and many other uses as well.

Just as musicians have often mixed several genres together to create a new or more interesting form of music, so too do we find healing practitioners mixing Reiki with other healing methods like crystal therapy, colour therapy, massage and body work, sound therapy, essential oils, psychic healing, toning, chanting and other therapies.

And finally, you might consider how when you play music for others, you do not give away that piece of music and thus drain your music collection; although the recipient might be able record it for his or her own use.  You still retain your own copy to use over and over again.  And of course as you play it, you experience it as well.  Well, Reiki works much like this.  Once you have been taught the energy, you can “play” it for others.  You simply switch your normal form of vibration or resonance to add or change to that of Reiki.  This is much like you do when you change your emotions.   The recipient then has control of the “volume switch” and some higher part allows whatever is needed to be received at his/her own body.

So that’s a good part of my “Reiki as Music” analogy.  Does it make sense to you? Think about this the next time you practice with Reiki.