A Reiki exchange, Reiki share or Reiki circle is usually a gathering of Reiki practitioners who come together to practice Reiki on each other. The exchange may include a meditation, a distant Reiki session for a specific person or event, a sample or complete Reiki session for those who wish to try out Reiki, a Reiki attunement, an exchange of Reiki information, and other items as the organizers and participants desire. Generally, newcomers to Reiki are welcome as are all levels of Reiki practitioners.

To get started I suggest the following process.

1. Determine what kind of Reiki share you are interested in.  For example, is this strictly for Reiki practitioners only, or are newcomers to Reiki invited?  Will you have a meditation with your gathering, will you share some Reiki information and ideas, or do simply wish to have everyone share Reiki with each other?
 
2. How large of a group would you like?  This will determine whether the size of your space, the number of Reiki tables or equivalent (usually 2 to 5 people to a table), and whether you may need some assistance running the gathering.
 
3. Find a place to hold the gathering.  These places are often right in your own area. Here are some ideas and I suggest you make sure they have washrooms easily available:
• your own home
• a church hall
• a local lodge hall
• a community centre
• a local book store or clinic - these places may have some room to allow a small gathering and may enjoy the advertising you will bring to them.
• the gymnasium or classroom of a local school.
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Here are some places I have used or attended for a gathering:
• the study hall at a Rosecrucian lodge.
• A conference room in a local hospital
• a room at the local Masonic hall (I used this for the 1999 URRI workshop).
• a large room in a community centre.
• the recreation room in a Buddhist church.
• in Japan, my friends and one of my teachers would rent out meeting rooms in buildings that provided such.
 
4. Pick a duration for the gathering.  That is, how long do you want the share to last?  This will affect your choice of time and day (see next). 

Here are some considerations.

• I suggest you allow a half hour at the beginning to get set up and for people to arrive.  I notice that if I say the gathering begins at 1:30 pm. people tend to arrive from 1:30 to 2 pm. 
• Allow a half hour at the end to pack things up, and especially for people to say their farewells.  Often many participants have such a nice time they do not wish to leave right away. And it's nice if you do not have to rush to get out of a place you have rented.
• Allow time for your meditation and any talk you might give.
• Allow some time for chatting.  After all, when Reiki people meet, they love to share experiences and ideas, and catch up on news. Sometimes this is simply done right over the Reiki table.
• For the actual Reiki exchange, allow about 20 minutes per person per table.  For example, if you are doing group Reiki and you have allotted 5 people at a table (4 giving Reiki to 1) you will find that a 15 minute treatment can be extremely powerful.  Then allow 5 extra minutes for the transition between each recipient. In this case, 5 people at 20 minutes each means 100 minutes or one hour and 40 minutes for the exchange of Reiki.

So here is a possible scenario:
• 30 minutes set up and allowing for people to wander in.
• 30 minutes for a meditation and for any short lecture or sharing of information / ideas.
• 1 hr and 40 minutes for the Reiki share.
• 20 minutes of conversation time, spread out throughout the evening (maybe you have a break half way through the exchange).
• 30 minutes to close up and say good-byes.
• this adds up to 4 hours. This is about the largest amount of time you will ever need, and it can be trimmed down as you see fit.


5. Pick a time and day for the gathering.  Depending on your preferences, you can choose an evening or an afternoon.  I have had success with a  Friday evening, a Saturday afternoon, and recently I attended one one on a Saturday evening.  A weekday morning or afternoon might work out well for a group of seniors or night workers, while an evening or weekend may be more appropriate for day workers or people going to school.
 
6. Consider your expenses and possible revenues. The main concern is usually the rental fee for the location, if it is not going to be your own home. Normally I ask for a $5 donation to cover costs. However if someone is not able to pay, of course they are most welcome to attend anyway - that's why I say "donation." The word also explains that I am not doing this for profit, but I do realise I may need help covering costs.  Most people are quite happy to help out this way.
   

Other expenses may be:

• snacks - always useful when doing energy work. This can simply be a bag of cookies, a plate of veggies, or something small and light.  Instead of a donation, some of the participants can bring these.
• water and cups. Sometimes the hall can provide one or the other.
• optionally, some tea or other beverage.  Some halls might have tea pots and kettles you can use, or a small urn for hot water dispensing.  Then you only need the individual tea bags.
• paper towels or napkins - I use these mostly for the pillows on the tables - I will explain more further on.
• kleenex.
• hand sanitizer lotion, or baby wipes - I will explain more further on.
• name tags and pens. This is so people can get to know names. Newcomers can put a smiley on theirs.  I use blank mailing labels for these.


7. Advertise your Reiki share.  Here are some ideas.
• You can use your friends and contacts to get the word out. 
• The internet is great for this - announce your gathering o your favorite Reiki email list, bulletin board or your own web page.
• Make up a flyer and post it at bookstores, health food stores, laundromats, nutrition oriented or vegetarian restaurants, community centers, your child's school bulletin board, the city market, telephone posts (remember to take them down afterwards).
• Put the gathering info and dates on the back of your business cards.
 

8. What to bring for the gathering. Here is everything you normally will need, but you can add or remove from the list as you see fit.

9. Conducting your Reiki share. Here are some ideas as to how a typical share might proceed. Please feel free to remove anything that does not fit in with your desires or understanding of Reiki.  And do add to it if you wish to.  It is only a guideline.

• When you arrive at the meeting room, set up the chairs for the meditation or talk, Reiki tables (if there is room), the sign in table (signs, pamphlets and business cards can go here), water and beverages an munchies, paper towels and hand cleaners, and your music.
  
  
• allow about a half an hour for people to greet each other and then start the gathering
  
  
• explain anything about the gathering that you feel is useful or necessary, mainly for the benefit of those who are new, and especially those new to Reiki. You might want to ask people to raise their hands if they are, and if the gathering is small enough people can introduce themselves.
• you can either play a guided meditation tape or you can lead the participants on your own meditation.
  
  
• during meditation, you can optionally have Reiki masters present go around and give simple reiju or attunement to each person.  This suggestion may surprise some experienced Reiki practitioners but this is actually what the original Reiki society in Japan still does (Usui Reiki Ryoho Gakkai) after 80 years, even with newcomers to the meeting (you can leave that part out if you wish).  Consider this one way of giving back to the community or tithing yourself.
  

A simple way to do this is for the Reiki master just to place their hands on the recipient's shoulders and imagine they are performing their Reiki 1 attunement on the person.  This requires less than a minute to do and the  person now has Reiki. 

If newcomers are involved in this, during the exchange portion the person can be guided as to how to apply Reiki in a simple way, but if they wish more detail we suggest they come and take a class with a master.  I have found that those who cannot afford a class or find time for one, will simply return to the Reiki share each month to gain more experience.

You might want to explain this to people first, and if any do not wish to receive, they can indicate this - especially the newcomers  Another way to do this is to offer free reiju or attunement of to the side during the exchange portion;  newcomers could receive after they have sampled Reiki on the tables. 


• at the end of meditation, you can suggest people send Reiki to world situations, or to  a list of people who need healing. I would sometimes suggest people imagine the person who needs healing as being in the center of the circle and then we would all send Reiki to the center.
 
• If you are sharing Reiki information, you can bring some Reiki books along to discuss.  Or you might print some pages from a Reiki web site and hand these out for discussion.  Always remember to give credit to the author and the web site.
  
 
• begin the Reiki exchange part - if you need room, push the chairs back and set up the tables if they are not ready. Assign newcomers to individual tables and make sure there are several experienced Reiki people at each to guide them.


• let the newcomers receive Reiki first.
  
 
• have up to 4 people surround them and apply Reiki.
 
• have someone monitor the time and after 15 minutes revive the recipient, help them sit up, and offer some water to help ground them. Do not let them get off the table too quickly - let them sit a minute so they can ground some more.
 
• afterwards, if newcomers received reiju or attainment in the meditation, they can help out giving Reiki to the next person.  This is their chance to practice hands-on.  Someone can guide them in applying this.  Or, if reiju is offered afterwards, you can ask them if they would like this energy.  I used to let them help out with the next recipient  but first suggested they simply call on the highest Light they could imagine and flow that out their hands. Then I would ask them if they wanted to receive the Reiki attunement.  It is fine if they do not want to do either
 
• you can call a short 5 minute break somewhere during the exchange if your time allows it, or just let people do this as they feel the need to..
  
 
• when everyone has receive a treatment, you can have a closing meditation, or just tell people the gathering is over and say your farewells.
 
• try to leave the hall in the condition that you found it (smile).
  
 
• Pat yourself on the back for presenting a successful Reiki Exchange or Share.


10. After the gathering, take time to think about how things went, and to decide what you might change for the next one.