Yesterday, Sept. 22, 2007, was a day that will forever be a part of me. It’s the day when I became a healer — a Reiki healer.
I graduated from a one-day class on Reiki healing at the Pelindaba Healing Center and Learning Institute at 6 Istanbul St., Merville Park Subd., Paranaque, Metro Manila.
Reiki masters Gi Santos and his wife Marge held the class at a large room overlooking the scenic garden of their residence. They said it was the largest class they have had so far — we were more than 20 in the room — a clear testament to the growing popularity of Reiki, a kind of gentle hands-on healing using nature’s abundant “life force” energy.
A form of healing which originated in Japan in the early 1900s, Reiki is now sweeping the world by storm as more and more people seek answers to problems beyond the scope of science and Western medicine.
Living in a society where mystery oftentimes spells trickery, I used to doubt anything miraculous. My beliefs were even made stronger with the uncovering of so-called “miracle healers” who pretended to perform “surgeries” on their unwitting patients only with the use of their bare hands. They were eventually exposed as fakes deserving of stiff punishment and public denunciation for not only deluding their victims but for toying with the latter’s lives as well.
But all my doubts vanished into thin air as I attended the Santoses’ Reiki class.
Yes, yes, yes — Reiki practitioners can perform miracles. Testimonials abound worldwide on how Reiki healers have cured people with various illnesses, even terminal cancer cases. And they heal not only the physical disease but the underlying emotional and spiritual problems that caused the disease in the first place.
The testimonials gain credence when you could see with your own eyes how Reiki actually works.
At the beginning of the class, Gi and Marge took their students outside the room and into their mystic garden and showed them the Reiki “life force” energy — the stuff that’s all around us and which healers use to treat people.
Yes, yes, yes — the “life force” energy is visible in the sunlight. It’s not mysterious at all. There they were, floating in the air above the Santoses’ garden, zillions of moving dots, strings and other tiny objects — the “life force” that keeps people alive and healthy and just waiting to be tapped to good use, to heal people.
The Reiki students came from different walks of life and even nationalities. One was an Argentinian housewife while three other women were from Colombia. There was a guy who came all the way from far-flung Samar province. We came from different backgrounds, but we were united in our desire to explore the wonders of our inner selves and the universe we live in.
The first half of the class consisted of lectures — on the principles, history and development of Reiki.
This period included the “attunement” of the Reiki students, one by one, as performed by Gi and Marge. This is the most vital part of the class because without “attunement,” one cannot heal. During the attunement, all the forces of your being are aligned by the Reiki masters so that your hands become effective channels for transmitting the healing power of the “life force” on yourself and other people.
The second half of the class consisted of practical lessons on how to harness the “chi” or “life force” to treat people. We were taught the seven major “chakras” and minor chakras or power points in the body where the healing hands are applied. We were also taught the Reiki prayer to be able to summon the “chi” all around us and use them to heal ourselves and other people.
By 4 p.m. we were already practicing Reiki healing techniques on each other.
Truly, it’s the easiest, most fulfilling class I ever attended. Imagine, you can get your diploma as a certified Reiki healer in less than 10 hours of class attendance. And it’s a diploma truly worth putting in a frame and displaying in a prominent area of your home.
The rooms for doubt inside my mind automatically shut all their doors and vanished once I knew how to use Reiki. I felt the change right after my attunement. The palms of my hands felt warmer after my attunement. And even up to now, despite the many times I’ve already washed my hands, my palms are still warm.
And when I rub my palms, there is the sensation that my hands have become magnets.
I could not tell yet of any miraculous first-hand account of healing since I’ve just a Reiki beginner. But with constant practice, I do believe I will eventually be able to harness the universe’s boundless sources of energy to heal myself and other people — in body and spirit.