The Atlantic is an American magazine that had a circulation of nearly 500,000 in 2018. I think it’s a great thing, then, for an article about reiki to appear in it. Still, there was a lot of criticism, apparently, when it was published, that its publication would legitimise a practice that some people don’t feel is legitimate.
REIKI CAN’T POSSIBLY WORK. SO WHY DOES IT?
I think it’s a really interesting article and perspective, as the journalist, Jordan Kissner, trained in two levels of reiki, and so has direct experience of the practice, but is writing with the objectivity of a journalist: she wants to know if reiki works and how, and if we really need to know. She says, ‘Many medical treatments are adopted for their efficacy long before their mechanisms are known or understood. Why should this be different?’
Sometimes, reiki clients ask me how reiki works and I offer them various possibilities (and the way I think reiki works), but maybe I should reply instead that I really don’t know how it works and it’s more important to ask how a reiki treatment worked for them.