The answer is simple, but not popular among the Reiki Professionals using terminology that credits the use of guides to promote the practice of Reiki. In Energy Medicine, Reiki is experienced as something tangible, a vibration that is felt and understood as a tool for bringing greater well-being and balance to humankind. To the Professional practicing Reiki as a form of Energy Medicine, giving responsibility to unseen guides for what is experienced and achieved in treatment would be similar to a Carpenter crediting her tool guides, for the accuracy and force with which she wielded a hammer.
The simple explanation to the practice of Energy Medicine is to use natural energy vibrations to bring about balance and well-being to the human energy system. To be clear, it is the area that most humans neglect, and in so doing fail to provide an aspect of self-care that is necessary for balance, health, well-being and happiness. It’s neglect is the reason why so many people will feel like something is missing, despite eating well, exercising, and being sure to drink enough water. So without care to the parts of us that are felt but unseen, we are in the purest sense lacking in the enrichment of oneself. There is no mystery in Energy Medicine of what Reiki is, so there is no need to fill in the blanks with mythologies, guides and sentiments that make the practitioner feel unique, or worthy of the use of the vibration.
Energy Medicine uses Reiki, the way a dentist or dental hygienist might use floss, or really any instrument to bring about greater oral health. Your dental professional does not call upon guides before your oral exam and if your dentist did, would you have confidence in your dentist’s ability to wield a variety of objects in your mouth? Would you feel unique or special because there is a disembodied dental guide, informing your dentist of what is needed or where the future of your dental well-being is headed? The answer is of course is no. The dentist professional is respected for her knowledge, training and commitment to progressing the practice. So why is it then, that Reiki professionals are not revered for the same reasons? I pose the question, is it because most Reiki professionals are prone to or have been taught to give credit to a spirit guide before acknowledging their own progression of knowledge and study?
My point here is in no way to poke fun or even attempt to take anything away from the Reiki professional who believes in Reiki guides. Far from it, my point is simply to offer an explanation, and maybe through it a point of consideration for those who have had no other means of understanding the wonders of Reiki without believing in and depending on the use of guides to provide information where it had been lacking. And I say this with great reverence because what is also so remarkable about humans, especially those who are called to care for others, is our persistence in seeking information and providing answers where only questions remain. That is the positive side of our nature. The less positive side of it is to find importance for us and use our lives as a way to lay claim to something, or simply make our mark. In this way, Reiki has been misused by many seeking to add to it by teaching things that are not Reiki or related to it. Some have even gone on to try to rebrand it, trademark it and teaching it as something that is of their own creation. This is not to say that a healer could not create her or his own healing method, far from it, it is simply that Reiki, which is a solid healing vibration, can’t be altered or commandeered. Reiki is a gift to all humankind and as such can truly belong to no one person.
So why then does it matter that many professional treat clients and teach students on the use of guides, and how does it hurts the practice of Reiki? The answer to that question comes in two parts. First, talk of Reiki Guides, Archangels transmissions, divine codes and messages from Ascended Masters in a conversation of Reiki, whether intended or not, removes responsibility from the professional delivering Reiki by giving the responsibility to the perceived wisdom of a disembodied spirit. A disembodied spirit who is not called upon to prove its knowledge or wisdom, instead it is assumed omnipotent. Why?
Secondly it keeps many people who need Reiki away from its practice. This includes a variety of different types of people ranging from practical people who find comfort in using practitioners whose knowledge is known to be acquired through tutelage and training, to people with strong religious backgrounds, who may question whether the use of Reiki, interferes or contradicts in any way their beliefs.
 The problem we face, as a community of Reiki professionals is that when Reiki guides and spiritual terminology is used to create value in the practice over its study and practical application, lines get blurred and confidence in Reiki to a wider audience becomes shaken. Furthermore, while discussion of angels and guides in Reiki may make some clients feel unique, special, and important, those feelings, and the false sense of security they instill will create or exacerbate existing imbalances that the Reiki treatment is being sought after to correct. Which at best equates to an energetic tug-of-war of sorts, that will ultimately leave the client with less of themselves, instead of with more, which is the very point of the use of Reiki.
I realize how controversial this topic is, how deeply rooted these ideas are that I am trying to start a conversation about. I do this with one goal in mind, to further the study of Reiki and give people information that is useful, so that as a group of professionals, we are not left to fill in the blanks.
Perhaps consider that Usui did not teach the use of guides, and angels. What was known then is still known today. That Reiki is a healing vibration that exists on the planet. Although it is significantly subtler, you can feel it just as you can feel the vibration coming off an instrument after it has struck a note. It is for this reason we know it requires a hand position for the channel to become active. It is the reason we know how Reiki travels through the body and what levels of the individual it affects. When placed in the context of Energy Medicine the mysteries become demystified and answers that have been known for time immemorial begin to re-emerge.
- Chyna Honey
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