Want to Know the Science Behind Reiki?

When I started training in reiki and energy healing, I was open but skeptical . How could energy healing have such an effect without any apparent physical manipulation? Is this a woo woo placebo effect?
​
After receiving my first treatment from a fellow classmate, I did feel a shift. I felt more awareness of my body and the tension had melted away. Mental and emotional clarity and freedom began to open up in extraordinary ways. Reiki felt so personal and profound.

Reiki isn’t all that different from the mainstream modalities such as meditation, psychotherapy, yoga. It’s highly individual and experiential where your wholeness is being invited to transform. They may seem obscure as progress doesn’t always seem linear, but breakthroughs may happen and your outlook shifts positively.  

Still, my curiosity thirsted to know the “science”. Without further ado, here are a few studies and explanations:

Reiki can be measured in its electrical and magnetic qualities.

One of the most renowned academic scientists, Dr. James Oschman studied energy medicine in great detail by measuring the electromagnetic field surrounding the human body. This is possible through the Ampere’s law, where an electrical current can flow through wires or even the human body to produce a magnetic field. Since the brain, heart, muscles and organs produce electricity, the magnetic field or biomagnetic field around the human body can be produced.
​
Therefore, Dr. Oschman continues to state that reiki and other healing energies have been measured to produce extremely low frequencies. This means the pulsating energy from the hands of a reiki or energy healer are within the same range of frequencies to instigate repair in living tissue. According to documentation, nerve regeneration requires 2 cycles per second (Hz), 7 Hz for bone growth, 10 Hz for ligament repair and 15 Hz for capillary formation. Reiki therapists emit a range from 0.3 to 30 Hz, and the most frequent frequency is around 7 Hz. This is the same frequency approved by the FDA for the PEMF device to encourage bone growth.

---

Reiki works through a result of physical processes and not from a placebo effect.

 Krinsley D. Bengston, a professor at the Queen’s College of the City University of New York, took five mice with mammary adenocarcinoma and treated them with energy healing for an hour a day for 30 days. After 10 days, the treated mice became healthy and lived a normal lifespan. The other control mice who did not receive energy healing all died within the expected time frame.
​
Whether reiki is a placebo effect has also been tested on humans. In 2004, researchers in Scotland split a group of forty-five participants to three treatment groups: 1) Group receiving reiki from an experienced practitioner; 2) Placebo group receiving a mock treatment from someone with no Reiki training; 3) Control group with no treatment. The reiki group had a significant drop in heart rate and diastolic blood pressure compared to the other groups.

Becoming “one” with reiki happens through entrainment.

Imagine entrainment like a shop full of clocks. One clock has the most dominant energy with a strong tick tock going. This strong tick tock will pull the other clocks to automatically sync up to the same rhythm.

Researcher Robert C. Beck studied brain waves of healing therapists and he discovered that they all registered brain wave activity in the alpha state from around 7.8 to 8.0 Hz. This state begins to synchronize and align with the earth’s magnetic field at 7.83Hz.
Some scientists believe that when living things become in sync or entrained with the earth’s rhythm, they begin to go back into balance and heal. Being out in mother nature is nurturing and healing.

When you apply entrainment between a healing therapist and client, at first, their energies are oscillating at different frequencies. As an energy healing is conducted, the therapist’s vibrations has a positive and strong influence to affect or entrain the client’s vibrations to become more in harmony. Therefore, this entrainment brings a positive shift in healing and well-being. Your body naturally wants to heal, and your healer is just the catalyst.

---

Of course feelings of love and compassion contribute to healing!
​
As mentioned in my previous article, the Heartmath Institute have conducted numerous studies on the heart and how it contributes to our health with beneficial effects to ourselves and radiating outward to our own community and beyond. Healing practitioners communicate this caring through touch and increasing their compassionate feelings. Physical touch and feeling cared for in a safe environment enables us let go of tension and become more aware of our true selves, while amplifying the electromagnetic fields.
​
I am thankful for the growing number of scientists and doctors who are daring to explore and research more into reiki and energy healing. It helps Reiki to become better understood and accepted as a viable modality for many health conditions at various hospitals and hospices as well!  

Resources:
http://sanacionysalud.com/pdf/reikiratas.pdf
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5871310/
​Reiki is better Than Placebo and Has Broad Potential as a Complementary Health Therapy by David E. McManus, PhD.
Energy Medicine: The Scientific Basis by James L. Oschman
Reiki: A Comprehensive Guide by Pamela Miles