the disenchantment of reiki.

On Instagram I once spoke about how Reiki and Yoga are pretty much multi-level-marketing schemes. I lost a bunch of followers. I lost the ones who aren’t ready, aren’t open to other “truths” who just want to stay in their bubble. I, myself, am a Reiki Master + Karuna Reiki II....

I am not and was not talking about Reiki itself, I am not denying that there is "energy" that people can feel and witness- that can be helpful, moreso I am speaking to how it is now being presented, marketed and diluted. Dr. Usui is long gone, has his vision stayed in tact? It’s healthy to question things, to look deeper. And this is where I am in my "ascension" process. 

I loved working on my clients and helping people (thinking I was helping people). I also practice Yoga daily and love it (but now prefer to call it "stretching"). Every time I received my Reiki attunements…. I wept. When emotions arise almost out of nowhere, I know something is real and true. This healing energy felt REAL. The original intentions are not false or dark.

BEGINNING MY REIKI JOURNEY 
When I started Reiki in 2015 I was accredited with The International Center for Reiki Training (ICRT). My teachers had practiced for decades, they learned from other accredited masters. It was like going to Reiki college. But now, anyone can teach Reiki and learn Reiki without lineage to ICRT. In fact, a lot of Reiki practitioners don’t even know about ICRT and William Lee Rand, who has about 3 degrees of separation from Dr. Mikao Usui, a founder of one type of Reiki, the most popular in the west.

I started my Reiki classes in New York, then finished in California. I took classes at a Spiritual Center in Orange County that I had been going to and was slightly disappointed when I got my Reiki III certificate. There was no gold stamp and signature of William Lee Rand on it. My teacher was not in the lineage. I didn’t even think that was an option. My new teacher also gave me her handouts from Reiki I and II to reference, even though I had already taken those courses. I was surprised that she noted some of her symbols might look slightly different. If these are all Usui Reiki symbols, why would the same ones look different? My red flag was slowly being raised. 

It became clear that over the 5 years that had passed between my Reiki courses, it was becoming diluted and a fad. When I had my 1st Reiki class no one was talking about it, and I was shy to even mention it, but now it seems like a “must have” to anyone claiming to be spiritual. It went viral. Basically you can become a Reiki Master in a few short months (3-4 intensive weekends) and then go on to open your own “school” and teach others. Somehow that timeline with the word “master” doesn’t sit well with me.

MULTI LEVEL MARKETING TRAP
I have said in the past that it is set up like a Pyramid or Multi Level Marketing because a person has to pay hundreds of dollars to go through 4+ levels of Reiki, and then they go out into the world. If they want to make their money back, the only way to really do that is to teach others. So you’re just pumping out more “masters” everyday. And now the world is flooded with overnight Reiki Masters that want to heal you. (But why is that so bad? Hellooo, we need healing in this world!- Maybe, but I am just wondering how diluted or bastardized this practice is becoming. And is everyone really tuning into the Divine while using it?)

I see this happening with Yoga too. After months of practicing in a class, you might one day get a tap on the shoulder, or see marketing for teacher training- “you should do it, it would help with your own practice”. But when people come out of training, guess what, they want to teach now and make back all that money. But again, the world is flooded with yoga teachers who are being pumped out of factories teaching hundreds at a time. I read a great article on this here .

NO LONGER SACRED
Reiki is often marketed to people starting their spiritual journey. “Take a Reiki class, you will become closer to spirit and the attunements will heighten your abilities.” So it’s like a drug, if I take more and more levels I can get super juiced with Reiki energy and become more “ascended”.  It’s just another bullet for some on their IG profile: Reiki Master, Sound healer, angel card reader, check check check- I am now a spiritual master. No longer does it feel like a calling, but something that has to be added to your resume if you’re in any spiritual business. 
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Reiki used to feel more sacred; you were in a secret club, you were told NEVER to show the sacred symbols, you had the attunements to the energy that most didn’t.  But now people are flashing Reiki Symbols everywhere, getting tattoos of them, and posting them online. There are no longer ancient traditions. You are literally told you can just make up new symbols once you are a master.

I wonder what essence has been lost in translation from Usui in 1920 to now? As I practice Reiki, I say the words, I say the intentions, I call on my guides, I do the hand movements, but am I missing anything? In the past year as I learn more about the darkness and boundaries, I wonder if we are all protected enough when calling in spirit, dark entities are spirit too. 

I have known Reiki Masters who practice black magick, who pay for instagram followers so you think they are popular, who are all in their ego. People who haven’t done work on themselves but think they can help others. People who think they are spiritual but are in an ego trap. And you would never know who they are with their beautiful marketing. 

DISILLUSIONED WITH THE SOURCE
After thinking that ICRT was the Yale of Reiki; the source of Reiki in the west; I have now also become disillusioned with them. ICRT initially taught Usui/Tibetan Reiki, but every few years some of their top masters “download new symbols” making up a new practice. And you guessed it, it costs even more money and you need to through 4 more levels in each type to become masters. For a few years Karuna Reiki was newest, greatest and latest thing, but now you’re nobody if you don’t know Holy Fire Reiki. In fact, ICRT doesn’t even offer Karuna Reiki anymore. So since 1995 people were paying up to $1000 to get a Karuna degree and now its basically meaningless. Apparently so many people were questioning the intent of this new Holy Fire Reiki that William Rand needed to address it here where he defends the idea that he isn’t trying to rip people off. 

And now for $400 only if you’re a master in everything, you need to take a special course to learn how to teach someone Reiki online (wait how can you train Reiki online?) Before the pandemic, you couldn’t teach Reiki online, but now the light beings he is connected with have a special upgrade and need $400 to pass it onto you. Something smells fishy… check it out here.
My red flag is fully raised. 

MOVING FORWARD
As I set up my Reiki Practice and worked on clients, my intuition chimed in that something is missing. I believe that people are getting healing from the energies I am working with, but I also believe that Reiki is in the old paradigm. It’s not allowing clients to go deeper. The work that needs to be done now is deep inner work, healing of past life bloodlines, clearing darkness attachments. These are specific things that I feel Reiki energy cannot dig into and heal. So I stopped my short lived practice, following my intuition, as I couldn’t really call it Reiki anyhow, I wasn’t doing the symbols. I was doing something that felt more authentically guided. 
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I ask you to take a step back and feel your inner guidance with anything you are practicing. Are you just going through the motions with blind faith of what you were taught, even if something doesn’t feel right? I am grateful for Reiki as a stepping stone to what my authentic practice will be in the future. I am grateful to ascend out of some illusions I was in, and to trust my inner guidance even if it goes against the masses.