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sushi
Joined: 28 Aug 2005
Posts: 145
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 Posted: Sat Jun 10, 2006 4:15 am Post subject: Reiki |
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| Reiki is a form of healing (spiritual healing for lack of better words), and it's very popular amongst the new age groups. I have just learned that the guy was Japanese and that he developed the technique here in Japan. Anyone know anything about him. |
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Nagoyaguy
Joined: 15 May 2003
Posts: 425
Location: Aichi, Japan
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| Posted: Sun Jun 11, 2006 1:51 pm Post subject: |
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Not sure about the guy who invented it, but Reiki itself is utter nonsense.
It has yet to be proven scientifically. It has yet to show any demonstrable medical effect that cannot be explained by the placebo effect. It is yet another in a long line of woo woo New Age "therapies" that do little but relieve the stress on your wallet of all those bills in there 
Anyone who can show any measurable effect of Reiki could be a millionaire overnight. There is a man called James Randi who has that much money (a million US dollars) waiting in escrow for anyone, anyone at all, who can show any paranormal or new age phenomenon to work.
Don't waste your time. |
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Sherri
Joined: 23 Jan 2003
Posts: 749
Location: The Big Island, Hawaii
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| Posted: Sun Jun 11, 2006 6:07 pm Post subject: |
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His name is Mikao Usui. The reason that I know is that my aunt is into reiki and she asked me to visit his gravesite and take pictures for her reiki group in the US. He is buried at Saihoji Temple in Suginami-Ku, Tokyo (near Shin-Koenji station). There is a large gravestone and an explanation of his life and work written in Japanese.
Sherri |
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Nagoyaguy
Joined: 15 May 2003
Posts: 425
Location: Aichi, Japan
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| Posted: Mon Jun 12, 2006 7:55 am Post subject: |
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| The reason that I know is that my aunt is into reiki and she asked me to visit his gravesite and take pictures for her reiki group in the US. |
Sounds more like a cult than a therapy!
Hell, some people can even do long distance reiki apparently, or reiki by CD or DVD.
It is yet another mystic Eastern concept that the weak minded in the west seem to so enjoy. Based, as so many are, on a non measurable, non visible, and non testable form of energy known as "ki".This is from the "official" reiki homepage;
"Ki is the non-physical energy that animates all living things. Ki is flowing in everything that is alive including plants, animals and humans. When a person's Ki is high, they will feel strong, confident, and ready to enjoy life and take on it's challenges. When it is low, they will feel weak and are more likely to get sick. We receive Ki from the air we breath, from food, sunshine, and from sleep. It is also possible to increase our Ki by using breathing exercises and meditation. When a person dies, their Ki leaves the physical body"
I would love, just one time, to see ki, to see it measured, to see it work, to see it tested under even rudimentary scientific conditions. Like I said before, a million dollars is waiting for anyone who can perform any of these simple actions. Surely a trained Reiki professional should be able to do so... |
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sushi
Joined: 28 Aug 2005
Posts: 145
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| Posted: Mon Jun 12, 2006 8:58 am Post subject: |
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What's "the placebo effect".
I had a friend who used to visit her Reiki master in Tokyo every so often, but it cost her a packet every time. Seems as though they are into past lives, and the fact that connections to-day are based on one's previous incarnations ( if that's the word to describe previous existences, albeit wether you are a male now and may have been a female in a previous life) |
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PAULH
Joined: 28 Jan 2003
Posts: 4672
Location: Western Japan
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| Posted: Mon Jun 12, 2006 12:05 pm Post subject: |
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| sushi wrote: |
| What's "the placebo effect". |
Placebo comes from the latin word to placate or please. It basically means if even if the method itself doesnt work if you believe something is good for you you can convince yourself that the body is being healed, not by the "ki" but by force of the imagination.
Placebos are given to patients in clinical experiments to test the effects of trial drugs on patients while the placebo drugs given to other patients have no medical effect whatsoever. They think they are taking real drugs and being affected by the drugs they ingest. |
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JimDunlop2
Joined: 31 Jan 2003
Posts: 2286
Location: Japan
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| Posted: Tue Jun 13, 2006 3:34 am Post subject: |
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We often use the word "ki" (or "chi" in Chinese) when we talk about martial arts. I've studied Win Chung Kung-Fu for about ten years, and the topic frequently comes up when I practice with my see-bok (older uncle).
Except we don't ever see it as a "mystical" or magical thing -- or even a spiritual thing for the large part, but rather as a way of simultaneously qualifying and quantifying the way we use the energy we possess in our bodies. Whether or not "ki" actually exists as a scientifically measurable phenomenon or not is irrelevant to our purpose -- we use it more as a descriptive aid to help us understand our movements, forces at work and how we interact with our opponents.
Don't know about reiki though.... Sounds quite spiritual to me -- and I don't think I believe in what it professes. |
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Nagoyaguy
Joined: 15 May 2003
Posts: 425
Location: Aichi, Japan
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| Posted: Tue Jun 13, 2006 5:20 am Post subject: |
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Jim;
You may want to check out the website at
www.bullshido.net
for some interesting discussions of ki or chi or qi. They get quite animated at times!
How would YOU describe it, then, if it is not energy, or measurable, or spiritual? It sounds more like a sense of situational awareness, developed through training. Hardly what the reiki bozos are claiming.
Back to reiki, I read another interesting site about it. The site claimed that you actually have to believe in reiki, or it won't work for you! Imagine if that test was applied to other forms of medicine.
"Sir, you must BELIEVE in the power of the penicillin, or your infection will not be cured".
If you heard a doctor say anything like that, you'd run for the door.
As PaulH mentioned, the placebo effect is crucial to understanding any form of 'healing' like this. It is actually very powerful. Also, it underscores the importance of basing research on measurable results and outcomes, NOT on mere feelings. Perceptions and reality are often miles apart.
It is similar to the "Forer Effect", which is used by unscrupulous psychics, astrologers, mystics, and the like, to convince their victims that the psychic actually has valuable information. People tend to accept vague and general personality descriptions as uniquely applicable to themselves without realizing that the same description could be applied to just about anyone. |
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sushi
Joined: 28 Aug 2005
Posts: 145
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| Posted: Tue Jun 13, 2006 9:23 am Post subject: |
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Same could be said for astrology and maybe palmistry. The horoscopes have something we all want hear. Some one really must have done their reasearch for the horoscope thing, because they all have some thing relevant for everyone.
I was talking to a reporter for a smal town paper, and she told me that they used to get as many horoscopes as they could and justmix them all to-gether on the particular day, and pick them at random for the given astrological time periods, and post them.
Palmistry I don't know |
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