When I teach Reiki courses, one of the first things I tell my students is that Reiki energy has a “mind” of its own. It flows exactly where it’s needed, guided by something beyond our understanding and greater than us. Reiki practitioners might think that their job is to direct this energy, but the truth is, Reiki knows where to go, regardless of what we do.
I always remind my students that they can’t do Reiki wrong. In fact, on day two of the Reiki Level 1 course, I hand out little cheat sheets with step-by-step instructions for giving a Reiki treatment. (The idea is that students can keep these with them when treating family or friends until they’re familiar with the hand positions.) At the top of these cards, I write, “Relax. You can’t do it wrong. Reiki is divinely guided.” Because it truly is 🙂
But why am I telling you this? Recently, I had an experience with a new client that perfectly illustrated this concept – and it was so profound that I felt compelled to share it with you. This story is a powerful reminder of just how intuitive and wise Reiki energy truly is, and why we, as practitioners, can trust it to heal what needs to be healed.
My client, nearing retirement after more than 30 years in a job where he had to listen to people recount their traumatic experiences, came to me seeking clarity and purpose for his next chapter in life. We started, as I always do with first-time clients, with a basic numerology report, which set the tone for what was to be a deeply insightful session. As he lay on the massage table, I used a clear quartz pendulum to assess the health of his chakras. His Root and Naval chakras were open, but the others were sluggish or blocked.
I then commenced the Reiki treatment. During the session, I received three intuitive messages. One of them, “He needs to heal from the pain he experienced through the eyes of others,” came to me as I held my hands over his Root chakra. But what my client experienced during the session was truly astonishing and reinforced everything I believe about Reiki.
Despite this being his first Reiki treatment, he had a vivid, almost surreal experience. He described seeing a deep dark red, pulsating, rotating ball of energy when I had my hands over his Crown chakra—a color usually associated with the Root chakra. Similarly, when I worked over his heart, he saw a mustard yellow, a color linked to the Solar Plexus, and at his Solar Plexus, he saw a bright pink, typically associated with the Heart chakra. When I placed my hands on his hips, he saw a muddy, dark gray. By the end of the session, the colors had merged together into a single ball of energy, which then stabilized, came to a stop and changed to a bright blue as I lifted my hands off his feet.
I was overjoyed to hear that my client had such a profound experience. I knew these color changes meant a lot to him because, as a first-time Reiki client, he was left without any doubt that “something” had happened.
“The visual activity of the mind during meditation is a byproduct of the body/mind normalization occurring as awareness comes to realize itself. So the visions, sounds or movements in meditation show that something deeper is happening, but don’t mean much in themselves. Just as smoke indicates fire, yet there is nothing much to analyse or understand about the smoke. The important phenomenon is the fire.” – Deepak Chopra
As he told me what he experienced during the treatment, what struck me most was how the colors he saw didn’t match the chakras I was working on. I actually think the fact that he was not familiar with the chakra system, and therefor wouldn’t have known that, for instance, the Solar Plexus – not the Heart – chakra is associated with yellow, made what he experienced, more authentic. He was just retelling what happened to him, oblivious to the fact that the colours he saw were “wrong” if we were to strictly link them to the chakra system and Reiki hand positions.
It’s important to note that nothing about my client’s Reiki experienced was “wrong”. The colour changes he saw were deeply personal and indicative of his energetic shifts. But from my perspective as a Reiki teacher and Reiki practitioner what he saw proves to me that Reiki energy truly flows where it’s needed, regardless of the practitioner’s actions. It’s a powerful reminder that the energy we work with is divinely guided, and it will always go to where the need is greatest, not necessarily where our hands are placed.
The muddy gray color he saw when my hands were on his hips also confirmed the intuitive insight I received: “He needs to heal from the pain he experienced through the eyes of others.” I believe that years of absorbing the trauma, fear and lower vibrational emotions of his clients had accumulated in his Root chakra area. But by the end of the session, that trapped energy had been transformed and released.
Isn’t that just astonishing? This true story of a Reiki healing experience is a beautiful example of how we can trust Reiki energy to flow exactly where it’s needed, no matter what we do as practitioners. The energy truly holds divine wisdom.
