Often the effect (e. g. of Reiki) is disparagingly explained with "placebo". Only to present a drug that is loaded with pharmaceutical chemistry as the only remedy. Interesting! This only questions the state of mind of the person addressed - but not the effecttivenesss of the drug!

Ironically, it is true for every form of healing - including pharmacy supported or with Reiki - that one's own subjective conviction influences the outcome. Like they say, faith moves mountains.

This dynamic has long been known and is used effectively in medicine. The more unpronounceable the name of a drug, the less legible the doctor's scrawl, the better the effect of his prescription on humans. Even if the substance administered is only glucose. At least for people who attach importance to conventional medicine and its medications. Others believe that especially disgusting tasting medicine is the best, or the most expensive ones. Yes, even the colour can play a role.

And of course the opposite is also true. The more convinced I am that life in general and mine in particular, is very difficult... well, that also works. In epigenetics and modern psychology it is a regonized fact that the power of the belief systems deeply rooted in us and in our biographical imprints is a co- or even the main cause of diseases.

What does that mean? Should we simply all start to instantly believe that everything is just fine and forcably stop ourselves from having negative thoughts? One might, maybe it is a start. Unfortunately, however, it is not quite so easy, because the indoctrinations are often complex and deeply buried. Its origin does not even necessarily have to lie in one's own biography, it can be a collective conviction or an experience that has been held in the family for generations.

What I particularly like about Reiki is that it escapes my conviction. Because my "positive thoughts" are all too often merely wishful thinking, "the"ghosts we are calling" as Goethe says. My knowing that Reiki serves the highest good, and I do not need to determine it, is comforting and liberating. Placebo or its opposite Nocebo* play only a supporting role, if at all.

Just today I read in David Bolius' column "Reiki Science" in the German Reiki Magazine that a study in public psychiatric clinics has shown that Reiki has had its effect uncoupled from placebo: When subjects were treated with actual Reiki, they showed significantly better results compared to treatments of non-initiated therapists. This although they did not know that some of them received only "fake" Reiki and the same hope for improvement or sceptical attitude prevailed throughout all treatments. The test persons consisted of clinic employees. Reduction of burnout symptoms and personal disorientation were observed.

Additionally , this article is inspired by the publication "You are the placebo" of neuroscientist and epigeneticist Joe Dispenza.

René Vögtli

The Nocebo effect (lat.' I will harme'), and in contrast to the placebo effect (lat.' I will please'), results in an apparent negative effect of a medication. Source: Wikipedia (German).

Der Beitrag Placebo, Nocebo – so what? erschien zuerst auf Reiki-International.

In healing in general and in recovery from medical interventions of cancer in particular it is well known that the patient’s psyche plays an important role.

Recently I met a young psychologist from Portugal who presented her dissertation at the annual conference of ProReiki, Germany’s association for Reiki professionals. Rita Ferreira’s study focusses precisely on the question if and how Reiki helps our psyche or, in her words, enhances “Psychological Empowerment” (i.e. “the process by which people gain control and power over issues that concern them and directly affect their lives…”).

The study includes 25 cancer patients aged 27-74, including a control group. And it concludes that it “…has proven the benefits of Reiki in positive changes in the patterns and mental beliefs of the individual, a more positive attitude towards their lives, a reorganization of the aspects of the psyche and self -image of individuals and in turn, a positive change on the individual behaviours ….”

In managerial circles such aspects are often referred to as “soft skills”. Whereas a reduction in the consumption of medication, for example, is often referred to as a “hard fact”. At the end of the day the capability to be empathetic or spiritually content is at least as important as “hard facts”. As such I believe that the work of this courageous young Reiki-Psychologist deserves our respect and due recognition.

Thank you Rita Ferreira! All the details of her work: [wpfilebase tag=file id=67 /]

Anyone wanting to get in touch with Ms Ferreira, please use our contact form here.

Der Beitrag It’s the psychology, stupid… erschien zuerst auf Reiki-International.

Der Beitrag Effect of Reiki on depression in elderly erschien zuerst auf Reiki-International.

It is often said that Reiki cannot be proven scientifically, that it is not empirically researched. This is wrong. Dr David Bolius has been addressing this question for a number of years and has delivered a lecture on this topic in September in Berlin.

Here follows a summary of his presentation that was made on the Symposium to the 150th birthday of Mikao Usui. The author of Reiki für Skeptiker (in German) made this information exclusively available to us; in this form it has only been published in the Newsletter of the Reiki Zentrum Bolius in Vienna.

Reiki and Science

In context with a lecture by Dr. David Bolius on September 13th, 2015 in Berlin with the title “Reiki & Science”, 47 relevant scientific studies (publications) spanning the years 1983 to 2015 were viewed, 39 of which were examined more closely. All studies had been published in peer reviewed journals. The initial and remarkable impression was that the amount of Reiki publications has significantly increased in the recent years (see graph).

Amongst the 39 closely examined publications 26 were based on clinical studies of which 19 showed evidence or indicators for the efficacy of Reiki, seven studies on the other hand could not document any effect of Reiki. None of the clinical studies showed indications towards any harm of human beings due to Reiki. Some of the papers emphasised the possibility of inexpensive therapeutic possibilities.

Besides the 26 clinicals studies there were six publications which contained descriptive characteristics, one publication addressed the question how Reiki works and six publications were so called review studies. Of these review studies 3 did not find indications of effectiveness of Reiki, however, two found indicators for the effectiveness of Reiki, one of the review studies did not make any conclusions. All review studies agreed and recommended that further, high-quality Reiki research was necessary.

Expamples of studies which did not show effectiveness of Reiki are results of Kundu et al. (2014) which investigated if Reiki helped in pain relieve for children after dental operations or research by Potter (2007) which persued the question whether Reiki was helpful to woman undergoing breast biopsy. Animal experiments by Baldwin et al. (2008), on the other hand, showed that Reiki helped rats significantly by reducing stress. And Marcus et al. (2013) come to the conclusion that Reiki supports patients with a broad spectrum of symptoms, including such which often occur in cancer patients.

Baldwin, A. L., Wagers, C., & Schwartz, G. E. 2008. Reiki improves heart rate homeostasis in laboratory rats. The journal of alternative and complementary medicine, 14(4), 417-422.

Kundu, A., Lin, Y., Oron, A. P., & Doorenbos, A. Z. 2014. Reiki therapy for postoperative oral pain in pediatric patients: Pilot data from a double-blind, randomized clinical trial. Complementary therapies in clinical practice, 20(1), 21-25.

Marcus, D. A., Blazek-O'Neill, B., & Kopar, J. L. 2013. Symptomatic improvement reported after receiving Reiki at a cancer infusion center. American Journal of Hospice and Palliative Medicine, 30(2), 216-217.

Potter P., 2007. Breast Biopsy and Distress Feasibility of Testing a Reiki Intervention. Journal of Holistic Nursing, vol. 25 no. 4 238-248.

Der Beitrag Reiki is not scientific …. Really? erschien zuerst auf Reiki-International.

A group of Swiss gain experience in the public hospital (Unfallkrankenhaus - UKB) in Berlin. They intend to introduce Reiki in the public health system and in enterprises in Switzerland. An international cooperation with broad support (see credentials). Click for this 5 minute YouTube summary or the 15 minute documentary. English subtitles.

Der Beitrag Cooperation: Reiki in the Health Care System erschien zuerst auf Reiki-International.

During her internship at the public hospital (Unfallkrankenhaus - UKB) Claudia Möri gave a talk to the hospitals staff presenting the latest insights on “Reiki and Science”. See the YouTube video documentation.

Der Beitrag Presentation of Reiki and science at the Berlin hospital erschien zuerst auf Reiki-International.

In June 2015 a study to research the effectiveness of Reiki in breast cancer patients starts. The professional associations ProReiki conducts the series with the help of experienced practitioners. The results will be published in peer reviewed scientific journals.

Der Beitrag Clinical research – Reiki and breast cancer erschien zuerst auf Reiki-International.