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Article: 002
REIKI - THE NEW PHASE SWEEPING S.A.
It's advertised in our local newspapers, it's on the internet, it's promoted in our Metro magazines and winning a session of this `healing phenomenon' is now the in-thing. No longer reserved for the `elite', Reiki is becoming more popular and well known, but what exactly is it?
Well firstly I'll tell you what it isn't - Reiki is not a doctrine or religion, so all different types of people enjoy it. It is, however, a form of spirituality (as stated by a local Reiki Master). Reiki can best be described as a spiritually guided life-force energy which is used and channeled through the Reiki practitioner in order to produce healing and relaxation.
Sounds good, doesn't it? But the important question is, is it good for you? Just as a person needs to be cautious about what medications they take, as it could be detrimental to their health, so should we be cautious when it comes to things of a spiritual nature, no matter how much the benefits are advertised.
In practicality, Reiki is supposed to be a safe, gentle, non-invasive form of hands-on healing. Recipient reports of experience of Reiki include increased energy, reduction of pain, deep relaxation and a general feeling of well being. Reiki initiation attunes a practitioner to become a channel for the Reiki energy and is apparently a powerful, life-changing experience for physical, mental and spiritual growth.
Now before you all rush out to try this new magical form of healing let's review Reiki and apply it to a Christian and non-Christian view.
Amazingly enough, even though from a Christian point of view Reiki is not something to get involved with (I'll get into why shortly), there are "Christian Reiki practitioners" (oxymoron anyone?) who claim that there's nothing wrong with it and that it is simply a form of healing given to us by God. Numerous Bible verses are thrown around subjectively in an attempt to back up these claims. Because the versus used show that Jesus healed people by the laying on of hands, it is suddenly claimed that Reiki is therefore God's way of getting Christians (and non-Christians, since they can use it too) to use or develop their spiritual gifts of healing, as written in 1 Corinthians 12: 4-11.
There are a few problems with this theory though:
1. Not all people were healed by touch. Very often Jesus simply rebuked the source of ailment, whether or not He was in the same vicinity as the sick person. Long distance healing cannot be done by a level 1 Reiki practitioner but only by something who's also done level 2 and 3. If God has given a person the gift of healing, then their gift will not be dependent on how many levels they've learnt with Reiki.
2. The Spirit in Jesus which healed the sick was the same Spirit in Jesus who raised the dead. Reiki cannot raise the dead. Does that mean that God has given the Christian Reiki practitioners an incomplete gift?
3. When Jesus healed someone they were instantaneously healed as shown by the following three examples taken from the Bible:
Luke 4:38-39 (NKJV)
Now He arose from the synagogue and entered Simon's house. But Simon's wife's mother was sick with a high fever, and they made request of Him concerning her. So He stood over her and rebuked the fever, and it left her. And immediately she arose and served them.
Matthew 8:2-3 (NIV)
A man with leprosy came and knelt before Him and said, "Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean." Jesus reached out His hand and touched the man. "I am willing," He said. "Be clean!" Immediately he was cured of his leprosy.
Mark 10:51-52 (English Standard Version)
And Jesus said to him, "What do you want me to do for you?" And the blind man said to him, "Rabbi, let me recover my sight." And Jesus said to him, "Go your way; your faith has made you well." And immediately he recovered his sight and followed Him on the way.
Unlike the immediate healings performed by Jesus, Reiki healings are not instantaneous and sessions can take up to an hour. Very often a patient has to go back repeatedly to the Reiki practitioner for further sessions until the full healing process is complete. The belief held by some that Jesus actually healed by using Reiki thus seems unfounded. The only thing Jesus and Reiki practitioners have in common is the occasional laying on of hands, but even then Jesus could simply touch a persons hand and they were healed of whatever ailment they had, wherever it was. With Reiki, the practitioners hands have to continually go up and down the patients body, from head to toe, as the healing energy is transmitted.
It seems that there are many Christians who want the gift of healing but are too impatient for God to give them this gift. Healing with Reiki is done by "Christian practitioners" who are too impatient to wait for the real gift to be sent by God and thus turn to something artificial which they latch onto and claim must certainly be God-sent in order to justify it.
Despite all the Bible verses used to back up their claims that Reiki is acceptable for a Christian to perform and receive, it doesn't take more than a closer look at these verses to see that they've been manipulated to try call that which is evil, good.
Isaiah 5:20
Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!
Unlike the results of Reiki healing, any healing which comes from God is perfect and complete. If you subject yourself to Reiki healing you are ultimately opening yourself up to spiritual attack, even if the healing is done by a professing Christian. Don't believe the lies for a second that God will protect you, because He cannot protect you if you step out of His will and dabble with something that is not of Him - of which Reiki isn't. Likewise, I cannot in any way expect God to protect me if I willingly choose to sit in the middle of the road during rush hour traffic. That would just be foolishness and I would have to suffer the consequences thereof.
In order to become a Reiki practitioner, a person has to go through an attunement (a ritual or initiation) whereby "energy" from the Reiki master is passed to the recipient, without which the practitioner cannot perform Reiki. As described by a Reiki master, the attunement procedure is a ceremony of spirit. That alone should sound warning bells for a Christian. If not, then read below what happens as part of the attunement initiation and what the Reiki master does to the recipient:
The use of eastern symbols, the third eye and chanting are all synonymous with pagan activities of which Christians are to refrain from. As a Christian, do you really want to receive healing from someone who has gone through this pagan initiation?
So how then does Reiki affect a non-Christian, atheist or agnostic?
Not believing in God or not believing in the laws of God, does not exempt one from suffering the consequences of breaking these laws. Let me give you an example: when I was in Australia last year I almost felt as if I were separate from the law as I was not an Australian citizen and was only visiting there for a short time. After all, unless I did a major crime what could they really do to me? However, at the same time, despite how I felt I still knew that in reality I would be subject to punishment by the Australian judicial system should I have broken any of their laws and had been caught. In reality we are all subject to the laws of God, whether or not we believe in them. Not believing in sickness will not prevent you from becoming sick, neither will not believing in death prevent you from dying. Whether you believe in it or not, dabbling with things spiritual which do not fall within the confines of God's will, will have negative consequences, whether it be immediate, later on in life or at the final judgment.
While I know this all sounds ominous, allow me to ask you this: if the healing powers of Reiki are not from God, then who are they from? Many people would say that surely something which does good, such as Reiki, cannot come from something bad (i.e. satan). But what if that "something good" is used to keep one from being within the will of God? Surely that something good is then bad? If something good is used for evil purposes, then it is no longer good. The devil thus is spreading a lie that Reiki is good, and we know that satan is the father of lies:
John 8:44 (English Standard Version)
You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and has nothing to do with the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.
If there is something which does good, but at the same time detracts from the Word of God, then satan will use it. It is not beyond him to use good as long as he achieves evil from it. We know the following about the devil:
1) He can imitate good
2 Corinthians 11:14 (NIV)
And no wonder, for satan himself masquerades as an angel of light.
2) He can imitate the miracles of God
Exodus 7:10-12 (NIV)
So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and did just as the Lord commanded. Aaron threw his staff down in front of Pharaoh and his officials, and it become a snake. Pharaoh then summoned wise men and sorcerers, and the Egyptian magicians also did the same things by their secret arts. Each one threw down his staff and it became a snake.
I have heard it foolishly exclaimed that because there is no instance found in the Bible where satan healed someone, then it is presumed that he simply does not heal.
If God heals then you can be certain that that is a trick the devil won't hesitate to cash in on through imitation.
When Christians talk about spiritual warfare, demonic oppression, attack etc. we're not talking about a fable we've been taught to believe since the Sunday School room, we're talking about something each and every believer has experienced and been through.
When it comes to things of a spiritual nature, don't mess with what you don't know. You'll only be opening up doors to yourself that you'll wish you had kept shut (this also goes for acupuncture, hypnosis, therapeutic touch, transcendental meditation and even yoga, to name but a few).
Don't be hard-hearted or stubborn when it comes to this. Whether you believe in Him or not, God has given you a brain, complete with the function to think rationally and objectively. He doesn't need to spell it out for us that Reiki is not of Him - just read the Bible and apply a bit of common sense.
God bless,
Reaching Out Ministries
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Reaching Out Ministries - REIKI - THE NEW PHASE SWEEPING S.A
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