Hi Gandalf,

I'm a Reiki Master-Practitioner and I've been practicing for about 4 years now. So I'll warn you up front that my answer is probably biased lol. And in that time I've seen the full spectrum of physical manifestations. I've seen the much touted Reiki "miracles" - a deep cut that completely closed and healed in 10 min; a friend who caught a hot (450 degree) cast-iron pan in her bare hand and didn't have even a first degree burn, etc. I've also seen the times where it appeared that absolutely nothing happened.

Reiki is probably one of the most misunderstood of all of the Ki-based healing modalities that exist. One of the biggest misconceptions that non-practitioners have (and even a few practitioners lol) is that Reiki's purpose is to correct/heal physical ailments. Yes, physical healing is often one of the results of Reiki therapy, it's not the main goal. The goal of Reiki is to bring the patients energy (ki, prana, etc.) into harmony with the energy of the Universe (or the Divine, depending on your point of view).

Because of this goal, predicting the results of a Reiki session can be quite complicated and trying to do so is usually an exercise in futility. There are just too many factors involved. Sometimes a person is not supposed to receive physical healing, for whatever reason - maybe there's a lesson they're supposed to learn from their illness, maybe it's simply their time to die. Sometimes the healing that a person needs isn't actually physical, but is emotional and/or spiritual and the Reiki energy focuses on that instead.

Also, the outlook and receptivity of the patient is also a very big factor. People can and do reject the Reiki energy for a number of reasons, sometimes despite the fact that they actually paid for the Reiki session. It goes without saying that skeptics frequently reject the energy and then use the lack of results as "proof" that Reiki is a hoax.

To be honest, I can't tell you if Reiki is real or not. That's a decision each person has to make for themselves. I'll even go so far as to admit that, despite being a Reiki practitioner, I'm still somewhat of a skeptic myself. But my attitude is that it can't hurt (remember that Reiki is an supplement to modern medicine, not a replacement for it), and it probably helps. If nothing else, it can bring peace and comfort to a patient at a time when they really need it.