Good Vibrations
Reiki circle participants celebrate 10 years of universal healing energy.
By Donna Clayton Lawder
The Silver City-based Reiki healing circle, a small group of people committed to sharing "universal healing energy" through the technique of Reiki for their own healing and the well-being of others, has been meeting for 10 years. Meeting consistently all this time, the group has quietly been building its strength—sharing, teaching and growing. And with a number of them now in professional practice, a fresh crop of Reiki students in neighboring Lordsburg coming into its own, and the healing art's growing acceptance in the medical world on the horizon, the circle's participants believe they're ready to roll out an even broader red carpet of welcome into the Reiki experience.
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Members of Silver City's Reiki
Circle. |
The group is "guesstimating" its anniversary, actually. Things came together organically—two practitioners offering weekly sessions to each other after they'd attained a level of completion in their Reiki training—so they're not sure of the exact date of the circle's commencement.
"It was in the summer," recalls Vicki Allen, a participant in the group who has received Reiki for over 24 years and has been teaching it for 17 years. "So this is around the time (the group) began, 10 years ago."
Virginia Nañez, a Reiki practitioner, and her husband, Joe Bagg, host the group's weekly meetings at a house once owned by Nañez' mother. An unassuming building off Little Walnut Street in Silver City, the place is affectionately called "Mama's House" by the participants who come there weekly to share in sessions.
Every Tuesday night, interested parties gather in the house's dining room. Sometimes only three or four people show up; other times, more than a dozen. On the large dining table are a clipboard for sign-in, some informational literature and business cards of professional Reiki practitioners and a big glass jar for donations.
The line between "practitioners" and "recipients" blurs, in a way, as all participating in a Reiki session are said to receive the "universal healing energy" that is channeled through the practitioners. The group divides up into different rooms and each person receiving treatment will be matched up with three to four practitioners.
Reiki is usually offered with the recipient in a reclining position, on a table such as a massage table, with the recipient fully clothed. Practitioners take up their positions, one at the recipient's head, another at his or her feet, and one at each side at a point near the elbows.
Reiki is a "light touch" technique, the practitioners gently holding points on the recipient's body. The goal of the practitioners is to allow the flow of universal healing energy to flow through them, as channels. This is thought to bring energetic balance to the body, encouraging healing.
"People experience the energy in many different ways," Nañez says. Sometimes people feel tingling or an electrical sensation, she says. Some recipients report hearing sounds, like a ringing in the ears, or the sensation of a cool breeze wafting between the practitioner's hands and their body, even though the practitioners' hands are touching the recipient. Most often, Nañez says, the energy is experienced in the form of heat.
"I'd say 99.9 percent of people become more relaxed," Nañez adds. "And I always say that the best way to understand Reiki is to experience it."
During the session, the person at the recipient's head will indicate when the other practitioners should change their position on the body. Practitioners at the recipient's sides and feet will go from holding feet to ankles, or from elbows to hips. The practitioner at the head may change his or her "hold" from the back of the head and neck to lightly covering the eyes and forehead. A treatment lasts about 20 minutes.
Though some practitioners in the circle have private practices, offering Reiki sessions professionally for fees, many do not. They may be taking the various levels of training, or may even be "Reiki Masters," certified to teach the healing art to others, but simply are not in professional practice.
Treatments in a group setting like this often are given free of charge or by donation. The donation jar on the dining table at Mama's House is a recent addition. The group only recently began accepting a suggested $5 minimum donation to help with the small expenses of making the facility available for public use—simple, practical things like the electric bill and toilet paper, Nañez says.
When the initial session of serving the public is complete, the practitioners then reconfigure and treat each other.
"The heart of Reiki is self-treatment," Allen says. "We have to recharge our own batteries. It's important to take care of ourselves."
These Tuesday evening sessions were formed, Nañez explains, to provide Reiki team therapy, particularly for those members of the public who might not be able to afford it otherwise. Sessions are open—the group does not restrict who may come or for what reasons. At times, more would-be recipients show up than can be accommodated by the practitioners available that evening. Nañez says they may choose to come back the following week or to make an appointment with those circle members who have professional Reiki practices.
There is much literature on the studies done on the value of Reiki as an energetic healing art. Members of the circle share anecdotal stories of healing among those who have passed through their doors.
Brian Cunningham, director of Rehabilitation and Wellness and co-chair of the Integrative Medicine Committee at Gila Regional Medical Center, says there is ongoing discussion of incorporating Reiki and other energy healing modalities into the facility's services. A massage program has recently been instituted. Reiki, Cunningham points out, is already being used in some big hospitals. As the practice becomes more well-known and accepted on the public level, he says he hopes a whole host of alternative modalities—Reiki, meditation, T'ai Chi, Chi Gung and more—may be added to GRMC's services.
Gilbert Arizaga, a local physician, also is trained in Reiki. Arizaga says he incorporates Reiki in ceremony into his practice of curanderismo, indigenous Latino medicine.
Allen adds that she has trained a number of Reiki students who practice—mostly on themselves at this point—in Lordsburg. That group is coming together on Mondays, she says. And the Reiki Healing Circle in Silver City hopes to throw its doors open even wider, inviting the public into the healing space—now 10 years strong—they provide at Mama's House.
The Silver City Reiki Circle offers ongoing treatment sessions on Tuesday nights at 6:30 p.m. For more information and directions, or to ask about Reiki circle practitioners in private practice, leave a message at 388-4870.
Donna Clayton Lawder is senior editor of Desert Exposure.