On this week's podcast, I listened. So many of you approached me and said that you love it. When I talked to Karen Caig that she just, some of you said, you want to hug her. Some of you said, you just love the two of us our dynamics together and so on. And so I asked Karen if she would do a podcast series for me, with me, and one of the things that occurred to me is that we jumped right in at, with the Reiki, from the farm podcast.
And we started where a lot of us were at with, which was, we were already Reiki, masters. We were already had been practitioners for a lot of years, and we just wanted to learn more and more, more, and get more perspectives. And. The Reiki energy tapped me on the shoulder and gave me a nudge like it does and said you've never really given people some of the basics about Reiki. And so we're gonna back it up a little bit and. Look at some of the basics. And there's a couple of reasons for that.
Some of the basics might be new for you. They might be some things you that, you hadn't heard, or maybe you hadn't thought of for a while. But also the other reason for doing this podcast is some of you may have people say all the time, Hey, what is Reiki? And just have some basic questions. And we thought we would offer you this podcast as a way that you could answer some of the questions and say, Hey, why don't you listen to this podcast? And that will explain it.
And so we ha thought that this might be helpful for some of you who are new to Reiki and don't know a lot about it. And we also thought for those of you who are a bit more experienced, this might assist you with your own clients and, in your businesses. So thank you for coming and joining me with this, Karen. I really appreciate it.
Thank you for having me again. I love talking with you. That's like the most natural thing in the world. That's probably why people like us together, cuz we just love to talk. You're one of my favorite people
We thought we'd start with a really basic topic. What is Reiki? But before we begin, I'd just like to let you know about some of the things that we have coming up at the farm in October, we have a full lineup of Reiki level one and two and masters, animal Reiki, one and two and masters. Classes, they're both online and in person here at the farm, and that's actually followed at the very end of October and into November, by a Kaurna Reiki class.
Now the Kaurna Reiki class guys is going to be online in the Australian time zone. I had to cancel a Kaurna Reiki class that I had intended to have in the Australian time zone at the beginning of August when I had COVID. And that class has been rescheduled. And so the November class is going to be in the Australian friendly time zone, which means that it is evenings in north America, early mornings in Australia.
And it also works for some of our it doesn't work so well for our European friends, but it does work quite well for some of our Asian friends. I also wanted to let those of you who are in the us, who are in around the Massachusetts area, know that on Thursday and. Friday, November 10th and 11th, I will be presenting about animal Reiki dosing. I'll be doing a fear clinic at the equine affair, which is a huge horse event in Springfield, Massachusetts.
So if you live in around Springfield, New York, any of that, I'd love to meet you in person. Please join me at the equine affair. And I will put a link to the equine affairs webpage in the podcast. In case you might be able to do that. And then just as we're going into Christmas December 1st and second, I've got another level one and two class followed. My animal, my last animal communication class of the year, December 3rd and fourth.
And that's followed on December 5th and sixth by animal Reiki. So I've got six straight days of all of the classes you would need to really get started working with Reiki and with animals, animal, the level one and two class, a prerequisite to the animal Reiki one and two. So I'd love to have you join us for that. If it makes sense for you in January, I've got a full lineup of level one and two and masters and animal Reiki, level one and two in masters again and Kaurna in February.
But I really wanted to get over into my 2023 schedule, which I'm just getting on the website now, because I wanted to let those of you who are in Australia, know that I will be in person in Australia. Teaching level one and two and masters, March 13th through the 17th. And I know that the Australian Reiki association prefers for you to have in person to online classes. So even though most of my classes. That I teach at home. I limit to 12 students.
I'm not going to limit the Australian classes beyond I'll, try to keep them around 18 students, but I really wanna make that class available for those of you who would like to be part of the Australian Reiki association, as well as the international center for Reiki training. And that allows you to qualify for professional membership in the I C R T Reiki membership association, if you'd like, and I'll also be teaching animal Reiki level one and two in March as well.
So I know that's a lot, but I just got my 20, 23 schedule together and I know. That this hopefully gives you a chance to plan some of your classes. Hopefully you can meet me for some of those. I would love to have you join us. Karen, what have you got coming up for classes you teach a lot as well, don't you?
Yeah it's, probably easiest to check. My, my website is Reiki, hyphen institute.com and I generally schedule Reiki one and two Reiki master animal Reiki, one and two animal master every month. Wow. And a Kaurna about every three months. And I do have next month a someone asked and I said, okay I'm going to do animal Reiki, master. On Southeast Asia time, which means I'm gonna get up at nice five in the morning, start teaching at six, which would be, I'm gonna do it over two weekends.
So that will be October 21st and 22nd. It's a Friday and a Saturday. So that would be Friday night and Saturday night for people in Asia. And if you're in Europe, that would be afternoon, it'd be noon to four. So it's gonna be four hours over four days. It's the 21st, 22nd. And then the following weekend, the 28th and the 29th. So that's a different kind of a class. That's fantastic. And we
link to your website in the podcast, but we could put a link to that specific course as well, if you'd like, okay, thanks.
Yeah. Oh, you're welcome. Love to have happy people. I teach only online though
yep. Yeah. I love the online classes. They're my favorite.
I
do too. That may be one of the questions people ask us, but
I know people like on in person and I, like them to an extent, but I think I like the online, the best, because you can have people from all over the world. And I find that the people get a little more connected, a little more bonded and has an empath. I'm not in the energy. So I Don. Muddled and confused by it. So I'm, it's a, I find it's a little easier to stay really crisp and clear in my delivery
online. And I think the students, maybe the, students that seem to be attracted to the online classes seem to be more introverted. And of course, I think everybody who's drawn to Reiki as an empath, but I think that they have that same experience. They're, connected, but they're, they get to have those boundaries. And or maybe it's because they're in their homes and they can deeply relax, but they have really deep healing experiences
more than the in person. I think I agree with you a hundred percent. I do have some in, up in person and online classes coming up, but I do, I agree. The, just different,
yeah, different vibes. So we've got something for everybody. We really do. People really prefer the in person and some prefer the online.
One of the things that I, that occurred to me when I was having a look at. When I was writing my own Reiki business book and I was explaining the when we decided when, William heard energetically, he was guided to move our classes online during COVID and and, then he worked with the energy to strengthen it and so on. And I was just trying to explain that whole process.
And I was thinking of some of the advantages, because it's certainly less expensive for the student when they don't have to have rental cars and hotels and flights and, this sort of thing. But the other thing that occurred to me is it's a much lower environmental footprint. And I hadn't really thought about that. So I love the online classes. Yeah. I plan on taking one of your online classes
soon, actually. Yeah. We're gonna do probably a whole podcast about reviewing class reviewing classes. So
one of my favorite things
to do today, too, we'll be talking about that in the future today. We're we will.
Just moving into some of the basic questions about Reiki and, what I wanna do is help people with this. First of all, Karen, I don't know about you, but when people used to ask me what is Reiki and what do you do? When I first became a Reiki practitioner, I tripped over my tongue and I stumbled and I mumbled, and I, also sometimes expected to be judged, particularly if I knew them to be a fairly religious person or something like that. And I don't know why I expected that, but I did.
And I, really had a hard time answering that base. And even recently somebody asked me, oh, Reiki, what is that? And I went back to years ago and stumbled and mumbled again. And I thought, wait, I wrote a whole chapter about this in my book. what do you answer when people ask you what is re.
Just the standard I had to memorize it so that I don't even think about it. So if, someone in the grocery store says you do what, is Reiki? I just automatically go it's to Japanese relaxation technique that promotes healing and is using over 800 hospitals in the United States, my standard answer.
And I teach my students to say that because it's of course so much more than that, but I say, if you start waving your hands around and explaining wild eyed about how it's changed your life, it is the most amazing thing they're gonna just back away from you. And it doesn't really answer their question. So just say it's a Japanese and it is, it's a Japanese relaxation technique that promotes healing. Or sometimes I'll say it's a, it works with the human biofield it's energy work. One
of the I, use the Japanese, I'll often say that it's a Japanese form of relaxation that promotes healing and stress reduction. But I also sometimes will say Reiki is spiritually guided life force energy. That promotes healing. And so it's, okay to look at some of the definitions that are out there and just come up with a, pat explanation something I've got about five or six that I wrote down in my Reiki business book that, and I can't think of them now.
It depends. You have to you really now, this is the old writing instructor resurfacing here, but I used to tell my writing students, you have to analyze your audience exactly. You ask the question. What, words are they going to understand if it's.
And it's okay to, to use the language that they would understand. And so that's, I think what, changes, like if I'm talking to a spiritual person, I'll say it's divinely guided life force energy, or spiritually guided life force energy. If I'm talking I, love that you add that's used in over 800 hospitals. And I actually think that number's 1200 now. It probably is in the United States, but I, remember the 800 was in, I think, two that's old.
That's an old number. I think it was two. I know it's safe. It's at least 800, but yeah, probably closer to 12
It's in a lot. It's used in a lot of hospitals and I'll use that medical.
So I'll say it it heals by it relaxes you and triggers the parasympathetic response. Yeah. If, that's because everybody heals better when they're relaxed helps the body. Sometimes I'll go in and say, Reiki helps put you back into that balanced state so that your body can heal itself better. If that's where they're coming from,
moves you into alignment and and, just depending on who I'm talking with, I might even add the little, and sometimes it brings about miracles And some, or I'll even add and I, Reiki is something you can use in every aspect of your life. So it just depends, but I like you I'll usually start with Reiki is spiritually guided life force energy. It's a Japanese technique for stress reduction that promotes healing and has been found to be so effective. It's used in hospitals.
I'm gonna be adding that now. And I say
It works, it heals, it helps you heal physically, but also mentally, emotionally, spiritually. And I'll say, because they're all connected. Exactly. Many of our physical. Disease where we are learning. I'll I I'll say, and we are, we're doing studies to, to find that how trauma affects us physically. They're starting to, understand that more. And so more people are open to that connection, that mind, body connection
they really are. And when you think about it, I don't know about you, Karen, but I started as a Reiki master teacher in 2011. And people used to make the sign of protection and try to step away from If I when I told them what I did and I, where I live is it's a fairly religious in, some parts of our province, it's fairly religious and which is great. But I feel that at first in 2011, some of the people that were more on the religious spectrum were very suspicious of Reiki.
And so they'd kinda oh, I'm a Christian and hold their cross out to keep me away and, back up and I'd say so am I actually, but anyway it's it, was often misunderstood and that's changed. I noticed that as we moved up into, I think it was around 2015, I started to notice a big difference and then even recently, even more so now when I tell people, if they ask what do you do when I say I'm a Reiki practitioner or a Reiki master teacher, they. Almost everybody.
Like I can be talking to a senior in a grocery store line who asks me, oh who, are you? And what do you do? And I'll tell them and they'll say, oh, I know. And so who does Reiki or I've had a Reiki treatment or? I know and so who's had a Reiki treatment or my niece does Reiki. Like almost everybody has someone that they're connected with that does Reiki.
And I've noticed that a lot of that discomfort went away, but a big part, one of the things I discovered was that I needed to let go of my expectation of being judged or my own discomfort in explaining it. I needed to learn to explain it confidently. And once I could do that, then it was received
much. Yeah, that's a good point. So if anybody's listening and, they're trying to explain to people, remember that's a really good point.
Yeah, thank you. And and, part of it's the time I think now it has spread so much more, I think in the 1980s it used to be years ago that it was $10,000 to study at the Reiki master level, which is the level that you and I have studied too. Karen and In the 19, sorry. It was the 1990s. There were a few teachers who started teaching at a lower rate and suddenly there was an explosion of Reiki masters.
And then there was an explosion of, students and, William Rand actually wrote an article about how once there became more Reiki practitioners and Reiki masters in the world, a lot of the indicators like the things like poverty and wars and literacy and, all of the things that would indicate a healthy society. They all improved dramatically and he was able to correlate that. The time that there was more Reiki on the planet, but I really do think there's more Reiki on the planet
today. Yeah. Yeah. There, there definitely is. Yeah, there is for sure.
I,
there sometimes. Oh, I'm sorry. Students ask me sometimes. So what if somebody thinks it's like from, the devil or something like that, and I'll say don't be confident when you talk about it but, tell 'em, and I've told people this may not be for you. If your belief system is that, you know that there is a, that there's a force out there trying to lead you astray and pull you off. And if you have fear about it, then maybe this isn't for you.
And don't sit there and try to argue with, somebody because. They're not open to it and, not everybody has to be
open to it. That's right. It's not for everybody.
And, so don't waste your, because my students will be like, I'm just so frustrated. I know this would help them. It's yeah they're, if they're not open, they're just not open. But there are other people out there who do wanna know. So just go this probably isn't for you. Move along to the next person
And that, that leads right into what I was going to say with that, Karen too, which is just that you can gauge by their question. Like sometimes I say Reiki is a spiritually or is a Reiki is a Japanese form of stress reduction that promotes healing. And if they say really, and they start to ask more questions then and, by sticking with that sort of basic description, you can let them lead the conversation and you can let them ask the question. That's a good.
And sometimes they're just like, oh, isn't that interesting? So anyway,
and
okay Reiki might not be for that person. And there's absolutely no reason to try to convince people. There are so many people who are looking for something that, who are looking to bring more love into their lives. And another thing that, that, again, depending on the audience you can also say Reiki is love. Reiki is spiritually guided life force energy that brings more love and light into our lives. And, so the next question is where does Reiki come from?
And how do we know that it comes from there? Because there are a lot of D. forms of energy healing. And and, in fact, most Reiki practitioners don't just do Reiki. A lot of us also work with crystals or I get acupuncture on a regular basis and massage and, I also love cranial sacral therapy. There's all kinds of other therapies out there. And so what do you say when people say where does Reiki come from?
Sometimes I'll say, I don't know, but I don't know where my son comes from in my phone when we FaceTime either. It comes from I can't give a specific answer. I'll say for me, it comes from source. It comes from God But it that's a difficult question to, to answer. Where does it come from? Where do we come from? Not. To throw yourself into an existential crisis. Like where does Reiki come from? I would answer for me, it comes from, source.
It comes it's what everything is made of is, I mean is, but then they'll say so is it different from like, why do you say you have like different kinds of Reiki or why do you have different kinds of energy healing? And, I think of them really as just different. I said just like in a rainbow it's all light, it's just different colors because they're different frequencies of light. Yeah. And I think of Reiki, Reiki is it's light. It's, light and information that comes through.
We are light in information, but it comes through us when we are attuned to it and trained to that frequency. And then it comes through us. Helps put everything back into balance. I, it's a hard question to answer. What do you say? gosh, I, where does it come from? Pam? my hands. It comes from my hands. That's where it comes from.
I, I say I use the word God, and not everybody's comfortable with that word. God and I, so I gauge my audience. Whether I feel they would be more comfortable with the name God or creator or source, but I say it is divinely guided life force energy. It, comes from the divine, whatever you believe, whatever name you use for it and whatever you believe the divine to be now as a scientist, I can also get behind the idea of biofield energy, but I am still really spiritual in my nature.
So I usually say it is divine. Sourced and guided life force energy that promotes healing. That's another one of my little explanations as well. And when somebody I, haven't really had too many people say oh I'm worried it comes from the devil. I don't know. I feel pretty. I live in the Bible
belt. you live in the Bible belt? I do. I live in Arkansas for those of you listening. Grew up in Texas. Yeah, we got a lot of fear down
here. Yeah. And I, but I, also I also really. Have to say, I, I honor and respect a lot of the Reiki teachers who've come before me because they've really paved the way. And so that in my region many people know what it is and there isn't as much fear around, even if they don't know what it is, they know somebody who does it. And so there's not as much fear around it, but this, energy does come from source. And we let's talk a little bit about the history.
Makayo Yasui was looking for enlightenment. And so he went onto a sacred mountain in Japan called Mount Karama and he fasted and sat by under or by a waterfall for 21 days. And on the 21st day, this great bright light struck him in the forehead and knocked him unconscious. And he had been in a very weakened state, but he. Came to the following day, completely full of energy and invigorated.
And he recognized that he had accomplished enlightenment, which was, he was actually looking for a special kind of enlightenment called Enid. Sumay. and he realized that he had accomplished his objective. And it is actually said that anyone who received Reiki training from Yasui himself also became enlightened. And now I feel that when we train people for Reiki, we pass on the pathway to enlightenment the ability and the pathway and the energy that can support you in becoming enlightened.
But I'm not sure that, but we, haven't been able to pass on enlightenment itself quite as well as you Sui did himself, I guess we would maybe have to go sit by the waterfall and fast and so on, but at the same point He was able to pass this energy on through something called an attunement. And we'll talk about that. But he also discovered that a side effect of this enlightenment of this on sende was healing and now throat history and throughout. Many religions.
I think we are aware of different spiritual masters who accomplished enlightenment in their lifetimes and a side effect of that was often also. Feeling so it's, maybe not unique. What is unique about Reiki is that you suey sensei asked the energy how to pass this on to others, because he really had a great desire to share this with the world. And he understood that through a process called an attunement.
He could pass this enlightened energy and this pathway of enlightenment this spiritual guidance, this opportunity for spiritual guidance on to others. Karen, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to just take over and start talking on to the story going yeah, One of my favorite stories. So, that's that history to me gives me confidence in the source of Reiki and, all. Yeah. And I
think I was, when you were talking, I was remembering to in Lang from the London Reiki academy interviewed me once and I hadn't made this connection, but I always had hot hands and a lot of my students come to me and it's I think that some people come through and they already have some sort of a connection. It wasn't Reiki though. And I think I'm jumping ahead to one of the questions about that's had to take a class. No. That's great. Go ahead with that. One of the, questions for today,
one of the questions we wanted to cover, because people sometimes do some research online and Reiki is very simple. It's easy to use. You don't have to build up your energy and give it away. It says, that's what I was doing. Yeah. Through you. And and so a lot of people do a little research and, they, the symbols, even though we don't share the symbols that are available online and they'll look up the symbols and they'll think I'll just start doing it. What do I need a class for?
Why don't you talk? Why don't you? Yeah, because
but Torson said, he said, oh, it was the, same. I think a lot of people do. Healing hands if you will. But sometimes because I do live in the, Southern United States, people say is this the same as laying on hands? And I said I think circling back to where does this come from? I said, when you are in church and you all put your hands on someone to heal them, I said, are you healing them? And they'll say, no, God is healing them. And I am the, channel I said, so that's how Reiki is.
Yeah. But what, you're channeling is. Is God love. You said love. It's what is it? It's energy. It's divine energy. But what I was doing as a teenager it's, just that. So I had a big family and I would rub everybody's shoulders cuz I'm, an extrovert and touches my first love language. I love touching people, which is probably better why I teach online. Right?
I love you. I touches my second love language
but you I'd rub their shoulders. So I listen to all the conversations going on and when my hands were tired, I would just rest my hands on their shoulders and my hands would heat up because I was like just. I just love my aunt Sue so much, and they'd say, Karen, Renee, why are your hands so hot? I'm like, I don't know. But I, did know. I knew it was just that I just loved them. And when I would send that love, my hands would heat up. But that was me. That really, that was not Reiki.
And if I had access to the internet way back then and I had symbols and, knew about it, read a book about Reiki. It still would've just been me. Using my energy and your love and my love yeah. To transfer to somebody else. Because when I was, when I first stumbled on an article about Reiki and I thought, huh, maybe it's the thing. What is this? And when I got the, attunement, I was like oh, this is this is different. Because my hands got much hotter, one and fast. And I realized this isn't me.
I was just like ask boom, like home badass right there. And I that's when I realized okay, this is not me. I am really just channeling, this is something different from what I was doing. So I, usually share that in my classes because there are a lot of people like, oh yeah. Oh, somebody said to me recently in Sedona it wasn't at the retreat, but before I'm sorry, it was in Prescott. And she said aren't we all Reiki practitioners and I wanted to go, no,
we all love. And we all have the ability. Well, It's not with the divine, but getting an attunement really does tap you into another frequency,
the different frequency. So I also studied, went to Norway. That's another long story. And I felt guided to learn reconnective healing with Eric Pearl and I thought, oh, okay. And that. There's not like a process per Sei, you're just in the room and you're around it, but you know what it feels different. It's, a, it's completely different,
a different frequency and it's, a frequency and it's probably still connected with love and E
and yeah but it's different. Yeah. And I think it may be that it's different. I, don't use it as much. Reiki is my jam but and there are other energy. Yeah. And I call it energy medicine. There's we, you mentioned cranial, sacral. I think that's a type of energy healing. Donna Eden is a like moving energy through Qigong breath work and moving energy through your body. That's another kind of energy work
energy. Yeah. There are all kinds of different energy. Modalities. And one of the beautiful things about Reiki is that it usually blend it. There's no such thing as one being better than the other. It's nice that they all exist because there I might not be Reiki might not be my jam. It might not. And I might not be ready for it, but Kiang oh, I can get behind that because it's got some movement or yeah. I, maybe I'm more open to yoga or to acupuncture.
And so I think it's nice that there are all of these flavors and, all of these and things, but one of the beautiful things that I love about Reiki is it never, it, I've never heard oh, you shouldn't do Reiki with yoga, or you shouldn't do Reiki with this or Reiki. It's Reiki is such. A high frequency and there is so much simplicity and elegance in it that it really can blend with all of these other modalities.
And it, in fact, it does almost seem that when you bring them together it, almost elevates what you do. I know animal communication is something that I learned before. I knew Reiki. Very. and I was the level two practitioner, but as I learned more and more about Reiki and I had started teaching animal communication back 11, 12 years ago, I think even before I started teaching Reiki. And as I did as I started bringing Reiki into the animal communication, it became more effortless for people.
It just, it really elevated the level of communication that people were able to get with their animals. So I think it's like that with every modality I do. I put Reiki around the room when I do yoga. And when I go to yoga classes, because there's an empath, everybody else used to walk out of the yoga room going, I feel amazing and I'd think, and I'd go out feeling like I just got hit with a ton of bricks, picked up everybody's stuff that they left behind. And when I learned.
and so I couldn't do yoga effectively until I learned Reiki. And when I learned to put the Reiki symbols around the room and ask them to release everybody's energies, including my own, so that mine wasn't going and sticking onto another empath in the room, a more powerful empath. It became very pleasant for me. And even the instructor would say, oh, I always love it. When you come to class, it always feels a little different when you're here and it feels so good.
There's something about it when you come. And I
started laughing, I said I do put Reiki around the room so that we all have a wonderful experience. And one of the things that you know what, I didn't, we didn't write this down, but let's talk about permission with Reiki Reiki, because it is divinely guided will never. Work with somebody who doesn't want it. So I could put it around the yoga room and just ask the energy, please help anybody who's open to working with you.
And, then and, please release any energies that are released into the room so that they don't make their way back to me. and I can do that with impunity, knowing that the energy comes from source is very familiar with who is open to this type of energy and who is not, and will not work with. People who wouldn't be comfortable with it, but there are people out there that are very comfortable. And so you can put it in a room and just let it do what it does and not worry too much about it.
It will not work with somebody who does not want it. That's
right. I had a student what's that I had a student once in, and Reiki one. And she, of course for homework's okay, I want you to practice, practice on somebody. And she came back to Reiki too, the next day. And she said, I don't believe my Reiki is working anymore. I said, she said, I know I was working yesterday. And I said what do you mean? And she said she said, I tried to, give Reiki to my son. And she goes, it just, wasn't coming outta my hands. And I said, did he want Reiki?
She goes, I don't know. yes. Before you
do an actual session
I said because she was his mom and he was like 10 years old. And I said he didn't want the Reiki. I said, and it will not. It just flat. Won't go. Now we do teach, ask permission and all of that I said, but technically you don't even have to do that because it just flat won't go flat. Won't go. So you're in a room and
you need some help from Reiki. You can spread it around the room and it will work with the people who don't want
it. Yeah. I love
that Karen. I was
looking at the crystals behind you and I was thinking Reiki when we were talking about all these different energy modalities and it's just like the crystals. We have all different kinds of beautiful crystals and, or even your orchids that they really enjoy being on camera. I feel like, especially that white one it's it's kinda leaning. Yeah. It's different colors, different, but it seems like Reiki is like the quartz crystal. It like amplifies everything. It goes with everything.
It amplifies everything
well. And I had somebody once who the both of us had actually practiced shamanism and and I actually am really happy that I did. I learned a lot in, my Sha practices and stuff. And, I know, and I have a lot of students who, who do practice shamanism and who marry Reiki together with it. And it works really well for them. But at one point I just realized like that the, Reiki and my, my friend, it was Mar Dr. Martha Lacey she, mentioned it on, in our podcast.
She said there's an elegance and a simplicity to Reiki. So because of that, because it is so simple sometimes you wind up reaching for that. First or more often. And I found that I just wound up reaching for Reiki all the time.
Yeah, me too. It's this is all you need. And I,
yeah. And I just not purposefully, but I just stepped away from my shamonic practices or I learned to ask, Hey, how would Reiki fit together with this practice? And it would almost always like incredibly simplify
yeah. Practice and make it more
elegant. And so I would I would go on with it. Karen what are some of the things that changed in your life when you started doing Reiki?
Everything, changed. Yeah. I can trace every change back to, yeah. That first class. I released a lot of trauma. From my childhood. I changed how I parented. I, got out of a, bad relationship. Wow. I started teaching things started happening for me. I don't know. Those coincidences I, was able, I took Reiki one in two, in 20 12, 20 13. I was able to take the Reiki masterclass in England and get my attunement in the middle of stone hinge.
And I was a single mom on a teacher's salary, but things just worked out. Yeah. We were taking a group of students abroad and as the chaperone I got to go free and the class was only three day. You know what I'm talking about? Makeup, all those, yeah. All these synchronicities, because it's I was able to release enough of. Stuff that I could get some footing for the first time. Really? I was 49 years old for the first time in my life and go, huh.
And then that's, where everything started to shift everything, And that's I know I'm not the healthiest person. But from what I've read my, mentor, Julie, Russell's an RN. And she was telling me about doctors are discovering that like childhood trauma has real physical results. There's a score that you, she said, you need to tell your doctor about these things. Because it affects your physical health. I should even be here.
I should be, like dead and I did have a stent put in my heart when I was 54. But it, changed my health. It changed physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually. Yeah, it changed everything.
And it's, really exciting and interesting to watch the beautiful coincidences. Isn't
it. When you look back and you go, huh? Oh, I see how that
happened. Okay. I see how that and, Reiki has got a part in all of it and it does. It's mental, physical, spiritual, emotional. I remember the first thing Reiki did for me before I even took a class, was it assisted me. It helped me with some just debilitating allergies that left a rash on my face and neck and left. My eyes were running and I was just so uncomfortable. And of course I went I'm, a scientist.
I went to the medical doctor who sent me to the allergy specialist and they couldn't help me. And it was then that I finally became open enough to try Reiki because I wasn't very open to it. I'll be honest. At first I was pretty skeptical and.
when I try, when I learned the, sessions that I would have with a level one and two practitioner, friend of mine really helped me, but it wasn't until I learned Reiki myself and did my level one class, that all of those symptoms went away shortly after that my teacher offered to attune my horses to Reiki. And we should talk after this about what an attunement is. I might ask you to explain that Karen, and when she attuned my horses to Reiki I watched my riding lessons change.
I watched the horse's body language change. I watched the herd dynamics change. I'm an animal scientist. So I really I couldn't get over once they had their level one Reiki attunement. I couldn't get over the difference in my horses. And even a lot of my students at that point they, heard me and I started nattering on about, wow. I did Reiki. It was really cool. But when. Saw with their eyes. The difference in my horses, they'd been coming here every week, doing riding lessons.
And then one horse's personality changed from one week to the next, when she got Reiki, she used to be incredibly shy. She had her Reiki, attunement, midweek. They showed up the next week. She stepped out from behind her mother and they saw her for the first time. And she said, hi, I'm Lizzie and I'm here.
and they,
they just couldn't believe it. I also noticed that in my writing lessons that my students would always leave. Feeling much more relaxed and less stressed after spending time with the horses, but it became exponential and the horses would be yawning out people's stress and they'd give a shake or a shutter once in a while. And sometimes if somebody had a really particularly bad week, a horse might have to go and roll to release or do something a little bigger.
And, that still happens today, but it was really hard to ignore. And then like you, after that, it just began moving into every area of my life. And every area of my life just became more effortless and simpler. I didn't have any money.
And I wound up in the stone circle, William ran and I was broke broker than broke, but when you form an intention to do something and I really wanted to learn Reiki, so I could attune other horses that I had worked with and trained, and that really needed a Reiki attendant. And when I asked my teacher, she said, no, it's not for me to do it's for you to do. And I really didn't wanna become a Reiki master. And I had no intention of teaching people.
And now it's my favorite thing in the world to do along with riding horses, but and checking out the whales in our whale classes. But but really it was. It, was just absolutely amazing. Like money showed up. Abundance showed up. Once you set an intention, I wanted to do the, class to help the horses, the money just magically appeared. And I had to get over. I think I had to let go of some limit, some limiting beliefs that I had placed on myself.
My I learned level three and she said, you're supposed to go to England and study with William Rand. And I started telling her why I couldn't because I had no money. I had no time. I had this. I had that. I wasn't gonna be able to do it. The class was probably gonna be full. I had all of these limiting beliefs and I was really blessed cuz my, level three teacher, which is the Reiki master practitioner level, I guess she said, no, you're supposed to go do that class.
Let me lead you in a meditation to release your limiting beliefs. And as soon as she did the money showed up, the class was available. The time was available, the flights were available. Everything like you it, all lined up and it's, just, that's why it's hard to explain Reiki. It,
is hard and it's so much it's, so much. Yeah. What is it? It's this. Yeah, no one oversell it. I was just thinking about it's, almost as if like, when you're born into this world or at least maybe I'm speaking for me, but you just sort get dropped here and you spend a good part of your life going what am I doing here? And then you have all these people telling you we should do this and you should go over here. You should do this. And it, and I listened to a lot of people.
I've tried all these, but once I got the attunement and remind me, I will explain that a little more. Yes. Once I got the Reiki attunement and Y. I didn't even have a Reiki session ever. Sometimes my students say, do I need to have a Reiki session before I take a class? I didn't. Yeah. And it's, it
can be nice to do, but you don't
need to. Yeah I didn't, I just went, huh? Guess they do this. And when I did it's, but it's almost as if I was just like, floundering my whole 49 years of what, And then I was like, ah, here it is. It's almost as if I, heard something like there it is. And then you, get on purpose. You get on purpose in your life when you take Reiki. Yes you do. Cause you get attuned. So what is in attunement?
Yes. Can you call it the holy fire will talk about the difference kinds of lineages of Reiki in another podcast. But I was first attuned to those suey Tibetan lineage of Reiki. And like that word attuned because it means that you are put into the. The same frequency. So the reason you would get the attunement from a master is like what she was talking about with the, with Sei sensei, passing this on to other people.
That's literally what, we are doing in a sense is once you get that vibration, you're like, eh, you're vibrating here. And you can then for those who are, who come to you and they're like I want that. I want that attunement. I want to be at that level. You go through the process.
And it's you then it's like in treatment in quantum physics, they talk about in treatment or actually not even quantum physics, you may have heard of it in musical terms, or like when you have a room full of pendulum clocks and all the pendulums are swinging differently but, you leave them there long enough then. Yeah. In train the same with a string
on a
stringed in yes. Stringed instrument, you pluck the big E stringing on a guitar. Boom. Then if you have another guitar, the big E stringing on the other guitar is gonna begin to vibrate without you even touching it because it's on the same frequency. So like the seasons Hey man, we're on the same frequency. We're vibing, but literally that's what happens. So when you get attuned, To that particular type of Reiki or energy or whatever, then that, then you've got that.
Then you are then now carrying that vibration. And if that's that helps you then remember who you are, what you it's almost like seriously, I feel not to talk about existential crisis again, but it's sometimes you feel like you're just like thrust into this world and you're like, now what do I do? And you're flopping around here trying to figure it out, but there's something about that Reiki attunement. It's because it's spiritually guided life force energy when you get it connected to it.
And you're like, Oh, yeah. I was supposed to do some stuff. I'm love and heal people. Oh, okay. This is, and then that's why the stuff starts to happen because you're on track, honestly. Okay. So that's just Karen Kagan. Doesn't say that in the Reiki books, but what you,
you
think I a hundred percent agree with you? I think that's an excellent explanation. And so that when people say I read about it. Can I just do it? And Karen, I did that. I my, I wa you know I, received sessions and I thought maybe I can do it. So I went out and I, I had a horse that had clicky joints, still has clicky joints. And I really want, I put my wrap my hands around his joints, and I could feel them actually adjusting and moving, but I was doing what you were doing. Before you had Reiki.
I was giving away my own love and personal energy. Now you were just doing that to your relatives. I was just doing that to my one who I
did it with cats. I did it with animals. I and which
is great, but I think if we go ahead and do that too often, we empty ourselves out a little bit. And the difference with Reiki is that Reiki is coming from an unlimited source. And so there's no. No chance of emptying yourself out of, Reiki because you just, it just flows through you. You are a channel like, what you said, so it is similar. And then you disconnect and then you disconnect from it's similar, but without being, you're not really brought to that frequency. That is so helpful.
I find it so helpful. I'm glad that I just, that that I say I discovered it, but really Karen, my horses pushed me into it. They did every They brought me my first Reiki practitioner. She was a student. They brought me my first teacher, when it was time to go to England, the horses brought the money together for that. And they and, they've pretty much taken me through almost every step of the way. And most of my horses. Actually have had an attunement.
So in fact, not most all of my have had an attunement and they've all been entrained to that frequency because animals also really Reiki and we're gonna do a whole podcast, animals and Reiki, if you wanna stay tuned. But tell me, Karen, where else can you use Reiki? Like you can use it with animals as well. And there are other
places I did before animal Reiki. I used it on animals, plants myself crystals, Love it. You can use it on like maybe not a specific person, but you can send it to a relationship. You can send it to. Wars yeah. Crises and crises. Yeah. And, people may say like, how is that different from meditation? They're actually doing studies where they show like just group, large groups of people meditating can shift things.
Yeah. And so when you have a lot of people sending Reiki to particular outcomes or situations, it makes a difference. Yeah, you can use it every, it becomes. And we're gonna talk about this in another podcast too, but like the different levels of Reiki, but when, you become a Reiki master it really, you Reiki everything. It just becomes like part of your life sent Reiki to the trip.
I just took you too, probably I'm sure to Sedona Reiki, the flies, Reiki, the airport, Reiki, the people on the plane, Reiki, the babies Reiki, the poor. Flight attendants who are dealing with all these people Reiki, the bathroom before you go in it, right? You Reiki everything, a
space to cleanse it and cleanse it, figure it out. Yeah. There are so many ways to use Reiki and it's, I guess it's just a way to bring that pure, positive, loving vibe into everything. So I guess why wouldn't we
use it in, the back, the birds, you can Reiki
your food and get,
yeah, absolutely water yeah, you can do, oh, Torson Lang did the London Reiki academy. I think it's maybe it's Reiki academy, london.com. I can't remember. But he did some studies. He took water to a lab or went to a lab in Switzerland where they, it was a controlled environment. And did a scientific study, I think. Am I frozen or are you frozen? I guess we're good. He, I can see you. Okay. He, but he you, can change the, water.
They, analyze the water and the Reiki water the, water that got Reiki for 10 minutes. It, changed the pH of the water. It's amazing.
Real did. And tell me something, you, you have been doing Reiki with your plants. Oh
yeah. So, I just had a birthday last month and my son and his girlfriend, because I kept sending him talks like look at this, I didn't, I wasn't trying to say, I would love to have this $300 machine, but that's what they got me for my birthday. It's called plant wave. And They, came to help me. I opened it and went oh, there are cords. But it's a, device that it's like a, like an EKG with you, you hook up to the plants and I was like, don't hurt it.
You can either clip, oh, you seriously, I clipped one on a plant and I was like, that's pinching take it off. But you connect it to the plant. With the they're like large sticky things with the connector. And then it turns the vibration of the plants. The, things, the water moving through, whatever it changes, the vibration of the plant, whatever the, plant is experiencing. It turns it into musical notes. And and of course my neighbor was doubting. She goes, oh, that's just like a music box.
That's not doing anything. And so we experimented and. We put 'em on different plants. And of course it sounds different, but the cool thing was I gave Reiki to the plant while it's hooked up and it changed the music and it changed with the different symbols. It was freaky. Yeah. It's yeah. So I'm, that has been my, delight, the last couple of weeks, it's can I listen to you? And that's from the plant and I'm like, okay, so yeah, hook it up.
And, then I give with the animal Reiki, I always feel like a pull. I don't know if you, I do, it's taken it. And then it'll either a lower note will come in or, and it's just measuring like what's happening in the plant. So this is my new fascination
that is fascinating. And as a scientist, that was one of the things I wanted to know is okay, where's the proof, where's the proof that this works and, so on. And so one of the things that I needed to do for my own self was do a lot of research and turns out there's a ton of research about Reiki and the validity of it. And in fact Reiki really when you really look at the basics of it, Einstein's principles Reiki really embodies a lot.
Of them and, a lot of, some of the higher level physics and metaphysics and so on. But one of the things that I really like to send people to is if you're curious about some of the science behind Reiki, are I C R T international center for Reiki training, you and I are both licensed teachers with the I C RT, which means we've done an additional thousand hours, probably I'd say more than a thousand hours of training in order to become licensed teachers. And the I C RT William Rand.
He also started another organization called the center for Reiki research.org. And I'll put a link to that in the podcast as well. And the center for Reiki research is just this fantastic group of scientists who and it's Coordinated by Ann bald, Dr. Ann Baldwin. And it's this group of scientists who have been gathering and peer reviewing some of the scientific research that's out there and also wrote a wonderful book, which I can link to called Reiki in clinical practice.
And and also the ICR or the center for Reiki research has started also doing some of their own research, but there really is a tremendous amount of science out there. That backs it up, which is probably one of the reasons that Reiki is offered in so many hospitals because that healing side effect of the OnIt may, or the enlightenment that we receive when we receive our Reiki attunement, that entrainment that we get that.
Is that healing has really been recognized and some of the scientific studies are around the healing. Some of them are around the energy itself. There's a, really, a wide variety. And so I would really encourage if you, if that's of interest to you, I won't talk, I know I'm a science nerd, so I won't talk a lot about it.
But if, you're also a science nerd, I'll put a few links and you can begin checking it out and, doing some of the research around Reiki because there is a tremendous amount of science to back it up. Karen I, can't think of anything else. We were talking about. How can it help people and what can it help with it's it would be a much shorter list of what it doesn't help with.
yeah,
I can't think of anything. No. Cuz it can really I've used Reiki to assist people. Who've got had terminal cancer diagnoses who are still around years later. I've used Reiki on B stings and, bug bites and flus and COVID and I've used Reiki to assist in when people or animals have been passing there is I, use it with the, trees. I always ask them if they want it. And if they do that and some trees are like, no good today. other trees do want it. And I used Reiki with animals, with the earth.
It's a wonderful way. I my husband asked me the other day, he said, if you were to think of one word to describe what Reiki is to you, what would it be? And I said, it's my superpower. And he said what do you mean? And I said, there's nothing. I never feel helpless anymore. There's always something I can do. I can always send Reiki. Any situation to any person, to anyone who's hurting to myself, if I'm hurting if something's going wonderful, I can send Reiki to just appreciate it fully.
And there's nothing now that things can be falling around, falling apart around me. And I can stay really steady in the middle of that and just send Reiki and know that the Reiki energy is going to facilitate it all working out. And even sometimes, life is falling apart around you. and I think of when my husband had a heart attack and it was probably the most relaxing heart attack in the history of heart attacks cause we he, said, I think there's something going on with my heart.
He we, had driven home from moving the children into university and he said I think I better stop at the hospital. And I said, okay. So he, we drove and parked and went in and, they asked what was going on. And he said there's something going on with my heart. And they said, okay it's probably nothing, but we'll just monitor you. And then they, monitored him and took the blood tests. And after about 45 minutes, they're running at him with blood thinners and or blood clot busters.
And, we had to take a hospital ride to a cardiac hos hospital with a cardiac unit. And, but the whole time I just we, drove up, I actually sent a little note. To all of the, I created a Reiki community. So anybody who studied Reiki with me we have our own private Facebook group, our own private community. And I just sent a note. They're the people I like to stay in touch with. And I just sent a note to them and said, Hey guys I we're have, we're having some sort of a hard event.
My husband's having some sort of a heart event. And a lot of them knew pier from having been at the house for classes that was before there were online classes and. Could you send Reiki. And the two of us were just sitting there talking about if this is a heart attack, like there are some changes we could make. Like maybe we should make some dietary changes. Maybe we should what would we, do about it? That was
most relaxing, hard attack. It was the most
relaxing heart attack. And then but we were completely we were laughing and smiling and, then they came at him with the clot busters and he got a little nervous for a few seconds, but I didn't cuz I kinda knew that it was happening and I just kept giving him Reiki. And then they, said, look, we've gotta take him by ambulance to St. John. And it there's no guarantee you can go with him because it depends on whether.
It's at the discretion of the ambulance driver, whether they want you to come with them or not. And they, and then they also said, and we're gonna call the person from our cardiac unit to go with you, but they probably won't. So it's probably gonna be one of our, nurses has to leave the emerge and this was all happening on labor day weekend, by the way, a long weekend. And it was about one in the morning. As, we were driving home from moving the kids into school.
and anyway I, just, I thought this is all gonna work out. I didn't really wanna be separated from him because by this point it was three in the morning. And we had been up since about six getting the kids packed, I taught my riding lessons and then we went down to the down to take them to college. And and I thought, oh, I don't know if I can stay awake to drive my truck for two hours. right now.
And they wanted my me to get somebody to come in and I thought it was three in the morning, but my sister was all set and the ambulance driver, but I also didn't wanna be separated from him. But the ambulance driver showed up and he said, and I messaged one friend and said, Hey, can you go look after the dog dogs? And she's such a good friend. She's yep. three in the morning. And got a hold of my sister. and the ambulance driver said, oh, I'd love the company. I'm a little tired myself.
It'll really be it all. Everything just fell into place. The way that it does with Reiki, there was never really any time to get stressed or upset. And his recovery was exceptional and just, everything. anyway, I guess there's nothing that you can't apply Reiki to well, Karen, just to give the listeners, maybe some of them are new to Reiki or maybe some of them have never had one of our holy fire Reiki experiences before I thought we might take them through an ocean of holy love experience.
Would you like to guide that? Or would you like me to yeah, the cat's quiet.
I think I can do it the
okay. That's
excellent. Unless he wakes up and starts howling, but it does just
you can you, you can tap. Yeah.
So the ocean of holy love experience we do this in Reiki class, but it does more in the Reiki class, but this is something that we do sometimes just to give people a sample and what it's going to be. A guided meditation at the beginning, but then I'll be quiet and let the Reiki energy come in. Huh?
For about five minutes. We'll
be quiet. Yeah. Yeah, Just a little bit like five minutes, we'll be quiet. Let you experience the energy and and that's it. So, go ahead and lie down if you can, or if you're in a chair, just sit back and take some deep
breaths and I'll just interrupt one more time just to say this is great feeling. This tends to relief. Oh yeah. Anything we no longer need. Doesn't
it forgot to tell you what it's for. Yeah. Yeah. So it's talking to each other it's, you're going experience this holy fire particular flavor of, Reiki energy. And I'm gonna take you to a beach and you may. Some people just stay on the beach. Some people go into the water, you may become aware of like flames and this, these aren't flames that burn you. These are just like purifying energy, energetic flames, spiritually purifying, energetic flames.
So just yeah, so just set the intention to relax and release, whatever you need to release and experience the divine love of Reiki, energy so take a couple of deep breaths and through your nose and out through your mouth, start at the top of your head and feel. Wave of relaxation. Move down from your crown down in your face. Pulling all the tension out of your face, moves down through your throat. Feel your throat opening up in the back of your neck.
Relax and let go release any tension you're holding in your shoulders and feel it move down through your arms, pulling all the tension out of your arms, into your hands and out through your fingertips, into the earth to be transformed. Take another deep breath. And as you exhale, feel all of the tension, leave your upper back your chest and feel any remaining tension in your torso.
Move down, through your hips, through your legs, out through the bottoms of your feet and just continue to breathe deeply. And slowly. I want you to imagine that it's a beautiful day, it's warm and sunny. And imagine you're walking down a path in a beautiful forest, how, and as you breathe into yourself, you breathe in the life, energy of the forest. And with each step you take. You feel the energy of the earth flowing up through the bottoms of your feet.
As you walk along, you notice that up ahead, it's getting lighter and you realize you're coming to the edge of the forest. As you walk out
of the forest,
you notice the path is getting Sandy and you hear the sound of the ocean. You walk out onto the beach. And you see the ocean before you. It's a wonderful day. And slowly you begin to walk along the beach. As you walk along, you notice a log has been washed up on the beach, creating a nice placed sit and lean back against the log. As you gaze out at the ocean, you realize that this is no ordinary ocean. It is the ocean of holy love. Listen to the sound of your breathing.
And imagine it is the sound of the waves washing up onto the beach, and then flowing back into the ocean. The ocean of holy love is guiding you now follow the guidance. You
can continue with your experience for as long as you
feel guided to do how and whenever you're ready, take a couple of deep breaths. Bring your awareness back to your eyes slowly, open your eyes and come back.
Thank you. Karen, the world always looks a little sharper and a little more in focus and a little brighter to me after spending time in Reiki meditation. And it's looking that way now. So thank you for that. And I also want to say thank you to you for, to the listener, those of you who showed up for our YouTube video or for our podcast. We're so grateful that you're here and we hope that our conversation today has helped you Namaste day.