ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book provides the first academic study of energetic healing and Reiki in central Scotland, with the focus of the author's research being on the teaching of energetic healing in workshops and related textual material. It explores how gendered spiritualities may be actively constructed. The book also introduces healing and curing models of health. It adopts Meredith McGuire's analytical framework of healing types. The book locates the narrative of women's power and consciousness of healing into the debates between male dominated biomedical approaches to health and the apparently egalitarian holistic approaches to the same. It engages with representations of 'the body as energetic' at the micro 'in the field' level and is primarily descriptive. The book focuses specifically on the healing practices and discourses of Reiki, this healing modality growing significantly in popularity in a worldwide context.
