ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the ethnographic study of Reiki and energetic healing in the British context. It argues that if we are to build up an accurate and comprehensive picture of healing thought and practice we must locate gender, representation and power as central elements throughout. The chapter proposes that the narrative of women's power and consciousness of healing can be located into the debates between largely male dominated biomedical approaches to health and the apparently more egalitarian holistic discourses and practices. It also argues that discourses of power and authority are multivalent operating within academic, religious, bio-medical and holistic healing circles and at the individual level. The chapter discusses that the term 'New Age' is problematic as Sutcliffe states, it would be misleading to accept the hegemonic view that the 'New Age' is a 'homogeneous entity' or that it should be assigned 'to a homogeneous cultural epoch or astrological era'.
