ABSTRACT
The contemporary healing practice Reiki, best known by performing the laying on of hands for achieving healing, is the focus of analysis in this chapter. As practiced in the West, the relationship that Reiki has with religion and spirituality indicates a classification of “new spirituality.” Categorized (also) as complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), as a practice of Eastern spirituality taken up by Westerners for apparently secular purposes, the focus on Reiki seemed to have shifted more towards body and less towards religion. From this categorical position, Reiki has been subjected to numerous trials for determining possible beneficial effects. Most, if not all, of these trials are designed as if the patients’ body is a black box; Reiki treatment goes in, and beneficial effect comes out. The authors shift the perspective of Reiki back towards religion, arguing that the active surrender to both an internal and external authority by practitioner and client is overlooked, and with that, the relation with religion or at least religiosity is missed. The authors argue that healing through Reiki involves a transformation of a message into meaning expressed as efficacy for the recipient’s body, mind, and spirit. This transformation constitutes religious aspects and occupies the core of Reiki practice. Through an interdisciplinary approach, qualitative research focuses on the body and is understood to be a mediating agent in the transformation of message into embodied knowledge wherein surrender is a crucial element of Reiki practice.
