Healing Hands (Part 1)

Holistic therapies have long been used to help in the world of healing. They can be used to help with both physical and emotional issues, from chronic pain to anxiety and stress.

The first time I ever experienced any kind of treatment other than spa massage was when my mum started to study Reiki. Naturally, I became one of her willing guinea pigs whilst she mastered her craft.

My mum, Chris, has always had a real spiritual side. Growing up she encouraged my interest in ghosts. There were books on witchcraft, yoga and meditation on the bookshelf. We also shared a number of supernatural experiences as a family... more to come on this later...

So when, once retired from her power suit wearing, business woman role, she announced that she was going to study reiki, none of us were really surprised. She is now a fully qualified reiki Master and runs her own reiki practice from home. Here she tells us about how she started up...

My Reiki Journey - So Far

written by Chris Daniels, Reiki Master.

''There is a saying in the reiki community that you don't find reiki, reiki finds you and in my case that is exactly what happened.

I retired at the end of January 2015 and at the top of my new to do list, with the pressure of working for a living removed, was to explore all things spiritual. I have always been a spiritual person in a rather passive way and as I had already experienced a number of strange (but interesting) incidents. I was excited to finally have the time to properly explore the things that truly intrigued me.

February 2015 was spent enjoying a celebratory retirement holiday on a cruise ship in South America and by early March I had returned home tanned, relaxed, very happy and ready to start my explorations.

Initially, I started with regular trips to my local spiritualist church, which fortunately for me is a seven minute walk from my front door! I have much to share on that front too, but for now I will stick to the topic in hand! Over the next few weeks, I kept coming across the word reiki... it seemed to pop up everywhere, which was strange because I had never heard of it up until that point. So I did what we all do now, I Googled it! I read about it and watched a couple of YouTube videos where healing sessions were being performed by very normal looking people. I confess to thinking 'That's ridiculous! How can you heal someone by waving your hands around above a person's body?' (Bear in mind that I had spent 39 years working in IT where everything is based on logic, and where all problems can be solved with a defined process and cleverly constructed system of computer programmes) Then a few days later, during a chat with a very close friend, unprompted by me, she mentioned that she had recently tried a couple of reiki sessions... This stopped me dead in my tracks and left me feeling that I was being sent some kind of signal that I should not ignore! Coincidence at its finest and most curious.

At this point, I already knew that I was about to start off down a new path and that I would do the training required, despite not knowing what that was, but I realised that it would be prudent to book a session for myself so that I knew what clients might experience.

It's now May 2015 and I have arrived in good time for my appointment at the local beauty salon where I was to have my first experience of reiki. Sarah (my now reiki master) introduced herself and took me into one of the treatment rooms, which was modern, clean, comfortable and kitted out with a massage table and blankets. She checked that I was not wearing a watch, I wasn't so we were ready to get started. I climbed onto the table and covered myself with the blanket provided.

Sarah then explained that sometimes she would actually touch me and sometimes work with my spirit body, which can be two or three feet above my physical body. In addition I should not be alarmed if I hear any flicking or clapping noises as she brushes my energy around or flicks it away where she felt she needed to. All very perculiar, but Sarah was very credible; she had given me a warm welcome, a beautiful smile and had (correction has) a gentle and caring manner. She wasn't dressed in long flowing robes with flowers in her hair, but neatly presented with her blonde hair caught up in a pony tail, smart grey beautician type top, smart black trousers and flat black but stylish patent shoes.

As I settled myself on the table, she suggested that I invite my spirit guides to help with my healing session. This caught me by surprise, but unfazed I mentally did as I was requested and asked my guides to assist.

Sarah positioned herself behind by head and put her hands over my forehead. My eyes are closed and almost immediately, my right eye is looking as what looks like a close up of a kitchen sieve, I can see shades of grey as you would if you looked at it very closely. (If you look at an image of an insect's compound eye that also gives some kind of indication of what I could see.) At the same time I lose control of both my eyes and they start to flit from side to side as if searching for something. The sieve then morphs into seeing violet with both eyes (they are still closed). The violet moves across my eyes in a gentle current at 45 degrees and slowly turns to a band of deep pink and then a narrow band of yellow. A bit like a rainbow but with uneven widths and poorly defined wavy lines between each colour. Looking at the vivid colours makes me want to keep my eyes closed for as long as possible so that I don't miss anything, but eventually Sarah lets go of my head and the colours stop.

Over the space of an hour she moves down and around my body, sometimes touching and sometimes hovering above my body with her hands. At times she too has her eyes closed (I confess to taking the occasional peek!).

At the end of the session Sarah asks that I thank my spirit guides for their healing and nips off to get me a glass of water. Only then do I register that there has been incense burning and some gentle music playing in the background. The hour that my phone tells me has passed by actually just felt like a couple of minutes. I am left feeling calm and peaceful.

On her return she asked what I experienced. I told her about the colours that I had seen, and she shared the fact that she too saw a lot of purple and feels like I have a lot of spiritual energy that is bursting to get out! 'So do I have any spirit guides then?' I ask. She replies 'Oh yes, lots of them, in particular there is a male spirit who is mischievous - nothing negative or bad, just mischievous.' I wonder who it might be and consider lost loved ones to check if anyone mentally fits the bill, but I already have someone else in mind.

I then tell her about an incident we experienced at home several years ago following a trip to see a demonstration of mediumship at a local town hall. I recount my own story of how the medium had come to Alex (my then 15 year old daughter who was with me). He shared information, some of which we could relate to and then he came to me saying that he had a 'boy child' with him. I did not understand who this was and said so to the medium. At this point in recounting my story, Sarah gasped, put her hand to her mouth and nodded her head. I went on with my story, explaining that a couple of days after the demonstration my other daughter, Caroline, was home from university and I asked her if Alex had shared details of our outing with her. She said not, so as we were eating dinner I explained what had happened. As soon as I got to the phrase 'boy child' Caroline's body threw back in her chair, her face changing through various shades of white, purple and green, clutching at her throat and saying she couldn't breathe. I jumped from my chair and held her shoulders telling her not to panic and that she was OK. Although I truly believed this, I was also aware of a strong smell of fish that had appeared from nowhere. Caroline gasped 'Stop! Don't tell me anymore! I don't want to know!' So I sat down and we all continued to eat dinner, although the atmosphere was definitely tense and a little fearful. After a couple of minutes, when everyone seemed to have calmed down, I asked Caroline whether I should carry on telling her what had happened. 'Well, OK.' she said. So I picked up.. 'So, the boy child..' and immediately the same thing happened again.

I continued to explain to Sarah that we were aware that before we lived in our house a young boy had died there from substance sniffing and we were not sure whether we were adding two and two together and making five. As I was saying this Sarah, still with her hand to her mouth, looks across to her left and then says 'He consents'. She then went on to say that the mischievous spirit she had mentioned was a teenage boy who had taken his own life.

At this point we both had goosebumps and I decided that there was definitely more to be explored, both with the reiki and the connection to all things spiritual!"

To be continued....