My
Reiki Experience
Two years ago I met Mari Hall and it was then that I experienced
Reiki for the first time, through her hands. My life hasn't been
the same since. At that time I was writing a series of articles
on mind/body/spirit subjects for a women's magazine in Belgium,
where I live. It was a subject I had specialized in somewhat.
In my personal life, I had already experienced the positive effect
of 'energy work', doing hatha yoga, bioenergetics and having the
occasional acupuncture treatment. To be honest, I thought that
I knew what there was to be known. Energy wise.
I wanted to do an interview with a Reiki Master for my magazine,
but was a bit confused because I couldn't find anything in writing
that was concrete enough to base my questions on. Moreover I didn't
know who to do an interview with, because the whole area seemed
to be surrounded by such vagueness.
Then a friend of mine in London sent me Mari's book: Practical
Reiki. I found the book practical and not vague or airy-fairy
at all. Unfortunately, it seemed unlikely that an interview would
happen. Mari was travelling, I heard. Then all of a sudden it
looked as if it was coming together after all. Two days later
I was to meet Mari on her birthday, in The Netherlands, where
she was staying with friends. It was just across the border and
an hour's driving from my hometown.
When I spoke to Mari, her warmth and communication skills struck
me. There was something else about her as well, but I couldn't
put my finger on what it was. A year later I realized that she
shared this special ' vibe' with her colleagues/Masters in Prague,
where I attended her Reiki I and II seminar.
After we had done the interview that day in Holland, Mari suggested
giving me a Reiki treatment. As we were not alone, she treated
me in the living room on the couch. I was sitting up and we chatted
a bit. She touched my plexus with her right hand and my crown
with her left hand. We sat there for twenty minutes. Nothing spectacular
happened. I felt relaxed.
The photographer who had taken pictures and I went back to Antwerp.
When we drove into town, something funny started to happen. It
was as if I saw all the familiar sights for the very first time,
with other eyes. It was like when you travel to another country
and you experience one of these rare moments when you enjoy the
view of a beautiful town or landscape in a heightened manner.
This had happened to me maybe once or twice before, but not that
intense. I hardly recognized the town I had fled from so many
times over the last couple of years, because I found life dull,
petty and almost unbearable there. My eyes seem to be cleansed,
at that moment, and moreover it felt as if it meant something.
But a bit more was to follow that same day. Jean, that is the
photographer, and I went to have something to eat in a cafe. As
we sat there, waiting for our spaghetti, Jean talked, whereas
I was quiet. I just sat there, watching some people at other tables,
as I often do.
And then another thing happened. I saw the couple sitting opposite
on the right and all of a sudden I had 'a knowing' of what the
'theme' was at that point in their lives. I 'knew' that the man,
who was in his early thirties, was very, very depressed and literally
fed up with his life, and that his wife or girlfriend, who sat
next to him, pretended not to know but knew all too well. Then
I looked at another couple and messages about these people came
through also. This woman was sad as well and felt unloved. I felt
in awe and experienced compassion for the pain of these people.
I know how pretentious my account may sound, but blame it on Reiki.
I never had had experiences like that before and haven't had similar
once since, so I'm not more psychic than most of us. Only now,
two years later, I realize the sadness of these people was my
own at the time. That is, as well, because I 'received' any details
about their lives that didn't correspond by any means to events
in my own. So something out of the ordinary must have been going
on that day.
But maybe more important is its significance for me: one is part
of the suffering of all. And that was a lesson I apparently had
to learn. My first Reiki experience (which lasted twenty minutes,
remember) had other consequences as well. The following weeks
and months I coped better with work, people and situations. Rather
spectacular was that my sleep was restored. I had been waking
up at four, four thirty, five every night for a couple of years.
This has stopped since. I mean for good, just like that. In the
meanwhile, I have learned to Reiki myself and I sleep even better.
I enjoy 'the sleep of a baby' now, as Mari calls it.
I didn't see Mari for over a year. During that time I often thought:
'I should go to Czech or the Greek isle Skyros to follow one of
her seminars... ' In the autumn, I started to think about it more
and more. My personal life hadn't been too brilliant for a while
and I had the intuitive conviction that Reiki would be a tremendous
help, more so than hatha yoga, meditation or therapy, three things
I had quite a bit of experience with. I had this recurring idea:
'Somehow I must do this...' and then I got an email from Mari!
She invited me to come over to Prague and do a story on her Reiki
I and II seminars that she would be teaching there. It would be
an introduction for my readership to the initiations in general
and more particularly to the courses she would be teaching later
on in The Netherlands. (Mari had received 250 reactions from people
there and in Belgium as a result of my interview with her in my
magazine!) I was very glad, but I was almost certain my editor
wouldn't let me go to Prague to do a story about someone who already
had been in the magazine. To my surprise she reacted enthusiastically
to the idea that I would do a story on the Reiki I and II initiations.
When I was to leave for Prague, everything that could go wrong
did go wrong. First, my passport had expired and officials in
my town said it would take a week (too long) to get a renewal.
Funnily enough that did come together in time, contrary to all
bureaucratic rules. Then, I would be too late in Prague to attend
the beginning of the seminar, because there were fewer affordable
planes during the weekend and I would leave a day later. But also
that problem vanished, thanks to a smart but unexpected move on
part of the lady of the travel agency my publishing firm worked
with. My plane got delayed in Vienna because of snowstorm. But
I did get to Prague in time, on that Friday evening. It struck
me the whole thing was like a nice story full of suspense. When
I met Mari around midnight, it was a like coming home and seeing
a family member again after a long absence. Elisabeth, the photographer,
who was there with me, wasn't particularly interested in Reiki
or other spiritual systems. Hence, throughout the weekend and
also later, she insisted the whole experience and everything surrounding
it was unusual and special to her as well.
It's not up to me to describe the seminar in detail. I will confine
myself to one thing that was significant to me personally. After
having gotten the Reiki II initiation, Mari worked with us on
sending the energy to a situation in the past that had caused
us pain. First we were to visualize it vividly and in as much
detail as possible. Then we were to view it again a second time,
but this time distancing ourselves from it.
Doing this I suddenly realized something that was fundamental
to me. Years of psycho-analysis hadn't given me the insight that
now came to me... Someone had hurt me as a child very deeply,
verbally. Now, on a Sunday afternoon in Prague, decades later,
I realized this person had been expressing her own lack of self-esteem.
Her devastating words had been mere projection. It had nothing
to do with me whatsoever!
The relief and compassion I felt were immense. This realization
struck me as lightning. The healing took place then, at that moment.
I had no idea that Reiki would be so powerful, unambiguous and
simple. And that it could affect every aspect of your life and
personality in a positive manner, as I found out later.
On the Monday after the weekend seminar Elisabeth and I stayed
one more day in Prague. When we walked through town, it was as
if I saw and experienced things as a much younger person, enjoying
it as kids do. It was as if the city and its sights and buildings
hid a mystery.
Did that feel have to do with Prague? Of course, travelling to
magical places has that effect on us. But it wasn't only Prague.
During the weeks that followed I found that, when you Reiki yourself,
you can live any ordinary days more intensely, vividly and innocently.
And in itself that is a reason enough to do Reiki: life becomes
more beautiful, like a gift and you feel grateful for that.
Helen Lampo is a writer for Flair magazine in the Benelux region
of Europe
leen.lampo@skynet.be
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