Reiki is not pseudoscience

Recently, I was navigating to my website using my iPhone’s Safari browser and as I typed the URL a Google search result came up showing the Wikipedia entry for Reiki. It stated that Reiki is “a form of pseudoscientific alternative medicine.” I was so surprised by this statement and have resolved to assist in the editing of it. When I do so, I will be sure to remove the term, “pseudoscience.”

The reason for this is that Reiki is not pseudoscience. In order for it to be pseudoscience, it would have to be based on the scientific method and clearly it is not. As Pamela Miles says so well:  Reiki is a spiritual healing practice. I love science and I love Reiki, but they are separate things. I can believe in both and that does not degrade one or the other. Reiki works in the same way that other lifestyle changes work that bring about relaxation, that decrease pain, and improve one’s mood.

As Reiki practitioners, it’s important that we remember, and that we’re clear in our communications, that Reiki is not science. It is not based on the scientific method and yet we know through our experiences and those of our clients that it works and it facilitates the natural healing abilities of the mind, body, and spirit.

How do you talk about Reiki to your friends, family, colleagues, and clients? Are there explanations that you find more effective than others? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Here are some helpful articles that continue this discussion:

4 Replies to “Reiki is not pseudoscience”

  1. I abandoned reiki after taking a philosophy of science class and learning about psuedoscience. But lately I realized that this practice has nothing to do with trying to falsify or prove things about reality, It is a practice based on belief and experience, it is an art. I have reinstated myself as a reiki artist, even as a scientist. We need the concept of healing in our lives, the concept of eternity, the concept of power. Reiki is a conduit for these concepts, the problem of proving our beliefs is not an aspect of our practice.
    We need a New new Age.

    1. Thanks so much for your comment, Dale. I completely agree that we need the concepts of healing and eternity in our lives — and a new New Age!

  2. Entirely, as an ADHD reiki master I feel it is important to sternly address such obvious dis-information. Reiki has never ever presented itself as a science nor neither do we seek validation through controlled laboratory experiments… There is also the absolutely undisputible fact that the entirety of the practice is open to scrutiny by the scientific method, and most pilot studies concluded that MORE RESEARCH IS REQUIRED! Studies which control variables and produce results in favour of reiki’s efficacy merely needed follow up studies to confirm, one studie sets the ground, if the results can be reproduced only then can we conclude.. We are in 2019, the literature is far different and many meaningful studies have been conducted since the turn of the century.. A persons attempt to dismiss an idea they do not like with absolute disinformation shows us how fickle and afraid the self-centred ideological construct actually is. Weather we canaccept it, or weather we cannot, the nature of reality remains far broader than any concept man can impose upon it, and includes many phenomena we clearly have not even scrathed the surface of, never mind comprehended. In short, wikipedia and all the angry skeptics can continue with their emotionally charged perspective, the real investigation is continuously being conducted by those of us in the world who actually exist as real entities, not as theoretical speculates. We will continue to deliver to any and all who do not choose to live inside a mental box, a pathway to remembrance of the actual universal reality, and that is the end of that 😉

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