There is a well-known story told of Mrs. Takata’s (the Japanese-American woman who brought Reiki to the United States) experience of a Reiki session at Hayashi’s Clinic in Japan. During the session she was so amazed by the warmth coming from the practitioners’ hands that she started searching for the source of the warmth in their sleeves. The practitioners were amused by her searching and went on to explain about Reiki and the warmth she was experiencing. Indeed the warmth coming from a practitioner’s hands is one of the “signs” of Reiki and one of its famous attributes.
One of my classmates in my Reiki 1 Class with Libby Barnett at Kripalu in 2001, was a Registered Nurse. She spent a lot of time holding people’s hands before and during stressful procedures and she hoped that Reiki would provide her with warm hands. I remember Libby saying that maybe it would help, though, maybe it wouldn’t. It was all dependent on her experience. By the end of class, my classmate reported that her hands were warmer, but only while offering Reiki.
I have had many experiences of this sensation as well. As a recipient of Reiki, I have felt the practitioner’s hands as intensely warm and filled with energy. As a practitioner, I have been told many times, “Your hands are so warm!”
Last year, at the Wellness House, a client was sitting on the Reiki table after a session and commented on how warm my hands are. I couldn’t help but smile at her and reached out my hands so she could feel them. She was startled to find them quite cold! I explained to her that my hands were physically cold, but that she was experiencing the warmth of Reiki.
Indeed, sometimes my hands are physically warm during Reiki in addition to the sensation of warmth from the Reiki energy itself. This is another area of the unknown in Reiki. Where does that sensation of warmth come from? The answer is that it comes from a non-physical realm. This can be puzzling to talk about, however, when one experiences Reiki the mind is quieted and one understands the warmth on a deeper level.
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