One of my students has been having a lot of questions, and has been doing huge amount of research to try to answer those questions. A lot of what she has been finding has contradicted other things she has found. She came down to questions about attunements and hand positions. Those questions she asked me, and I responded with the following...
Ok, here’s my take on it all.
First off, everyone teaches something different. The hand positions are always different, the attunement is done differently, different things are taught in each level. There are many ‘experts’ in the field, and they all tend to disagree (which makes one wonder what an expert is). One of the biggest complaints is that there is no standardization through the field. William Rand is credited for creating Karuna Reiki which is something beyond the original Reiki taught by Usui. Diane Stein is the so-called ‘Rebel of Reiki’ as she was the one that broke things out so that the knowledge is freer (not secretive), and you aren’t paying as much for the knowledge as you could be. At the same time, there are too many cases where she seems to hold the party line, and in doing so seems to contradict herself.
One of the biggest fallacies is that the teacher gives you the ability to do Reiki. They do this by attuning the student before doing anything else. This is specifically why I don’t do that. You were doing Reiki long before you were attuned. The attunement process helps you better to align to the energies, but does not give you the ability. (I have heard of attuning a subject before working on them so they better accept the energies, though I don’t agree with this method.) You had the ability before you walked in the door. I just showed you how to use it.
You see, I have heard that Diane Stein tells you that you can’t do Reiki without being attuned. At the same time, she said that she was doing hands on healing, and a friend of hers identified it as Reiki. Now, you can’t have it both ways. I was doing Reiki long before I was ever attuned. I found the energies based on a description that a friend of mine gave me over the phone (she was a Reiki level 2 at the time). When we got together months after that, she identified the energies I was channeling as Reiki. When I took my first Reiki class, it was taught by one of Kay’s students as the class had actually been cancelled. She went with a group of us back the massage school we came from and taught us how to do Reiki. She did not attune us, as she was not capable. I was doing very powerful Reiki then.
As far as the number of symbols go, that differs from teacher to teacher. I was given two symbols for Reiki 1, and that is what I pass on. While answering this e-mail, I rescanned Diane’s ‘Essential Reiki’. I don’t see where she gives any attunements until Reiki 2. She claims that the two symbols I gave you, along with the distance symbol are level two symbols. She also seems to teach similar information in her Reiki 1 class as I do, but changes for Reiki 2, and does very little for Reiki 3. But the book does not specify any symbols for Reiki 1. I find that extremely interesting. She also does not seem to do any more symbols then I do. Of course, we are looking at different books. Diane claims that the symbols in her book are the traditional Reiki symbols (and if that is so, where did all the other ones come from). The only difference is the Raku, which is the master’s symbol. She claims that Takata did not teach this.
You have done far more research than I ever did in taking the classes I did from Kay. I basically accepted what I was taught. You keep questioning, which is a good thing. You are forcing me to do more research and learn more as I try to explain things to you, and this is a good thing too. I have seen a lot of what others do, and have become comfortable with what I was taught and teach. It is what I do when I practice as well, at least until I am directed to do something else. I have occasionally looked at Rand’s site, as well as others, and found that everyone has a different philosophy about teaching and doing. Some charge for healing and teaching. Some only charge for teaching only, as they would like everyone to be trained so they can heal themselves (yet they do healing for free). As I usually say when I teach, I show you the hand positions I was shown when I took classes, but nothing is set in stone (we’re back to the 2 + 2 = 5 for large values of 2). I’d like you to do the positions I showed you for now, but if at some time in the future, if something different is more comfortable to you, I expect you will make that change for your ‘routine’. I also expect that when you teach, that is what you will pass down to your students. My friend, Lisa, who introduced me to Reiki, told me that she has been in a class where no hand positions were taught. One just simply places their hands on the subject, and lets the Reiki do what it needs to. Interesting concept huh? And it makes perfect sense when you figure that the Reiki goes where it needs to go anyway. Of course, the students feel more comfortable with hand positions, as they feel a sense of guidance rather than just sitting in one place for the entire session.
As far as attunement experiences go, I prefer not to do a lot of discussion afterwards, and there are several reasons for this. First off, what one feels, or doesn’t feel is a personal experience. I have had students tell me of the wondrous colors that they saw. Others have told me about scenes that came to them. One even saw God blessing them with this new ability. Others have seen… nothing. This is normal too. When I first got attuned, I felt and saw nothing. Oh, I could feel some energies, but not the dramatic fireworks that Diane Stein would have you believe you have to see.
Earlier this year, someone told me some things that caused me to doubt a lot of what I had been doing. In truth, she was trying to knock me down, and make me think that I was doing everything wrong. (That person is no longer my friend.) I took months, and examined everything I do, and believe. I made some small changes, but basically, I felt that the training I had been given, and the methods to which I had been guided to were indeed correct. As part of this, I asked a friend (also a student of Kay’s) to re-attune me. This time, I did see colors, and felt very powerful energies. When she did the symbols on my hands, I could feel the connection made to the symbols that had been drawn on the top of my head.
Now, what was the difference? Was my friend a more powerful healer than my teacher? No. Was she better at doing attunements? No. Did the attunements I originally got fail? No. Was I different? Yes! Over the past seven years, I have grown. When I came to Reiki, I had been able to feel and manipulate energies. But I was not open enough to see and feel the energies of attunement even though I was quite gifted.
When people come to Reiki, they have different abilities in energy even if they are not aware of energies at all. Because of that, some will see fireworks, and some will see nothing. Just because you didn’t have a moving emotional and spiritual moment, doesn’t mean that the attunement didn’t work, because it did. I don’t want people talking about their experiences after attunement because I know some will feel magic, and others won’t. And I know that the ones that felt nothing will start to wonder if it worked on them, and they will then have doubts about their ability to do Reiki. And, this is by far, the worst thing that could happen to a new student, to have them doubt whether they learned the information, and truly have the ability. I have not seen any one leave my classes that was not doing Reiki at a good level. I had one student that couldn’t feel the energy he was channeling, and doubted that he was actually doing it. It just so happens that his practice partner was a Reiki master, who told my student that he was channeling the energies very strongly.
Years ago, I took someone through a meditation where I described an apple. I wanted them to experience this apple. It was a 10 minute meditation. When I had been led through this, I could smell and taste the apple. After we were done, I found that the person I was taking through the meditation didn’t like apples. The whole session was blown on that one point. Kay once told of a meditation to a group where one of the students exclaimed that they could see and feel certain things (and this was during the meditation). At that moment, the entire class was lost as no one else saw the things that this one person saw, and because of that, they didn’t think they were going where they needed to be. The same is very true for Reiki attunements. What everyone sees and feels is individual to each of them. The attunement always works. I just would rather the more open people not confuse those that weren’t by making them think that they missed the boat (so to speak).
I hope this long-winded response answers your questions to your satisfaction. If not, don’t hesitate to call me and ask more. And, thank you for making me reopen a couple more books.