Reiki healing for children

[Celebration]

http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/body_and_soul/article3416496.ece

By the age of 4, Jake’s life was pretty stressful. His parents had broken up when he was 18 months old and he was spending half the week with his father and half with his mother, Kerry Geldart. He had never slept well, but now he was waking three or four times every night, calling anxiously for his mum.

“He was very nervy, but at times overly boisterous. He had a lot of insecurities due to a lack of a structured routine in terms of shared parenting,” says Geldart, 37, who at the time was a part-time finance manager living in Brighton.

They seemed stuck in a rut. But, when Jake broke his wrist after falling off a climbing frame at the park, Geldart’s friend Rifa Bhunnoo, a practitioner of reiki, which claims to direct healing energy via the hands, offered to treat him. “I had my doubts,” Geldart recalls. “Jake was asleep when Rifa arrived. She didn’t disturb him, but spent about 40 minutes placing her hands on his head, body and wrist cast. “When he awoke he was in the sunniest of moods. It was stunning.”

From that point on, she says, Jake no longer needed painkillers. Geldart had also noticed how calm and relaxed he had seemed after the session and it spurred her on to learn reiki so she could treat Jake at home.

“Reiki works by intention, through the desire of one person to ease the burdens of another, which is why a parent performing reiki on a child works so well,” claims Geldart. “As well as improving my own wellbeing by using it on myself to destress, relax and think clearly, I soon saw the positive effects it was having on Jake. I started using reiki at bedtime by placing a hand on his forehead,” she says. “He would tell me that he loved the warm feeling it gave him. More importantly, he began to sleep through the night, which was a huge relief and meant that we were both more energised. He also had an increased attention span and was much less boisterous.”

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

1. YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH! n/t

[Crunchy Frog]

2. .

:popcorn:

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

3. You might wish to cross post this

in the Astro/Alternative Healing group. You are more likely to get a discussion going there.

That being said, I've had some rather amazing results with energy work--had injured my knee in a fall, it was painful and swollen. A practitioner of a technique similar to Reiki used it on me--I could literally feel the fluid leaving my knee and saw the swelling go down and the pain stop.

Of course, I guess it could have been "all in my mind"--but if it was--how wonderful that the swelling subsided and the pain stopped!

The nicest thing was the practitioner didn't charge me a thing--just did it.

[Celebration]

4. recent discussion here re: hospitals offering reiki

I thought it was appropriate here particularly because of recent discussions about reiki now being offered at many hospitals, because of the popularity of the technique among patients.

There are lots of volunteer groups that offer reiki in my community. I know someone in treatment for cocaine addiction who regularly gets reiki, and it has really helped him deal effectively with stress.

[trotsky]

5. ha ha

“Reiki works by intention, through the desire of one person to ease the burdens of another, which is why a parent performing reiki on a child works so well,” claims Geldart.

And yet sham Reiki works just as "well" in the cases where it has been studied. No intentions, just the benefit of calmness and human touch.

[Celebration]

6. LOL sham reiki?

If sham reiki works just as well as reiki, then offer sham reiki. Works for me!!

[trotsky]

7. Yup, equally effective.

Or ineffective, as the case may be.

[Celebration]

8. it might depend on the condition

reiki worked better than sham reiki for mice stressed out by airplane noise--

http://uanews.org/node/17537

In her experiment, a control group of animals was housed in a small, quiet facility. A second group received Reiki while being exposed to 15 minutes of 90-decibel white noise daily (similar to the noise level of a low-flying aircraft). Two other groups received “sham” Reiki, where a student simply mimicked the physical movements of a Reiki practitioner, or were exposed to noise alone. The experiment continued for three weeks and was repeated twice.

In all three experiments, Reiki significantly reduced the size and number of microvascular leaks, compared with the animals in the other three groups.

[trotsky]

9. Well, you've got a study about mice.

I guess that tops everything!

LOL

I love the objective, scientific coverage of the study too.

It appears that the practice not only reduces stress, but balances the body’s energies. Self-practice of Reiki can cause blood flow in the fingertips to increase or decrease depending on whether the flow was low or high at the beginning of the session. While the mechanism for Reiki’s effects is yet to be determined, Baldwin suggests that practicing the technique changes the bio-electromagnetic field of the practitioner and that, in turn, impinges on the person receiving Reiki, changing his or her physiology and bringing the body in balance.

There is absolutely nothing in that paragraph supported by evidence, but it's reported as fact. Disturbing.

[Celebration]

10. too bad!!

So apparently this person continues to do studies, using sham reiki, too.

I do have to agree that giving mice reiki sounds a bit strange, but at least this was placebo controlled.

Of course, medical studies use mice all the time.

It would take a very special reiki practitioner to give reiki to mice.............

[BuelahWitch]

11. Unfortunately you'll never convince the DU "scientists"

that Reiki is anything more than a sham. Their minds are made up, locked and the key has been swallowed.
I agree though, Reiki can do some wonderful things! I've found that animals have a better reaction to it than humans, because they don't have carry so much baggage. :hi:

[trotsky]

12. Nice broadbrushing there.

I'm just waiting for evidence. So far, various studies have shown:

A) Reiki alleviates something better than "sham" reiki
B) the reverse
C) They're the same
D) They don't do anything

Get some consistent results, and a demonstrated mechanism, and you've got another believer! No need to insult people who want evidence.

[dropkickpa]

13. Especially considering that there are better methods

to evaluate stress in mice. They could get fecal cortisol readings (mice crap almost constantly). But, that type of real time-ish test would show the vastly increased stress levels in the mice from being handled. Mice do NOT like to be handled and it adversely affects their stress levels everytime it happens. The constant handling (and smell of the humans going from mouse to mouse) would be just as stressful as the noise.

Using mice in a human touch based study is a bit foolish. There are other animals much better suited to this type of study (dogs, cats). Animals with the ability to not only be unstressed by human touch and scent, but actually like them, would be better suited and easier to perform the "work" on. I suspect they were completely unable to justify the cost or validity necessary to be allowed to do this work on Act animals, though.