What Is Reiki? The Complete Guide

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Reiki is a Japanese practice in which the person accompanying you rests their hands gently on or just above your body to support the flow of vital energy and a deep state of calm. It is not massage, not medicine, and it replaces no treatment. It is a complementary practice: gentle and non-invasive.

This guide is the doorway to everything else: what the word means, what happens in a session, where it comes from, how it is taught, and — something almost nobody states plainly — what the research actually shows.

I write from the treatment room. I have spent years accompanying people in Medellín and in Santa Elena, and I would rather tell you what I see than promise you what I cannot.

What does the word "Reiki" mean?

The word is made of two Japanese terms. Rei points to divine love, to universal energy, to what holds life without our having to hold it. Ki is the vital energy that animates every living being — what China calls chi and India calls prana.

So Reiki does not mean "cure". It means something closer to vital energy guided by universal love.

That distinction matters. It is the difference between a technique you apply and a presence you offer.

In practice, Reiki is a system: a history, a set of living principles, levels of study, symbols, and a specific way of being passed from teacher to student. This guide opens each of those doors.

What actually happens in a Reiki session?

You lie down fully clothed on a treatment table. No oils, no creams, no pressure on the body. I cover you with a blanket if you are cold, dim the light, and we begin.

During the session the practitioner channels divine love to the person through the laying on of hands. If we understand that it is God who heals, the Reiki Master acts as a channel: he helps that loving energy reach the one receiving it. There is nothing you need to do, believe, or force.

The hands move through a sequence of positions — head, torso, back, legs — resting in each one. At times they hover a few centimetres above the body without touching.

A session usually lasts 45 to 60 minutes. Many people describe warmth in the practitioner's hands, a soft tingling, a pleasant heaviness in the legs. Others feel nothing in particular and simply get up rested. Both are fine.

What almost everyone shares is this: it is the first time in weeks they have stayed still for a full hour doing nothing.

Sessions can be given in English. The full description of how we work is on the Sananda Reiki therapy page.

How is Reiki explained?

Here I have to be honest in two directions at once.

The traditional explanation says a vital energy circulates through the body, and that when it stalls or weakens, a person feels drained, tense, disconnected. Reiki adds nothing foreign: it accompanies that circulation and reminds the body of its own self-healing capacity.

The research explanation is different. There is no scientific evidence for the energy field that tradition describes. What we can point to are plausible mechanisms of another kind: the relaxation response, slowed breathing, attentive human contact, the simple fact of someone holding space for you without asking anything in return.

I work with both. My spiritual experience tells me one thing; honesty obliges me to tell you the other. You do not need to give up your judgement to receive a session.

This deserves its own article: how Reiki works — vital energy and the channel.

Where does Reiki come from?

The system is attributed to Mikao Usui (1865–1926), a Japanese man who, according to tradition, arrived at this understanding after fasting and meditating on Mount Kurama, near Kyoto.

Usui founded an association to transmit his method, the Usui Reiki Ryōhō Gakkai. His student Chūjirō Hayashi, a naval physician, systematised the hand positions. And Hawayo Takata, a Japanese-American woman from Hawai'i, brought Reiki to the West in the mid-twentieth century.

Much of this account comes from oral tradition rather than verified documentation. I tell it as it is told, marking where the record ends and the transmission begins.

The full story is in the history of Reiki and Mikao Usui.

The five principles: the part of Reiki practised without hands

Usui left five precepts, the Gokai, each beginning with the same phrase: "Just for today."

Just for today, do not be angry. Just for today, do not worry. Be grateful. Work with dedication. Be kind to others.

These are not motivational slogans. They are daily training. "Just for today" is a unit of time a person can actually hold.

In my experience this is the part of Reiki that changes the most and is practised the least. You can receive a hundred sessions; if your relationship with anger and fear does not change, the change does not hold.

I take them one by one in the five Reiki principles and how to live them.

How Reiki is learned: levels, symbols and teachers

Reiki is not learned by reading. It is transmitted through an initiation — reiju in Japanese, "attunement" in the West — offered by a teacher to a student.

The traditional training has three degrees:

Japanese degree	Western name	Main focus
Shoden (初伝)	Level One	Self-treatment and first contact with the energy
Okuden (奥伝)	Level Two	Symbols, treating others, distance work
Shinpiden (神秘伝)	Master level	Transmission, initiations, teaching

The symbols appear at Okuden: Cho Ku Rei, Sei He Ki and Hon Sha Ze Sho Nen; and at Shinpiden, Dai Ko Myo. They are not amulets or magic passwords, but focal points of intention that come alive inside a relationship of transmission.

Three articles go deeper:

Read that last one before paying for any course or session. Reiki is not a regulated profession in Colombia, and knowing what to ask is your protection.

Japanese Reiki and Western Reiki are not the same

When Reiki travelled west, it changed. Hand positions were standardised, the language of chakras was folded in — that comes from Indian traditions, not from Japan — and certificates and per-level pricing were formalised. The Japanese schools that stayed close to the source kept other things: gasshō meditation, the hand-scanning practice called byōsen, and hatsurei-hō as a daily discipline.

Neither form is false. They are branches of the same tree grown in different climates. I compare them in Japanese vs Western Reiki.

What does the science say about Reiki?

This is the section people ask for most and write with the least rigour.

The US National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH) is clear: Reiki has not been clearly shown to be effective for any health-related purpose, and it has not been shown to have harmful effects.

The Cochrane review by Joyce and Herbison (2015) on Reiki for anxiety and depression found only three randomised trials, with roughly 62 participants in total. Its conclusion: there is insufficient evidence to say whether Reiki helps in those conditions.

A meta-analysis by Liu and colleagues (2025, Systematic Reviews 14:72) pooled 11 trials and 661 participants. It found a small but statistically significant improvement in quality of life (SMD = 0.28; 95% CI 0.01–0.56), with high heterogeneity (I² = 65.1%). The best subgroup results came with eight or more sessions of sixty minutes or longer.

The honest summary: the evidence does not support the claim that Reiki cures disease, nor the existence of the energy field it postulates; there is limited-quality evidence of small improvements in quality of life, relaxation and the perception of pain and anxiety; and there is broad agreement that it is a safe practice as long as it does not replace medical treatment.

Saying this does not cost me clients. It costs me the wrong expectations, which is a different thing.

What Reiki can and cannot do

Reiki can	Reiki cannot
Support a deep state of calm	Cure, treat or reverse an illness
Accompany stress, grief or exhaustion	Replace psychotherapy or medical care
Offer listening and presence	Diagnose anything
Hold someone through a treatment	Justify stopping medication
Help you inhabit your body again	Guarantee an outcome

If someone promises you the right-hand column, walk away calmly. However many diplomas are on the wall.

Receiving Reiki in Medellín and Santa Elena

I work in two very different places, and it changes the session.

In Medellín, people arrive with the city still on them. The traffic, the five o'clock meeting, the phone buzzing in a pocket. The first hand positions are almost always landing work: you wait for the body to understand it no longer has to run. I have seen people fall asleep within ten minutes and wake up apologising, as though resting were a fault.

Santa Elena is another matter. It is a cloud-forest township above the city, and the forest does the work before I do. From the body to the forest, from the forest to the soul.

I also offer distance sessions, including for expatriates and remote workers in El Poblado, Laureles and Envigado who prefer English.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need to believe in anything to receive Reiki? No. You are not asked to adopt any religion or belief. I work from a Christian-mystical view and say so plainly, but I never impose it. Your free will and your belief system are fully respected. Many people arrive sceptical, lie down, breathe and rest. That is enough.

Does Reiki hurt, or have side effects? It does not hurt. It is non-invasive: you stay fully clothed and the contact is light or absent. Some people feel tired or unusually emotional afterwards; others sleep better that night. No harmful effects are known. If anything feels uncomfortable, say so and we adjust it.

How many sessions do I need? It depends on what you bring. A single session can give you an hour of real quiet. For a sustained process, a short series is usual — and the studies with the best results were those with eight or more sessions. I prefer agreeing on a defined number and reviewing it, rather than selling an open-ended package.

Can I receive Reiki while under medical treatment or on medication? Yes — and that is exactly why this needs saying plainly: Reiki accompanies, it does not replace. Do not stop any medication or treatment. Tell your treating professional you are adding a complementary relaxation therapy. When someone raises the idea of dropping a treatment, my answer is always the same: that conversation belongs with your doctor.

Does distance Reiki work the same way? Many describe sensations very similar to an in-person session. Tradition holds that the energy does not depend on physical distance; the evidence side has no solid studies confirming it. I offer it with that same honesty.

If you have read this far, you were probably not looking for a definition. You were looking to know whether this is for you.

Write to me on WhatsApp at +57 314 811 7561 and tell me briefly what brings you. I answer personally, and if I think what you need is something else, I will say so.

You can also read who is behind Sananda Reiki or write from here.

Your body knows how to heal. It only needs you to remind it of the way.

Namaste.

Disclaimer

This article is for educational purposes and does not replace diagnosis, treatment or follow-up by a healthcare professional. Reiki is a complementary practice: it accompanies, it does not substitute. If you are under medical or psychological care, continue it and talk to your treating professional before adding any complementary therapy.