Reiki and healing without money as a motive?

Rachel writes:

I stumbled upon your site regarding the discussion of Reiki. I was drawn to Reiki after recently receiving a healing session from a Reiki Master and have since wished to learn Reiki so that I may help others, as well as myself. The Reiki Masters I have been able to locate all charge a fee or a minimum ‘standardized’ fee for the type or style of Reiki being taught. It is not that I am stingy, but it is because I agree wholeheartedly with your perspective, my desire to learn Reiki is not for profit. How can one locate a Reiki master who would be willing to teach without the influence of money? Is there a Master you could recommend? If I sought the teachings from a Master whose motivations are partly impure, would it affect the purity of my practice in some way when the time comes for me to heal others?

Good question. First off: no, I don’t know reiki masters who don’t charge money. My advice would be to choose your teacher not just on how much they charge, but also on other factors. But as for money: if they make exceptions for people who don’t have money, the main moral issue is mitigated. It is clear that these people have to live too. Also: in old times it was quite natural for spiritual teachers to be taken care of by their students – today that translates into money (as far as you can afford obviously). Which means that when you come as a student instead of a patient, you have a duty to help them in their upkeep.

The main other issues would be the effectiveness of their healing. And the question of to what extent they include moral teachings in their healing practice.

It may be that you have to choose: either learn reiki and practice according to your own standards, but learning from people who perhaps don’t fully live up to them – or not learn reiki at all. We all have to purify the energies that come to us, and in this case that is likely to mean that you will be learning reiki from people whose energy isn’t as pure as you might like. But since we all have a direct access-point to the purest energy anyhow, you can clean things up.

On the other hand – if your intuition says it’s too high a price to pay, you may have to go this the hard way: meditate on this like the original founder of reiki did. Perhaps, like him, you will find a workaround. There is an old spiritual tradition that those who have purified their aura, because they have purified their thoughts, emotions and actions, will be able to heal. Jiddu Krishnamurti was one of the more recent examples of this. Jesus Christ is the main Christian example, obviously.

I can not tell you whether that route is one that will bring this desired fruit in this life. The tradition is also clear on something else: those who desire fruit of any kind from their spiritual effort are less likely to succeed. In other words: help people as best you can where life has put you.

This isn’t to say that learning to heal is in itself a problem. No purely motivated action should be condemned in my opinion. There is enough negativity around. Anyhow, Col. Olcott, one of the founders of the Theosophical Society healed thousands of people – having learned the art of healing in the tradition of Mesmer.

A modern alternative would be to get in touch with the Therapeutic Touch tradition, started by clairvoyant Dora Kunz. As she was a theosophist, this tradition does not make charging money a central point in their practice (as does seem the case with Reiki sometimes). Also it is available to both health care professional (usually nurses) and lay people alike. Which means the atmosphere will be a professional one. This is a plus in my book.

I want to close off with this though: please make sure you don’t force yourself on people. Some reiki and therapeutic touch practitioners become so infatuated with their ability to help others, they forget that the person in question is ultimately responsible for their own path. They may not want the help you offer. Leave them be. Please.

The annoyance of dealing with overzealous helper types (type 2 in the enneagram) can be quite stressful, and doesn’t help in the healing process. There are some who think illness is in many cases a working out of karma. They would rather just deal with it now instead of later. Others realize the tremendous learning potential present in being ill. Or they trust their bodies enough to feel they can handle it themselves, with the help of modern medicine (I belong to the latter category).

Don’t let this stop you in seeking the ability to heal. I think my advice is clear. Don’t become a reiki healer. Learn therapeutic touch instead.