Thursday, August 14, 2008
Touch of energy
Practitioners of Reiki say the technique can promote healing, relieve pain and reduce stress.
Lydia Levano of Rocky Mount receives her hands-on treatment from Reiki practitioner Samuel Strauss.
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It's a Thursday evening at the Franklin County Public Library and there's something different going on inside the children's storytelling room.
Some healing energy is about to flow.
Various brightly colored snakes, lemurs, butterflies and swinging monkeys watch from a mural on the wall as a group of Reiki practitioners start to do their thing.
"There's nothing better than kids' energy for healing and smiling," Reiki master Samuel Strauss says. Strauss has tanned skin and a dark, short ponytail and is a man who believes in hugs instead of handshakes.
Strauss, 64, is the founder of the Loving Touch Center in Callaway, which he says is the only local Reiki center. Originally from the Bronx, N.Y., Strauss has started various Reiki centers in the different places he has lived.
He has been practicing Reiki for 20 years and offering free sessions at the library for the past six years at 6 p.m. on the first and third Thursdays of the month.
Clad in a purple T-shirt and black pants, he begins to describe Reiki as coming from two Japanese words "rei" meaning spiritually guided and "ki" meaning universal life force energy.
Reiki works to holistically heal people on mental, physical, emotional and spiritual levels. The practice, according to those who use it, can promote healing, relieve pain, reduce stress and increase energy and vitality.
Practitioners use a very light touch unlike massage and can also do it a few inches away from the skin. They place their hands over different parts of the body to concentrate energy in those areas, and Reiki flows to wherever it's needed most, practitioners say.
The practice can be used on anything living, including pets and plants. For example, Strauss uses it on his horse and two large dogs.
"As far as I teach, Reiki has no limits," Strauss says.
Reiki started more than 2,500 years ago in Tibet, but was basically lost for ages until being rediscovered by a Japanese Christian monk named Master Mikao Usui in the mid-19th century. During the mid-1970s it grew in popularity.
Strauss and his fellow practitioners this night in Franklin County -- Billy and Judy Thompson -- act as a channel for Reiki energy to flow to others.
"We can pretty much guarantee that people under our hands will feel calmer and more relaxed, but we don't guarantee healing because that's up to them," Strauss says.
Strauss says it is often hard to describe Reiki because it is a deeply personal experience. Some people will feel warmth or "hot" energy, and others may feel nothing at all, he says.
Strauss begins this Thursday session with a meditation involving a "pink puffy cloud full of love." The cloud transports the attendees to a beach where they then submerge themselves in water. As the attendees meditate, a CD with the sound of waves and chirping seagulls fills the room.
After the meditation, Strauss and his two fellow Reiki practitioners begin by rubbing their hands together before placing them over people's heads.
They spend a few minutes concentrating energy on their forehead, neck, shoulders, throat, chest, back, right hand and arm, right hip, right calf and right ankle. They then repeat the same process on the left side.
Cindy Powers, a woman who decided to try Reiki this night, said she had seen an ad in the newspaper about the sessions and had wanted to try it for a while. She enjoys different relaxation techniques, such as acupuncture, meditation and tai chi, but had never tried Reiki before.
Powers said she bribed two of her friends with dinner to try Reiki with her.
As the Reiki practitioner moved his hands, she said she felt a hot flush near her heart where she has a heart condition and pulsations in her hands where she has arthritis.
After the session, Powers said, "I felt it all to be very relaxing."
