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Reiki denounced by US council of Catholic bishops
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The Committee on Doctrine, of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has issued a document called
"Guidelines for Evaluating Reiki as an Alternative Therapy"
As a Roman Catholic, myself, and a Reiki Master/Teacher I was quite disturbed when I first read the document, Upon reflection, prayer, and meditation about the issue it became really quite interesting to me, rather than a cause for upset.
The first interesting thing I found was that Reiki must be seen as an awful threat to the Catholic church. And I find that a very sad thing. For such a gentle, beautiful practice as Reiki to be viewed as a threat to anyone, or anything is really quite sad. So my heart goes out to my religion of birth. The Reiki Master in me reaches out to all of the church members who are now in conflict and wishes that only the "highest healing" take place.
The document is very stern and makes a number of assertions that I believe are flawed. The very premise of the document is flawed, in my opinion. It states,
“The Church recognizes two kinds of healing: healing by divine grace and healing that
utilizes the powers of nature…Reiki practitioners claim that their training
allows one to channel the "universal life energy" that is present in all things. This "universal life energy," however, is unknown to natural science. As the presence of such energy has not been
observed by means of natural science, the justification for these therapies necessarily must come
from something other than science."
This is where the document runs afoul. Reiki is recognized as one of several " bio-field energy" therapies by the American Holistic Nursing Association. Reiki is one of the modalities recognized by the National Institutes for Health Center for Complimentary and Alternative Medicine. Reiki is most certainly recognized by the scientific community as a very effective modality and has been studied extensively. Yes, there has been a lot of debate on this subject very recently, and debate is always a good and healthy way to arrive at the truth of any matter. It is a well known fact that the instrumentation for measuring all " bio-field energy" is a developing field and continues to advance, as does all medical research. Debate and research will continue and those who need scientific evidence will be satisfied over time that Reiki is a legitimate natural healing modality.
Reiki is a very real part of natural healing, it is NOT religious in nature.
I believe that we have a very large population in the United States, and elsewhere, that feel either left out, or disenfranchised by their religions of birth and many have added some elements to the practice of Reiki that augment the natural healing process of Reiki to fill their spiritual needs. Perhaps the Catholic Church should get back to "tending it's flock" and leave science to the scientists.
Please add your comments to this page and pass this along to anyone that you feel would want to engage in the debate.
Namaste,
JoAnne Robinson
PS - You can also add your comments to my blog at: http://newsinalthealth.blogspot.com/
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