The Beginning of the End of Reiki Attunements?

An empirical study

Background

Reiki attunements open doors to allow people to channel Reiki through their hands. It is seen as an essential part of the Reiki training with Reiki Masters being the only people able to carry out attunements. Traditionally attunements are done in-person but in the past decade a growing number of Reiki Masters also offer attunements virtually. The traditional wisdom is that people must be attuned by a Reiki Master who is trained to follow a specific process in order to "unlock" the Reiki flow through an attunees hands.

Hypothesis

Millions of attunements have been carried out over Reiki’s 100 year history, it is estimated there are over 5 million Reiki practitioners worldwide. The hypothesis is that the morphic field of information around Reiki has grown exponentially over this 100 year period. It is postulated that at some point a “tipping point” will be reached whereby the information on how to receive Reiki and channel it through your hands will become readily available to all.

This experiment explores whether this tipping point has been reached. The participants all have knowledge on how to attune to Reiki, they are all Master attuned.

Method

8 Reiki Master/Level 3 participants able to carry out a traditional Reiki attunement gathered via zoom on 15th May 2022. Participants split into 4 groups of 2. Each Pair took turns to attune each other via distance attunements. Those attuning chose a random order of attuning, either:

1. Traditionally, setting up the attunee image on a chair and carrying out the attunements with all the ritual, symbols and physical attributes.

2. Via intention only, remaining seated infront of the computer and not using symbols or any other ritual tools. Simply intending the attunement to take place.

The experiment took place with a 3 minute timer to signal the end of one attunement and the beginning of the second one so there would be no timing bias. The attunee did not know which attunement was being carried out in what order. Results were recorded and then the type of the attunement revealed.

Result feedback

Attunee A

1. A lot of energy on my crown, tingling on my finger tips, very gentle energy *

2. Much stronger, more pressure on my third eye and my hands are burning

Attunee B

1. I felt this one stronger, a heat explosion *

2. Second one not so much, some tingling in my fingers but could be because of the first attunement.

Attunee C

1. A lot around the crown coming in really strong *

2. Second one very peaceful, almost similar sensations

Attunee D

1. A lot of pressure on my third eye and heart throughout the whole three minutes

2. Very similar feeling around the third eye but shorter, then sensations disappeared and came back right at the end of the time, so two bursts of it *

Attunee E

1. Throat chakra and third eye, tingling around the head towards the end *

2. Stronger, in my hands, throat and third eye, a lot of heat in my hands

Attunee F

1. Very gentle, relaxing the jaw, all pervading *

2. Stronger, clearing stuff in my chest

Attunee G

1. Increased energy

2. Felt more intense in my heart space *

Attunee H

1. Heat in front of my from throat to heart, hands tingling *

2. Tingling moved to the face and stayed throughout the time

*After feedback was recorded, the Attuner revealed this was the traditionally carried out attunement.

Self-attuning via Intention only

In the second part of the experiment all 8 participants spent 3 minutes intending to receive an attunement. Participants were told to refrain from thinking about the attunement process, the ritual or any Reiki symbols. The instruction was to “ask for a Reiki attunement” and then remain open to any sensations felt in the body.

Result feedback:

Attunee A – feels a lot like when I give myself an attunement, clear rinse of my heart chakra like something was clearing

Attunee B – increases heart rate like when I start a Reiki attunement and over my tips of my hands – but more consistent that my usual attunement

Attunee C – very calm and peaceful, hands buzzing so much so I removed them from my body and onto the bed to see if it was Reiki going into my body, but my hands kept buzzing

Attunee D – normally when I do the self-attunement I get a certain feeling but this time I got the identical sensation I got when I got attuned just now – the third eye and heart centre, I noticed when my intention was strong it was very strong but it eased off when my intention waned

Attunee E – Felt like it happened before it started, a wave of energy went through me and then it felt during the 3 minutes like I was receiving reiki, more gentle and not so obvious

Attunee F – amazing, had a complete energy all around me, I asked for my deepest healing, just crying, moving and beautiful, opens up everything, you can just walk around thinking about Reiki

Attunee G – felt like me, this is how I would normally do it

Attunee H – I made the intention statement and the tingling started happening immediately on my head and hands, feels like someone is giving Reiki to me

Conclusions

Out of the 8 participants all felt sensations for both the traditional attunement and the intention of an attunement. 50% felt slightly more sensations during the traditional ritual and inclusion of symbols, but 50% felt stronger sensations when the attuner simply intended the attunement to take place.

All 8 participants reported they experienced a familiar attunement or Reiki sensation when intending for a Reiki self-attunement with no other tools, symbols or techniques.

Limitations

All participants are Master attuned and so are arguably already immersed and familiar with the morphic fields of Reiki, the attunement process, and the symbols. The next step for this experiment is to trial the same process on attunees with no Reiki experience.

My thoughts

This opens up so many avenues for exploration and the results exceeded my own expectations. From the hypothesis of the tipping point, it would seem not only has a tipping point been reached, but surpassed. The possibility of releasing the ritual of attunement and symbols opens up a huge potential for Reiki. Many segments of the population who find the Reiki attunement and/or symbols a barrier to learning Reiki may now consider it. Reiki may have the potential to be taught without any attunements or symbols, with the Reiki teacher bringing more focus on intention and guiding students towards self-empowerment.

More experimentation is required with non-Reiki participants, but this signals a huge evolutionary step for Reiki and our teaching of it.

How you can experiment

I encourage you to experiment for yourself. The simplest method is to try the intention for yourself to receive a Reiki attunement and sit for a few minutes and see what happens.

Secondly start experimenting with willing participants in shares, healing sessions and even classroom settings.

For example if you run a Reiki share you could invite participants to try the intention method and ask for a Reiki attunement, get some feedback to see if people feel anything.

During a Reiki session you could invite your clients to intend to receive a Reiki attunement during the session and see if they can feel anything in their own hands.

How you can view your role

If you are a Reiki teacher or Reiki healer and wondering what all this means for you and your livelihood, I encourage you to expand your vision. When you began your Reiki journey you didn't only need your teacher for the attunements, you also relied on their wisdom, their experience and their guidance - none of this changes and if anything it will expand as more people begin to play with Reiki for their own healing.

If you have been restricted by class size because you have been doing attunements in-person, imagine the potential when everyone is doing their own attunements! You could be teaching class sizes of infinite numbers, online or in-person.

Expand your vision into a world when many many more people have access to Reiki. What will be your role in that world? How will you help to guide others on their Reiki journey?Reiki is ultimately a self-healing modality so it makes perfect evolutionary sense that it is taking this next leap in its development. People use Reiki for self-healing, and it is obvious that they should also gain the power to switch on that journey all on their own too. After all, it's what Usui did 100 years ago.

How amazing that 100 years on we have now evolved the system of Reiki sufficiently that we no longer have to sit and meditate on a sacred mountain for 21 days in order to access this incredible gift. This evolution is because of all of us who have been attuning, using Reiki, passing Reiki on, and expanding the morphic field.

Our work is not done, it is simply taking a huge evolutionary leap forwards. Its very exciting times!