Should Reiki Really Be Considered Massage Therapy?

I don’t know about you, but when I go for a massage, I expect the massage therapist will use her hands, fingers and maybe even her elbows to loosen my stress-laden muscles. There is nothing more comfortable than a skilled pair of hands that helps to remove all the bad things from my body that cause me to become tense, anxious and, perhaps, a little uncomfortable to be around sometimes.

I still remember living a visit with a physiotherapist for a problem I had with a disc in my neck. The disc pinched a nerve that caused pain in my neck, back and arm. A particularly annoying area was near my shoulder above my shoulder blade. While I was sitting in a massage chair, the therapist used her elbow to dig right into the affected area with a force that caused some serious discomfort. But when I left that morning, the pain was almost gone. Now that was massage!

Recently I was introduced to the concept of Reiki. I read up on the various forms of massage therapy and, quite often, Reiki was mentioned as a therapeutic option rather than as part of the curriculum at a massage school. Further reading about Reiki caused me to request references to Reiki in the same context as massage. In fact, I began to wonder why Reiki was included at all in references to massage. And I'm not the only one.

Massage is generally defined as the manipulation of the soft tissues of the body for therapeutic purposes, healing or relaxation. I would think manipulation here is the operative word. Reiki's practice takes a very different approach. Like Shiatsu massage, Reiki ki or life force tries to balance energy in the body. The theory, according to ancient Oriental philosophy, is that when this energy is out of balance in the body, or is depleted, then an individual becomes susceptible to physical and emotional ailments. Reiki practitioners try to channel energy into their clients in a way that corrects imbalance and promotes healing.

However, due to the prescribed methods for practicing Reiki, no manipulation is involved. In fact, in some cases there is not even a current touch involved in Reiki treatments. That would certainly present a conflict between the generally accepted definition of massage and the practice of Reiki.

Reiki, as practiced today, was developed by Dr. Mikao Usui, a minister and principal of a Christian school in Japan. His disciples had asked him how Jesus healed. Usui did not have the answer, but was determined to discover how Jesus had healed the sick and raped. (I think because he was the Son of God did not qualify as an acceptable answer.)

Dr. Usui studied for years in Christian schools, Buddhist monasteries and temples. He found no answer to the healing question until he started with a 21 day fast. By the end of the fast, he apparently had a revelatory experience that showed him the methods he was seeking to understand. He then set out on a healing service. Finally, he shared his knowledge with Dr. Chujiro Hyashi, who, in turn, shared the knowledge with Mrs. Hawayo Takata who trained 22 Reiki Masters who then shared the knowledge with thousands of others.

In essence, Reiki transfers energy from the Reiki practitioner to the patient. In fact, Reiki teaches that the patient draws this energy from the practitioner, giving the patient an active role and ultimate responsibility for their own healing. The energy is then realigned and balanced and harmony is restored in the body.

Although it is not a religion, there is a lot of spirituality at work in Reiki. God as a universal life force is recognized and recognized as the source of all life energy. Although there are specific principles involved in Reiki, the actual methods are quite similar to the laying on of hands practiced by believers of many religious denominations. But laying on of hands is not exactly the same as the manipulation of soft tissue that needs to be defined as massage.

There are a few problems here. First, massage as a standalone practice, has difficulty being recognized by the medical establishment as a legitimate form of therapy and healing. Under the auspices of physical therapy, massage is easily accepted and practiced to restore muscle function and assist in the rehabilitation process. However, there is a perception among many that massage therapy is something of an application for mixed healing with touches of mainstream medicine, alternative medicine, holistic, health, New Age cultism, sexual conviction and mystical falsehood. The simple fact is that the manipulation of soft tissue has been proven and is accepted as a healing modality. It is the desire to include any healing that involves touch,

 or even the closeness of the hand to the body, under the head of massage that creates confusion and causes suspicion r questions about the motivation of practitioners is the fact that Dr. Usui, the founder of Reiki, determined that there must be an energy exchange between Reiki healer and Reiki patient to invest the patient in the healing process. This investment is monetary in most cases and is a core principle of Reiki.

Another problem with Reiki being considered a form of massage is that some states require that Reiki practitioners be licensed as massage therapists. Many Reiki practitioners dispute this categorization specifically because of the distinction between Reiki and massage as stated in the definitions presented earlier in this article.

So, Reiki has a bit of a schizophrenic personality. On the one hand, Reiki teaching courses are offered in many massage schools. On the other hand, many practitioners themselves do not consider themselves massage therapists. So, far be it from me to try and settle this dispute in one article. Reiki may or may not be a truly effective form of healing. All I know is that I still have difficulty categorizing Reiki as massage. I think there may be some manipulation of the definition of massage required to justify the inclusion of Reiki.