A Q&A with Pamela Miles

Pamela Miles will be live in conversation on Wanderlust's Instagram account (@wanderlustfest) Wed October 7 at 2p PT / 5p ET with the head of neurosurgery, Dr. Erich Anderer to discuss the interplay between Reiki as a spiritual practice and conventional medicine.

Pamela Miles is a New York-based Reiki master who has studied yoga and meditation for over 50 years. In 1986 she learned the Reiki practice. She leads Reiki training courses, professional development for Reiki practitioners, and is currently considered the most prominent Reiki master who pioneered the use of Reiki practice in conventional medicine to alleviate the suffering of patients, families and staff.

In keeping with the times, Wanderlust conducted a socially distant interview with the Reiki master to find out more about the misunderstandings surrounding Reiki, the interplay between Reiki practice and so-called Western medicine and how our current pandemic lifestyle is changing our social interactions can and our use of touch.

Wanderlust: Sometimes it is interesting to define something by identifying what it is not, and especially in the case of Reiki, there seems to be a lot of misunderstanding about how Reiki works and what it is. First of all, can you tell us what Reiki is not?

Pamela Miles: Reiki is not the same for everyone, but the diversity in the global Reiki community is seldom recognized. The public has a reasonable expectation that all things "Reiki" are the same, but that is simply not the case. Those who are turned off may not realize that it is likely not Reiki, but the practitioner who does not suit them well. If people don't like massage therapists, they won't be turned off for massage. If they don't like a particular yoga class, people know enough to try another teacher. However, the public is not well informed about Reiki practice, so it is often assumed that one Reiki practitioner speaks for all Reiki practitioners.

Reiki is not standardized; there is no agreement on practicing or training Reiki. Here are some examples of how this works. Although Reiki has been practiced by light touch with non-touch sensitive options where touch was not possible since this Japanese practice began in the 1920s, many professionals these days never touch but hover or wave their hands over the recipient. In Japan, the Reiki master training was only intended for those who felt called to teach. Of more than 2000 students Mikao Usui, founder of the Reiki lineage, only trained 16 as Reiki masters. It is now quite common to claim the title of Reiki Master, and many who consider themselves Reiki Masters have less training and experience than my undergraduate students.

Reiki is not a thing; It is a spiritual practice.

Reiki is not an energy healing or energy medicine; Again, it is a spiritual practice. The difference is that energy medicine is about working towards a specific outcome. Acupuncture treatment, for example, consists of bringing about a certain change, such as the ascension of an ascending Liver Qi. Reiki practice does not aim for a result like medicine. Rather, it is a simple, passive, detached hand placement. All spiritual practice is healing, but the healing that comes with spiritual practice is a by-product of the practice experience and is not directed. People often speak of Reiki practice as if it were an aspirin and say, "I will practice Reiki to get rid of this headache." We are used to the traditional dose-response paradigm, but that doesn't happen in Reiki practice. Rather than targeting a symptom, the practice of Reiki encourages the system to find its unique balance. This balancing response can improve symptoms. In addition, self-healing is optimized when the system is balanced. While people are drawing a direct line between Reiki practice and symptom relief, that line actually goes through balance. If this process were better recognized, there would be less confusion about the safety and effectiveness of the Reiki practice and more realistic expectations.

WL: It may be more difficult to define what Reiki is. They were quoted in an excellent article in the Atlantic as saying, “When a Reiki practitioner puts his hands – mindfully and distantly – through an unknown mechanism, it evokes the healing response from the depths of the system. We really don't know why this is happening. "So is it fair to say that Reiki is a self-healing practice?

PM: Yes, that is exactly it – a practice that induces self-healing – and I would add the word spiritual: Reiki is a spiritually work out. I usually also say that the Reiki practice supports the general balance. And when the system is balanced, self-healing is optimized.

It is important to recognize Reiki as a spiritual practice. The information exchanged between the Reiki practitioner and the person receiving the treatment is spiritual. This is the first domino. Since spirituality is the realm of mystery, we do not know the details of this communication, but we can observe the reaction to the Reiki practice, such as simply feeling better or more relaxed, and we have some limited research on physiological changes in the direction of the Equilibrium.

"Spiritual Practice" is a bigger umbrella than "Healing Practice". So many people today are spiritually starved. You feel isolated, hopeless, and disempowered. Healing practices can help somewhat, but they don't necessarily evoke that profound self-healing response from the core of the system that is a spiritual response. After a Reiki session, people usually feel uplifted. Their overall state changes when they experience each other from their spiritual center.

WL: In terms of definitions, we recently came across your article which made a distinction between conventional, traditional and alternative healing methods. Why do you think it is important that people not blur these lines? What is at stake if people's understanding of traditional medicine is incorrect?

PM: It's less about blurring the lines and more about confusing the paradigms. Unless people are clear about the paradigms, they have no realistic expectations and who to turn to for help with specific issues.

Take surgery as an example. Even life-saving surgery is also traumatically capable of correcting the problem – perhaps replacing the heart – but the patient still has to recover from both the illness that led to the heart problem and the trauma of the traditional solution .

Conventional medicine is adept at surgery, but not at healing trauma. Most patients have to heal themselves. However, it is a medical fact that a traumatized person does not heal well. People usually feel safe and comfortable after receiving a Reiki treatment. Your nervous system regulates itself down due to the stress reaction and the self-healing mechanisms of your body are optimized without affecting conventional medical care.

Traditional medicine – medicine based on indigenous traditions rather than science – helps the body do what it does best – self-healing – and help the system return to a balanced state.

For those looking for a more detailed understanding of how effectively Reiki practice can improve your health care and help improve your medical outcomes, I recommend taking a look at my Reiki & Medicine Intensive Course.

Forces of nature within us are the true healers of diseases.

~ Hippocrates

WL: We are very happy to have an IG LIVE conversation between you and the head of neurosurgery on Wednesday, October 7th at 5 p.m. (CET). Erich Anderer, on the Wanderlust Instagram.

Many people are surprised to hear that someone as established in the conventional medical system as he is is an advocate of the practice of Reiki. Can you discuss the interaction between conventional medicine and Reiki practice in recent years: Is it more accepted by whom? Which parties are still skeptical about the Reiki practice? (i.e. insurance companies, hospitals, doctors, patients, media, etc.)

PM: The public and medicine are definitely more aware of Reiki practice than they were at the beginning of the first hospital Reiki program in the 1990s. Since then, many hospitals have implemented their own Reiki programs. Some of these programs – like Memorial Sloan Kettering, MD Anderson, Dana Farber / health, Yale / New Haven – seem to be stabilized in the hospital structure. But many more Reiki programs have come and gone with funding and staff changes.

Regarding skepticism – doctors are skeptical, period. That's part of the profile and what we want from them. Conventional doctors practice evidence-based medicine. If you don't know how to present the Reiki practice from an evidence-based perspective and you talk about it magically, the conversation won't go very far. But is the problem skepticism or a lack of common sense and strategy on the part of the Reiki practitioner?

And then there is our dysfunctional health system. Most hospital Reiki practice is offered by volunteers rather than paid professionals. Reiki practices are not reimbursed by the insurance company as there is no code for it. There is no code as there is no evidence. There is no evidence base as there is no government funding for Reiki research and no business incentive to invest in research. Remember, drug companies need to research their products in order to get FDA approval and bring drugs to market. Unfortunately, Reiki is best known as a treatment that must be received by a professional. Not many know that first degree Reiki practice can be easily learned and practiced by individuals and families.

WL: How has COVID-19 affected the way you teach and / or practice Reiki with your students and clients? Do you see a longer-term impact on individual well-being in social and emotional terms in the way this virus imposed fear of closeness and rules against touch?

PM: The pandemic has definitely affected the environment in which I teach. All of my trainings and practice sessions are now online. For example, I teach First degree Reiki live video conferencing in small groups. In response to the fear and isolation I knew was coming, I added twice a week in early March 2020 free self-practice lessons this is open to everyone, with or without prior Reiki training. From the very beginning – I started teaching in 1990 – I emphasized the importance of daily self-Reiki practice. That hasn't changed.

I try to involve my students in lifestyle medicine with daily Reiki practice as the basis of self care. While conventional medicine is trying to figure out a reaction to this novel virus, you are neither helpless nor relentlessly wanting to strengthen your immune system. Balance is key to wellness and immune literacy, and balance is a spiritual matter that is most effectively addressed through spiritual practice. If we want balance in our life, we must first experience inner balance. Otherwise we are just juggling, and that involves exertion and the fear that all the balls will fall on us at any moment.

Although the public still primarily thinks about medication rather than healthy lifestyles, the challenges of a novel pandemic appear to have increased public interest in self-sufficiency. Conventional medicine is arguably at the bottom of a novel pandemic because it is evidence-based and there is no evidence of a pathogen being seen for the first time. Conventional medicine, based on legally enforced professional guidelines and data, cannot spin like traditional medicine, as the focus is on strengthening the health of each individual and helping the patient overcome challenges.

Reiki is a spiritual practice that has the benefits of being accessible, simple, and helping people feel better quickly. Feeling better – a sense of relief – is important. When we feel better, biochemical changes take place in our bodies that translate into improved function on many levels, including immunity, as I have described in detail Reiki and your immune system.

I encourage my students to consider this: Take care of your state and your state will take care of everything else. Daily self-Reiki practice is an easy way to do this.

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Pamela Miles is an international spiritual teacher, Reiki master and integrative health advisor with five decades of spiritual practice. She is the leading medical Reiki pioneer introducing Reiki practice to conventional medicine, including health, Yale, and the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and publishes in peer-reviewed medical journals, including the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. She is the author of the award-winning book REIKI: A Comprehensive Guide. Her work has been featured on NBC, CBS, CNN, FOX, The Atlantic, US News & World Report, New York Magazine, Allure and Self.

Pamela's goal is to educate people about practical spirituality, empower the public to take better care of themselves for everyone's sake, and bring self-care back into health care. She is known for sharing spiritual insights with simple, straightforward elegance and preferring to keep searching for simple answers

Website | Instagram | Free Reiki Timer App from Pamela Miles