Reiki Studies - What the Scientific Community Has To Say?

On this page I will introduce the results of my investigation of Reiki studies in the scientific community.

I am truly a believer in Reiki healing power and in energy or faith healing for this matter. In fact, I am very passionate about it, for I have witnessed many results that some may call miraculous. Yet, I remain human, trying to analyze and critic everything all the time. At times, I doubt myself, my healing abilities, and the effects of spiritual healing in general. To help my self and others to better understand how Reiki and other Spiritual healing influence our health, I decided to dive into medical scientific reiki research articles. Here, I will report the result of my Reiki studies quest. I will update it often, so bookmark this page and come back for more on Reiki studies. Based on my Reiki studies research, I also compile a page on effects of reiki as understood by a scientific community.

Using Reiki to relief pain and quality of life in advanced cancer patients

The authors write that the effective management of cancer pain is a common problem because high doses of opioids are often cause multiple side effects, which are themselves difficult to manage.

The participants were broken in two groups. One of the group received pain medication plus rest and another received pain medication plus a Reiki treatment performed by a second degree Reiki practitioner.

Initially, the researches started with a group of 100 participants. The first trial was dropped however, partially because of the group that was supposed to receive medications and rest increasingly demanded Reiki treatment. (Good for them!) As a result, Reiki is now offered by volunteers, free of charge, on the inpatient palliative unit that was the primary recruitment site for this study.

And so the second trial began with 24 advanced cancer patients broken in two groups. Measures of pain were obtained immediately before and after the Reiki treatment and showed a highly significant improvement in pain control following the Reiki treatment.

In addition, blood pressure, heart rate, and respirations were obtained before and after each treatment/rest period. The purpose of including the blood pressure, pulse, and respiration measures in this trial was to provide some additional evidence, over and above a placebo effect, for the benefit of Reiki. The researches reasoned that if pain perception truly declined following the Reiki treatment, they should also see drops in respiration, heart rate, and blood pressure. On Day 1, the drop in diastolic blood pressure and heart rate was significant and a non-significant decline in the systolic blood pressure was noted.

Patients report that the effect of a Reiki treatment lasts approximately 2–3 days.

This study raises the importance of studying the influence of touch in pain management. Many authors have described the use of touch as a source of comfort for ill individuals. Because the research assistant deliberately did not touch patients during the rest intervention, some of the benefit seen in the experimental arm may have been due to the touch associated with the Reiki treatment. Would any kind of gentle soothing touch have yielded similar results?

This study lends support to the hypothesis that Reiki, when used in conjunction with standard opioid pain management strategies, relieves pain and improves quality of life.

A phase II trial of reiki for the management of pain in advanced cancer patients Karin Olson, RN, PhD, John Hanson, MSc, Mary Michaud, RN http://www.jpsmjournal.com/article/PIIS0885392403003348/fulltext