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How Important is Intuition in Reiki Practice?

© Reverend Dina Ely

The question that forms the title of this article is one to which there is no real answer. Like many concepts in the practice of Reiki, it is very much subjective.

Some Masters will teach you that learning how to use your intuition to "diagnose" is vital to the success of the healing. Others will tell you that Reiki is an intelligent energy and needs no direction by you to reach its target.

Some Masters will teach you that the attunement to Reiki will immediately heighten your intuition. Others will say that it takes tremendous practice to develop your intuition for use with Reiki. In some strict traditions, you need to prove that you have the skill to focus your intuition on your target and identify areas of imbalance and illness, before you are even permitted to continue your studies.

My personal feeling is that my intuition has been greatly strengthened in my Reiki practice. The more I perform Reiki the keener my abilities to understand what's afflicting my targets become. For example, I was approached to perform distance Reiki on a horse that was ill. I was given no information about his affliction. I connected to him for a session and immediately had a sharp, throbbing headache develop. When I broke the connection it ceased. The next morning I asked the owner what ailed the horse and she told me it was a tumour in his ear that threatened the adjacent eye (and his life). I took that as a sign that my Reiki connection was strong, since my head ached, thereby symbolising the tumour.

Another example is more recent. A very nice man contacted me regarding a mass he had in his bladder and was going to have surgically removed. He asked for some Reiki to aid in the healing process. I connected to him via distance and performed Reiki upon him. Almost immediately I had a burning sensation in my bladder, similar to sistitis. It persisted until I broke contact, and then it disappeared.

If my body responds to my target, I listen. Even if what I'm feeling turns out to be wrong, it's better to be safe than sorry. So if I am practicing Reiki on someone and suddenly have tremendous pain in my chest, I will first make sure there's nothing wrong with me. Once I've determined that I'm not in physical distress, I will ascertain that the effect is my intuition telling me something about my target's physical condition. It's tricky to decide whether or not to tell my target--if I tell him or her, and it turns out there's nothing wrong (if he/she visits his/her physician for advice), I could have risked putting him/her through undue mental anguish. And we Reiki practitioners are NOT medical doctors (unless you also hold an MD), so we need to be careful in diagnosing anything. On the other hand, if I do not tell him or her, and he/she ends up having a real problem, I'd have to deal with the fact that I didn't speak up. Tough all around. So when faced with a situation like this I will usually intend for the Reiki to flow to the area that my body is mimicing, and spend some extra time focusing on that part of my target's body. I have faith that the Reiki will do what it has to do. Should I ever (God forbid) have a client who seems to be really sick, confirmed by my own body's reaction through my intuition, I would not hesitate to refer him or her to his or her physician immediately!