The Reiki Dojo

Few of us have been unaffected by the death of Queen Elizabeth this month. Like others it had resonances for me having lost my own mother a year ago, so I felt for her family. Although I hadn’t been listening to the news, I had an intuition about the Queen’s imminent death.  I listened with interest to the many people tributes to her years of service, which I wrote about in an article earlier this year (you can read it here if you missed it). 

So now we have King Charles III, who I am pleased to say knows about Reiki!  It was reported in an article in The Times (24 April 2005) that the future King Charles received Reiki to help with the stress of his forthcoming wedding and persuaded Camilla to have a session too.  I hope he has been receiving more in the current difficult time.

I also happen to know that he received Reiki long before that, because when I learned 2^nd degree Reiki in 1989, we were asked to choose a famous person to send Reiki to. Normally it’s important to ask people for their permission before sending, but the understanding was that this was for practice and people in the public eye have so much negative energy sent towards them there would be no harm in sending some positive energy. The person we chose was Prince Charles.

A few years later, in 1993, the Prince created the Prince's Foundation for Integrated Health. This organisation supported various complementary therapies to explore self-regulation, including Reiki. The Reiki Regulatory Working Group (RRWG), which I attended on behalf of The Reiki Association, brought together representatives of various Reiki disciplines for the first time to explore ways that Reiki could contribute to the emerging world of integrated medicine. RRWG representatives (including me) were the main participants in developing the National Occupational Standards (NOS) for Reiki. The Foundation closed in 2010, but not before it had established the Complementary and Natural Healthcare Council (CNHC). The NOS were revised to support the work of this new organisation (I was also at those meetings!). 

Meanwhile the RRWG became Reiki Council which continues to work to support Reiki practitioners working with the public and liaises with CNHC. 

Work on the Reiki NOS and the broader complementary therapies NOS had the benefit of bringing together people who would not otherwise have met. Working together towards a common goal, a great deal of mutual understanding was achieved. It was also observed by someone outside the Reiki community that RRWG was one of the most harmonious in dealing with our differences, compared to other therapies!

The existence of Reiki Council and the NOS for Reiki enabled CNHC to open a register for Reiki, which now has over 300 registrants, a couple of whom are students who completed my practitioner course! CNHC is now an accredited register, which means that NHS doctors can make referrals to listed practitioners.

King Charles has continued to be involved with supporting the use of complementary therapies alongside conventional medicine, including being patron of the College of Medicine and Integrated Health. In May this year he met with members of the new Integrated Medicine Alliance, which aims to bring together a range of organisations “for the purpose of encouraging and optimising the best use of complementary therapies alongside conventional healthcare for the benefit of all”.  Reiki Council is to join this Alliance.

I'm grateful for the role King Charles III has played in supporting Reiki to become more publicly recognised.  Now that he is king, I’m not sure how much Charles can continue to have influence in this field, but I am certainly pleased to have a king who knows about the benefits of Reiki!