Several weeks ago, a link was posted by someone who runs a page on Facebook and it showed up in my newsfeed. It caught my attention because the headline read: County Aims to Restrict Reiki Practitioners. Being a Reiki Master Teacher and Energy Healer myself, I immediately wanted to know what the article was about. I’m not going to delve into what the article was about so if you’re interested in reading the article, click the link above.
The first thing that happened for me after I read the article was this sense of righteous indignation. They’re taking away MY rights to practice Reiki just so they can attempt to curb the criminals???!!! HOW DARE THEY! I recognized my ego yelling loudly so I took a deep breath and began making inquiries. I wanted to find out how I could get involved in the process, how I could help, how I could serve.
I’ve been in the healing industry for quite some time so I have seen lots of drama around licensing and regulation of the healing arts. I’ve heard the outrage as Healers, who are here to serve the public, get all their panties wadded up because someone with a criminal mindset parades around in disguise as a healer. I’ve watched the battle of the massage therapists to legitimize massage. I’ve watched it, but I haven’t felt drawn into the fray.
However, with energy work, I was drawn in.
I didn’t know, when I began the inquiry what was going to evolve. I’ll share with you, from my personal Facebook page, some of what I experienced yesterday in my first meeting with Salt Lake County…
At 11:45am, just after the meeting:
Wow… I had no idea how bad it was. I really have been living in a bubble of gentleness, by choice. But, my friends, we need stand together and make a change. All you soul-based energy healers and Reiki Masters and Practitioners, there are changes that NEED to happen and we need our voices to be heard. Who is willing to stand with me and set a course for healing work that is supportive to legitimate healers AND the public we serve?
Later last night, after I started to get settled into the understanding of what I had begun weeks ago:
I’ve been asked by several people behind the scenes through PM and email and phone calls about how the meeting went this morning with the County. Here is what I have so far…
It was AMAZING! I had no idea how “bad” things are here in Utah. I am actually sick about the things I learned today.
I felt so empowered to be sitting there, by myself, in this meeting that *I* had called, surrounded by big wigs – bigger than I realized I had called into the space. I was there because *I* am the only Reiki Master who has voiced a concern. I was the first person to say to the government, “HEY! I’m a certified Reiki Master Teacher and this proposal just isn’t right.” I was the first person to say, “Can’t there be another way?” This wasn’t a general public meeting or hearing. This was me with the people who have the power to make a difference. I was in complete awe!
I got to listen to them. I got to hear WHY they are doing what they’re trying to do. I got to hear in their voices their frustration and fear for the community and their inability to do anything about these “Reiki Parlors” because there is no legislation in place to give them power to shut them down. I got to be witness to their concern and their compassion and their HUGE willingness to support ME as an energy healer. I got to see their HUGE respect for me, what I do, what Reiki Masters do as a whole. I got to see them literally running their hands through their hair as they attempted to find a way to protect the public AND honor Reiki.
I got to brainstorm with them and connect with them. I got to share what Reiki REALLY is – they didn’t know. I got to share what it means to be a Master and to walk into a room and provide healing touch. I got to show them what the true energy of Reiki is, why it needs to be protected, and why it is so sacred. I got to share with them things they didn’t know about this healing art. I got to share about the gift of laying my hands on someone in Stage 4 Breast Cancer to bring relief from pain. I got to share about the miracles of total healing of Renal Failure.
It was vastly empowering and I am excited to see what will happen next. I felt heard and co-creative and purposeful. AND I also know that this will only come to pass if there are more Masters and Healers who are willing to stand up and be accountable and come out of hiding.
Now, that last sentence has triggered several people. I’m noticing that some of the Reiki Masters are immediately going up in arms and donning their armor for a negative war to the death full of piss and vinegar. This is not that kind of war. Those people on the council who are formulating the legislature that will make this county safer for everyone are interested in supporting the Healers and honoring us. If we begin to fight against them, we are going against what it is to be a Reiki Master.
In yesterday’s meeting, I shared that Reiki is a spiritual, sacred practice that has been unregulated because it falls into the category of faith healing or laying on of hands, just like a blessing through a church official. Many Reiki Master Teachers train their students that, to practice hands on Reiki in Utah you need to be licensed either with an LMT professional license or a Minister’s license. When I shared that in yesterday’s meeting, the council was stunned. They had not seen the angle of the Minister’s license before. I reminded them that, if you go up against all those who are practicing under a Minister’s license, they’ll be bumping up against religious beliefs, they all groaned. They felt helpless.
They asked me about what it takes to be a Reiki Practitioner… is there a specific school that licenses everyone? Answer is, as all of you are aware, no. There is no specific school. Reiki was created to be handed down from Master to Student for an equal exchange – usually in the form of money. How many Healers out there are working without even a Minister’s license? How many Healers got a Minister’s license on the internet and didn’t go through the training to be a Minister?
That is what I mean by hiding.
These days, it takes nothing other than money to become a Reiki Master. How many went from having no prior experience of Reiki to becoming a Master in a weekend through an online course? How many are Reiki Masters that have gone through the 2-year program and internship to actually understand and embody Reiki? For those of you in the last category, is it okay with you that these weekend Masters are showing up, calling themselves Masters, and doing the work that you lived with for two years before accepting the certification of Master? Does it matter? It must not because no one is stopping these Weekend Master programs, no one is asking about what happened to the actual living of the Reiki creed. Because… there is a creed that we, as Masters, have taken an oath to uphold. Here, let’s revisit it:
Just for today….
I will give thanks for my many blessings;
I will be happy and look at the positive;
I will be worry-free and deal with anger appropriately;
I will do my work honestly;
I will be kind to my neighbor and every living thing.
It’s something similar to that; Masters change the wording to match their group, but you get the gist. And, as a trained Master, I went through two years of training to understand what it meant to be a Reiki Master. Granted, some people can do it really quickly. But, just because you can do something, doesn’t mean that it actually serves the highest good to be done that way. So… is it okay that Reiki is unregulated? That anyone can call themselves a Reiki Master? That it takes nothing to be a Reiki Master? Do we care? Is anyone speaking up about this other than me? (If ya are, I’d really like to meet you!)
That is what I mean by hiding.
Currently, the State of Utah is in legislation about how it wants to regulate Reiki or if it wants to regulate Reiki. Right now, the laws state that, if you’re putting your hands on a person and move them in any way, you’re doing massage and need to be an LMT. How many Reiki Masters or Practitioners out there who are solely practicing energy healing are an LMT with a valid and current license? I would venture to guess I am one of a few.
That is what I mean by hiding.
Over the years, I have interacted with many Reiki practitioners who get all upside down in the thought of the government regulating their spiritual practice. HOWEVER… when the government is attempting to keep its citizens safe by really curbing the practice of Reiki and making it only possible to do it in certain areas of the state, while imposing heavy licensing fees and conditions, not one other Reiki Master or Practitioner came forward. I was the only one. This link was posted by several of my friends and one leading Reiki Master here in Utah, that I saw, and yet none of them did anything about it. None of them even attempted to find a way to do something about it, except bitch about how unfair Utah law is.
That is what I mean by hiding.
My intent for the meeting yesterday was to be open and receptive to hear their side, to understand what was going on, to hear more of the details that were not listed in the news article. I discovered that this is a huge problem, that innocent girls are being conned into being “Reiki Girls” – which is a new term for girls who provide services that look like anything from Happy Endings to full on sex acts. Many of them are underage. Many of them are clueless. Many of them are trusting the man that is running these businesses. And ALL of them, when the business gets busted, are going to jail and being fined while he pays no consequence and simply goes about hiring 10 more “Reiki Girls” to fill the empty slots the next day. The government has no teeth against this man and others like him and because Reiki is unregulated and a fairly ethereal concept for the logical minds of our planners, they have no idea what to do. They’re feeling powerless and duped because these parlor owners have figured out a way around their system. People are getting hurt and neighborhoods are being plagued by illegal activities that endanger the lives of young girls and boys.
Reiki is sacred work, a gift of the Divine. So is Deeksha and Theta Healing and Rapid Eye Therapy and Body Talk and NLP and Watsui and and and… there are a myriad of ways that Divine Energy is being opened up for the purpose of healing and wholeness and any one of these modalities can become the next front for the criminal mindset. It used to be massage therapy, but there have been courageous warriors that have chosen to stand up for the healing benefits of massage and have worked with the State to create an awareness and understanding for the benefits so that it can continue to be readily available. In the beginning of the massage therapy regulation process, the State had fully restricted the massage therapists just as they’re trying to do with Reiki.
Right now, the State is focused on Reiki because there are those that are using the word “Reiki” for something that isn’t technically Reiki. However, when these “Reiki Parlors” get wind of the government cracking down on Reiki, they’ll become “Deeksha Parlors” or “Theta Parlors” or “NLP Parlors.” They’ll just find another word for it because, as long as it is illegal to have sex for money, there will be people who are looking for ways around that law.
We are here, at this time, on this planet to collectively raise the vibration of humanity. We are here as Energy Healers to provide healing, awareness, awakening. We will only be able to do this if we stand together and show the world what it means to be a space of Love and Healing.
We will not accomplish this by pointing fingers and complaining about “bad laws” that inhibit our work. We will not accomplish this if we stand back and do nothing. And, although I have no idea what it looks like yet or how I am going to do it, I am going to stand up. I’m going to speak out for Love and Healing. I am going to support my lawmakers and work with them so that my sacred work remains sacred work.
They asked me to form a coalition of Reiki Masters and Energy Healers. They’ve given me a lot of ideas and I’m a tad overwhelmed, but I willingly stepped into my Warrior Queen’s boots and I’m going forward. I’m calling forth all Masters and all Energy Healers who have been going about your work, doing amazing things, providing the space of miracles for humanity and I’m asking you… are you willing to stand with me? Are you willing to gather peaceably, be open for the truth, listen with clear ears and hearts? Are you willing to be the solution not the gasoline that fuels the fire? Are you willing to be in integrity and claim your Divine nature for all to see?
I know that this is tapping into the old witch hunt energy. I just got a flash of that… all of us… centuries ago… facing those fires. It is time to heal that energy once and for all. Release it.
Will you rise to the call?
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I always welcome your thoughts, questions, and comments.
Feel free to jot down what you’re thinking in the comment box below.
