Reiki, Pranic Healing from a Catholic Perspective

This is a summary of the conference I delivered for Católicos por Convicción regarding the practice of Reiki and its opposition to Christian beliefs. If you understand Spanish, you can watch the whole conference in the following video:

Pranic Healing

• Energy Healing System
• Master Choa Kok Sui (80s)
• Based on the flow of vital energy called “prana”
• Objective: to cleanse, balance, and revitalize pranic energy in the body
• Techniques for scanning and manipulating energy with the hands
• Treatment of various physical, emotional, and mental conditions
• Considered a complementary therapy
• Not scientifically endorsed or recognized as a medical practice

Reiki Energetic Healing Practice
(MIKAO USUI)
Principles of Reiki

1. Just for today, do not anger.
2. Just for today, do not worry.
3. Honor your parents, teachers, and elders.
4. Earn your living honestly.
5. Show gratitude to all living beings.

Purpose of Reiki

• Balance-harmony-inner peace.
• Promote physical, emotional, and mental healing.
• Relieve pain, stress, and depression.
• Distance healing.
• Heal past and future wounds.
• Cleanse spaces.

Where does the ki energy come from?
Energy present in the entire universe.
Transmission of Reiki symbols by another master.
Connection with spiritual guides, ascended masters, angelic beings.

Reiki Therapy

• Initial meditation.
• Hands-on healing to transmit “energy.”
• Use of crystals or essential oils.
• Physical sensations.

Levels of Reiki

• Initiation
• Practice
• Mastery

How Reiki is sold

• Non-invasive technique that complements allopathic medicine.
• Non-religious practice.
• Does not diagnose diseases.
• Ethics and confidentiality.
• Consent.

Scientific Basis

• Anecdotal evidence.
• No rigorous evidence (double-blind, significant samples).
• Temporary placebo effect.

Risks of Reiki

• Short-term effects on matter.
• Recurrence of problems, new problems.
• Emotional manipulation.
• Connection with the inner self = disconnection from God.
• Religious syncretism.

Justifying these beliefs with the Bible

Mark 6:5 (NIV): “He could not do any miracles there, except lay his hands on a few sick people and heal them.“

Mark 16:18 (NIV): “They will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well.“

The Eternal Deception
Genesis 3:5 “You will be like God.”
What does the Bible say?
Matthew 7:22 (NIV): “Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'”
2 Corinthians 11:13-15 (NIV): “For such people are false apostles, deceitful workers, masquerading as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. It is not surprising, then, if his servants also masquerade as servants of righteousness. Their end will be what their actions deserve!“
1 John 4:1 (NIV): “Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God because many false prophets have gone out into the world.“

Warning to the Church of Thessalonica
2 Thessalonians 2:9-10 (NIV): “The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with how Satan works. He will use all sorts of displays of power through signs and wonders that serve the lie, and all the ways that wickedness deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved.“

Why Reiki is not an innocent practice?

• There is no transcendent God.
• It goes against the relationship with God.
• It seeks to empty the mind.
• Openness to evil influences.
• Deviation from faith and trust in God.

Jesus Christ, Bearer of the Water of Life

Various authors see the spirituality of the New Age as a kind of spiritual narcissism or pseudo-mysticism. It is interesting to note that this criticism has even been formulated by David Spangler, an important exponent of the New Age, who in his recent works distanced himself from the more esoteric aspects of this current of thought.

Spangler wrote that in the most popular forms of the New Age: “Individuals and groups live out their own fantasies of adventure and power, usually in occult or millenarian ways… The main characteristic of this level is adherence to a private world of ego satisfaction and the consequent detachment (although not always evident) from the world.”

Guidelines for evaluating Reiki as an alternative therapy.

I. Healing by divine grace and healing by natural powers.
II. Reiki and healing.
Although some consider it a natural healing technique, Reiki lacks scientific credibility and has not been accepted as an effective therapy by the scientific and medical community.
III. Reiki and the healing power of Christ.
The difference is highlighted between the Christian approach to divine healing through prayer to Christ and the approach of Reiki, which is based on the manipulation of “universal life energy.”
Reiki and similar techniques cannot be identified with the healing by divine grace recognized by Christians.

Advice for Catholics regarding Reiki
Reiki poses irresolvable problems as it lacks scientific and Christian doctrinal support.
It leads to superstition and corrupts personal worship of God.
Catholic institutions and Church representatives should not promote or support Reiki due to its incompatibility with Christian doctrine and scientific evidence.

What to do if we have fallen into Reiki?

• *Consult an authorized exorcist.
• Examine your conscience.
• Reconciliation.
• Penance.
• Total renunciation.
• Daily prayer (Rosary).
• Constant participation in the Eucharist.

“For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” Ephesians 6:12, New International Version (NIV)