Reiki and Religion: Curiosity Over Fear

I've lost two work opportunities because of my Reiki practice. Both came from a place of faith. Only one came from a place of fear.

I want to talk about the difference, because I believe it matters more than most conversations about Reiki and religion tend to admit. This isn't a post meant to win an argument. It's about what happens when we approach something unfamiliar with curiosity instead of fear, and what gets lost when we don't.

Two Conversations, Two Very Different Endings

The first happened months ago. A woman reached out about bringing relaxation and self-care to her group of Christian women who meet regularly. She told me upfront who they were and what they believed. I told her what I offer and how it works. We went back and forth, comparing her group's needs with my services, both of us simply exploring whether it was a fit.

It wasn't a fit. And that was fine.

What made it fine was how we got there. Open dialogue, full honesty about our belief systems, without either of us asking the other to change. Mutual respect held the whole thing. We walked away clean, and I've carried this exchange as an example of how these conversations can go, even when the answer ends up being no.

The second happened more recently, and it went differently.

I was driving to visit a family friend before my son left for college when I got a call from the HR director of a wellness gig I'd booked just days before. My stomach dropped before she even finished the sentence. Twenty of the thirty people scheduled for my sessions had been in a Sunday morning's church service, where the pastor spoke about the occult and named Reiki as part of it. The executive director asked her to cancel me. Less than 24 hours before my first session.

I reminded her I wasn't offering Reiki in these sessions, only breath and meditation, exactly what we'd agreed to and signed a contract for. It didn't matter. Being a Reiki practitioner was enough.

No conversation. No questions. Just a directive born out of fear, with no room for dialogue. None of it mattered once fear entered the room.

I'm not interested in villainizing anyone here, including the pastor or the executive director. Fear makes people move fast and skip the parts where understanding might happen. What I want is for more of us to choose the first kind of conversation over the second. Curiosity leaves room for a no. Fear doesn't leave room for anything.

What Reiki Actually Is (and Isn’t)

Reiki is not a religion. It's not witchcraft. It's not evil, and it cannot harm you.

Reiki began in Japan in 1922, developed by Mikao Usui. It's been practiced for over a hundred years now, quietly, long before it found its way into wellness studios across the West.

Here's the part that tends to get lost in fear-based conversations, and it's the part I most want you to hear: Reiki is channeled through a higher power. I'm not the source of the energy, no practitioner is. I'm simply the conduit, a channel. What you call that power is yours to decide, not mine. In my own lineage, Usui/Holy Fire® III, God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit are named directly as part of it.

The National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, a federal research agency, classifies Reiki alongside Healing Touch and Qigong as a biofield therapy: a practice intended to work with the energy field that surrounds and moves through the body. It sits in the same category as other approaches many hospitals now offer patients alongside conventional treatment.

None of this asks you to adopt a new belief system. It asks you to understand the practice before you decide what it means for you or your community.

I say this often to new students and clients, and I mean it every time: I'm not here to tell you what your faith should look like. I'm a channel, not the source. Whatever you name as your higher power, God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, Source, or something else entirely, is between you and it. That's not mine to touch.

Where Science Fits In

I understand skepticism, and it's a reasonable place to stand. Reiki isn't new to hospitals. Hartford Hospital has offered it since 1997, and today more than 800 hospitals nationwide include it in patient care, often alongside chemotherapy, surgery recovery, or labor and delivery, not instead of it.

I'm not going to unpack all of the research here. That's a companion piece on its own, since the studies deserve room to be explained accurately rather than squeezed into a paragraph. What I'll say for now: serious institutions are studying this with real rigor, and what they're finding is worth taking seriously, in either direction.

If you want to learn more, read my blog post Reiki and Science: What the Research Actually Shows.

Where I've Landed

Personally, my faith has deepened through Reiki, not despite it. Perhaps not through attending a church or believing in one religion, but my connection with God is greater. Prayer is part of my daily practice, as steady as breath.

I have a distinct recollection of standing in my mother's home in my 30s, at the height of my career in the meetings and events industry, just back from an incredible all-expenses-paid trip to Europe. I stood there in tears and told her, “This is not the work God intended for me. He has other plans for me, and as much fun as this is, it is not it.” It would be another fifteen to twenty years before those plans were revealed.

I'm not here to tell you what to believe or what your faith should look like. I'm asking for the same thing I try to offer everyone who walks through my door: curiosity before judgment, a conversation before a conclusion, and respect for the fact that we don't all arrive at our higher power the same way. That, I believe, is ground worth protecting, whatever we call it.

If you have questions about Reiki, about how it fits with your own beliefs, or whether it might be a good fit for you or your community, ask me. I'd rather sit with your questions than have you cancel on me before we even begin.

Usui/Holy Fire® III Reiki I & II Training. Kept intentionally small so we can go deeper together. If you've wondered what this practice actually is, from the inside, this is where to start. Join the waitlist for the next training.

Not ready for a full training? Book a 1:1 Reiki session and experience it for yourself first.