Crazy Little Thing Called Love

I have been a huge fan of American Idol since the very first year when Kelly Clarkson first appeared in the spotlight. It’s probably the inner rock star in me that draws me to this show but I am seriously addicted to it and get surprisingly attached to the highs and lows of each contestant’s journey.

A recent show featured the music of one of my favorite bands of all time – Queen – who quite likely started making music before the parents of some of these contestants were born! Watching a very talented young singer named Joshua Ledet take on the Queen classic “Crazy Little Thing Called Love” got me thinking about how powerful love really is – how it really is the answer to all problems and the pre-requisite condition for all healing.

Now I’m not talking about romantic love or the love of material possessions. I’m talking about unconditional love. Love that is pure and unencumbered. Love that is trusting and without fear.

Bonnie and I went to a beautiful wedding in Long Island recently and one of the readings during the service was the Bible passage from 1 Corinthians 13:4-8a which says:

“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.”

That’s a pretty high bar to set, but it is one we should all work daily to achieve in our lives – not for a specific person – but for everything – for the Universe – for our very existence and the existence of every other being.

The only being I can think of readily who has probably achieved this level of enlightenment already is my dog Mickey.

I can tell in his eyes when he looks at me that his love is without condition and totally trusting. His tail wags with excitement when he sees me (and pretty much when he sees anybody!). He has no expectation other than happiness. He is just excited to be alive and to be part of this wonderful world. He will live a long, healthy and happy life in this condition. Imagine yourself feeling this type of emotion whenever you gaze in the mirror. How wonderful would that be to know yourself and your personal beauty that well?

How ironic is it that with the passing of the enormously talented and tragically troubled vocalist Whitney Houston, we are forever reminded in the echoes of her voice that "Learning to love yourself is the greatest love of all".

If only Whitney had been guided to meditate on that sage advice and manifest it in her own psyche! Amazing personal healing would have been sure to follow, and after that, with the gift of her celebrity platform, the healing she could have shared with the world would have been limitless. But perhaps it is the lesson we can learn from her tragic demise which is her greatest gift to us. Maybe that was her task in this lifetime.

Part of my own ongoing pathway to enlightenment has been the crystal clear realization that negative thoughts will prevent healing. They won’t just slow it down or make the journey more difficult. They will prevent the healing from occurring. If you put negative energy into the universe in the form of your thoughts, that negativity will return to you in some form. The mission, and it is certainly far easier said than done, is to replace ALL negativity with love. I am certainly not there yet but I am honestly trying every single day.

We all need to consciously and deliberately strive to be an instrument of healing spirit. Whenever you find yourself harboring a thought containing any negativity towards anyone or anything, immediately entertain the exact opposite thought. If you find yourself feeling anger, reverse that anger to love, empathy and compassion, sending energy for complete healing to the person or situation that is the focus of your anger. Do not allow negativity to reside in your being. In the words of Mikao Usui: “Just for today, handle anger appropriately.” Healing will follow.

This will take tremendous work, but as Usui told us in the fourth Reiki precept: “Just for today, do your work honestly”. Don’t just give this lip service. Be completely honest with yourself in your efforts to release negativity. Don’t mislead yourself to rationalize that some negativity is justified. Any negativity will always come back to undermine your healing.

Early 20th century author Kahlil Gibran tells us: “Work is love made visible. And if you can't work with love, but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work and sit at the gate of the temple and take alms of the people who work with joy”.

Gibran recognized that work without love is fruitless. The synonym he uses for negativity (distaste) undermines the entire effort.

Recognize that you alone are the captain of your ship. Your healing and enlightenment depends only on yourself. If you do not start your journey with unconditional love and gratitude for yourself, your journey will be long, arduous and unsuccessful. You will be lost at sea, wandering aimlessly in unfocused directions. Remember that YOU are the boss. You are the captain. Handle this responsibility well and with unconditional love and you will reap the benefits. Take it lightly or ignore it and you will likely fail to thrive.

In his wonderful novel Captains Courageous, British author Rudyard Kipling shared with us the simple yet profound thought that "An angry skipper makes an unhappy crew". You are the skipper – your world is the crew. Consider the impact.

We have had this knowledge for a very long time but the work to implement the surprisingly simple concept is difficult so the journey is long. We will get there. Keep positive energy flowing. Follow the advice of another troubled yet amazingly talented singer and songwriter, John Lennon, who told us to simply: “Imagine all the people living life in peace”. Do this daily and be the change. Put unconditional love for everyone and everything into the universe and let it flow back to you.

I’ll close with a 2,500 year old reference to this topic from Lao Tzu, who gave us the eternal wisdom of the 81 verses of the Tao.

Tao Te Ching Verse 28

Know the masculine, but keep to the feminine: receive the world in your arms. Be a valley under heaven; if you do, the Tao will never leave you and you will become as a little child.

Know the white, yet keep to the black: be a model for the world. If you are a model for the world, the Tao within you will strengthen and you will return whole to the infinite.

Know the personal, yet keep to the impersonal: accept the world as it is. If you embrace the world with compassion, then you will live a life of abundant virtue.

The world is formed from the void, like utensils from a block of wood. The Master knows the utensils, yet keeps to the block because of its limitless possibilities. When the unformed is formed into objects, its original qualities are lost. If you preserve your original qualities, you can use all things.

There is wonderful insight and guidance to be found in every phrase of this verse, and it is a wonderful verse on which to meditate, working through it in your mind, but for the purpose of this article, I would like to extract from the first stanza the incredible advice: “Be a valley under heaven; if you do, the Tao will never leave you and you will become as a little child.”

Imagine yourself as that valley under Heaven, capturing the wonderful nourishing gifts that fall to us in the rain, and then allowing them to flow through you on their path to healing the world. It’s a powerful image and it is perfectly congruous with the Reiki mechanism of opening yourself as a channel to flow healing energy to others.

So remember…your mission, should you choose to accept it (apologies to Mission Impossible), is to consciously, honestly and diligently work to reverse every negative thought that you have, replacing those thoughts with unconditional love.

Love conquers all.

Blessings,

Bob

It's All About The Healing!

Reiki practitioners are often challenged with overcoming misinformed public opinions regarding our practice of this wonderful healing modality. And unfortunately, some Reiki practitioners actually feed into the myths that Reiki is "hocus pocus", magic, voo-doo, witchcraft, sorcery, sacrilege or whatever other misnomer one sometimes hears attached to it.

As trained and attuned healers using the Usui System of Natural Healing, we should all have the true, clinical definition of Reiki ready on the tip of our tongue when asked, as we all periodically are, what Reiki is all about. I find that the following explanation works well both in its simplicity and its factual lack of mysticism.

"Reiki is a relaxation technique documented in early twentieth century Japan which has been shown to reduce stress and promote healing by using light touch to facilitate the flow of energy through the body."

You will note that this definition lacks any reference to spiritualism, religion, or psychic experiences. That is by design. Although many Reiki practitioners tend to be intuitive and spiritually developed individuals, those traits are neither required for, nor part of, the successful practice of the healing modality of Reiki.

Practitioners who bring such facets into their sessions without carefully considering their audience are inadvertently making main stream acceptance of Reiki a more difficult challenge. I am not saying that I have not experienced strong intuitive guidance while giving sessions. On the contrary, I generally do receive such guidance. I will commonly become clairsentiently aware of areas of my client requiring attention, and I will sometimes get clairaudient messages for them during a session. However, such messages are best kept to myself unless I know that my client is of similar mind regarding spirituality. When I am doing a Reiki session, I am practicing healing not mediumship.

It is also important to consider your setting when practicing Reiki. Some techniques, especially those in Level II where we invite in the special healing energies of symbols, require discretion in certain applications. As an example, when treating a patient in a hospital setting, it is probably best to visualize the symbols in your mind as you invite them in rather than to wave your hands around drawing them in the air which would certainly raise some clinical doubts. Similarly, when preparing a room for Reiki sessions, I will use the symbols to clear and charge the room, and also to set my own light of protection and activate my palms, while the room is empty before the client arrives.

The mantras associated with the symbols are similarly verbalized only in my thoughts unless I am in the presence of only attuned Level II or higher practitioners.

All of these precautions are enacted solely to protect Reiki from undue discreditation as sorcery. Although such attacks would only be forthcoming from the uninformed, there is no need to add fuel to their fire by making the practice appear to have a magical component resembling spell casting, even though we know that is not the intent of our mantras and gestures.

I recently had the awesome opportunity to listen in on an interview with one of Hawayo Takata's twenty-two Reiki Master...Paul Mitchell. One of the most interesting things Paul related from his experience learning under Mrs. Takata was her response to a student’s post-attunement feedback of mystical visions of balls of light and other spiritual visualizations. Mrs. Takata promptly and tersely dismissed this student's experiences with the single sternly spoken word "Fantasy" and returned the class discussion immediately to the clinical practice of Reiki. Although most Reiki practitioners I know have had similar experiences with the attunement process, Mrs. Takata's refusal to discuss it pays tribute to her dedication to move Reiki into mainstream acceptance for the greatest good of all living creatures.

There are other considerations which are part of my own personal relationship with Reiki, some of which I will share here. My intent is not to imply that these considerations are right for every Reiki practitioner, but they certainly help me keep my practice grounded and I offer them in my role as a teaching Reiki Master so that my students can consider for themselves these thoughts and concepts as they move forward with their own development as healers. I do encourage my students to maintain their individuality as they develop their practices, and not to simply attempt to mirror mine or those of any other teacher. It is your individuality which will draw the right clients and students to you.

First...I believe with my whole heart and soul that my attunements to be able to channel Reiki are a gift from God and I am truly blessed to have found this path. It has been powerfully healing for me. With that belief, I hold an obligation to never abuse this gift. By that I mean that I would never invoke Reiki energy for any purpose other than pure and universal good. For example, I would never trivialize Reiki energy by asking it to impact an unimportant outcome such as a sporting event...as much as I love my Yankees, I have to realize that God needs to nurture His Red Sox fans as well! I might "Reiki" my lottery tickets, but only because I know I would be philanthropic with the money to advance the cause of Reiki healing.

Secondly, I will never send Reiki to an individual for physical healing unless I know they have asked for it. I will often send Reiki to resolve a situation for the greatest good of all concerned without asking permission, but I will never include specific healing for an individual without knowing they want it. I have many requests for Reiki in my healing grid on which I meditate twice daily, but my requests are always that the situations resolve for the greatest good. This is similar to the way I participate in a monthly global meditation for world peace without a request for victory for any specific parties among the warring factions. It is also similar to the way I pray in my Catholic faith by asking God to provide for the greatest good of His children in resolving their difficulties, but only if that is His will.

Thirdly, I will never use Reiki to attempt to control the free will of anyone. As an example, those seeking a relationship should send Reiki to themselves that they find a situation which works for their greatest good rather than for a specific person to be made to be responsive to their desires.

Fourthly, I consciously set my ego aside when asking Reiki to flow. I do not try to direct the healing, and I recognize and honor that Reiki is pure, simple and clean life force energy gifted from the Source and guided by spiritual wisdom to heal where it needs to heal. When doing a session, I constantly try to keep my mind clear and brush aside distracting thoughts. Unless I am receiving guidance, hand positions are used only to give structure to the session as prescribed by Dr. Hayashi rather than to try to direct the flow of Reiki with my own consciousness. Using the prescribed Level I hand positions can actually help me keep my mind clear and my ego silenced since I have no reason to think about how to perform the session. I have no problem with the concept of doing an entire session with just one or two positions since I know Reiki will go where it's needed, and am starting to move my sessions in that direction when so guided. I do this commonly for self-treatment, often falling asleep with one hand on my solar plexus or sacral chakra and the other hand on my heart.

Fifthly, I do not subscribe to the belief that practitioners with different Levels of attunement are more effective healers. A Level I practitioner is serving as a channel for the same energy that I am channeling as an experienced Master. My additional training and experience might provide me with knowledge of techniques that I can use to make a client more comfortable or more at ease with the process, which might make their healing seem more efficient on the surface, and my Master certification enables me to attune and train other practitioners, but the Reiki energy is the same for all of us.

Finally, I am a big believer in Karmic balance. I do not question or challenge other healing modalities or the methods of other Reiki practitioners or other schools of Reiki. I simply work with the understanding that all healing is good, and all those who dedicate their energies to healing others are good souls. I know that the students and clients who are right for me will be drawn to and find me, and that other students and clients will be drawn to other practitioners and teachers, and that is as it should be. I only know that if I do good work without reservation, anxiety, anger, worry or trepidation, I am doing what I am called to do and healing will come back to me.

I have made many wonderful friends and found many like minded people through my work with Reiki and it will be a daily part of my life forever. I hope that my musings here help others move forward on their pathways to harmony and healing, and I remind my students that I am always available to them as a resource should they have concerns or wish to discuss or review their own development, but that my feedback will serve to help them explore their own pathways and unique gifts rather than to become a clone of my beliefs and methods.

Remember to keep it all about the healing, and thank you all for being a treasured and beautiful part of my universe!

May wondrous blessings befall each and every one of you!

Bob

Kansha shite (I am grateful)

I recently had the amazing experience of being part of the training team for a class of new Hospice volunteers. Hospice volunteer training is an intense process which includes a lot of painful soul searching exercises designed to make new volunteers comfortable with their own mortality, a necessary pre-requisite to being able to help others deal with these issues.

One such exercise which we facilitated for the class dealt with visualization of the student’s own last moments, including what was important for them to say to their loved ones gathered at their bedside.

The response of one of the student volunteers struck me with such power that I continue to be amazed by the totality of life affirmation that could be expressed in such few words. This volunteer’s final words to his loved ones would simply be: “Thank you!”

With those two syllables, he effectively expressed volumes about how his life’s journey had gone. He was so purely and honestly grateful that they were part of his life and had allowed him to be part of theirs. Their presence in his life had made it whole, and their presence at his death had been powerfully healing.

While he could have said: “I love you”, or “It’s OK now…don’t worry”, or any number of other last words that come readily to mind from the infinite choices, his thoughts immediately went to gratitude for the life he had and for those who comprised it.

What stronger evidence could there be of a successful, well-lived life?

To me, having the good fortune to witness this moment gave a wonderful affirmation to why Dr. Usui included the phrase “Kansha shite”, commonly translated as “I will show gratitude” or "I am grateful", in his five Reiki precepts as guiding ideals for a healthy and balanced life.

Taking the time to notice and give presence to all of the gifts, large and small, that are part of our lives, is powerfully healing. Too often, human nature appears to push us to recognize the negative energies that impact us rather than the positive forces that are all around us. By recognizing the negative, we enable and empower it.

It shows advanced progress on the path to enlightenment to be able to find a true sense of gratitude in the face of adverse conditions such as facing death, but with some concentrated self-development work, it becomes possible. This actually ties in with another of Dr. Usui’s precepts. ”I will do my work honestly” is generally considered to be a reference to this type of work towards personal enlightenment.

Drawing on personal experiences with loss of loved ones, with reflection, even the deepest losses have elements for which we can be grateful. While I lost my wife to cancer several years ago, I was blessed with many advantages through the process…things like health insurance, life insurance, Hospice care, a very understanding employer who allowed me to remain fully present through the process, support of loving friends and family…many things which eased the process for me. In my work with Hospice, I realize that these advantages are significant and that many people facing the same situation have not had the same blessings. This realization fills me with gratitude for all of the opportunities, gifts and energies during my life which made this situation materialize as it did.

While I could be angry and filled with negativity over the loss of my loved one, I find that replacing that anger with gratitude lightens the burden and speeds the healing. There we go with another precept…”I will handle anger appropriately”.

The more life experiences I compile since Reiki has come into my world, the more I become fully aware that the Reiki Ideals form a wonderful foundation for a life well-lived. Usui Sensei referred to the precepts as: “The secret art of inviting happiness…the miraculous medicine for all diseases” and I am thoroughly convinced that he knew what he was talking about.

In closing for this month, I would just like to say “Thank You” to each one of you…the readers, students, friends, family, practitioners, counselors, volunteers, teachers, co-workers, pets and others who have chosen to be a part of my life and welcomed me as a part of yours. Your presence in my life is a joyful treasure to me.

Today I am grateful.

Bob

Reiki and Hospice Care...An End-of-Life Transition Story

One of the services I provide as a Hospice volunteer is to sit vigil with patients who are in the active process of dying. I have personally found it very rewarding to be able to ease another person's anxiety over impending death by simply being there so they aren't alone at this vitally important moment in their existence. It also often proves to be of great comfort for the patient's loved ones as well, to know that if they are unable to be there personally, that someone is there to provide a compassionate presence during this critical time.

Almost without exception, patients at this stage are unresponsive or comatose. Although I might personally feel that providing a Reiki session for them would significantly ease their suffering, the ethical question of permission comes up.

Since no Reiki practitioner should ever send Reiki to another person without their permission, how can we use this wonderful tool to help in such situations?

I will attempt to address this dilemma with a real-life story of one of my actual cases. Of course, any identifying details such as name or location have been changed to protect the patient's privacy.

Recently, I had weekend on-call duty for Hospice vigiling, and on Friday afternoon, the volunteer coordinator called me with an assignment for a patient approaching death in a local hospital. I arrived at approximately 9 AM on Saturday morning to sit vigil with this patient for several hours, and intended to return again on Sunday to do the same thing.

When I arrived, I found the patient demonstrating agonal respiration and otherwise completely unresponsive to his surroundings. Simple observation of some of the items in the patient's room led me to believe he was a Roman Catholic, as am I. I only mention this because Roman Catholics often are conflicted about receiving Reiki since it has not been endorsed by their Church leaders at this point in time. That's a discussion I have addressed in prior writings and I don't intend to get into it here other than to comment that it made the permission issue even more important than ever in this particular case.

So how did I use the gift of Reiki in this case to ease the suffering of my patient?

I started with Catholic prayers at his bedside asking that the hand of God guide all my actions for the greatest good of this man. In my case, God, in the form of his son Jesus Christ, is my primary Reiki guide, but other practitioners would rely on their own guides in such a situation. Reiki is not a religious practice.

Next, I attempted to make an intuitive connection to the patient's higher self to ask his direct permission to flow Reiki to him. Often when I do this, I will get a very clear clairsentient response, which is usually but not always positive. In this particular case, I did not receive such a signal. I didn’t get a negative response either – just no response at all. That being the case, I went to “Plan B” which is to ask that Reiki flow for the greatest good of the situation rather than the individual.

I began by clearing the room of any prior energies using the Level II power symbol on all four walls, all four corners, and the floor and ceiling. I then charged the room with the positive healing energy of Reiki by inviting all three Level II symbols as well as the Usui and Tibetan master symbols and the Tibetan Fire Serpent symbol into the room to make available whatever energy might best resolve this situation. Note that if you are a Level I practitioner not attuned to any of the symbols, simply inviting Reiki energy into the room is effective as well.

I then sat quietly by the patient's bedside and meditated on the wonderful healing energy flowing through the room, also asking God for a peaceful transition for this patient, who had obviously been a very kind and well liked man as evidenced by the way the nursing staff attended him with extraordinary heartfelt compassion and care. They all seemed to have a sincere genuine affection for this patient beyond the normal caregiver compassion I typically witness.

During my meditation, I received clear intuitive direction that I should charge my hands with the Level II Mental/Emotional symbol, but still was not given guidance to give hands-on Reiki directly to the patient. It was just more of a feeling of preparation than a call to action if that makes sense.

At this point, there was a sudden cessation of the patient's agonal breathing, and he opened his eyes for the first time in weeks. He looked directly at me, but I did not have the feeling that he was seeing me...rather he seemed to be looking beyond me and seeing things that I could not. After just a couple of seconds, his eyes closed and his face relaxed. His breathing did not resume, and I received a crystal clear signal that I should take this patient's hand in mine and ask Reiki to flow to help him on his journey.

I rang for the nurse to check his status, and then took his hand and continued to hold it until a doctor could be summoned to officially pronounce his passing, which took roughly an hour due to multiple emergencies occurring at the same time. During this period, I was blessed with an incredible sense of peace and gratitude, and the knowledge that the patient's transition had been wonderful, and completely without fear or anxiety. Just the incredibly peaceful expression on his face was enough to let anyone see that he had an amazing passing.

This man had been struggling at death’s doorstep for weeks, and yet within an hour of inviting Reiki into the situation, it was resolved and he was at peace.

This true story demonstrates that there is no one simple answer for how best to use Reiki in a situation where the patient cannot grant direct permission. If you simply trust your guides and your intuition, Reiki, with its own spiritually guided wisdom, will provide you with the answer for the greatest good.

Sending intentions and energy for a wonderful 2012 for each of you,

Bob

Eternal Spirit...

Today's blog entry is not strictly Reiki-related, but it did have a huge impact on my spirituality which ultimately opened my mind to the world of traditional practices and beliefs, and led directly to my personal discovery and embrace of Reiki.

Despite my relatively strict Roman Catholic upbringing, in the interest of complete honesty, I have to say that my faith used to be tested from time to time, particularly when I was trying to wrap my mind around the concept of eternal life. Since I spent much of the early part of my life unaware of the need to keep my mind, body and spirit all healthy and energetically balanced, I was seldom successful in experiencing anything which might confirm my belief (or not) in an existence other than the physical life I was currently experiencing.

I had always desperately wanted to believe, and in retrospect, have had many glimpses of experiences that could only have come from prior incarnations, but I was hung up on a mindset built completely on logic and proof which constantly derailed my journey to enlightenment.

I was always fascinated by metaphysical stories and occurrences, and had witnessed firsthand while other sensitive people experienced things which had no physical explanation. But never having had such an experience myself...the lingering doubt was always there. People very close to me enjoyed some powerful interactions on the spiritual level...my late wife Paula and my mom Anna were two of the most psychically sensitive people I've ever met...but I had never had that breakthrough moment myself, and at times, it was difficult to go just on faith. In future blog entries I'll relate some of the amazing psychic adventures that my mother and my late wife experienced...stories that need to be preserved if for no other reason than family history to help our progeny understand who these people are that keep talking to them in their minds!

But let's get back to my own life-changing experience...the one that removed any and all doubt from my mind about the reality of eternal spiritual life...

Paula and I had been married for just shy of 25 years before her life was cut short by cancer. It was a particularly nasty progression of disease which started in her lungs, but it was ultimately the metastasis to her brain that did the most damage. She was ill for nearly two years, and for most of the second year, she was not herself. Her persona and spirit had been evicted by the cancer cells in her brain and she usually did not even recognize her own family, including me, her husband and primary caregiver. She often feared us and felt that aliens had killed us and put our bodies upstairs where her legs couldn't take her, and that we were alien impersonations of our physical likenesses, bent on doing her harm. When Hospice staff would visit the house, she would always implore them to search upstairs for our bodies, and if I answered a telephone call, she would scream in the background to try to get the attention of the person on the phone to send help.

When her disease robbed her of her mobility and she became quadriplegic, she could not process the situation and was sure I had imprisoned her by tying her to the bed, although she was not tied - she just could no longer move her limbs. It was obviously an extremely difficult time for my daughters and I, but we persevered for her as we knew without a shadow of a doubt she would have done for any of us, and kept her as comfortable, safe and loved as we possibly could until she passed. She was a wonderful and very loving wife and mother and deserved nothing less.

Several months after Paula passed, I was really struggling, not only with my own grief, but with being thrust into single parenthood for two young ladies, our daughters Paula and Liz. Although they were young adults when they lived through the tragedy of their mom's illness (22 and 17 when their mom was diagnosed), it seemed to be an especially difficult time for them to lose her. Their grandmothers had both already passed and they really had no maternal figure left in the family to go to that could understand "girl things". Eventually they both wound up hospitalized for severe physical manifestations of the emotional trauma they had suffered. It was a challenge that I found very difficult to try to fill this role for them and ease their pain while dealing with my own...how different all of our lives could have been if I had known Reiki then! On a side note, I recently learned from ICRT licensed teacher Carolyn Musial that it is possible to send distance Reiki to the past to help with healing and this seems to be the perfect circumstance for such a practice.

Anyway...we were coming up on Paula's first birthday since she passed and I wasn't sure how to deal with it. I had been going on and off to a widow/widower's support group at our local Hospice (where I have since become a regular volunteer offering Reiki sessions to patients, caregivers, and bereaved family members). I mentioned my concern over Paula's birthday, and a woman in the group gave me a suggestion that I thought sounded wonderful. She said that I should write Paula a letter and then go to the cemetery, attach it to a big bunch of helium balloons, and send it to her in Heaven. This just resonated as the right thing to do on so many levels...I love the cemetery...I find it so peaceful and calming...not in any strange way - I know that our remains are not our spirits...but it's still a very centering place for me and I find it very comforting to sit there and meditate. I even take my guitar there sometimes...the crowd is well behaved and doesn't complain about it when my singing wanders off key!

So I did as my friend suggested. I wrote a letter to Paula. I did not share the contents with ANYONE - not even our daughters. It was between Paula and I. Just writing it was a step towards healing, and after sealing it in the envelope and watching it drift skyward and out of sight...it was a good feeling.

I thought that was it - that it had been a good healing exercise, had served its' purpose, and I put it out of my mind.

Well...about ten months later, I was visiting the very special spiritualist community in Lily Dale, NY, which is home to scores of registered mediums and is a well known hot spot for communication with those in spirit. It was a spur of the moment trip. No appointments were made ahead of time...no registrations or anything like that. No one in Lily Dale knew who I was, where I was from, or anything about me.

In Lily Dale during the summer season, many of the registered mediums simply put sign-up sheets on their front porches where you can walk by and reserve a time for a reading. While walking up and down the streets checking the sign-up sheets looking for a medium with a free time slot, I was drawn to the office of a medium named Peggy Rogers. I looked at her sign-up sheet and there was a slot open at 3:30 that afternoon so I simply wrote down on the sheet "Bob" and went off to do some other sightseeing for a few hours until the time for my session arrived.

When I got back to Peggy Rogers' place for my appointment, she invited me into her reading room and we sat across from each other. No words were spoken at all for at least a full five minutes while Peggy simply gazed at me and I wondered what this was going to be liked. Then she started speaking...her first words were, and I quote EXACTLY:

"Paula got your letter, and the answer to both questions is yes."

After this...I was just blown away. Peggy went on with the rest of the 30 minute reading and brought many wonderful and clear connections to me during it...my mom and my dad both visited during the session and their presence was unmistakable. This woman knew NOTHING about me other than that my name was Bob, and I had NEVER shared the contents of the personal note I wrote and released to Paula with ANYONE. It also had no identifying markings or addresses or last names at all, and the cemetery I released it from, in Menands NY, was a good 250 miles east of Lily Dale.

How do I know this was real...

Start with the simple stuff...Paula is not that common a name for a medium to just pull "out of the air", and how would she know I sent Paula a letter?

Even getting past that...to the truly amazing part that has given me an iron clad concrete belief in eternal spiritual life that will never be shaken...

In the letter I released to Paula, after I told her I missed her and hoped she was out of pain and enjoying her time with all of our family in Heaven (we have lots), I closed the letter with TWO QUESTIONS...things that I needed resolved to give me closure and help me heal my grief and move forward with life.

Remember I mentioned how the brain mets had taken away her sanity for most of her last year? Even though I knew I was doing everything humanly possible to care for her, she did not have the mental capacity left in her physical body to realize it. Since she had been unable in life to tell me she knew, I still struggled with it, so I asked her outright in the letter: "Do you know that I did absolutely everything I could to take care of you until you died?"

And I also mentioned that I had been having a hard time filling the role of "mom" to our daughters. Hence the second question I asked Paula in the letter: "Am I doing things right taking care of the girls?"

You have no idea what it meant for her to tell me through Peggy Rogers: "The answer to both questions is YES."

Just for today, be kind to all creatures.

Bob McGrath
Master Practitioner/Teacher
Pathways to Harmony

It's All About Intention...

Sometimes even the most experienced Reiki practitioners forget how beautifully simple Reiki is.

I have been blessed with wonderful Reiki Master teachers on my journey, having had the good fortune to personally train with Linda Thompson of Unity Healing Center, Carolyn Musial of Mystic Wolf Healing Arts, and William Lee Rand, founder of the ICRT. By proxy, and because of my voracious appetite to read anything and everything ever written about Reiki, I count many more Masters among my Sensei as well...Frank Arjava Petter, Walter Lubeck, Tadao Yamaguchi and several others.

As every one of these marvelous teachers has taught me at one time or another...Reiki can do no harm. It only works for the greatest good. You CAN'T DO IT WRONG because it's driven by your intention, not your process, and if your intention is not for the greatest good, it will simply be ignored.

Where am I going with this?

To tell you the truth, I'm not quite sure yet, but come along with my thoughts for a bit and hopefully you will enjoy the ride...at least that is my intention!

A couple of weeks ago, I went with my daughters to our local mall. By chance, a major US bookseller, Barnes and Noble, was having a huge inventory reduction sale...giant tables stacked high with drastically reduced books of every imaginable kind. As I have already established, I have a reading addiction, so I had no problem at all quickly finding a dozen or so deeply discounted books that interested me. Almost all were on some topic related to energy medicine, spirituality, sacred places, and yes...Reiki!

Among the treasures I found on this shopping spree was a book originally published in 1999 under the title: "Reiki for Beginners" and now titled: "Beginner's Guide to Reiki". I'm not sure of the reason for the revised title on a subsequent printing, but I'm sure it was a spiritually guide change!

This book was written by a western Reiki Master named David F. Vennells, who I was completely unfamiliar with, but this fact made me particularly interested in reading it because I find alternate perspectives or viewpoints very intriguing, and they often provoke my thoughts in new directions for growth.

I usually do my Reiki reading with the book in one hand, and a highlighter in the other as I make numerous references that I transfer to my class outline binder for use in teaching. Mr. Vennells work ended up with quite a bit of highlighting since many of his insights gave me great food for thought. If you get a chance to pick up this book, I highly recommend it.

There was a part that I just read today which I'm sure was one of those "Reiki coincidences" that we experience from time to time. It was a particularly interesting section on the five Reiki Principles and how to re-word them as "Reiki Intentions" and meditate on them to help resolve difficult situations in your life...Reiki for self-healing! Something none of us do often enough!

An example of converting a Reiki principle to a Reiki intention would be like this...rather than "Just for today, be grateful", put the thought into an affirmative syntax like: "Today I am grateful", and meditate on that affirmation and all of the blessings for which you are grateful...the process will fill your soul with gratitude. You will be living in that Reiki principle and your life will reap the benefits.

Now what makes this another example of Reiki stepping in at just the right moment for me...

Last night, I had a fairly unpleasant, harsh verbal exchange with both of my daughters, who live with me. They're 21 and 26 years old, and as a 56 year old widower, it can be very challenging sharing the house with them. Since I have a huge amount of compassion and sympathy for them, having lost their mom to cancer just over two years ago, I generally let the little annoyances go, and like most parents, quietly clean up their messes and keep up on the housework while struggling to pay the bills to keep a roof over their head...OK...not quite that bad but you get the drift!

Well, for whatever reason, when I got home from work last night, and walked in to some messes not of my own making, I had had enough, and to quote my FAVORITE philosopher..."I has had enough, and enough is TOO MUCH!" (Yes...that's right...my favorite philosopher is Popeye the Sailor Man.)

I got uncharacteristically stressed and spent most of the evening calmly expressing my dissatisfaction with their behavior, their lack of gratitude, and their lack of consideration for my home, my generosity, and my hard work. (They might use a different adjective than "calmly" in their version of events.)

Well...long story short...while still feeling the stressful aftermath of last night's events, I stumbled upon the part of Mr. Vennells' book where he suggested that the Reiki principles can be used as "trigger lines" when suddenly faced with a difficult or challenging situation. In this particular instance, he would suggest that I embrace the Reiki principle of "Just for today, do not be angry" as "Today I am peaceful".

As I spent the better part of my lunch hour mulling this over, in fact, meditating on it...it worked! All of the angst and anger vanished and I was enveloped by a feeling of peace and harmony. The simplicity of the core principles on which Reiki is based came to the rescue and healed me once again...this time without hand positions or invoking symbols...just by embracing the teachings of my God as relayed through Dr. Usui and the Meiji Emperor as core values in my life. This experience and realization will certainly help me deal more appropriately with future adventures in parenthood.

Just another example of why we should all not just practice Reiki, but do our best to live it. It can only do good, and don't we all want our lives to be good?

Today I am peaceful!

Bob McGrath
Master Practitioner/Teacher
Pathways to Harmony

Mile High Reiki...

Another great distance Reiki story today...

I have a very dear friend named Kim who lives near Denver CO. She and I have known each other in our "day jobs" for more years than I can remember, and we share a unique bond since our employing organization, which has more than half-a-million employees, only has TWO employees with our job title...myself in upstate NY and Kim in Colorado. Needless to say, we have a great deal of empathy for each other's day-to-day job challenges.

On a much more personal note, Kim and I share the understanding of what it's like to experience the death of a spouse, each of us having lived through the tragedy, and each of us being strong enough to fight our way back...and what a fight it is!

Kim was so compassionate and caring when I was struggling with my loss...she's one of those friends who you know will always be there, whatever you need, and I feel truly blessed to be able to count her among the special people that are a part of my life.

A few days ago, Kim sent me a work-related question by email. She wanted my opinion on a policy issue. We bounce stuff off each other frequently and this was not unusual, but I could tell from the tone of her email that something wasn't right. I began my response with: "Hi Kim...hope all is well." Then I addressed the business question.

In a matter of minutes she replied that she was struggling...her younger brother Danny had been visiting from Iowa and doing some contracting work on her house...roofing, siding, that sort of thing. While doing this, he experienced a serious leakage in his intestines, a very dangerous condition that can turn your entire system toxic quickly, resulting in death.

Besides being heartsick about her brother's condition, Kim was struggling with shuttling family to and from the airport, keeping the house for six adults, constant trips and shuttles to the hospital and the regular stuff that won't go away like watering the garden, mowing, pulling weeds, cooking, laundry, etc. And did I mention going to work? She was obviously stressed and fast approaching the end of her rope, but closed her message by saying: "...God is good and will provide. If I can get my brother back together and healthy again, nothing else matters...", adding a characteristic smiley icon at the end of her message. Kim is a poster-child for the impact of positive energy and attitude.

I didn't want to overwhelm Kim. We had never discussed Reiki before, and she had a lot on her plate, so I simply responded with the following: "What's your brother's full name and age? I am a Master Level Reiki Practitioner and Teacher and will send him healing universal energy. Sounds freaky if you're unfamiliar with it but Reiki works, and distance is not an issue. I can include his healing as an intention in my morning and evening prayers."

Now I had her attention...she replied that he was going into surgery that day at 6:30 my time and that she would appreciate anything I could do...adding how special he is to her. I could feel her anxiety jumping off my computer screen!

With only a couple of hours until Danny's surgery, I began to send distance Reiki in the traditional manner by visualizing his body on my right thigh, using the distance symbol, and treating his intestines while asking my God to allow Reiki to flow to ensure Danny's (and Kim's) safety and healing. I did this for about a half hour. At the time of the surgery, 6:30 PM my time, I was driving and repeated the process while in the car. Feeling the energy heat up my right palm and pulsate against my leg, I knew it was working. I didn't even have to ask Kim about the outcome. I already knew. Just for good measure, I added Danny's name, age and birth date to a paper of intentions I keep under my crystal grid which I use to focus my prayers every evening. Without going into detail...since I use it every morning and evening, the grid is so charged with Reiki energy now that it continuously sends Reiki to the intentions placed under it.

The next morning, I asked Kim anyway how Danny made out. Having more time, she now told me the whole story. Up until an hour before the surgery, when they were prepping Danny, the doctor maintained that his only option was major surgery, opening him up completely, and even that was risky without any guarantee of success since they were unsure of the cause of the leakage. Just before the surgery (and unknowingly after already receiving 30 minutes of distant cross-country Reiki), the surgeon decided to try a laparoscopic procedure, which would require just a 2-3" incision. And, of course, the procedure worked! They were able to remove the damaged part of his intestine and he is expected to be released in just a few days.

Now I certainly don't want anyone to believe that Reiki is the only thing which saved Danny...Reiki is a complementary therapy that provides a powerful and wonderful assist to the skilled practitioners of traditional medicine. But the next part of this story proves to me without a doubt that Reiki played a key role here...

After Kim told me Danny was doing fine now, she mentioned the following detail to me...remember...she and I had never discussed Reiki nor my interest in, and practice of, holistic healing techniques. She said: "Yesterday, I was trying to finish up some reports on the computer so I could leave to be with my brother, and God said your name..."Bob McGrath"...nothing else. And I knew I was supposed to contact you for help..."

The wonders of God's creation give me chills even as I write this!

In closing, this whole episode will help continue the wonderful resurgence of Reiki across the western world. Although Kim and I are 2,000 miles apart, we're now talking about how to get her trained. She may try to get up a group of students so my partner and I can go run a class in Denver, or she may come here for a visit and training...or she may find a local teacher from the ICRT on reiki.org…no matter how, I know Kim will soon joins the ranks of "Reiki people" and when she decides to do something...it gets done. And having her as a Reiki practitioner will definitely better our world!

Just for today...be grateful!

Bob McGrath
Master Practitioner/Teacher
Pathways to Harmony