Reiki Vision...

This past weekend, I had the opportunity to take another Reiki I/II combination class. While it might seem odd since I already have my Master/Teacher certification, there were several reasons I wanted to do this, and in retrospect, the actual experience provided many more reasons why I'm glad I did.

Reiki will always bring the student to the teacher they are meant to work with at any given point in time. When I first studied Reiki at levels I and II, I knew nothing more about this wonderful healing modality than what I had learned from a five minute introduction at a Hospice volunteer training class and what I had picked up from the book "Essential Reiki" by Diane Stein...basically just enough information for me to know with absolute certainty that I wanted to learn all I could about Reiki and how I could use it to heal myself and help those around me.

I took my first class locally and got my Reiki I and II certifications, and began practicing on myself, my family, friends and Hospice patients. The manual for my Reiki I/II class was written by William Lee Rand of the International Center for Reiki Training (ICRT), and in doing additional reading and research, it quickly became apparent to me that William had taken Reiki to a whole new level of professionalism in the Western hemisphere with extensive research and well-defined curricula for each level of training and certification.

I soon became drawn to an offering for an Advanced/Master class being held within commuting distance of my home and signed up immediately since the instructor was William Lee Rand himself. I completed this class and received my Master/Teacher certification. The intensity of this experience and the knowledge shared by William quickly made me realize that my earlier Reiki training was potentially somewhat lacking since I had not studied with a teacher certified or licensed by the ICRT, and I went searching for an ICRT teacher offering Reiki I/II in the near future so I could re-take it and see what I missed. I was sure that there would be different nuances to the course material as presented by different instructors, and also felt that since I now had a lot more knowledge and experience with Reiki under my belt, I would have more insight to the material and would probably get more out of it. I was also very curious to experience different teaching methods as I build my own teaching practice.

The closest ICRT licensed offering I could find was in Buffalo NY, about a five hour drive from home. The instructor was ICRT senior licensed teacher Carolyn Musial of Mystic Wolf Healing Arts. I registered for Carolyn's class.

Now this article is not meant to be a review of Carolyn's class, but I will say that if you ever have the opportunity to study with this remarkable woman, jump on it. She has exceptional subject matter expertise, and is compassionate, caring, interesting and dedicated to sharing and teaching Reiki. Once again, Reiki brought me to the right teacher for this point in my journey.

As an interesting side note...there were two other students in this I/II class with Carolyn that had also been in my ART/Master class with William so I was not the only one impressed with ICRT credentialed training.

One of the things a student learns during a Reiki II class in addition to the traditional laying on of hands for channeling Reiki is how to use some alternate Japanese Reiki techniques for healing. For most of the practice exercises with these Japanese techniques, the students each worked with a randomly selected classmate as a partner. Since there were nine students in the class, for some exercises, Carolyn herself had to participate to partner with a student for an even number of teams. For one such exercise, I had the good fortune to be partnered with Carolyn myself.

The technique that Carolyn and I used was a non-contact method of sending Reiki with the eyes called Gyoshi Ho. For the first part of the exercise, I was on the receiving end, and then we reversed roles and I sent Reiki to Carolyn. I was familiar with Gyoshi Ho since this was not my first Reiki II class, and I often use it with bedridden or comatose Hospice patients, but until I learned from Carolyn's instruction how to best use this tool, I never had an experience anything like what I enjoyed in this class.

While on the receiving end, I simply closed my eyes to enjoy the incoming Reiki, not really expecting anything in particular but open to whatever the experience provided. I immediately felt heat in my throat chakra which was strong and steady, staying there for several minutes before drifting down to my heart chakra for a time, then returning to my throat. There was a brief but definite feeling of the energy going up to my third eye chakra as well, but it kept returning to my throat as if it was anchored there. The whole experience made my ethereal body from my forehead to my chest feel very warm, balanced and centered. There was an unusual but unquestionable feeling during this session that Carolyn was less than an inch away from me when if fact she was seated several feet away. This is hard to describe since it was more of a feeling of the two of us as featureless masses of energy in extremely close proximity than a feeling of our physical bodies standing that close, but it was very real and undeniable.

After this portion of our session was done, Carolyn told me that she was drawn to my throat and heart chakras and spent most of the session sending Reiki there, although she had also sent some for a brief moment to my third eye - this was an EXACT match for what I had experienced...not just close or vaguely similar...precisely exact! This woman's well developed ability to channel Reiki is crazy good!

I told her about the feeling that we were only an inch or so apart, and she replied that it was true of our energies, although it was my field as the receiver that was drawn to hers rather than the other way around. What an amazing experience.

Now it was my turn...the amateur...to use Gyoshi Ho to channel Reiki to my instructor...Carolyn Sensei (the Japanese term of honor for a skilled teacher). Carolyn closed her eyes and I began using the Gyoshi Ho technique. I was immediately drawn to Carolyn's third eye chakra and just slightly lower, to the area of her eyes. As I allowed the Reiki to flow from my eyes, her face immediately lost all of its features and appeared as just a grey cloud. I could not see her eyes or anything else in that area...just the outline of her head with her eyes and forehead obscured by a grey cloud, and a thin white aura with hints of green and blue layers towards the upper left. Very strange. After a while, my eyes were briefly drawn down to the tops of her knees, which I interpret in a seated client as a pathway to the root chakra. But this did not last long and Reiki called me back to the third eye area just above her physical eyes.

Now came the time for Carolyn to tell me what she experienced, and I nearly fell out of my chair when she said something very close to: "I felt like my eyes were bulging out of my head. The entire feeling was centered on my eyes, although I briefly felt something in my hands (which were resting on the tops of her knees)."

She went on to explain that in Gyoshi Ho, it is possible for the practitioner to experience the graying out of the features just as I did and sometimes this escalates to portions of the client's body becoming transparent or disappearing altogether. She added that this could progress to seeing other faces in the clients energy field which could be spirit guides or past lives for either the sender or the recipient. If our session had continued beyond the few minutes allowed for this as a classroom exercise, I might well have had that experience as well.

Imagine the boost this experience gave to my already strong belief in Reiki and the confidence it gave me to move forward in my teaching practice. The right teacher at the right time in my journey to be sure...amazing!

Thank you Carolyn Sensei! Thank you Reiki! Thank you God!

Just for today...be grateful!

Bob McGrath
Master Practitioner/Teacher
Pathways to Harmony