It was a chilly, overcast Sunday morning as I hopped in my car to make an hour-long trek down to Bethany, CT. The purpose of this trip was to attend a Reiki Level I Attunement class held by New Haven Reiki owner, Craig Gilbert.

I met Craig Gilbert about 3 years ago while attending meditation/discussion meetings with the Elm City Dharma Collective group in Hamden, CT. I appreciated Craig for his open mindedness, intelligence humor and upon learning of his Reiki Level I training class, I jumped at the opportunity to gain some hands on knowledge and to do a little Q (see Interviews) with the man himself.

As I made the drive down, I listened to the album by Sigur Ros for some calming ambiance (hear some Sigur Ros ambiance right here). I made the decision commitment to myself that no matter how much I liked Craig as a person, I was going to be completely objective about this experience and write about it exactly as I experienced it, for better or worse. Thankfully, it was for the better!

I arrived in Bethany just shy of 11am and became aware of some minor anxiety arising as I gathered my things to go inside. I wasn nervous about the class, and I already knew Craig, so I wasn quite sure why I was experiencing it. It wasn long after we sat down and started talking a bit about what the day had in store before I realized why my insides were a bit out of whack.

While Reiki has an overall calming peaceful effect on those whom have it done, it can sometimes bring things up from deep within ourselves. Things from our past that one may have long since forgotten about.

have been going really well in my life I thought, I really want to go stirring anything up!? You see, the way Reiki works is that it like a pipe cleaner, and in order to get our energies flowing more smoothly, it needs to clean said pipes. Some pipes are clogged more than others, some you have to scrub a little bit tougher, but once you do, they are free again to shine as those they were brand new.

Here a little more about Reiki before I get into my experience; Reiki (pronounced ray-key) is a centuries old, hands-on technique that reduces stress and brings about relaxation. Reiki is directed and guided by the Reiki practitioner through their hands, which are placed on the recipient in a number of different places on the body. Reiki also promotes healing, and facilitates and assists other forms of Western medicine. It is now being recognized, and used in hospitals (including Yale New Haven).

The class began by Craig asking some general questions such as do you do for work? do you do for fun? do you know about Metaphysics? are you interested in learning Reiki? To answer the last question, Reiki is something I really wasn all that familiar with. I known people who either practice it or have had it done to them, but I never experienced it myself nor really read up on it. After researching it a bit online, I figured if I was going to really learn experience Reiki, that I was going to have to do it hands-on.

At the class, I was provided with an to Reiki: Level I Confirmation Notebook which was used as the guide throughout the class. Craig began reading from the manual, describing what Reiki is, and what being a Reiki practitioner means. I was happy to hear it stated early on that Reiki is completely dogma free, with no belief systems attached to it. As stated in the notebook we were to do a search on the internet under we would find Buddhist Reiki, Christian Reiki, New Age Reiki, Celtic Reiki, Jewish Reiki and just about any other spiritual mindset attached to Reiki went on to explain and the three at the base of the Reiki system, which are Earth Ki, Heaven Ki and Heart Ki. To summarize the three the Earth Ki is the energy that we are born with which never diminishes. It is located 2-3 inches below the belly button, on the belt line called the hara. The Heaven Key is the polar opposite of the Earth Ki, as it is not as heavy or solid and is a direct connection to the less physical. It is traditionally associated with the top of the head, or area The Heart Ki is located in the middle of our chest, between the Heaven Earth Ki, and can be symbolized as a representation of where we are in our daily lives.

Usui Mikao

We then went on to the shrouded history of Reiki. Two of the more common reasons it historical accuracy is difficult to confirm is 1) there weren many written documents since the systems inception and 2) Reiki had a very private secretive way during it early times of use. Westerners were not seen as worthy of learning about Eastern culture, especially spirituality. The one concrete aspect of Reiki, which is consistent in any aspect of Reiki history, is its creator, Usui Mikao. Craig went on to give more detail about Usui Mikao and his revelation of as well as the lineage of how it found its way to the west, through student Hawayo Takata.

Hawayo Takata

We then took a lunch break in which Craig and I had an interesting talk about CT abandoned mental institutions (there are more than you think), and about some of the area more interesting graveyards to visit. I think the topic of Zombies found their way into the conversation at some point too.

After lunch, Craig broke down the Reiki lineage from it inception to the point of us sitting together in his living room which I thought was really neat, and here how it went;

Usui Mikao taught... Chujiro Hayashi who taught... Hawayo Takata who taught... John Gray and Barbara McCullough who taught... Judy-Carol Stewart and Maggie Chambers who taught... Libby Barnett, Pamela Potter and Gigi Benanti who taught... Clair Bessinger and Alice Mindrum who taught... Craig Gilbert who taught... Me. Craig then bestowed the Reiki blessing/confirmation on me. It consisted of me sitting on a massage table with my hands in (prayer form) over my heart. Craig did various hand movements over my back and shoulders as I sat, feeling very peaceful. I then moved my hands in to my third eye area (forehead) as he continued with various hand formations and breath techniques. My hands ended in front of my belly, placed upwards, cupped as though I were having water poured into them. After what seemed to be as quickly as it began, the blessing/confirmation was over.

We then moved on to the Elements (Gokai) of Reiki. The first element is Five Precepts which was initially written as a poem by Usai. It said Secret of inviting happiness through many blessings, the spiritual medicine for all illnesses which has since been translated to a more contemporary, user friendly version: Just for today, Do not anger (1), Do not worry (2), Be humble (3), Be honest in my work (4) Be compassionate to myself and others (5).

The second element is Methods and Meditations (Kokyo Ho) This roughly translates into a pretty traditional form of meditation with its own minor adjustments.

The third element is Palm Healing This element deals with the healing of energies through the use of the practitioners hands.

The fourth element is Symbols and Mantras (Shirushi and Jumon). This element is geared towards the second level of Reiki Confirmation, which deals with the use of Reiki symbols and mantras.

The fifth element is Spiritual Blessing or Reiki Confirmation (Reiju) which is performed by a Reiki Master on a Reiki practitioner.

The last steps of this confirmation consisted of learning Treatment in which I placed my hands in various, traditional Reiki positions starting at my head and working down to my feet. From there I learned of Others which was basically the same as treating myself, but with slight hand variations.

The very end of class was really the of truth as I received my first Reiki session. It last about 15-20 minutes and was like Valium without taking Valium, or for those of you who aren familiar with Valium, it was reaaaally peaceful! Not to be clich but I literally did feel light as a feather about half way through the session which lasted all the way through the time I reached home in Vernon.

This was a truly wonderful experience for me. Today I fell in love with Reiki. The beautiful thing is that it a completely egoless act where the practitioner acts as nothing more than a conduit for the universal energy to flow through. We all have this capability. There is nothing special about a Reiki practitioner, and if you ever meet one who says otherwise, run the other way! The only difference between a Reiki practitioner and your average Joe is they learn how to open themselves more to allow the energy to flow smoother, so that they may be more at peace, as well as transmit that energy to others and help clean those pipes up a bit.

Today experience most certainly exceeded my expectations. I very grateful to Craig Gilbert for the transmission of his Reiki knowledge to me and look forward to further exploration into the practice of Reiki.