A Look at One Form of Alternative Healthcare: Reiki

June 17, 2000

Jack Raso, M.S., R.D.
American Council on Science and Health

(from "Alternative" Healthcare: A Comprehensive Guide, Prometheus Books, 1994)

Reiki, a variant of the laying on of hands, is not only a type of bodywork but a form of energy field work. Energy field work overlaps with bodywork and encompasses all methods involving aura analysis and aura balancing, with or without touch. One practitioner I contacted, whose fee was $90 per two-hour session, described reiki as "a modality based more on energy than on pressure." A flyer from the Loving Touch Center of New York describes it as a 2,500-year-old "natural Tibetan healing art" that is "not a religion" and "does not require a belief system to work." Proponents recommend reiki as a complement to acupressure, acupuncture, the Alexander technique, chiropractic, homeopathy, polarity balancing, rolfing, therapeutic touch and yoga.

Keepers of the 'Sacred System'
In the United States, the three dominant reiki organizations are the American Reiki Master Association (ARMA) in Lake City, Fla.; the Radiance Technique Association International, Inc., in St. Petersburg, Fla.; and the Reiki Alliance, which has offices in Cataldo, Idaho, and Amsterdam, the Netherlands. The Reiki Alliance's March 1993 membership list included 515 people in twenty-five states and twenty-eight other countries. In August 1993, ARMA had thirty-one "master teachers" in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Central America, and Switzerland. The Journal of the American Reiki Master Association promotes nutritional supplementation, aromatherapy, astrology, aura balancing, chakra balancing, crystal therapy, guided visualization, the kofutu system, mahikari, numerology, "psychic prayer," radionics, reflexology, shiatsu, tarot training, and urine therapy. Rev. Arthur L. Robertson, Ph.D., founded ARMA in 1988. His business card designates him a "sacred scientist." In response to my telephone request for information, Robertson mailed me a stapled handbook that included the notice:

This manual contains the sacred and hidden secrets of reiki. Do not leave your manual laying around where others can find it and read it. This is a "sacred system," and should be guarded and protected as such.

ARMA is an "outreach" of a church called the Omega Dawn Sanctuary of Healing Arts, which shares ARMA's address. Through this church, Robertson markets the "Antahkarana Master Frequency Unit," a "perpetual self-empowered broadcaster." He claims that the joint use of three of these units effects remission from AIDS in about an hour and a half. The device allegedly relieves other illnesses -- such as Alzheimer's disease, cancer, and multiple sclerosis -- "virtually instantaneously." The large model costs $375 and the small one $150. Other "powerful healing devices" range in price from $49 to $375.

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American Council on Science and Health
http://www.acsh.org/
Date Published: June 17, 2000
Date Reviewed: June 17, 2000

Founded in 1978, and directed and advised by the world's leading scientists, physicians, and policy advisors -- ACSH is is a nonprofit, consumer education organization dedicated to providing the public with mainstream scientific information on issues related to food, nutrition, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, lifestyle, the environment and health.