E-Newsletter:
Reiki Research (07/07)

The July/August issue of Holistic Nursing Practice includes "An Integrative Review of Reiki Touch Therapy," looking at the results, implications and limitations of existing Reiki research. Just what is the state of Reiki research? Chicago Healing Studio's July e-newsletter has answers.

Areas of Research
Vitale's "Integrative Review" investigates studies that measured the effects of Reiki treatment on human subjects. These studies looked at quantitative biological changes, scores on standardized well-being tests and subjective differences reported by subjects. Other studies have examined the biological effects of Reiki on non-humans, including lab rats and bacterial cultures. Practitioner-oriented studies have measured practitioners' biological changes while giving a Reiki treatment and differences in well-being before and after giving the treatment. Experiments in medical imaging have looked for biofields.

Results and Implications
Reviewing 15 human subject studies, Vitale found significant improvements from Reiki treatment in 10 studies, and no significant results in 5. Reiki was most effective at treating pain and causing biological changes and somewhat effective treating stress and depression.

Olson, Hanson and Michaud found significant improvement in cancer patients' pain perception and biological indicators after their first Reiki session, significant improvement in pain perception after a second Reiki session 3 days later, but no significant results 3 days after the second session. They cited patients' reports that the effects of Reiki lasted 2 to 3 days, suggesting that Reiki treatments should be done twice a week for continuing results.

Rubik, Brooks and Schwartz conducted a study of the effect of Reiki on heat-shocked E. coli bacteria. They found no significant differences between the Reiki cultures and control cultures, and no consistency across practitioner performance. They did find that practitioners' reported well-being before the treatment had a significant impact, and that practitioner all rose to the same level of report well-being after the treatment. The implications are that Reiki practitioners should channel energy into themselves, or into a practice subject, just before treating a "real" client to get themselves to that higher level of well-being where their Reiki will have a significant impact.

Further study by Rubik, Brooks and Schartz compared Reiki practitioners who first treated a pain patient before treating the E. coli with practitioners who went straight to treating the E. coli. They found significant impact on the E. coli from practitioners who treated the pain patient first, but no significant impact from practitioners who did not treat the pain patient. They concluded that a "healing context" impacts the practitioner's state of mind and ability to create impactful outcomes.

Limitations
There are a small number of published research studies on Reiki, and most have been limited by small samples of subjects. Many studies lumped Reiki in with other energy healing modalities, and some combined distance healing and local treatments. Some studies are very good at describing the Reiki treatment procedures in detail, while others leave this information out. In addition to standardizing actual Reiki treatment procedures for scientific studies, sham Reiki procedures for blind control groups need to be standardized as well, although there is controversy over whether sham Reiki is truly inert.

Studies that included a non-structured interview found that subjects reported positive subjective experiences, such as less stress about childhood traumas, that were not considered possible outcomes and measured quantitatively. This suggests that more comprehensive self-reporting tests need to be developed to effectively study Reiki. Finally, many studies reported "almost significant" results of Reiki, suggesting that Reiki has consistent "subtle effects" that benefit clients but don't stand up to the rigors of modern scientific methods.

For references (works cited), email anna@chicagohealingstudio.com.

Anna Schibrowsky
Chicago Healing Studio