On a visit to my general practitioner, I expressed concern about the level of anxiety I had been experiencing. Naturally, I expected him to prescribe some medication for me—or at least give me some pros and cons of each type of pill. Instead, he recommended that I join a yoga class.

I found it unusual in today’s pharmaceutical-driven healthcare industry that a doctor would even want to prescribe anything holistic, let alone vaguely spiritual. Doesn’t he know the American Dream is based on the idea of a quick fix?

Perhaps slowly the scientific West is opening itself up to the viability of Eastern intuition. No one really bats an eyelash at the idea of taking a yoga class anymore—but the gurus might argue that it’s been largely stripped of its spiritual origins in order to enter the mainstream. Still the question remains: do you have to understand or believe in something in order to benefit from its effects?

While yoga has managed to squeeze through the skeptics’ gates, most Americans still tend to roll their eyes at the mention of words such as “aura” and “chakra.” But like it or not, the vocabulary and the Eastern methods of healing are seeping into our culture. Ancient practices such as Reiki, Quantum Touch, and Qigong are being taught and practiced all over the United States.

The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine categorizes these and similar therapies as energy medicine—modalities concerning what they call “putative” energy fields, or those having yet to be measured. This is in contrast to “veritable” energy, such as biomagnetic and mechanical vibrations. But even if science won’t put its stamp of approval on something that isn’t perfectly reproducible, perhaps it’s proof of Western progress that an organization to attempt such measuring even exists.

Being citizens of the world, it would be remiss not to notice the number of cultures who believe in biofield-variety energy. The Indian know it as prana, the Polynesian have mana, the Chinese call it qi, and the Japanese have ki. The word “reiki” [pronounced ray-key] merges the Japanese term for universal energy with the word rei for higher consciousness, translating roughly to spiritually guided energy.

Deborah Roller, a Reiki master teacher in Rochester, N.Y., describes the practice as a “gentle, non-invasive form of hands-on healing that promotes relaxation, the reduction of stress, and promotes the body’s own natural healing system.” Reiki was rediscovered by Dr. Mikao Usui in Japan, and brought to Hawaii by Hawayo Takata in 1937 after she learned from one of Usui’s students. To become a practitioner one takes classes from a master, receiving “attunements” and learning how to properly access and channel the energy for healing.

Roller describes a Reiki session by explaining, “There are a series of hand positions that run down the spinal column on the front and the back.” The focus is on the client’s energy centers (also called “chakras” from the Sanskrit word for wheel), and this energy can heal both on the physical and mental/emotional levels. “Because the energy is from a higher plane, it’ll travel to go where it needs to go,” Roller said.

She’s also quick to clarify that the energy is transmitted through rather than from the practitioner, but she still experiences its effects. “Sometimes I’ll feel the energy flowing out of my palms and my hands will get hot when I get to certain parts of the person’s body during treatment,” Roller said. “Afterwards, I often feel revitalized myself. I’m not expending my energy; its just this wonderful higher vibration passing through me.”

Su Clauson-Wicker agrees: “I don’t deplete myself by doing a healing.” A practitioner of Quantum Touch, Healing Touch, and Reiki in Blacksburg, she adds that some clients are more receptive of the energy and help the process, while others “don’t seem to have that dimension or subconsciously don’t welcome it.” Perhaps a person’s level of awareness or belief can influence the outcome. But Clauson-Wicker believes everyone can benefit—even if the person is very ill and doesn’t make a full recovery. “It eases their pain and puts them in a state that’s more spiritual than physical for the transition.”

Quantum Touch is similar to Reiki but involves more breathing technique and visualizations. It was developed in the late 1970s by author and energy practitioner Richard Gordon with Robert Rasmussen. Quantum Touch is believed to raise the practitioner’s own level of vibration, and then through touch, raise the level of vibration in the client’s body. This process is called “entrainment” and has been compared to the use of a tuning fork and a guitar string.

By harmonizing her breathing—which she compared to “fire breathing” in yoga practice—and visualizing the energy sweeping through her, Clauson-Wicker said that some clients definitely feel it’s more forceful than Reiki alone. She refers to Quantum Touch as “Reiki squared.”

Qigong is a Chinese energy therapy, but unlike Reiki and Quantum Touch is not a hands-on healing. Qigong involves gentle exercises and visualizations.

Although frequently confused with the martial art Tai Chi—because they are both mind-body practices akin to moving meditation—Qigong has its origins in traditional Chinese medicine rather than fighting.

Carole McNamee of the Willowbank Creative Center in Blacksburg explains, “Subsequent leves [of Qigong instruction] involve development of skills for healing not just ourselves, but others. These techniques add an external focus.”
If you’re interested in learning more about these practices, there are several places in the New River and Roanoke valleys where you can go to experience them or become an energy healer yourself. A group of Reiki practitioners meet every Wednesday evening at Virginia Tech’s Squires Student Center to work on people in the community who need help and also each other.

Reiki classes are taught at the Blue Ridge School of Massage and Yoga in Blacksburg, at the Lifestream Center in Roanoke (scheduled for January 12-13), as well as in Blue Ridge, Va., by Lynn Boggess who is certified through the International Center for Reiki Training. Boggess also teaches Reiki to children and teens and has a class for children scheduled for February in Roanoke. Qigong classes are taught at the Willowbank Creative Center, as well as at Cherry Tree Tai Chi Qigong in Roanoke.

There is much about the energy realm that we may not fully understand, but the Western way of ignoring the unseen altogether is no doubt unwise. Whether you’re curious about the effects for body or mind, energy healing could be the supplement to modern medicine you’ve been looking for.

As Managing Editor of the New River Voice, Taryn Chase can use every bit of balancing help she can get.