The purpose of this presentation is to offer my thoughts and opinions for a way to help control the sky-rocketing costs of health care through the use of an alternative, hands-on healing practice called Reiki.
During this presentation I will introduce this ancient healing art and explain some of the science behind it. I will also explain the benefits of Reiki and tell you how it will help reduce health care costs across our great nation.
I believe that by integrating the ancient wisdom of Reiki with the modern conventional practices of western medicine we can begin to gain control of our health care. Our ancestors relied on innate wisdom passed from one generation to the next for survival. Today we have the ability to tap into the same wisdom to allow us to make optimal choices for our health and survival. One of the options available is the ancient healing tradition called Reiki.
The current costs of health care in the United States have spiraled out of control while Western Medicine has exhausted all affordable avenues in health care with the exception of complimentary options such as Reiki.
In the course of 9 years, the cost of our health care nearly doubled. In 1998, The World Health Report 2000 stated that we spent 1.26 Trillion dollars which works out to be just over 4,000 dollars per person. In 2007 the National Coalition on Health Care reported that total spending was 2.3 Trillion dollars, approximating $7,600 per person.
With the integration of subtle energy healing like Reiki in our health care system, I firmly believe that the rising costs of health care can begin to be controlled.
Through my years of studying the subtle energies of the human body, I have learned that the power to improve our health lies within each of us. Through the utilization of Reiki, we can begin to add a new dimension to healing not only people, but our ailing health care system as well.
After many years of studying subtle energies, I received my mastership in Reiki in the Fall of 2001. Shortly thereafter I started a volunteer Reiki Clinic at the Veteran’s Administration Hospital in Livermore, CA where I treated veterans recovering from surgery like amputation and patients with brain disorders such as Alzheimer’s. I ran my own Reiki healing business, I’ve co-authored a Reiki training manual with my Master, and I have taught Reiki to others. I want to be instrumental in getting Reiki clinics in more hospitals around the Bay Area and to provide Reiki treatments for patients, and therapeutic yoga for the disabled. My intent is to research and document every case that walks through the doors of my clinic to further the knowledge base of integrative healing.
I have always been passionate about Reiki, but last Christmas my passion became more intense. A close friend and professor from Las Positas Community College had a stroke. It was caused by a Cavernous Malformation in a fissure deep in her right frontal lobe. Her neurological team suspected it had been there since birth. After she finished the prescribed therapy for the stroke she was sent home. Shortly after her return home, I started giving her some Reiki sessions and took her to gentle yoga classes. I believe her recovery would have been faster, and would have saved enormous amounts of time and money if she’d had the benefits of daily Reiki sessions while in the hospital and yoga therapy combined with physical therapy at home. Since that time, she returned to the hospital for successful brain surgery to remove the Cavernous Malformation and she is fully recovered.
Many Western trained medical doctors have begun to recognize that there are things about the human body that cannot be explained within the parameters of Western medicine. This has started a surge of millions of people nation-wide to look for alternative choices for their health care. In 1990, 18 years ago, a study was conducted out of Boston’s Beth Israel Hospital and it was found that one in every three Americans has used and privately financed alternative health care in one year alone. In support of this claim, in January 2007, Cranky.com, a website devoted to the interests of Baby Boomers rated Reiki as the 4th most popular internet search in the United States.
Reiki has been around for at least 2,500 years with some claims dating all the way back to 620 B. C. E. (Before the Common Era). In ancient times only Buddhist monks were permitted to administer Reiki. The history of Reiki has been shrouded in mystery for thousands of years until it was re-discovered near the end of the 19th century by Dr. Mikao Usui. The exact date is still unknown.
Until recently, the origins of Reiki were thought to be from India, and Japan, but further research has shown its’ true roots to be Tibetan, thanks to the efforts of Reiki Master and noted author Frank Petter. Through extensive research Petter has been able to decipher and translate much of the mysterious history of Reiki.
With the true history of Reiki continuing to unravel, we can now fast forward our focus to the leading-edge discoveries of quantum physics today.
The discovery of quantum physics took place in the early part of the twentieth century. Leading scientists, physicists, and mathematicians from around the world have pushed the limits on a number of tenets that, at the heart of modern science, are held sacred. In a brief analogy, Rene’ Descartes revolutionary notion that we were represented by our minds and yet still separate from our bodies was replaced with Newton’s Law of Motion which removed the human race from the fabric of the universe. Now quantum physics enters the picture with pioneers such as Erwin Schroedinger, Werner Heisenberg, Niels Bohr, and Wolfgang Pauli.
Their discoveries enable us to attempt to grasp the deeper truth about this odd, yet fascinating subatomic world that we live in. Through the applications of mathematics and quantum physics their theories led them to the Zero Point Field.
The Zero Point Field can be described as tiny, microscopic energetic vibrations that occupy the spaces that lie in between everything—including all subatomic particles — and it’s the closest that subatomic matter ever gets to absolute zero degrees, which is minus 459* Fahrenheit. This concept stands to alter our scientific understandings and could possibly prove that the very underpinning of our universe can be visualized as a massive sea of energy: one continuous, vast, quantum field that is constantly in motion. Do we understand what that means? It means that nothing actually ever touches anything else — but it also means that everything is connected to everything else, including humans, BY ENERGETIC VIBRATION — the vibration that exists in the tiny, microscopic spaces that fill our universe.
My teachings and understandings have always been that EVERYTHING is energy, and Reiki is part of a field of medicine that is known as Energy Medicine.
Many scientists now believe that we are not chemical reactions, but that we are actually energetic quantum charges, and we are continuously exchanging information with this never-ending sea of energy.
In Reiki terms, this constant, vibrational form of communication is known as the Universal Life Force and it is something that everyone has the ability to do with a little practice and focused attention. It’s in our DNA, so to speak.
Focused attention can be described as deep mental concentration, which is associated with beta-band brain wave activity.
Intention is what results as the product of attention that has been directed to an object. Intention is associated with the beta-band frequency also.
Both focused attention and intention are usually accomplished when the Reiki practitioner goes into a meditative state prior to a Reiki session.
For years, conventional thought has been that brain waves slowed down during meditation. However there is new evidence that proves otherwise.
Neurologist and psychologist Dr. Richard Davidson at the University of Wisconsin has conducted research on the effects of focused attention and intention through the use of meditation. In 2006 he had the opportunity to explore how the mind of a Tibetan monk works, and whether years of practice of meditation could push the brain beyond its usual limits. It has been thought for years that the brain was hard wired from birth. Science now tells us that the brain is absolutely malleable, and Western medicine now knows this phenomenon as neuroplasticity.
His Holiness the Dalai Lama was captivated by Richardson’s research and sent 8 of his most experienced monks to Davidson’t lab in Wisconsin. Exhaustive studies were conducted to record the electrical activity from the brain of each monk and in different phases of meditation. According to the electroencephalograph readings, within 15 seconds of beginning their meditations, the monks’ brain waves started speeding up rather than slowing down!
The monks were each fitted with 256 electrodes to capture the brainwave activity of meditation
The monitors displayed unprecedented levels of gamma-band activity, which is the highest brain wave frequency known today at 25-70 hertz per second, which is also associated with spiritual enlightenment.
The monks were in such control of their own brain wave activity that they were able to rapidly shift from alpha-band to beta-band, then into gamma-band activity. The monks that were able to sustain gamma-band activity the longest were also the most practiced of all of the monks at meditation and could even achieve gamma levels when they were at rest.
In more recent studies done by Davidson and his team, they have demonstrated that meditation has the ability to alter brain wave patterns, even among beginners. In fact, new practitioners showed an increase of brain wave activity after only eight weeks of practice. Clearly, this is not to say that someone who has been meditating for a few weeks has the finely tuned brain of a Tibetan Buddhist monk, but it certainly makes one wonder just how much the mind can achieve in a given period of time.
I would venture to say that the mind of Reiki Master Julie Motz is capable of achieving different levels of brain wave activity at will, but probably not as readily as the monks. Motz, who is a Reiki trained healer of many years, has worked with the noted cardiothoracic surgeon Dr. Mehmet Oz. You may recognize his name from the many appearances he’s made on the Oprah Winfrey show.
Motz assisted with Dr. Oz during 11 heart transplants at Columbia Presbyterian Center in New York. Each patient was randomly selected. While working in the operating room, Julie was able to balance the energetic patterns of each patient, and it was reported that none of the 11 patients that she assisted with experienced the usual post-operative depression, pain or leg weakness.
Organ rejection is a serious consideration during transplants, yet none of the 11 patients experienced organ rejection. Organ transplant of any type is an exorbitant expense, and a 100% success rate spells out huge savings in eliminating repeat surgeries, costly hospital stays, and more expensive medications.
In the San Francisco Bay Area, Motz has worked with doctors from Marin General Hospital in Marin County, and from the Stanford Medical Center.
Dr. David Guillion, an oncologist from Marin General, is trained in Reiki and he has performed Reiki on patients in the hospital. He said, “I feel we need to do whatever in is our power to help the patient. We provide state-of-the-art medicine in our office, but healing is a multidimensional process… I endorse the idea that there is a potential healing that can take place utilizing energy”.
Institutions nationwide could learn from the California Pacific Medical Center, which is one of the largest hospitals in Northern California. Their Health and Healing Clinic is staffed by two physicians and many practitioners. The clinic is equipped with six treatment table, and the offer care for both acute and chronic illnesses. Many alternative therapies are offered including Reiki, and there is a waiting list of physicians who want to join the team.
One of the attending physicians, Dr. Mike Cantwell claims, “I have found Reiki to be useful in the treatment of acute illnesses such as musculoskeletal injury and pain, headache, acute infections, and asthma. Reiki is also useful for patients with chronic illnesses, especially those associated with chronic pain”.
A patients’ mental attitude can make all the difference in the success of a procedure or surgery. Just the fact that Reiki helps to reduce the fear and anxiety of a pending surgery can prove to be of value to the doctors performing the surgery.
As more medical professionals who are educated in the Western schools of medicine begin to understand some of the science behind the claims of energy medicine, more help will be made available to everyone.
More research needs to be conducted on the efficiency of Reiki in as many practices of medicine as possible Practitioners who are willing to go into surgery with a surgical team should be encouraged to do so, and documentation must be made so that we can gain the knowledge we need to help improve our health care.
We have a responsibility to ourselves and to the generations who will follow after us to take the health care dilemma of our great nation and get it turned around. As a result, someday we will be seen as the wise ancient ones who turned an important corner in medical history.
