The Mystery and Magic of Reiki

Pyramids of light, in a rainbow of colors, pulsing inside out in my chest. Gigantic purple petunias, like horns of light, opening and closing. Waterfalls of blue, green and pink, spilling into channels in my heart.

Those are just a few of the myriad images that rambled through my mind during my second Reiki session with practitioner Sue Fish, of Great Barrington, MA. The second session was just as awe-inspiring and relaxing as the first!

Reiki is a kind of energy channeling, performed by a practitioner who gently holds her hands over different parts of your body. We humans are -- like everything else in the Universe -- a bundle of energy packaged in the form of flesh and blood and muscles and organs and limbs. When a Reiki healer touches your body, she is trying to guide the energy in such a way as to promote healing, wherever it happens to be needed.

My second session with Sue Fish came on the heels of the worst air quality disaster I have ever lived through. Never before have I not been able to go outdoors for fear of hurting my lungs. Never before have I lived in a place -- in Berkshire County, no less -- where the air quality was worse than in most cities in India.

OK, so my lungs are sensitive, mainly because I had a LOT of radiation 20 years ago when I was in treatment for Hodgkin's lymphoma. Yesterday, my lungs burned and this morning, when the air quality alert was still in effect, I started to panic.

How lucky for me that Sue Fish texted yesterday saying that she had a last minute cancellation for a Reiki treatment.

Lying on the table, the energy sank into my chest. The shapes and colors and forms came fast and furious, a non-stop light and color show. At one point, I came to see how easily fear swells up in my chest. After a few minutes I realized I needed a break and asked Sue for a sip of water. That's when she told me that sometimes people receiving Reiki feel "extra hands" resting on their bodies.

Shortly afterward, I experienced this myself. I've had lots and lots of Reiki treatment before but this has never happened to me until today. Sue had her hands on my chest for a few minutes, and when she lifted them off, it felt like her right hand was still there!

A few minutes later, she cupped her hands around my left foot. After she removed her hands, the pressure of her hands remained.

At the end of the session, I felt like I had been, energetically speaking, cleansed and rearranged. I was so much more relaxed. And the underlying panic I'd been feeling was gone.

Reiki helped me more than I can say when I was in treatment for lymphoma. An amazing woman named Renee Gibson performed the Reiki on me -- for free, she absolutely refused to take any payment! Towards the end of the grueling regimen -- I had 13 weeks straight of chemotherapy, with five different chemo drugs -- Renee had me on the table, with her hands on my diaphragm.

Suddenly, a flicker of light appeared above me and flew out the window. Renee and I both saw it!!! I know that Reiki helped in a huge way to heal me of the cancer! I couldn't be more grateful for Reiki, then and now!

Thank you Sue for sharing your gift of Reiki with me!