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The Reiki Alliance has
created a standard of instruction, Code of Ethics and a Review
Board. The powers of this Board are restricted to the ability
to rescind membership in the Alliance only. To my knowledge
there is no other governing body with similar powers within the
Reiki community in North America. However, Germany (and
therefore the EEC) is embarking on a program to licence all
health care practitioners including Reiki. In the future, all
practitioners will be required to have a recognized college or
university degree. The dangers of this program are not
immediately apparent. Most gifted healers work and learn
intuitively, not in a linear fashion. To coerce healers into a
standardized, linear, educational model will stifle the very
essence that is the creative life-force of this work.
Ironically, the individuals who have followed their instincts
and formed the alternative treatment therapies we now have
available, found it difficult to exist within the framework of
healthcare bureaucracy. And yet, this appears to be where it is
taking this healing art.
'Openings' to the energy
called attunements are performed by all masters from all
schools. The variables are in the number of attunements and in
the number of teachings hours.
First Degree: The Reiki Alliance,
considered the most rigorous school, stipulates that there must
be four attunements in First Degree and at least sixteen to
twenty hours of instruction. Other schools and masters perform
three, two and sometimes only one attunement with teaching times
varying down to an hour and a half. Prices vary from $260.00 to
$50.00 or less.
Second degree: The Reiki Alliance stipulates a
wait of three months, one attunement and five hours of
instruction, in two parts over a period of one or two weeks.
The initiating master may also decide that the student is not
ready for Second Degree. Others schools differ greatly. Second
Degree is often given with First Degree on the same week-end,
day or few hours or within a week after First Degree. Prices
vary from $650.00 to $50.00 or less.
Master: The Reiki Alliance requires a wait of
three years after Second Degree, a year of apprenticeship,
twenty-six treatments given by the initiating Master to the
candidate. The initiating Master decides when the student
candidate is ready. Other schools vary from several months
after Second Degree to a period of days. The student simply
indicates a desire to become a master. Prices vary from $10,000
(USD) from the Reiki Alliance to $150.00 or less.
Other Levels: Some of the Reiki "schools" have
created levels above Master Level. Those levels appear to be
available for a few hundred dollars. The teaching times seem to
vary with the school and the individual Masters.
Practitioners: First Degree is generally
considered for personal use, although in many cases you are
taught how to give a treatment to others. Second Degree is
considered by many to be the level of committment for a
practitioner. Very few Masters in Ontario provide training
specifically for practitioners. These courses are not
certified.
Note: There are good Masters and practitioners
in every school. Integrity seems to be the standard that
separates the best from the commonplace. Also, Reiki is
sometimes taught for free by independent masters who have chosen
to follow their own beliefs.
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Anyone who attends a Reiki course and is opened
to receive the energy of Reiki is given a certificate. There is
neither a board nor a committee that reviews candidates for
licences. However there is a Master review process for
membership in the Reiki Alliance.
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