What is the difference between Reiki and energy healing?

The core difference is actually the affiliation - Reiki is a specific school with standardized inheritance under the energy healing system, and energy healing is the collective name for all healing techniques that focus on adjusting the subtle energy field of the human body. To put it bluntly, all reiki belongs to energy healing, but energy healing is not limited to reiki.

I have been practicing in the field of mind, body and soul for almost 8 years. The first thing I learned about was Usui Reiki. Later I also came into contact with different energy healing techniques such as singing bowls, quantum touch therapy, and crystal arrangement. The difference between the two is particularly easy to understand when it comes to actual scenarios. Last week a girl came to me for emotional counseling. She had done crystal therapy in another studio before. When she entered the room, she swept the crystal stones on my table. She lay down on the healing bed and asked me if I wanted to place stones of corresponding colors on her chakras first. After lying there for ten minutes, she curiously asked me why I just hung my hands above her shoulders and neck without even drawing a symbol? I made an analogy with her at the time. If energy healing is compared to the entire Chinese food system, then Reiki is the fish-flavored shredded pork in Sichuan cuisine. It is a specific dish with a fixed formula and fixed operating procedures. If you order it from different restaurants, as long as it is a serious Sichuan cuisine, the taste will not be much different. ； But Chinese food is more than just fish-flavored shredded pork. There are thousands of dishes from the eight major cuisines, all different in sweet, salty, sour and spicy. Even the tableware and cooking techniques used are very different. This is also true in energy healing.

The formal Usui Reiki inheritance is very clear. From getting started to being able to heal others, you have to go through the "initiation" ceremony of the instructor of the corresponding level, learn the fixed Reiki symbols, persistence rules, and even the five codes of conduct that have been passed down for hundreds of years. The entire learning and operation framework is stuck. Even if Reiki masters from different countries do not have much deviation in the healing process, many novices who come to energy healing will start with Reiki first, because it is not easy to go astray.

In contrast, the scope of energy healing is much broader. Singing bowl sound therapy, flower essence healing, quantum touch therapy, and even many modernly improved traditional folk healing techniques that you can usually hear can be classified as such as long as the core logic is to improve the physical and mental state by interfering with the subtle energy field outside the human body and clearing energy blockages. Within the broad category of energy healing, there are no uniform operating standards, nor are there any necessary thresholds for entry. Some schools require systematic study for three or four years before they can practice. There are also many people who are sensitive to energy who have figured out a method on their own, which can also help people around them. The degree of freedom and the degree of confusion in the entire field is much higher than that of Reiki.

Of course, until now, neither Reiki nor the entire field of energy healing has received a unified "pass" from mainstream academic circles. Researchers who agree with its effectiveness will use biofield conduction experiments and related research on quantum entanglement as evidence, believing that there is indeed a subtle energy field on the surface of the human body that can be intervened by the outside, and that adjusting the energy state can indeed have a negative impact on the body and mind.； People who don’t agree think that all hot and cold, numbness, swelling, and emotional release are just placebo effects. The so-called enlightenment and energy transfer are essentially the result of suggestion. Neither side can present any evidence that can completely defeat the other party. Ordinary people actually don’t need to worry about the authenticity. Just relax if you think it is useful. If you think it is useless, don’t step on it.

My own habit for so many years is that as long as a client comes to me with clear pathological symptoms, the first thing I say is to advise him to go to the hospital for a formal examination first. Whether it is Reiki or other energy healing, it can only be used as an auxiliary item for emotional regulation at best. If you really want to cure the disease, you will definitely not be able to hope for it.