Reiki
WHAT IS REIKI ENERGY?
Beginners who are newly exploring Reiki or practicing at the entry level often struggle to understand: What is Reiki Energy, where it originates, and how it operates. Theory and academic knowledge alone do not constitute Reiki. A solid foundation of essential knowledge—combined with extensive practice and direct experiential validation—is required for any Reiki practitioner to genuinely understand Reiki and distinguish it from other energy-healing modalities.
This article is written after I became a Siam Reiki teacher, following roughly 2.5 years of dedicated practice and hundreds of professional treatment sessions for which clients were willing to pay an appropriate fee. I am proud to have become a professional and evidence-based Reiki practitioner (Reiki Master), and to step into the role of a Reiki teacher only when my energy capacity, proficiency, and real-world experience were fully ready.
What is Reiki Energy and what is not?
Reiki Energy is not universal energy, life-force energy, or “spiritual energy” as commonly translated into Vietnamese. Reiki Energy originates from Spirits—conscious, non-physical entities from the highest of good – collectively known as Reiki Guides. These Guides are not inherently present with every individual; instead, they begin working with a Reiki student only after the attunement process is performed by a competent Reiki teacher.
Reiki Energy functions as an electromagnetic field. When it flows into a living body, it reorganizes the polarity of the electromagnetic particles and helps expel negative ions from the body.
Reiki is different from meditation
Reiki Energy does not come from meditation.
Meditators who “draw energy” typically rely on mental activity—visualization or imagination—to pull energy into the body, often through the crown chakra. They must consciously direct the energy with intention: guiding it to certain body parts, determining how long it stays there, or even choosing colors/ frequencies of the energy to work with.
A Reiki practitioner, on the other hand, does not use the mind to draw or direct energy. Reiki Guides stay outside the practitioner’s auric field and transfer energy through all their major and minor chakras. Decisions about blockages, positions in a body, frequencies, the number of Guides needed, or which oracles of Guides will assist in the session – all of these are determined by the Guides, not by the practitioner.
Reiki does not come from breathwork or body movement
When observing individuals practicing breathwork or movement-based modalities such as Qigong or martial arts, I sometimes notice that despite the physical motions, no actual “energy flow” is present. In more skillful practitioners, energetic changes may appear—such as shifts in aura colors, thickening of the etheric layer, or visible energy movement.
Reiki practitioners do not need any special breathing techniques or physical movements to draw in Reiki. Their only task is to place their hands correctly on the client’s body and know when the energy stop to move their hands to the next position.
Reiki Guides and Spiritual Guides
Some people believe they have spiritual guides and therefore think they can self-learn Reiki. Others who practice different energy healing modality also work with guides. So what differentiates them?
From my current experience, the key difference lies in energetic presence. In some cases, a person’s “guide” exists only as a belief rather than an actual energetic being that is present with them. In other cases, guides appear only when invoked and leave once the session ends.
For Reiki practitioners, Reiki Guides arrive after the attunement and remain continuously present outside the practitioner’s auric field. They participate in treatment sessions and remain nearby in daily life. Advanced Reiki Masters or teachers may invoke additional Guides for specific purposes, and those Guides will depart after the work is complete.
Many teachings reference spiritual guides from the 5D, 6D, or 12D dimensions, but I personally find these distinctions difficult to verify. Reiki Guides come from the highest of good and are equivalent to beings at the Arahant level of consciousness, which means they are liberated from the cycle of earthly reincarnation but still within the cosmic reincarnation cycle.
The Remarkable Benefits of Authentic/ Traditional Reiki Energy
Authentic/ Traditional Reiki delivers profound benefits to both practitioners and recipients. Some of the qualities I value most include:
- Exceptionally accessible for beginners, yet highly effective. However, becoming a Reiki Master or teacher requires extensive training.
- Extremely safe, providing healing to both practitioner and client. Unlike many energy modalities where practitioners must restore their own energy afterward, Siam Reiki practitioners become more energized and clear-minded because they do not use personal energy.
- Holistic healing across all four layers of the human system—physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual—something very few modalities can achieve. Reiki also integrates seamlessly with both modern medical treatments and traditional healing practices.
- Sustainable and balanced development for practitioners, strengthening intuitive and extrasensory abilities while offering a solid foundation for other skills and modalities.
In future articles, I will share more theoretical insights and experiential evidence from my Reiki practice.
Related article:
Reiki Attunement in Siam Reiki