Reiki Research
Research has demonstrated the objective effectiveness of Reiki for emotional distress and pain in animals, as well as for humans having many types of medical and psychological issues.
"Reiki Improves Heart Rate Homeostasis in Laboratory Rats" (Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, 14(4):417-422, 2008) is particularly relevant. Highly accurate telemetric implants were used to transmit the biometric data. In this study (which I do not condone, being opposed to animal research), white noise was used to increase the heart rate of implanted laboratory rats. This ongoing noise was used to keep them in a highly stressful state.
The rats were treated by a Reiki practitioner and a sham Reiki practitioner, prior to being exposed to white noise, and also after exposure. The procedure involved the practitioner directing their hands toward the caged rat at a distance of four feet. The rats that received Reiki experienced a significant reduction in heart rate, both before having their heart rates elevated by white noise and after, whereas those treated with sham Reiki did not. This is one of the most rigorous Reiki studies to date and demonstrates that Reiki promotes homeostasis and healthy heart function, while reducing stress and anxiety.
In the study "The effect of Reiki on pain and anxiety in women with abdominal hysterectomies" (Holistic Nursing Practice, 20(6):263-272), Reiki was also shown to reduce both pain and anxiety in women having hysterectomies. After three 30-minute Reiki treatments (one before surgery, two after), women asked for less pain medication and reported less pain after surgery. They also reported less anxiety, and left the hospital three days earlier than women who did not receive Reiki.
The NIH's National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine has performed much research showing Reiki's ability to reduce stress and to help patients with advanced AIDS, fibromyalgia, diabetes, and prostate cancer. (The benefits to these patients are especially significant because they're among those Western medicine finds hardest to treat, such as chronic pain sufferers, AIDS patients, and heart attack victims.) These studies show Reiki to be associated with:
- reduced pain
- decreased stress hormones
- improved immune indicators
- improved blood pressure
- improvements in anxiety
- reduced fatigue
- decreased heart rate
- improved mood
- improved functioning in depressed patients
- increased feelings of well-being and vitality
Cheri Herrmann, a RN at New York Queens Hospital, gave Reiki treatments to pregnant women admitted to the hospital with either early labor or preeclampsia. These women also received standard medical care, including magnesium sulfate intravenous therapy, which often results in complaints of headaches, visual disturbances, and lethargy. The women receiving Reiki treatment complained much less frequently of such side-effects, including feeling less emotionally drained, less tense, fewer headaches, less exhaustion, and less visual discomfort (eye pain, eye pressure, blurred vision). A Reiki program has been since integrated into the New York Queens Hospital labor unit.
A search of PubMed and other medical databases provides many more research studies concluding that Reiki is objectively effective, and not attributable to the placebo effect. A review of some of these studies, "An Integrative Review of Reiki Touch Therapy Research" by Anne Vitale, Ph. D., can be found at this link.
In the study "Autonomic Nervous-System-Changes During Reiki Treatment: A Preliminary Study" (Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine, 10(6):1077-81, 2004), 45 subjects were assigned randomly to three groups. One group received no treatment at all, another received Reiki treatment, and the third group received a sham treatment by a person with no Reiki training (who used the same hand positions as those receiving real Reiki).
Measurements were then made of heart rate, cardiac vagal tone, blood pressure, cardiac sensitivity to baroreflex, and breathing. Heart rate and diastolic blood pressure decreased significantly for those receiving Reiki, but not for those receiving sham Reiki, or no treatment. This study indicates that the human body responds significantly to Reiki energy and that the results are not based on psychological factors.
In the study "Long term effects of energetic healing on symptoms of psychological depression and self-perceived stress" (Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine, 10(3) 42-48, 2004), the benefits of Reiki for depressed individuals was demonstrated. Participants were divided into three groups: hands-on Reiki, distant Reiki, and distant sham Reiki. The groups were assessed before and after treatment with standard psychological assessments (the Beck Depression Inventory, the Beck Hopelessness Scale, and the Perceived Stress Scale).
Both the hands-on Reiki and distant Reiki groups reported significant reduction in depression, hopelessness, and stress, compared with the sham Reiki group, whose results were comparable with the placebo effect. Even more significantly, the benefits to the two Reiki groups were still demonstrated when they were retested a year later, even though they had received no further Reiki treatments.
