{"id":2043,"date":"2008-02-10T23:59:18","date_gmt":"2008-02-11T03:59:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com\/blog\/?p=2043"},"modified":"2026-07-19T14:22:03","modified_gmt":"2026-07-19T21:22:03","slug":"us-news-world-report-alternative-medicine-goes-mainstream","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com\/blog\/us-news-world-report-alternative-medicine-goes-mainstream\/","title":{"rendered":"US News & World Report: “Alternative Medicine Goes Mainstream”"},"content":{"rendered":"

According to the January 21, 2008 US News & World Report<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/a>, alternative medicine has gone mainstream. The cover story article states:<\/p>\n

Doctors don’t like the term “alternative medicine.” They use words like complementary or integrative. But they’re paying attention. From yoga to acupuncture, unconventional ways to treat illness are showing promise.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

One of the practices discussed at length in the article is a practice called Reiki, which is quickly growing in popularity. Some figures show that there are over one and a half million Reiki channelers in the US alone. And in Germany over a million people have been initiated into Reiki. Other countries follow suit.<\/p>\n

For Christians who are familiar with the term Reiki, the idea that it is becoming mainstream along with other techniques, should be quite troubling. According to one large Reiki organization, Reiki can be defined as “a non-physical healing energy made up of life force energy that is guided by the Higher Intelligence, or spiritually guided life force energy.” 1<\/span><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Is this “Higher Intelligence” the God of the Bible, the one and only true God? We don’t believe it is, and yet even Christian organizations and churches are embracing Reiki just as they are embracing other mystical practices such as contemplative prayer.<\/p>\n

Research analyst Ray Yungen explains how this can be happening: “The reason for this level of acceptance is easy to understand. Most people, many Christians included, believe if something is spiritually positive then it is of God.” Yet Yungen points out: “While this is not widely advertised, Reiki practitioners depend on this spirit guide connection as an integral aspect of Reiki.” And here lies the problem.<\/p>\n

Mike Oppenheimer (Let Us Reason) explains the origins of Reiki:<\/p>\n

Reiki is the Japanese word for Universal Life Form Energy. The definition for Reiki is universal, transcendental spirit, power, and essence. The Rei and ki are broken down into their two component parts, (Kanji Japanese alphabet) it is described as the vital life form energy similar to the Chi of Chinese acupuncture. In the Encyclopedia of Alternative Health Care, author Kristin Olsen says Reiki is “an energy healing system based on ancient Tibetan knowledge discovered by a Japanese theologian.”2<\/span><\/strong><\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

How does it work? Oppenheimer explains:<\/p>\n

Reiki is a “laying on of hands” healing. Reiki today is an energy technique that is passed along from Reiki masters to initiates…. [T]hese Reiki masters themselves don’t understand how it works. They can only describe it as a linking with the cosmic radiant energy, an opening of chakras, or an attunement with universal life energy.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Yungen says that one of the main reasons Reiki has become so popular is its apparently pleasurable experience. “Those who have experienced Reiki report feeling a powerful sense of warmth and security. One woman, now a Reiki master, remarked after her first encounter: ‘I don’t know what this is you’ve got but I just have to have it” (FMSCN<\/em>, ch. 6). But as Yungen points out, Reiki is dangerous and has serious spiritual implications:<\/p>\n

What Reiki is really about is using this power to transform others into New Age consciousness. As one Reiki leader states:<\/p>\n

[I]t also makes a level of spiritual transformation available to non-meditators, that is usually reserved for those with a meditative path.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Statements like this reveal that Reiki is in line with all the other New Age transformation efforts. It changes the way people perceive reality. Most practitioners acknowledge the truth of this. A German Reiki channeler makes this comment:<\/p>\n

It frequently happens that patients will come into contact with new ideas after a few Reiki treatments. Some will start doing yoga or autogenous training or start to meditate or practise [sic<\/em>] some other kind of spiritual method…. Fundamental changes will set in and new things will start to develop. You will find it easier to cast off old, outlived structures and you will notice that you are being led and guided more and more.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

What concerns me is that Reiki apparently can be combined with regular massage techniques without the recipient even knowing it. A letter in the Reiki Journal<\/em> reveals:<\/p>\n

Reiki is a whole new experience when used in my massage therapy practice. Massage, I thought, would be an excellent tool to spread the radiance of this universal energy and a client would benefit and really not realize what a wonderful growth was happening in his or her being.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Since Reiki is not something taught intellectually even children can be brought into it. In one Reiki magazine, I found an ad that was offering a Children’s Reiki Handbook: A Guide to Energy Healing for Kids<\/em>. The book is described as a “guide that provides kids with what they need to prepare for their first Reiki Attunement.” (for notes, see For Many Shall Come in My Name<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/a>, pp. 78-81)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

If US News & World Report <\/em>is correct in their assessment that Reiki, Yoga, and other types of healing practices are now mainstream, then Reiki is here to stay. One can only wonder if Reiki is going to become as popular in Christian circles as Yoga now has. If it does, then as with contemplative spirituality, the spiritual lives of countless people will be jeopardized and the Gospel of Jesus Christ seriously compromised.<\/p>\n

For further research:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yoga<\/strong><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Reiki<\/span><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

READER COMMENTS:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Thank you for your article on reiki spiritualism. I’d like to give my two cents, having had a friend who was highly involved with the practices.<\/p>\n

We would go out to dinner together and he would try and ‘channel’ his ‘powers’ in order to change the temperature of the room or to heal peoples’ headaches. He thinks that the utilization of his own soul power or ‘chakra’ and channeling (demon possession) will eventually, through practice, give him special superhuman abilities to heal people and raise others from the dead. He talked very highly of all of this.<\/p>\n

The only thing he and I could ever agree upon was this ‘age of aquarius’, what I believe is referred to biblically as the ‘days of noah’, or the end of the world. He (and all of my other new age friends) know very well that in the past, an age existed that was entirely wicked and perverse (the pre-flood days) and soon the whole world will unite under and revert back to those days, practicing demon possession and sorcery and claiming themselves as gods. And they all wait with eagerness for this as if it were not wicked, but very good. I tell them I agree that this time will occur, but that it will be a time of great evil, not good, and that Jesus Christ will come back to set things straight. Of course they disagree.<\/p>\n

Something interesting though that must be noted. My reiki friend also told me that as he got more involved with reiki practices, he would be tormented and chased by ‘dark forces’. Of course we know very well what this is, but he thinks he can control them with his own powers, which he has consistently failed to do in the time I was with him.<\/p>\n

We must make sure Christians know exactly what this reiki spiritualism is because it is highly experiential and often takes the form of light, healing and performing miracles among men.<\/p>\n

That’s it. Thank you again and grace with you always.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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