I did not. At the time I set up the appointment, I was skeptical on the whole practice as a hippy healing technique. Maybe they still are but here’s some things I did not expect when I went: 

First of all, when I set up the appointment with Summit Reiki I was so stressed that I couldn’t be in the same room as my girlfriend sometimes because she would say the smallest thing and it would trigger every single anxiety and nervous synapses I had. I couldn’t talk to people because it would cause stress for me to even breathe and all I wanted to do was disappear into nonexistence.  

I told the Reiki Master, the person who helps align your… chi, zen, aura? I don’t know what to call it, that I was feeling stressed and that if there was any way to work on that, that would be the best for me. Now, the exam. It started out pretty simple, lay down on this bed and she’s going do a spiritual exam of my body. Okay, sure. I feel her hands hover over my shoulder, I get warm, she continues hovering down, nothing until a little later another feeling of warmth. Ok no big deal. Rachel then proceeds to hover her hands over my head in a circle to my chest. I close my eyes, like I said I don’t really believe in a lot of this stuff, but I’m open to the chances of it helping. I start trying to picture myself in a zen moment of bliss. Where would I be happiest? Well, for some reason, The Gladiator scene where Russel Crowe walking through a wheat field touching the wheat in what he thought was Alyssum came to mind. Great, weird… I’m not dead but that’s my focus, so I hold onto it.  

The next thing I know I feel movement all around my body, it’s as though there’s a tribal war chant over a fire going on, but instead of there being a fire it’s my eyes that are firing off a whole bunch of movements. I thought Rachel was doing some weird things I hadn’t expected. Well she wasn’t! She was standing still, in the position she was in when I closed my eyes. So, being crazy I closed my eyes again… about 30 seconds later while the drumming and dancing in my mind is going off, I hear and feel a thud. It was right in my sternum next to my heart. My stress levels, everything I had been worrying about the last 2 weeks became Hakuna Matata. What had to happen would happen and I have to deal with it the way I need to. Nothing physical had happened. She didn’t poke needles in me, no cotton balls set on fire, no incense flying in the air, nothing. Just energy being transferred is what it felt like. 

Post Mortem: Our discussion afterwards, she said “I could feel the stress, and also when I went over your liver, it was also warm… I don’t know what’s wrong there, but something is up.” Well medically I know there are fat cells on my liver giving me problems and I need to lose weight. But she did not know that and there was no way of her knowing.  I still don’t understand the process, but with an open mind and a willingness to have your spiritual side realigned, who knows… it could work for you! Give it a shot, with an open mind. You won’t be disappointed. 

~Benjamin