Most people who have heard of Reiki know it as an in-person practice. You go to a Reiki studio or a spa, and you lie on a table or a bed. The practitioner holds their hands above your body or lightly touches you, and you receive the energy.
That is only one way of doing Reiki, though. It’s a modality that works in an ethereal space and does not require physical proximity. If you cannot make it to a spa, or you would prefer to receive the session in total privacy, you can do so with a distance Reiki session.
Here are some signs that distance Reiki might be better for you than in-person Reiki:
1. You Don’t Live Near a Reiki Practice
In the U.S., Reiki is heavily concentrated in affluent metro areas, especially in the Boston to D.C. corridor and along the West Coast. This is because of its associations with consumer wellness and New Age beliefs (though I’m not New Age). Millions of people don’t live anywhere near those places. If you’re in a rural area, a lower-income district, or a less wellness-focused city, going to an in-person Reiki session isn’t just inconvenient – it can be impossible.
However, you are still a person, and you still have spiritual energy that may need work. That’s where distance Reiki comes in. It fills the gap between need and access by creating an at-home healing space. The universality of distance Reiki decouples it from its image as a suburban lifestyle choice, and brings it back to its roots in Japan, where Mikao Usui and his students used it as a practical tool to help heal pain and illness.
And, of course, distance Reiki saves money on gas. This applies to anyone, even those who live near a practice.
2. You’re Too Busy to Drive to a Separate Location
You may be interested in Reiki, but you don’t have time to drive to a practice, sit in a waiting room, and drive back. Perhaps you have children or pets at home who need care. Or you’re a college student without a car on campus and/or you have too much homework to take half a day to go to a spa. You can’t easily take time for rest. With distance Reiki, all you have to do is click on a link and sit in a quiet room for as long as you can spare.
A major demographic for Reiki, I think, is those who have demanding jobs but can spare a 30-minute lunch break while receiving Reiki. A distance Reiki session can fit perfectly into this kind of schedule, and it serves as an energetic reset so that you can go back to work refreshed.
Asynchronous sessions work particularly well if your situation matches any of these. You don’t even have to get on a call with this type of session. We just schedule a time, and you try to focus on the energy, but if you can’t consciously focus on it, that’s fine. It will still work. This means you can schedule it during a work meeting or a class if you have no free time.
3. You Feel Sick or Exhausted
One of the most common applications for Reiki is to directly work on illness and exhaustion. That was the original purpose of Japanese Reiki, and it is still used for that today in the West. The traditional in-person format of Reiki, though, is difficult for someone who is exhausted and hazardous (in the sense of illness contagion) for someone who is sick.
If you’re sick, don’t go out to a Reiki studio just to seek healing. Distance Reiki is much better, particularly asynchronous Reiki, in which you can just lie in bed and not have to appear on camera. You won’t have to exert yourself, and you won’t be spreading illness.
When you’re tired, too, it can be hard to get out of the house. The stress of driving and interacting with people can decrease your body’s openness to Reiki by locking down your energy centers. Receiving Reiki over a video call or asynchronously can provide you with the deep rest you need.
4. Your Family or Peers Wouldn’t Accept You Receiving Reiki
This is a more sensitive sign, as it speaks to the way Reiki is viewed in society. Some religious groups and individuals misinterpret it and think it is demonic, and other people think it is embarrassing, intellectually unsound, or “woo-woo” to accept energy healing.
On the religious side, Reiki is religiously neutral and is based on energies that have been observed for millennia. In its original form, it does not come from occult sources. Modern practitioners have added New Age ideas to their own practices, but Usui Reiki itself does not depend on them.
On the scientific side, I think the current marginalization of it is because of the historically recent emphasis on science (dating from the Enlightenment) to the exclusion of old wisdom. The common skeptical attack that “there’s limited evidence for its effectiveness” fundamentally ignores the narrowness of empiricism and its inability to measure individualized and non-physical phenomena. It treats Western peer-reviewed studies as sources of absolute truth, with no possible flaws or design limitations.
In a modality designed to work on an individual’s unique energetic blueprint, you cannot force the same result in 2,000 people in a double-blind study. Further, no Reiki practitioner can be methodologically blind – it’s impossible to give real Reiki without a conscious attunement.
I, of course, think that such thinking, known as scientism, is arrogant. However, you may not live with people who think the way I do.
If you are seeking healing but you can’t receive it with the knowledge of your family, or you can’t explain where you just went for 90 minutes without aggressive questioning, distance Reiki is best for you. A live Reiki session is silent and can be held when you are sitting at your computer alone. An asynchronous session is even less traceable.
5. You Don’t Feel Comfortable Lying in a Room with a Stranger
In-person Reiki has one major requirement: you have to be able to lie flat in an enclosed room while a stranger touches you or holds their hands above your body. You cannot move, you cannot get up without saying something, and you paid for an entire session, so you are not able to easily leave.
For reasons that you may not be able to process in yourself – traumatic memories, fears, claustrophobia – that might not be possible.
The good thing is, you do not have to do something that makes you uncomfortable just to receive healing. Distance Reiki removes the barriers. You get to be in your own house. No one is standing over you, no one is touching you, and you can walk around and move, especially if it’s an asynchronous session (which is entirely your choice). If it’s a live video call, I’m just a silent face on a screen, and you are looking at me eye-to-eye, on an equal plane.
Conclusion
You can benefit from energy healing, regardless of where you live or what your life situation is. If you have logistical, physiological, relational, or psychological needs that make it impossible or not feasible for you to receive in-person Reiki, then distance Reiki is an easy, accessible alternative. Check out my services page or my Reiki offerings if you’d like to start your distance healing journey!
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