Reiki: Universal Life Energy

Rating:
Summary: Nicely Neutral Or Pretty Vacant?
Review: A sweet and nice book, but still a little "vacant" to me. It contains references to eventual emotional and mental symptoms behind the causes for illnesses that can be a worth while reading if you are interested in such things.

Rating:
Summary: Nicely Neutral Or Pretty Vacant?
Review: A sweet and nice book, but still a little "vacant" to me. It contains references to eventual emotional and mental symptoms behind the causes for illnesses that can be a worth while reading if you are interested in such things.

Rating:
Summary: I cannot recommend this book.
Review: I have been a Reiki Master for 3 years & have read a number of books on the subject. This is the one I recommend to my Reiki I students over all others. A basic tutorial of the history or Reiki, as well as practical, easily understood techniques for the beginner and for teachers whose intent is to demystify the Reiki experience for their students.

Rating:
Summary: An excellent book, recomend it for all reiki one attuned.
Review: I think this really helped me get closer to understanding the metaphysical side of reiki and how it can help yourself and others. I would love to see you all read this one. Love & Light

Rating:
Summary: We need more cowbell!!!
Review: It is perhaps a sign of things to come when the most interesting thing one ponders about a book is whether the authors' names are pseudonyms not so vaguely disguised and borrowed from J.R.R. Tolkien(think Frodo Baggins and Saruman). However, the spirit communicated by Reiki: Universal Life Energy is gentle, mild, and peaceful...and that is a real plus that can't be emphasized enough. The tenderness with which Baginski and Sharamon write about reiki speaks volumes about their sincerity both as reiki practitioners and as writers. However, there are perhaps three glaring and unfortunate flaws in their efforts.

The first problem in this work was the chapter regarding reiki history. The authors relay the well-known story of Usui as a Christian minister and scholar who studied in the US. More recent research into the life of Usui suggests that this might not be the case. More problematic however, is the author's complete failure to mention Usui's life-long practice of Buddhist meditation or his extensive studies in both Tendai and Zen Buddhist traditions. Of course, while it is possible in Buddhism to be both Buddhist and another faith, such as Christian; the authors have completely failed to mention the Buddhist aspects of Usui's life and practice.

The second flaw of Reiki: Universal Life Energy is found in the chapters that relate to reiki in a professional context, specifically the suggestions regarding medical and legal issues for the reiki practitioner. The reader should be forewarned to scrutinize these chapters carefully as some of the advice would appear to open liability issues

Finally, the authors adopt literalist concretisms in chapters regarding "the meaning of illness." In other words, the authors posit every illness with a well-defined meaning, such as "Deafness: Only people who have closed themselves off to their inner voice for a long time become deaf." Clearly then, one would have to assess responsibility, and therefore blame, for the illness on the patient. While one might successfully argue that karma and the extent to which a patient has generated that karma may result in their present illness, it is highly doubtful that anyone could accurately determine the specific karma that caused the illness, much less advocate a generalization such as quoted. In point of fact, such generalizations are more likely to be considered offensive.

These flaws overwhelm what would otherwise be a fine book. The chapters exploring the techniques of Reiki and their application are numerous and quite insightful. Nonetheless, this reader is unable to recommend this particular work, especially when there are so many up-to-date publications that reach the same fine points of Reiki:Universal Life Energy while avoiding it's pitfalls.

Rating:
Summary: BORING! Outragous claims of what Reiki can do!
Review: This book has one main point to make and makes that point ad nauseum! Basically, this book seems to say that there is absolutely nothing that can't be completely healed by Reiki, including cancer and problems with animals!

The writer's state that the effects of Down's Syndrome, which they call Mongoloidsm, can be healed with Reiki! The mere fact that they refer to Down's Syndrome as Mongoloidism is offenseive. This book was written in 1985 and by then that term wasn't used anymore.

Then there's the constant use of he, him, his, and mankind to refer to all humans male and female.

There is some valuable information in this book, but not a lot. They state that Reiki cannot be taught by reading a book. So I wonder why they wrote it. This is the first book I've read on the subject and I'll probably buy more books and videos since I'm interested in the subject.

Rating:
Summary: BORING! Outragous claims of what Reiki can do!
Review: This book has one main point to make and makes that point ad nauseum! Basically, this book seems to say that there is absolutely nothing that can't be completely healed by Reiki, including cancer and problems with animals!

The writer's state that the effects of Down's Syndrome, which they call Mongoloidsm, can be healed with Reiki! The mere fact that they refer to Down's Syndrome as Mongoloidism is offenseive. This book was written in 1985 and by then that term wasn't used anymore.

Then there's the constant use of he, him, his, and mankind to refer to all humans male and female.

There is some valuable information in this book, but not a lot. They state that Reiki cannot be taught by reading a book. So I wonder why they wrote it. This is the first book I've read on the subject and I'll probably buy more books and videos since I'm interested in the subject.