First, Do No Harm

Article by Brooke Chang

Every healer has heard the mantra, “Do No Harm.” As a Reiki practitioner for 10 years, I have come across a few Reiki practitioners who have forgotten this mantra. The greatest concern is that Reiki practice is unregulated in many states and countries. Therefore, Reiki practitioners can advertise and make claims with impunity and without many legal consequences. This concern coupled with clients, many who are desperate for any relief from pain and mental anguish will believe what we tell them and what they want to hear.

Case in point, I recently read in a blog that a Reiki practitioner claims to be able to cure and rid a client’s malignant cancer tumor, and discouraged her from receiving traditional medical treatment involving a surgery. This practitioner claimed that she was able to save this client’s life only with Reiki without any traditional medical interventions. This type of advertising, even in a blog is dubious, if not unethical, and may end up harming the health and recovery of her current or future clients. Although, there may be little legal consequences to these actions, there are always karmic consequences. What we do, comes back to us. These karmic consequences may occur in this life time, or during future lifetimes. The harm we cause others, will come back to us!

So my next question is, why is this happening in the Reiki community? After pondering this issue, I believe that many Reiki practitioners, particularly those who are gifted with clairvoyance, clairaudience, clairsentience, etc. have inflated egos that govern their actions. They truly believe they are better, wiser, and more intelligent than others due to their gifts. As such, they believe they are entitled to act with impunity, and their claims should not be challenged.

For those of us given these gifts from the Universe, we are given these gifts to help us ascend to our higher selves. We are here to help humanity evolve, to be more conscious of what we are doing in our lives, and to help others to this light. It is not intended to feed our egos, make great fortunes, or become side shows.

During my Reiki practice, I had two Reiki clients, one diagnosed with bipolar disorder, and other who found a lump in her breast but feared going to the doctor for a diagnosis. One fired her psychotherapist, and the other refused traditional medical treatment. I terminated Reiki treatments with one and refused to accept the other as a client, because their refusal to seek much needed psychotherapy and medical treatment, respectively, may result in serious consequences to their health and recovery. What these clients are asking me to do in these situations are to enable them in their denial of their medical conditions, so they don’t need to seek traditional medical treatment. Consequently, my actions in these situations were against my own self interest of making an income.

So what’s the moral of the story here? First, do no harm. When we engage with our Reiki clients, we regularly need to ask ourselves, “is my action for my benefit or for the benefit of my client?” If it is for our benefit, then the next question is, “will this action harm my client now or in the future?” Reiki energy serves as an important conduit for the evolution of humans and humanity. Are we still evolving if we have forgotten to do no harm to others? (Copyright 2022 Brooke Chang with all rights reserved. This post may not be copied, duplicated, or excerpted without the express permission of this author)