It was 2003, and I was sitting in my massage class. A lady introduced herself and shared that she was a Reiki Master and wanted to add massage therapy to her practice. [She needs Jesus, I told myself, and to get away from practising such awful things.].
I was 23 years old and raised in a Christian home. My grandpa was a Mennonite pastor who had planted three churches in his lifetime. You can imagine that there were some pretty hard-instilled beliefs. I remember my mom telling stories of how the day there was a landing on the moon, Grandpa wheeled in a TV. And how she BETTER pay attention because if her dad allowed such technology in the home, landing on the moon must be important.
My grandma told life stories of having to have a serious conversation with her husband when the kids wanted to see Bambie in the movie theatre. She had to explain that nothing “demonic” was in this particular story. Every Sunday was church, and you would do your very best to be helpful in the church. Whether it was Sunday school, worship, setting up, cleaning, or whatever the church needed, it was a precedent that you help in some way. Our faith was deep, and it was strong. We had seen our family miracles and were a testimony of God’s amazing goodness.
Being in a class with a “Reiki Master”,. I ensured I did not have her in my practice groups when I could avoid it. When I couldn’t avoid it, I made sure that I was the one practising and not being treated. Because there was NO WAY I would have this form of witchcraft practised on me unintentionally.
We were about halfway through our massage schooling. Although I usually would have taken a day to rest and do nothing. Yet, in massage therapy, you must complete a certain number of hours to graduate. I did not have time to make up those hours. I was in excruciating pain. For women that experience severe menstrual cramps, you get me. It felt like my uterus was eating itself and being burned with hot irons. As I was standing there, watching the demonstration, I broke out into a sweat. I began swaying slightly to try and take my mind off the pain that always occurred in the lower back. I took my hands and rubbed my lower back to relieve myself. I prayed that God would bring his healing hands and relieve some pain. That’s when my eye’s met this “Reiki Master’s” eyes, and our eyes locked. “Dear Lord, PLEASE help me. Take this pain away.”
Trish’s eyes never left me. Every time I looked back at her, she was still staring. “In the name of Jesus, protect me from anything that is not from you. Send your angels and build a fortress around me.” After the demonstration, Trish started walking up to me. “Lord, stay with me, do not let anything not from you penetrate me.”
She gently said, “What is going on?” I looked at her and said, “my cramps are so bad right now, I’m going to throw up”. She looked me square in the eye and asked, “Can I give you Reiki?”
Before I knew what I was saying, the words were out. “Yes”. Her hands were instantly on my lower back and front of my pelvis. In my head, I was thinking. “Ok, this is not going to work, and I will have proof that this is not from God.”
Instead, an amazing heat started spreading across my body. It rippled from my lower back, wrapping my hips and to the centre of my ovaries and uterus.
Time was ticking by, and the comfort and relief I felt confused me. “Lord, if this is not from you, I do not want it. I asked for help, and if this is you sending that help, I will take it. But if it is not from you, take it right now!” The relief continued. Tick, tick, tick; as time went on, the intensity of the pain started reducing. After five minutes, I told her I was good. [Oh, I was not “really good”, but it was enough.] I was confused, and I needed time to process. My body wanted her hands to stay and do more, but my mind said, “nope, gotta go.” I grew up with the scripture that “no one can serve two masters” and that where God was, the devil was not. I had chosen every day to follow God. So if “dark magic, devil power” was in Reiki, then it would not have been able to touch me…
This experience had me perplexed. It had me questioning some things that I believed about “energy work”. Shortly after this experience, Trish told us she would offer a Western Reiki Level 1 class. This got me thinking and questioning even more. When I spoke to my mom about it, she encouraged me to go. To learn level one. To see what it was all about and perhaps be more educated in the secular world.” Again, this encouraged me to explore my faith and what it would mean to me.
Back then, Reiki 1 and Reiki 2 were not taught together. They were taught individually because Reiki masters believed that to attune you twice in a short time would be too much for the mind and body to handle. I sat in that room with eight others as I learned the theory of Reiki. Where it came from, how it was gifted, how it began expanding globally and how some had been changed to protect it during the Second World War. They were preventing further judgement and persecution of the Japanese.
I still was very sceptical and did not “believe this voodoo hoodoo”, but I wanted to learn. Then the attunement, which is simply, clearing the chakras and opening you up to receive more energy from the universe. So that you, in return, can give out more energy to others.
In this attunement, many things can occur. For me, it was very healing.
During the time I was being attuned, memories began to resurface from my childhood. Memories that I had received PLENTY of counselling for and had been dealt with. This was different, though. My body began to tremble as the memories came to mind. I began to shift uncomfortably. My face and shoulders got hot, and the tears began to fall. But it was different.
There was no fear. There was no sadness. There was no anger. Things that I thought I had “forgiven and moved on”… This was deeper forgiveness… This was love and compassion. This was a feeling and experience that I had NEVER had before.
After the attunement, I was given as much time as needed before returning to the class. I sat there for what seemed forever. Enjoying the warmth, I felt and the love and peace I had in my WHOLE BODY. I was just enveloped in a warm hug and cocooned in this experience. This was not evil or the devil at all. This was love, pure, unadulterated love.
It took me ten years to receive my Masters. It took so long because I still had no “complete grasp” of what Reiki could do until I took a craniosacral class. This confirmed everything I already knew on an energetic level, But on a scientific, hands-on level, THIS was the science that I needed to prove and to understand fully. Once I got that, there was no stopping me from pursuing my reiki journey.
Life prepares you for what is coming. I was introduced to Reiki for a reason. I had no idea how much I would need it in my personal life for mental, emotional and physical healing. Still, I am so grateful for it.
There is no way I would be where I am today without this knowledge and capability for my recovery. Reiki is for everyone.
It’s for those with a strong faith in something greater and those with beliefs in other energies. It does not discriminate and is not only for a select few. ANYONE can do it. Anyone can learn it.
Jodi Harty
Jodi Harty has been in the alternative field of healing since 1996. She has been educated in massage therapy, health and life coaching for trauma and grief, and becoming a Reiki Master. Jodi believes the body should be approached as a whole and is here to start giving hope back so that you can claim the life you deserve.
