Raven Keyes, New York, New York
What does Mainstreaming Reiki mean to you?
Mainstream Reiki practitioners offer sessions in established venues rather than those considered to be New Age.
Where have you practiced that you would consider mainstream?
In 1996, I was the first Reiki master hired by Equinox Fitness to work in a spa, which resulted in Reiki being written up in national magazines like Vogue and W. I’ve worked in the operating room during open-heart surgery with Dr. Mehmet Oz, as well as with Dr. Sheldon Marc Feldman during breast cancer surgery, with the New York Giants, the NBA and at Ground Zero after September 11th.
To mainstream Reiki, what steps can you suggest to the Reiki community ?
Be yourself! In the operating room for instance, as a Reiki practitioner, understand that you are making the doctor’s job easier by keeping the patient calm. The last thing the doctor needs is another “technician” – he is awash in those, and meanwhile, there is no one to take care of the patient’s real Self – except you. Operating rooms are filled with doctors besides the surgeon, and even the ones who don’t know a thing about Reiki comment on how calm the patients are.
Realize the doctors you work with NEED you to be exactly who you are and do exactly what you do – Reiki, pure and simple, sublime in its service to every person you come in contact with.
This is the type of information included in my upcoming book, “The Healing Power of Reiki” with its Foreword by Dr. Oz (published by Llewellyn Worldwide), which I hope will bring Reiki even more into the mainstream. It recounts my actual experiences while performing Reiki in the venues mentioned above.
What do you see on the horizon for Reiki?
I see a future in which Reiki is used in every hospital as an aid to surgery patients; in the treatment of Veterans and anyone else with PTSD; as a way to bring soothing to those undergoing severe cancer treatments including children; and in the veterinary care of animals.