More New Techniques (2006)

All of these were first published in my 2006 newsletter. I will come back later and clean up the formatting.

A Reiki grid is something I teach in the ART/Master class. It is used to store
and direct Reiki energy to do whatever its owner suggests, typically a bowl full
of Reiki requests. Typically the grids are made out of quartz crystals, or
something similar. It uses 6 crystals around a center crystal, with an 8th
crystal used to charge the grid.
I also program and sell beautiful crystal lotuses which make excellent Reiki
grids. (At the moment these are only available in class. I hope to have them
available from my website sometime in January or Feb.)
A few years ago, I started experimenting with making grids of more unusual
materials.
The best Christmas/Holiday grid idea is to use Rock Candy! Rock candy is
made up of crystallized sugar, and is an 'old-fashioned' candy. The grid has a
gentle "sweet" energy, used to brighten people's lives.
At dinner after a recent Reiki Masters class, I was explaining some of the
ideas behind the grid, and used the first prop that came to mind. Pieces of
french fries. We charged the grid, and then afterwards ate it. Those were the
best cold french fries I have ever had. I could feel the energy 'sizzle' in my
mouth as I ate it.
One of the students from the class, Chad, has been experimenting with
making Reiki celery grids. Because vegetables are cheaper and 'less serious"
than stone grids, it has been an interesting way to all experiment with how
many 'crystals' (in this case celery) to use, and with different shape grids and
intentions.
A few basic conclusions:
The 'stones' used do color the energy of the grid. Clear quartz grids have a
different feel than amethyst, and certainly have a different feel to them than
rock candy or french fry grids.
Any kind of grid you make will work. It will be able to hold a charge and
transmit energy. If you want to be 'scientific' and get a better idea of how they
differ, create a grid with quartz crystals as a control, charge both and see what
the difference is.
If you are going to create an edible, or any other non-standard Reiki grid or
anything with Reiki, say a short prayer or make a request to the Reiki energy
first with what you are trying to do.
An edible Reiki grid does not need to be a permanent storage area for Reiki,
instead have the intention that everyone who partakes of the grid takes away
extra energy for their own healing, and the healing of the people and issues
they most care about, or even just that they recieve a dose of the energy of
your love or the energy of the holiday season.
Feel free to experiment and discuss this further in the ReikiMastery group.

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Message: 2
Date: Thu, 22 Dec 2005 19:54:27 -0000
From: "kuramajess" <jess@ReikiMastery.com>
Subject: Experiment: Symbols as Sun, Sailboat and Bridge
My dad is getting older, and is memory is going. This is very hard on me and
everyone in my family to see. My dad has always been very smart and with it.
And now he periodically hits things he can't remember, like how he made his
famous spicy pecan recipe last year or how he does a particular thing on the
computer. As he and my mom still run a business together which has not
been financially successful in recent years this is especially difficult time for
them both.

He had an MRI scan and it appears to be physical changes in the brain,
" Ischemic changes" He is going to be taking some medication to reduce his
hypertension and reduce cholesterol.
I would deeply appreciate anyone who wants to send reiki to my father, Joe
Bush, and my mother Kathy Bush and for their health, and for making the best
decisions they need to right now about their business, and what to do next in
their lives.
I attuned my mom and dad a few years ago in a Reiki class. My mom has
always been interested in this kind of stuff. It was a big stretch for my dad.
Neither has really done much with it.
I decided to reattune my dad to Reiki 2, because I think he really needs the
use of the Mental Emotional symbol. But I think it is too difficult and odd for
him to memorize at this point, and so I finally got up the courage to do
something I have been wanting to try for a very long time, but never quite
dared.
I changed the symbols for my dad.
The mental emotional symbol is now a sailboat. Whenever he wants to use it,
he should just think about sailboats as he puts his hands on himself. The left
side of the symbol reminded me of the prow of a boat, and the right side
reminded me of a sail. My dad will likely never need to write out the symbols,
so I dont have an exact picture, though i did a quick stick figure drawing of a
sailboat. It lends itself well to phrases like "Sailing on the sea of memory", or
just the calm and focus associated with sailboats.
The power symbol is now a sun, with rays coming out of it. Whenever he
wants more heat, more energy or more help, he should just picture the sun.
The distance symbol is a bridge, though I havent actually focused on teaching
him that one yet. I just told him to imagine a bridge leading to the person he
wanted to send healing to, then send the sun or a sailboat to the other side.
Officially, as a teacher for the Intl Center for Reiki Training, I have to keep
teaching the symbols as I always have. But, I have started playing with these
images myself, and find I really like them. It also has some interesting
potential for teaching Reiki to children.
For the Reiki Masters among you, what I did was:
First I checked in with my Reiki guides/Higher self that is was okay for me to
do this.
Each Reiki symbol has a name and a way of drawing it either of which can
invoke the energy of the symbol. What I did was add an additional image in
my mind as I did each Reiki 2 symbol over the head and in the hands.
After the attunement, on a piece of paper I drew and spelled out the Reiki
symbols, folllowed by the image I had chosen for it. I showed it to my dad, and
told him to think of the sun/sailboat/bridge whenever he wanted to use that
kind of energy.

MARCH

Reiki of Joy
I recently got to see an amazing group of Reiki people at one of the expos. While the techniques they used looke d pretty basic, the smiles on their faces were profound and angelic. When I asked what they were doing, they said they just focused on being connected to joyful divine source, and the smiles came naturally. Since then I have been focusing on letting connecting more deeply to the joy of Reiki, both in my Reiki sessions, and in my own meditations. 

Pictures and Paintings
Many of us have photographs or paintings of beautiful places in our homes and offices. These places brings us a seese of joy, excitement or serenity. Draw a distance symbol in the air over the picture, and then reach in through the distance symbol to connect to the energy of the place represented. This is a great way to experience Reiki energetic tourism, by giving you a sense or reminder of what these places are really like. Then ask if the energy of the place would be willing to be present in your room, and invite some of the energy of the place to come through the painting and distance symbol and into your room. The energy can help balance a chaotic office or fill an empty hallway, or just enliven your bedroom or meditation space.

Working with Phobias

- Reiki is very effective for working with common phobias, such as fear of flying, heights, or driving on the highway.
To do: Explain what you are about to do. Have the person imagine a little about being in the situation that scares them, and ask them where they feel it in their body (typically heart, throat or abdomen).
Use your hands to lift the reaction off of their body in that area, and repeat until they feel calmer. Then get them to visualize the situation more and more vividly, as you continue to release the fear out of their body.
The whole process takes 10-15 minutes. It may be necessary to repeat it if the situation (such as flying in an airplane) doesn't often occur, but it is usually permanent

Skeptics
Most skeptics are frustrated believers. They really want something to be real beyond what they see, but their life experience has persuaded them this is not possible.
If you try to talk to a skeptic analyically, you are likely to lose. Reiki is by its nature ephemeral, and hard to understand unless you already hold a world view that admits it. Skeptics have already dismissed ideas of ki, pyschic phenomena, life force energy, and sometimes even God, so trying to convince them using these things will rarely work.
Instead try to get the Skeptic to experience something of Reiki. Then they can argue against the reality of their own experience, and not against you. Alternately, instead of doing Reiki on them, work on their friends and family and let them see how well it works with them.
Belief is irrelevant with Reiki. I have worked on many people at healing nights, airports and parties that knew nothing about Reiki, much less expected it to work.
Usually, I just start with a demo, act if they have an ache or pain somewhere and see if in 2-4 minutes I can get it to go away. Headaches, joint pain, and stress are especially good targets for me, but just pick whatever you have had the most frequent success with in your dealings with non-skeptics. I also have great results with putting power symbols on peoples hands and letting them feel auras, or handing them a stick to feel the energy currents in a room with.
After the demo, Then talk about some of other things you have done with it, but be careful not to over sell.
Most people get discouraged with talking to skeptics because the first few times they tried they got a poor result. The problem is not with the Reiki, but in developing the knack of explaining Reiki in a way your people can understand. Try different approaches to you get one that works for you.

MAY

Soul Group Reiki
There are people who you just meet and feel like you've known forever. Often, even if they are of
different ages and cultural backgrounds, there often run common threads your lives. You may notice you are all dealing with similar issues in life at the same time, regarding the big keys to happinesss, Home, Relationships(including family), Health, Career, and God. Often these too are people you are best able to heal, to say the right thing, and you can make a huge difference in their lives.
Where it starts getting really interesting is that the ups and downs in your lives often occur at roughly the same time, as kinds of variations on a theme.

My recommendation is to think of all of these people as being connected to your "Soul Group" The more any of the individuals (including you) thrive and succeed, the easier it is for everyone else in the group to do so. So Please, send distance Reiki to your Soul Group, and all those your Soul Group touches"
Time Line Reiki
A few years ago I was guided to do a form of distance healing which has turned out to be very useful for birth defect and other developmental problems. It will not prevent the problem in the present but it will tend to lessen it's impact.
Instead of sending Reiki to the present or to a point of time in the past, you send Reiki to the time line of the client.
1) Begin as you would for distance healing, including whatever technique you use for placing the client into the distance symbol.
2) Bring your hands together inside the distance symbol.
3) Intend the left hand is the clients point of conception (note: conception not birth), and the right hand is the present.
4) Spread your hands apart intending that the clients time line will be like a rope between your hands.
5) Intend the rope will stay put if you let go, and that if you can move it back and forth like a shower curtain on a curtain rod, so you can focus on whatever area of the time line you wish.
6) Take a minute to orient yourself and scan the time line. You will notice differences along the time line, comparable to what you notice when you scan a person. Two of the typically most problematic areas, and thus the easiest to feel is the difference right before/after birth, and the jaggedness of most people's teenage years.
If you have trouble with this go to the non-scanning variation described below.7) Since this is a birth defect, go back to the point of conception and slowly move along the time line. One cell becomes two, becomes 4, becomes 8, 16 and slowly the fetus develops. Somewhere along the time line you will find a place that feels different/unhealthy/wrong/sandpapery/extra hot or cold.
This is the point where the initial mistake was made during development, go slightly back before this in time and give the person extra energy to support them. Call in a few extra angels to assist them.
8)Slowly move back and forth over that area of the time line until it smooths out. Then slowly move forward in time. This may take multiple sessions to reach the present with any depth. Each time start at the beginning and move forward in time (after the first bit of time the areas you have healed will require less work)
9) Email me and tell me what happened. I am planning to create (and hopefully sell) some short videos this summer on this and some other techniques I have developed. I think this technique will be easier to explain visually. Please let me know how it works. This technique is also excellent for working with other traumatic life events.
Non Scanning Variant
Just ask the time that created the clients problem be over your hands. And intend to send energy just before and after the problem. Dont worry if you cant feel anything, just intend.

JUNE

Distance Healing of Yourself

This exercise requires Reiki 2 or above, but those of you who haven't learned Reiki may find it very interesting as I included a lot about what I felt, and how I interpreted it.

Most Reiki people treat distant healing purely as something you do on people who live too far away to do an in person treatment on.

Just as you can use distance healing to scan other people, and "check in" with how they are doing. You can also check in on yourself. Living inside our own skin, we often only see ourselves in pieces. Sending distance healing to ourselves is a great way to get a different perspective on who we are and how we are doing.

Working on yourself also helps you correlate different sensations to what they mean, as you know how you are doing, and thus helps you figure out what those same sensations mean when you use them on other people.


Procedure:
Put power symbols on your hands to strengthen their energy.
Put power symbols on the four walls, ceiling and floor of your space to increase the energy level
Ask for assistance from your Reiki guides (or God, or Jesus, or the universe, what ever you prefer)
Draw a distance symbol and say it's name three times.
Say your name three times into the distance symbol.
Intend yourself to be standing in the center of the distance symbol, about the size of a doll
and ask to scan your "doll" self.
Slowly scan your hands up and down the body in the distance symbol. Everyone will percieve this differently. You could feel differences in temperature, prickliness, density, size of the energy around different parts of the body. There may be a sense of emotion.
After you are done scanning, start over and spend time in each area, doing Reiki and using symbols as seems appropriate.
To end, put a power symbol over the "doll" , and lift it's energy up to heaven, and give thanks.

What I got:
I positioned my 'doll' self so it was facing away from me, and I am looking at it's back, but I can reach around to scan it from all sides.

Today is a really good day to write up this exercise because I just got in yesterday from the east coast (I should have been here a day earlier but a delayed flight meant I spent the night in Phoenix)

The energy around my head is about 2 feet wide, and cloudy. There is additional hotter energy near the front in twin egg shapes over the sinus area below the nose. This makes sense as allergies are affecting my sinuses, and I am physically feeling pressure in my own body in that area.

The energy around the neck is only about 6" wide and feels like it needs work. I suspect this is the result of dozing on an airplane, and some emotional stuff between getting what I think (in my head) getting better connected to what I feel (in my heart) and what I take action on (in my gut)

The energy around my heart is about 18" wide. It feels good and expansive closer into the doll, closer into the doll, but contractive and grey further out. This is a manifestation of armor. This is an emotional armor reaction. It says that I am fine, but feeling the weight of other peoples emotions pressing in on me. Going to the cape to work for my folks at the greenhouse during their most stressful time of the year requires a certain balance of my needs and theirs, plus the stress of picking up the threads of my own life when I get back.

The energy around the gut and hips is about a foot wide and feels a little nervous and restless. Travel tends to stress this part of my body because it is where you feel seated in life. Jetlag always catches me here. I have the pattern of my life when I am at my folks at the greenhouse, and the pattern of my life here, shifting between them, plus multiple challenging travel days affected this as well. I also have several people in my life right now who are having health and other challenges and I am worried about them.

The lower body from hips down feels a little slim, but fine. Too much airplane sitting.

What I did:
I normally work top down, but after a few seconds working on the head, I felt drawn to start at the doll's hip area, and found myself saying the mental emotional symbol name. In my own body, I could feel myself relax into an almost meditative blue green calm.

My legs seemed to intrude, almost like a child needing assurance, so I used the mental emotional symbol to reassure it everything was going to be fine, and we were home now. I also shifted from doing it exclusively to the imagined doll of myself in front, to having my hands some 6" to 8" from my own hips, and the effect intensified. It then diminished when I paused to type my results in here. I sat like this for some minutes, and let out several sighs of releasing stress.

I then went back to the 'doll' and moved upwards to the heart. I went through all the Reiki symbols and Karuna symbols in my head, chanting each several times, and seeing which ones the energy beneath my hands seemed to respond too. The mental emotional symbol seemed to be drawn into the core, and even though my hands seemed to go in towards the doll, rather than expand, it felt good.

Physically, i started to feel chilled, so got up and put on a sweater. This kind of contraction can happen if you "break through" to work on a deeper issue. I sat like this for some minutes, sending the energy in, and "listening" and reassuring my heart. I then went through the Karuna symbols, reciting each one 3 times in my head, and seeing which ones my "doll self" between my hands, and/or the sensations in my own heart seemed to react to.

Karuna tends to be more transformational and growth oriented than Usui. It is great for people ready to transcend their limitations, even if that process isn't always comfortable.

I did several minutes of Halu, the symbol for deep release work, and Harth, which refills the heart area, and felt little bits of gray radiating away from the doll self's heart. In my own body I felt more in my own skin, and when I took a deep breath, i could feel a piece of my spine click and adjust itself.

I then rescanned my doll self from heart downward, and it felt much more even and solid, with my hands about 18" apart, with just a hint of stress remaining just above the heart. There was a cold area, about 8 " in front of the doll self's heart, so I slowly spread my fingers and combed it out of the aura, and gave it some Reiki, and released it.

Knowing what it was is not important, but I think it was a thought form. A thought form is a series of negative ideas that we create or that we accept from others that lingers like an unwanted judge of our thoughts and actions. Often claiming to have our best interest at heart, they usually just distract us and making achieving our goals more difficult. They can be a positive, because they can clue people in to something that needs to be addressed, but they often linger long after any usefulness they may have had disappears. The ease with which it released implied it was probably something I had already dealt with but not completely released, sort of like trash you have thrown into the trash can, but haven't emptied.

Having done this I am feeling more energized, and like I have more energy to tackle the projects I want to accomplish.

Finally I move up to my head. Part of me wants to simply quit here, as this has taken quite a bit of time more than usual, what with the writing all of this down as I went, but I decide to compromise by doing just a little on it.

As I scan inside the cloud around my doll self I get the image of myself cowering with my head in my hands. So, I decide to physically sit in this posture for a couple minutes, asking the Reiki to come and heal the part of me that is feeling this sense of overwhelm. This is akin to a yoga exercise where you get a muscle to relax by tensing that muscle til it can't be tense anymore. It is also the theory behind several kinds of breathework and transformative dance that an emotion once properly expressed releases. I found my hands starting at the front, but then moving to just behind the temples. I allowed myself to sit in this position, and just watched my thoughts and breathed. I didnt get anything detailed about what it was about, just a sense of frustration at an unscalable unbreakable wall in front of me. After a few minutes the desire to be in this position went away, as did the sense of their being a wall. The way ahead now looks merely difficult, like climbing a rocky mountain, and I ask the reiki for resources to help me organize my self to meet whatever challenges those rocks represent.

Rescanning my doll self, my whole energy field pretty good, and most of the sinus pressure I felt in my head is gone, There is a sense of resolve and greater patience, but also a sense of needing to do more work on this later.

I ended by putting a power symbol over the doll, and instead of lifting the energy to heaven, i pulled it into myself.

Right now in my life I have a large number of big things I am trying to accomplish. I have my website & book projects, helping Jeff towards his, an FYI website idea on backyard trees, plus all the house stuff. In addition to my class schedule, advertising, finances, friends and building my life with Jeff. Plus, just getting back into the swing of being in California after a 6 week trip. I Plus even more stuff I don't need to bore you with. It is an exciting time, a valuable time in my life, just not easy.

A ship can be safe in a harbor, but that is not what ships are for.

One of my favorite things about Reiki is how well it helps when things are difficult. It doesnt just paper over our problems, it helps us have the courage to admit them, and the energy to see them in a different light, and move forward, especially when we are in a difficult time.

All the best in your own healing and life journeys. Thankyou for taking the time to read about where I am in mine. I hope that revealing where I am in mine, may give some of you insight for your own journey, and the journey of those around you.

JULY

Reiki, Fibromyalgia and similar Diseases
I have been working with several people lately with Fibromyalgia. The most vivid description of this disease I have found is that it is like the dragged out, exhausted, achy all over feeling people sometimes get when recovering from a bad flu, only it doesn't go away. It is often exacerbated by stress, and often triggered by events that stress the body. Fibromyalgia is not a constant disease, it can go into remission, and then reappear again later.
In addition to basic hands on Reiki, (and the other approaches the client is using) I have been trying a number of other approaches to 'talk' to the body. I am currently focusing on the theory that the clients body is like a battlefield where no one has a radio and everyone is working in the dark. The enemy may or may not be even present any more, but the sense of danger has everyone fighting each other even though they are on the same side. I am trying to get the body's defenses to stand down enough that it can see what threats are there instead of swinging blindly at everything. The body seems to listen and begin to relax, but has a hard time resisting the voices screaming "Danger, Danger, Danger." Most seem based in old unresolved emotion, that the body is interpreting it as unspecified physical danger. Since the body seeing no physical reason for the prolonged stress it starts doubting itself and trys to physiologically deal with an emotional problem.
The mental emotional Reiki symbol, and the Karuna symbols for deep release, adjusting priorities and divine peace have been especially helpful. I have been applying a lot of Reiki to the adrenal area in the lower mid back, and on the head positions. Energetically there has been progress, though it is going to take some time and work on a few more clients to prove this concepts effectiveness (or lack of it)
While I have had great success healing many things very quickly with Reiki, this type of illness instead requires patience. In searching for Reiki and Fibromyalgia on the internet, I find many stories of people having success in treating with Reiki over the course of months, often in conjunction with diet adjustments and massage or chiropractic. Reiki is very useful because it can be administered with or without touch, as touch for these clients can be very uncomfortable. Being able to train people in Reiki in a weekend is an excellent adjunct, so that people with the disease can do daily self treatments, and that close family and friends can help. Reiki provides the client with the energy the body needs to gradually rebalance itself. It is also very helpful with the emotional effects of the disease.
I asked to know more about how to help people with this and similar diseases. In my July Reiki Master class I had 4 students, all of whom have either Fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue, pain or similar illness. Having taught Reiki since 1993, I have seen how no class is a random collection of people, but this is a standout example. I have been privileged to simply watch and learn (and teach the course material of course).
There is no magic bullet solution in this story.
Instead I got to watch them talk to each other about how they handle this. How well meaning people either pepper them with solutions gleaned off of the internet or half remembered stories or truisms. How people uncomfortable with long term illness often use new age phrases about how we create are own reality to imply there is something wrong or immoral about these people being sick. How positive thinking can be a critical life line to sanity for some, and yet others feel blugeoned by it.
I have also heard about the inconstancy of friendship. How people who were close before the illness were either condescending or uncomfortable even being around the sick person after. I have also heard about people who became friends in the depths of one or both persons illness, but when the disease retreated, the friendship dissolved. And of course about friendships that survive all.
I have heard about how isolated people become. And that by not looking sick, how much harder it is to get the support they need. Especially because sometime they are sick and sometimes they are not. I have heard about how they have been called lazy, or hypochondriac, and how they should just get over it and get a job in the mall (standing on their feet all day when they can barely walk) instead of lying around all day.
I have heard about how the disease has been a spiritual gift in some ways, getting them to reassess priorities, discover new strengths, and new skills in the world. I have also heard that while this may be true, it does not make up for the pain and loss, and that on the whole, they would rather have been healthy and ignorant.
These are also people who were once completely healthy, and rarely sick. They are go-getters by nature, forced by illness to slow down or completely stop all that once gave life meaning. Patience is a hard virtue.
Recieving Reiki made them feel better, even when it didnt heal them. In the throws of it, walking to the kitchen is too hard, even reaching over to turn on a light switch to go to sleep in the dark can be a problem.Catalogue of Other Dieases:
RSD - Reflex Sympathetic Dsytrophy
Certain areas of the body become so sensitive that even the weight of a towel can be incredibly painful. Also includes, skin and bone density changes. It can go away and never come back, It can come back unexpectedly. It often starts in one limb and spreads somewhere else, especially if there is any trauma at all, including a tap. It feels like a limb is being strangled, like it suddenly decides it doesnt want to be part of your body any more. Can feel like the body part is in a vice. And then one day it started hurting a little less, but the pace of improvement was very slow, and there were setbacks, but improvement did occur. Stubbing a toe partway in recovery created a setback of several days. But a lot of fear attached to it. The not knowing the progression of the illness is really hard. Should you prepare for a future or not?

Drilling Wells for a Living
A new metaphor for describing Reiki:
" If you think of water as spiritual energy, as a Reiki Master, I drill wells for a living"
Some people are already strong in spiritual energy. It is as if they live near a natural spring or river. They may or not need a well dug, except to keep the neighbors from using all their water.
Most people who don't have wells live through periods of drought, where not enough water falls to keep them clean, fed and happy.
The Reiki attunement 'drills the well', and suddenly everyone can have enough clean spiritual energy to do what they need to do in life.

Power Link Fence
The Reiki power symbol is essentially a variation of a spiral. To make a Reiki fence, imagine creating a chain link fence by linking the symbols together. Visualize linking (or draw in the air) a few of the symbols together then ask the Reiki replicate it to be the size and shape you need.
Power fences are great ways to protect and strengthen your property (such as car or house), your office or cubicle, or your energy field.