Does a Newly Found Hidden Sensory System Explain Reiki Sensations?
One of the mysteries of Reiki is about the sensations people feel in their hands. We feel real sensations, sometimes subtle, sometimes vivid of heat, cold, tingling and pressure, which do not correspond to the room temperature or conditions. These nuances correspond to our perception of things going on in our own body or the body of those we are working about. How do these sensations occur?
I recently read an article discussing a hidden sensory system in the skin that tantalizingly sounds like a possible explanation. I researched it back to the following press release. There focus was not on holistic healing explanations, but it certainly seems worthy of study.
December 15, 2009 – (Albany, N.Y., USA) The human sensory experience is far more complex and nuances than previously thought, according to a groundbreaking new study published in the December 15 issue of the journal Pain (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19836135 ). In the article, researchers at Albany Medical College, the University of Liverpool and Cambridge University report that the human body has an entirely unique and separate sensory system aside from the nerves that give most of us the ability to touch and feel. Surprisingly, this sensory network is located throughout our blood vessels and sweat glands, and is for most people, largely imperceptible.
There is a connection between blood and ki, people's hands often pattern with red and white markings while doing Reiki, suggesting blood flow is involved. The ability to sense energy, to sense the patterns of heat and cold is also variable, so it would make sense that whatever Reiki is sensing would be imperceptible to most people. Something in the attunement is waking up this sensory ability. Reiki attunement clearly affects the brain. Students commonly report sensations of color, physical sensations, and heaviness, suggesting these areas of the brain are being stimulated. From that point forward the, reiki practitioner has a heightened degree of sensation in your fingers.
Dr. Frank Rice, the author of the study, puts it this way “It is only when we shift focus away from the nerve endings associated with normal skin sensation that we can appreciate the sensation hidden in the background."
They were able to discover this sensory system only in people with a rare congenital defect that makes them unable to feel pain. Yet they could tell what is warm and cold, what is touching them, and what is rough and smooth. When they sent skin samples to a lab which specializes in nerve analysis at a multi-molecular level, they found no sign of nerves normally associated with skin sensation in that area. So how were these people able to feel anything? In these particular peoples skin, the only nerve endings that were normal were those around the sweat glands and tiny blood vessels. Therefore, these must have been how they were able to feel sensation.
Dr. Rice concludes "What we learned from these unusual individuals is that there's another level of sensory feedback that can give us conscious tactile information. Problems with these nerve endings may contribute to mysterious pain conditions such as migraine headaches and fibromyalgia, the sources of which are still unknown, making them very difficult to treat.” Reiki is often very helpful for people with these illnesses, so it is possible this alternative sensory feedback system might also have an affect on Reiki's role in improving the life experience of these kinds of people.
Dr. Rice and his collaborators founded a new biotechnology company, Intidyn, to detect changes in the skin caused by different illnesses, once again listing a number of problems Reiki is well known to treat which othewise respond poorly to more traditional treatments. These include, but are not limited to diabetes, shingles, complex regional pain syndrome, carpal tunnel syndrome, sciatica, fibromyalgia, psoriasis, chemotherapy, and even the unintended side effects caused by many drugs. It will be fascinating to see what else this research will reveal.