Reiki is a form of energy healing developed in Japan in 1922, where a trained practitioner places their hands lightly on or just above your body with the goal of promoting relaxation and well-being. It’s noninvasive, requires no equipment, and is now offered in more than 800 U.S. hospitals as a complementary therapy alongside conventional medical care.
How Reiki Started
Reiki was created by Mikao Usui, a Japanese Buddhist monk, after completing a 21-day meditation and fasting retreat on Mount Kurama. Usui described the practice as coming to him through a mystical revelation during that retreat. He moved to Tokyo shortly afterward and founded the Spiritual Energy Therapy Society, where he began teaching the method to others. The word “Reiki” combines two Japanese concepts: “rei,” meaning universal or spiritual, and “ki,” meaning life energy.
Usui built the practice around five ethical precepts, known as the Gokai, which practitioners are encouraged to reflect on daily. They center on releasing anger and worry, practicing humility, working with integrity, and showing compassion to yourself and others. These precepts aren’t religious rules but guiding intentions meant to support personal well-being alongside the hands-on practice.
What Happens During a Session
A typical Reiki session lasts 60 to 90 minutes. You lie fully clothed on a massage table while the practitioner moves through a series of hand positions, usually 12 in total, placing their palms gently on or slightly above areas like your head, shoulders, torso, and legs. Each position is held for roughly three to five minutes. Some practitioners work intuitively and spend more time on areas where they sense tension or imbalance.
Most people report feeling warmth, tingling, or a deep sense of calm during a session. Some fall asleep. There’s no manipulation of muscles or joints, no needles, and no substances applied to the skin. The experience is closer to guided relaxation than to a physical therapy session. You won’t be asked to undress, and you can stop the session at any time.
The Theory Behind It
Reiki is based on the idea that a subtle energy, sometimes called a biofield, flows through and around the human body, and that disruptions in this energy contribute to stress, pain, or illness. Practitioners believe they can channel healing energy through their hands to restore balance in another person’s body.
Scientists have debated whether this biofield is related to measurable electromagnetic activity or involves something less tangible, like focused intention and particular states of consciousness. There’s no widely accepted scientific explanation for how Reiki works. What research has measured, though, are some of the physiological changes that occur during and after sessions.
What the Research Shows
A meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials involving 661 participants found that Reiki therapy produced a statistically significant improvement in quality of life compared to control groups. The effect was modest but measurable. Sessions were most effective when people received eight or more treatments, each lasting at least 60 minutes. One study of cancer patients found that Reiki, combined with other complementary therapies, improved quality of life by 31%. Another study using daily one-hour sessions over seven days showed a 15% improvement in psychological well-being scores.
On a physiological level, a study of healthcare professionals experiencing burnout found that Reiki shifted nervous system activity in a specific direction. After treatment, markers of parasympathetic nervous system activation increased, meaning the body’s “rest and digest” response became more dominant. Body temperature also rose slightly, which is consistent with a relaxation response. These changes were not seen in the placebo group, which received a sham treatment from someone without Reiki training.
That said, high heterogeneity across studies makes the evidence inconsistent. Results vary depending on the population studied, the number of sessions, and how outcomes are measured. Reiki has not been proven to cure or treat any specific disease. The National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health classifies it as a complementary approach, meaning it’s intended to be used alongside conventional medicine rather than as a replacement.
Complementary, Not Alternative
This distinction matters. A complementary therapy is something you use together with your regular medical care. An alternative therapy is something you use instead of it. Reiki falls firmly in the complementary category. Roughly 15% of U.S. hospitals now offer it, typically as part of integrative health programs that combine conventional treatments like medication and physical rehabilitation with approaches like acupuncture, yoga, and energy work. The goal of these programs is treating the whole person, not just a single organ system or diagnosis.
Reiki is considered safe. It involves no physical pressure, no ingested substances, and no known side effects. The risk comes not from Reiki itself but from using it to delay or replace proven treatments for serious conditions.
Training and Practitioner Levels
Reiki practitioners train through a tiered system that typically has three levels. Level 1 focuses on the history and principles of Reiki, basic energy concepts, and a self-healing protocol. Students receive what’s called an “attunement,” a ritual process meant to open them to channeling Reiki energy. At this stage, the focus is on practicing on yourself.
Level 2 expands the practice to working with other people. Practitioners learn to use specific symbols that are believed to focus or direct energy, and they begin offering sessions to clients. Level 3, or Master level, involves a deeper attunement and prepares the practitioner to teach Reiki to others. A full certification program typically requires around 100 hours of training, though this varies widely. Reiki is not regulated by any government licensing body in the United States, so training standards depend on the school or lineage a practitioner follows.
Who Tries Reiki and Why
People seek out Reiki for a range of reasons. Stress and anxiety are among the most common, along with chronic pain, recovery from surgery, and the emotional toll of cancer treatment. It’s popular among people who want a low-risk, noninvasive way to feel more relaxed or to manage symptoms that conventional medicine addresses only partially.
Because sessions are gentle and require nothing from you physically, Reiki is accessible to people who can’t tolerate massage, acupuncture, or other hands-on therapies. It’s also used in mental health settings. A recent study of low-income patients with mental health diagnoses found measurable improvements in well-being after receiving Reiki as part of their care. For many people, the value of Reiki is less about measurable outcomes and more about the experience itself: an hour of stillness, human presence, and focused attention in a world that rarely offers those things.