Honouring 70 Years of Service

As we celebrate the Platinum Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II, I have been touched by hearing how she saw her role as one of sacred service from the start.  My understanding of what it means to serve has grown over my years of Reiki practice, so I honour the Queen’s 70-year commitment.

Service, doing work that is for the benefit of others rather than for personal gain, is a core principle in many spiritual practices.  It is a way to surrender our ego to something greater than ourselves.  According to the Dalai Lama it is essential in finding our joy.  It has certainly been my experience that there is joy in serving others, in doing something that helps people to connect, eases pain, brings comfort and lifts the heart.  

Just over 12 years ago I visited Phyllis Furumoto, the late Lineage Bearer of Usui Shiki Ryoho Reiki, shortly after she was diagnosed with cancer.  This had expedited her exploration of how to choose a successor for the lineage she represented.  As part of this exploration, she interviewed me for one of the radio shows she was doing at the time, as someone who had a perspective on lineage through living in a culture with a monarchy.

I could see the similarities in Phyllis’ role to that of our queen: like Queen Elizabeth, she became her grandmother’s successor at a young age, in her early 30s.  She also felt that she did not have a choice in taking on this responsibility.  I know that Phyllis also saw this role as being in service to something greater than herself: Reiki, the Usui Shiki Ryoho System and the Reiki community.

I was also quite young when I began my Reiki service at just 30, serving the Reiki community through the newly founded Reiki Association.  This led to many other opportunities to explore service over the years, including service to Phyllis.   As my Reiki master Martha Sylvester said when she left her day job to work full time as a Reiki master: it was like working for the ‘cosmic civil service’ instead of the civil service!  As a Reiki master I have often found myself doing things in service to the Reiki community that I never imagined I would and, like Martha (and perhaps the Queen), was called on to travel to many places in carrying out my Reiki work.

The recent events in my life have reminded me that it's also important that our service is not at the cost of our own health.  Queen Elizabeth’s long life and reign would suggest that she is able to balance her commitment to serve the public time with family and self-care.  Those who do not get this balance right often end up burnt out and unwell, making further service impossible.

Phyllis’ successor, Johannes Reindl, was chosen by her partly because he is young.  He too has recognised that he has been asked to serve the Reiki community and the Usui Shiki Ryoho system in a particular way that means his role is not a job he can simply give up.  He has given his commitment, as Elizabeth Windsor did, to serve for his lifetime and in doing so to support the practice of Reiki people all over the world.

I offer a bow of gratitude for the commitment of those who serve in this way, surrendering their own life plans to serve for the benefit of the world and I wish them the wisdom to balance their work with time for family and self-care.

Visiting Connecting Reiki with Medicine at St George's Hospital, London

A few years ago, my friend Feona Gray thought of celebrating Dr Usui’s birthday by giving reiki taster-treatments in hospitals around the country.  She approached someone she knew with the idea, only to discover that reiki was not welcome in NHS hospitals, due to concerns about the unpreparedness and lack of professional training  of practitioners.  Feona decided to explore further what would be needed for this to change; as a result we now have Connecting Reiki with Medicine, which has enabled six reiki practitioners to undergo specialist in-hospital training and be paid by the charity ‘Full Circle Fund Therapies’ to give reiki treatments to patients on critical care wards of haematology, oncology and neurology at St George’s Hospital, London.

I have followed this inspiring project from the start so was excited to visit in July, with Johannes Reindl, our new Lineage Bearer.  Arriving at the hospital we met Suzanne Ruggles, CEO of Full Circle Fund Therapies who introduced us to the work and was our guide for the afternoon.  We then met one of the practitioners, Raquel Martin who took us to the bone marrow transplant and haematology ward.    Many of the patients, being critically ill, have compromised immune systems, so good infection control is essential.  Johannes and I were required to wash our hands, use the hand gel and to wear disposable aprons and gloves before going near the patients.  We observed a treatment for a woman with leukaemia, seeing how reiki eased her discomfort, so she was able to rest.

On a different ward we met the Nurse in Charge, who, when asked about her views on reiki on the wards, was very appreciative of what it offers to both patients and staff.  She talked about how the reiki treatments create a quiet time on the busy ward.  We heard similar comments from another Nurse in Charge and a matron from other wards we visited.  What is of particular note about this project is that, due to the specialist in-hospital training they receive, the practitioners are appreciated as members of staff, allowed to access and write-up  patients’ medical notes, rather than as complementary therapist visitors.

We met another practitioner, Anne- Marie Carratu, who took us to see her patient who had just received upsetting news from the palliative care team.  When asked about her pain, she rated it at 5 on a scale of 0 to 6, even with the hospital pain management medication.  Anne Marie and Raquel began treating her, then Johannes and I were invited to join them.  At the end of the 20 minutes the patient sighed and said “I feel as if all my burdens have been lifted.”  When asked about her pain level she said it was zero.  When Anne Marie checked back half an hour later, she was still pain free.

Over a three year period, six reiki practitioners have completed the training and  give 20 – 30-minute reiki treatments on the wards.  They have delivered 900 treatments and reiki is now available five days a week.  450 patients, over a one year period, were asked what symptom was most of concern to them.  The most common symptoms in order of frequency were pain, difficulty with sleep, anxiety and depression.  Where possible they were asked to rate their symptom before and after treatment based on a scale of 0 to 6.  129 patients responded after the treatment - many of the rest were asleep, in spite of reporting pain was keeping them awake, so they were not disturbed to find out how they felt!  No increase in symptoms was reported.  The average symptom before treatment was rated at 4.2 and after reiki was 2.9, most of which was reduction in pain.   On 13 occasions the score was reduced to zero.

While they work primarily on oncology, haematology and neurology wards, the practitioners are also receiving referrals from other wards, such as cardiology.  Such referrals always require the agreement of the consultants and nurses in charge, especially in these highly complex areas of medicine. With further much needed research, reiki could even be recommended for some in support of medical treatment and become a part of mainstream integrated medicine.

If you would like to make a donation to support this valuable work you can do so here: http://www.totalgiving.co.uk/charity/full-circle-fund-therapies

Global Reiki Gatherings - Part 1

For the first time since I began doing monthly reiki newsletters in 2007 I have missed a month!  This is because I have been so busy that June was already nearly over before I realised and I decided to give myself a break and just send one early in July instead.  So my apologies that you didn’t hear from me in June.

It has been a momentous time for the global Reiki community and in particular for the reiki master community in the UK.  For the first time the Reiki Alliance Conference took place in the UK at the end of May.  The Reiki Alliance is an organisation for masters who teach Usui Shiki Ryoho in the form taught by Hawayo Takata.  The organisation began in 1982, shortly after Takata’s death, and initially the main purpose was to support Phyllis Furumoto in her role as Grand Master/ Lineage Bearer.

As Takata had taught all over the Americas and Canada, the Reiki Alliance was an organisation of masters from different countries from the start.  It quickly grew into a more international reiki community as the practice of reiki spread around the globe.  The annual conferences, which last a week and are held in a different country each year, have always been an important time for members to come together to explore our reiki system together in a constantly changing reiki world.  I attended my first Alliance conference in Idaho in 2006 and I enjoyed the international nature of the gathering.

UK conference Team being thanked - photo by Cesca

So the first Alliance conference ever held in the UK took place at Hothorpe Hall in Leicestershire at the end of May this year.  I was part of the organising team, which began discussions way back in   My particular area of responsibility was another first: participation of the conference via internet video link.  This was something Phyllis suggested and perhaps she could have attended this way if she had been alive.  She also suggested that my husband Alec should attend the conference to look after the technical side, leaving me more free to participate in the conference programme.  I am so grateful to her for this suggestion because Alec is not a member of the Alliance and would not otherwise have attended the conference.  He enjoyed it and it was wonderful to have him there doing much more than just looking after the technical aspects (he did some qigong sessions too).  

2013!

We had anticipated that Phyllis might not be able to attend this conference and indeed that she might have died.  So we were somewhat prepared for the fact that this turned out to be a very significant conference as we mourned the loss of our Grand Master/Lineage Bearer together and the community welcomed our new Grand Master/Lineage Bearer, Johannes Reindl.  It was a poignant and also joyful time.

I was very busy for the whole conference because in addition to running the virtual participation I offered a Neutral Mask workshop, co-led a singing session, composed and led a special song for the week, clowned and sang in the cabaret and was tour leader for an outing to Warwick!   With early morning meetings of the organising team and late-night activities including a Ceilidh it was exhausting but fun!

The conference overall went very well – the UK team were congratulated for what some said was the “best conference in years”.  It was good to have been part of the team and to see how reiki masters from all over the world are holding this common practice of Usui Shiki Ryoho.

I only had a week before another gathering of reiki people from all over the world: the Global Reiki Gathering which happened in early June.  I will write more about that next month….!

Succession

About 20 years ago Phyllis and I were travelling to see a massage therapist in Mid-Wales.  Phyllis was driving and as we came up to a ‘Stop’ sign I pointed out that in the UK this means you need to come to a complete stop before moving on (not knowing how familiar Phyllis was with UK road rules).  For some reason Phyllis then fumbled the pedals and kept going through the ‘Stop’ sign, into the path of an oncoming lorry!  Thankfully, the lorry driver swerved to avoid us and what could have been a nasty accident was avoided.  After this incident I asked Phyllis what would happen when she, as Grand Master, died.  At the time the plan was that Paul Mitchel, who jointly holds the Office of Grand Master, was to be her successor.  She subsequently changed her mind, perhaps feeling that the role needed someone younger.  

In 2009, when Phyllis was diagnosed with breast cancer the question of succession was on many people’s minds.   In 2014 she decided to bring people together to talk about succession, with Ben Haggard as a regenerative thinking resource.  I was honoured to organise this event, which was very popular: we soon had a waiting list!  We found extra accommodation, so that everyone who wanted to could be there.

Ben led us in profound discussion and this was followed by Succession Weekend intensives in other parts of the world.   After these in-person Succession Weekends, Phyllis, Paul and Ben decided to create an online group, known as the Succession Core Team, to take these discussions further.  All those who had attended the Succession Weekends were invited.  Others also joined later.  Many attended these monthly meetings live and some acted as Witnesses – listening to the recording of the meeting and offering comments.  Ben prepared the group to hold a space for the process of succession.

While I was in Arizona it became clear that Phyllis’s life was coming to an end and there was some anxiety that she might die without naming her successor.  At the intensive I was participating in, which was held in Phyllis’s home, we were delighted to hear that she would join us on our last day.  

During the Usui II I had been thinking about how succession had happened when Takata became lineage bearer.  Hayashi gathered his reiki community together in his home and named Takata as his successor.  It occurred to me that this day would be similar, with members of the Succession Core Team and other reiki masters (including Rachel Goldberg, who assisted Phyllis with the Global Reiki Webinars) present in Phyllis’s home.  So this could be the day she would name her successor. 

Just before Phyllis came in to the room we had a break and I had gone to the bathroom.  On my way down the corridor I saw Phyllis and some of her carers preparing for her to join us.  Phyllis was sitting in her wheelchair, dressed in a lovely Japanese coat. 

Phyllis Furumoto, Johannes Reindl and witnesses on 15th March

After she joined us Phyllis started talking about how she had been thinking about deciding on her successor.  She then said: “Johannes in my deliberations and the deliberations of some of the Succession Core Team, you’re it.”  

 

At first Johannes was in shock and didn’t say anything.  Phyllis said “You can also say no”, but he accepted her request.  Phyllis then stood (which was not easy for her) and gave him the Japanese coat.  She also gave him a Native American medicine pouch that Takata had given to her.

Johannes Reindl is Austrian and relatively young (40).  He was initiated by Phyllis as a master in 2017 in Japan.  I have known him since we met in Germany about 15 years ago and I think he is a good choice because he is authentic, kind and has a strong commitment to reiki.