Ready Set Reiki
Welcome to ReadySetReiki®
A podcast about Reiki and Energy work. From the curious beginning to the seasoned Master Teacher. Welcoming all those who work with energy.
Join Reiki Master Tracy Searight as she guides you on a journey through this landscape of energy work. Each guest offers an in-depth unique perspective sharing their journey, which had 'a profound effect on their healing and development as a person. Come along on this journey and explore all the possibilities of working with energy.
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Tracy Searight is an Educator, Yoga Teacher, Reiki Master, Grandmaster, Sound Practitioner, Author, and Podcaster.
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Ready Set Reiki
Episode 164 Nicholas Pearson Where Science Meets Spirituality: The Reiki Journey
Nicholas Pearson radiates enthusiasm as he shares his Reiki journey that began in 2006, spanning traditional Japanese styles and Western forms. With the heart of a true scholar and practitioner, he dismantles one of the biggest misconceptions about Reiki: that different systems represent fundamentally different energies.
"There is only one Reiki," Nicholas explains with gentle conviction. "The energy or phenomenon doesn't adhere to our concept of energy from Newtonian physics." This perspective invites us to see beyond labels and recognize the common source connecting all Reiki practices. Rather than competing traditions, Nicholas sees branches from the same tree, nourished by identical roots.
The conversation takes a profound turn when discussing the Reiki precepts—those simple yet powerful guidelines to refrain from anger and worry, practice gratitude, work diligently, and be kind. Nicholas illuminates their significance through his knowledge of Japanese language and culture, revealing that these principles aren't meant merely for morning and evening recitation but as a framework for living. "Let your whole day be an expression of them," he suggests, comparing this approach to Saint Francis's wisdom about preaching the gospel through actions rather than words.
What's most surprising about Reiki? Nicholas offers a paradoxical truth that captures the essence of practice: "The less we do, the more happens. The more we get out of our own way, the more there is space for healing." This surrender allows practitioners to experience what he calls "the numinous, the mystical, the ineffable"—the transformative potential that emerges when we stop trying so hard.
For those navigating the diverse landscape of Reiki traditions and teachings, Nicholas offers grounded advice about selecting teachers, integrating practices like crystal healing, and maintaining a lifelong commitment to learning. His upcoming book "Reiki Rituals" promises to build bridges between lineages by revealing the common heart behind different ritual expressions.
Whether you're new to energy healing or a seasoned practitioner, this conversation invites you to look beyond technique to the deeper essence of Reiki—connection with source, presence with others, and the embodiment of simple, profound principles. Experience this illuminating discussion and discover how Reiki continues to evolve while remaining true to its essential nature.
Nicholas Pearson is an award-winning author and Reiki teacher. He began his Reiki journey in 2006 and has trained in traditional styles of Japanese Reiki, including Usui Reiki Ryoho, Jikiden Reiki, and Komyo ReikiDo, as well as traditional and non-traditional forms of Western Reiki, like Usui Shiki Ryoho, Usui/Tibetan Reiki, Reiki JinKeiDo, Shamanic Reiki, and others. Nicholas is also a Certified Medical Reiki Master and a Let Animals Lead® Animal Reiki practitioner and teacher, and serves on the Board of Directors of Shelter Animal Reiki Association. He formerly served as board member of the National Reiki in Healthcare Certification Initiative and is a member of the International Association of Reiki Professionals and Reiki Healing Association. His seminal Reiki book, Foundations of Reiki Ryoho: A Manual of Shoden and Okuden, is available in English and Italian.
Nicholas offers an online Reiki share each month. He has delivered keynote speeches at numerous conferences, including the Wisdom of Reiki Conference, Celebration of Reiki, and the Vermont R
Ready Set Reiki is a journey
From the curious beginner to the Season Master Teacher
All Energy workers of all systems and all levels.
This is Ready Set Reiki a podcast about Reiki and all energy work, from the curious beginner to the seasoned master teacher, welcoming all systems, all lineages and all levels. Reiki is a journey and not a destination, and on this Ready Set Reiki journey, I refer to myself as a guide rather than a host, as I, too, am traveling, helping, supporting others and learning on this Reiki journey as well. And with that said, I am your guide, tracy C Wright. And this is Ready learning on this Reiki journey as well. And with that said, I am your guide, tracy C Wright, and this is Ready Set Reiki. Hello, beautiful listeners, welcome.
Speaker 2:Another edition of Ready Set Reiki. Now, today, I have one of my favorite people in the whole wide world. What an amazing journey Reiki has been for me. I never would have imagined 20 years ago, 15 years ago, even three years ago, the connections that Reiki has brought into my world, and one of those connections is Rose. So she's going to be my co-guide today on the podcast here. So welcome, rose, to Ready Set Reiki. And along this journey, she's going to introduce someone who's absolutely amazing that she connected with. How wonderful that we have these amazing connections, that we're expanding out our territory here. So, rose, welcome.
Speaker 1:Oh, tracy, thank you so much. I love being here with you and the energy is always so vibrant and beautiful. So I just want to share quickly how I met Nicholas Nicholas Pearson. I was at a Wisdom of Reiki conference at Omega, walking a labyrinth, and we just casually met and had a conversation. We connected. I actually talked about you right away, about your wonderful podcast and would be on it, and he graciously accepted and I also will have him on my podcast soon. So I just adore him and he's just amazing. So let me talk a little bit about Nicholas.
Speaker 1:Nicholas Pearson is an award-winning author and Reiki teacher. He began his Reiki journey in 2006 and has trained in traditional styles of Japanese Reiki, including Usui Reiki, ryoho Jikiden Reiki I hope I say all these right and Komyo Reiki Do, as well as traditional and non-traditional forms of Western Reiki like Usui Shiki, ryoho Usui, tibetan Reiki Reiki, jinkei Do, shamanic Reiki and others. Nicholas is also a certified medical Reiki master and Let Animals Lead animal Reiki practitioner and teacher and serves on the board of directors of Shelter Animal Reiki Association. He formerly served as board member of the National Reiki in Healthcare Certification Initiative and is a member of the International Association of Reiki Professionals and Reiki Healing Association. His seminal Reiki book Foundations of Reiki Professionals and Reiki Healing Association. His seminal Reiki book Foundations of Reiki Ryoho a Manual of Shodan and Okudan, is available in English and Italian. I have the book and I love this book.
Speaker 1:Nicholas offers online Reiki share each month. He has delivered keynote speeches at numerous conferences, including the Wisdom of Reiki share. Each month. He has delivered keynote speeches at numerous conferences, including the Wisdom of Reiki Conference, celebration of Reiki and the Vermont Reiki Association's annual conference. Nicholas offers seminars on crystal healing, reiki and flower essence therapy online and worldwide. He is the author of nine books and I know he has a new one coming up soon that he will talk about, and he lives in Orlando, florida. So welcome Nicholas.
Speaker 3:Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 2:Well, we are so excited to begin this journey with you. What an amazing list of accomplishments, Well done. Thank you so much for all of the things that you are doing for Reiki. It's my pleasure and you know, Reiki is just things that you are doing for Reiki.
Speaker 3:It's my pleasure and you know, reiki is just something that has been a tremendous blessing in my life and because of that I'm enthusiastic about it, and so I try to give back and share and teach and just build bridges wherever I can.
Speaker 2:Beautiful. So let's begin our journey together. So Rose shared with us just a little bit about you. So tell us, tell us a little bit about you. So tell us, tell us a little bit about yourself.
Speaker 3:So I am. I often self-identify first and foremost as a nerd. I love to learn. My love of teaching is an extension of that. My love of writing is an extension of that. So I love the intersection of lots of different things. I love language and culture and history. I love science, I love nature, I love spirituality and thankfully I get to make that kind of my full-time focus. My exposure to Reiki began kind of distally, to other things I was exploring, but it's been a really big impact in my life.
Speaker 2:Beautiful. I love how you said like a nerd. I was going to a massage therapist and he was learning a new technique and he stopped and he peered over his notes and I said, don't take this the wrong way, but like you could tell, like you're a nerd, like you love it, like you love it so much that you're just thirsty for it. You can't get enough of it. I love it, I love it. So the energy here with Reiki Did you find Reiki or did it find you?
Speaker 3:You know, I think, oh gosh. I can't remember the source of this quote, but it's something along the lines of what you seek is seeking you. I don't think it's either, or I think it's both and no-transcript. I had friends who were practitioners and big fans and proponents of it, but it would be a couple more years before I got the opportunity to actually sit down and study. And it's because one of the early venues that I was invited to to come and teach at down in Southeast Florida, where I'm from, the owner of the shop was a really avid Reiki practitioner and teacher.
Speaker 3:And you know, finally, kind of seeing where I was at in my life as a young adult, going away to college, dealing with all of the stresses that come with that, figuring out my life's purpose and mission and identity, which we should not be doing as teenagers, if you ask me. She said you know, I think Reiki could be a really big help for you, and so we made that happen, and that was in May of 2006. I think July of that same year is when I took second degree and I have been a perennial Reiki student ever since. It was just this immediate sense of relief. I am an introvert by nature, I certainly tend to be a little high strung, and Reiki has been just about the only thing I can do without any external help. That brings me inordinate relief, immediate relief, and helps me see the light at the end of the tunnel.
Speaker 2:Beautiful, beautiful. Now you have studied various systems of Reiki Western, non-Western. When I started peeking into Reiki in 2006, I just thought it was one thing, and as I started going down the rabbit hole, whoa, how many different systems out there. So what system of Reiki do you use in your own practice?
Speaker 3:You know, here's the thing there is only one Reiki the energy or the phenomenon, because it doesn't really adhere to our concept of energy from Newtonian physics. However, however we engage with it, we engage with it. Usui mikao, the founder of the system, tells us that everything in the universe, without exception, possesses reiki and that his approach to working with it is an original one that you know comes to him in the 1920s, um, and we have lots of things that have branched off the family tree from there, but they're all. They're all branches connected to the same trunk which has the same roots dug into the same soil. So I don't necessarily think of it as there is a system that I practice.
Speaker 3:What I do is informed by my perennial scholarship, my perennial practice. There are things that my very first teacher taught me in my certificate says Usui Tibetan Reiki, ryoho, through the International Center for Reiki Trainings Lineage, and there are elements of my practice. I think of Reiki, as I envision it, as I practice it, as I hope to inspire in others, as being an eminently simple practice, and if we get too concerned with labels, then we're not doing the practice. That being said, I fancy myself a homemade scholar as well as a practitioner. So the labels are useful. They help us identify where common elements are, where less common elements are. So you know, what I do is a respectful amalgamation, but since I don't necessarily only do one thing, it gives me a chance to kind of adapt and change and integrate new information as it comes up.
Speaker 2:Beautiful, beautiful. Now, if someone is questioning different systems of Reiki, some different systems out here use different symbols, for an example, like animal Reiki, different symbols. For an example, like animal Reiki. They have the symbol of life, kid Reiki, they have the symbol for kid Reiki. So would you consider that?
Speaker 3:a different system or still under the umbrella of one Reiki. With that I mean Reiki. The energy is described as being infinite. We can't. If we change the data set, that is infinity. It is no longer infinity. We can't have infinity plus one. We can't have one half of infinity. There's no end to what Reiki is and where it can go.
Speaker 3:There are different expressions of how we might tap into that. There are different, we'll say, ritual elements in our practice of Reiki that are going to appeal to different lifestyles and appeal to different minds and appeal to different rhetorical goals in our practice. But Reiki the energy is Reiki the energy. And once we get into the kind of philosophical debates about this Reiki is more powerful, this Reiki has more energy, then we're missing the point of what Reiki is. Reiki is about union with the source of everything and that means there's only one energy. That is reiki.
Speaker 3:As as far as like the addition of uh, different symbols, those are non-traditional elements. Those are, those are things that we can only start tracing to about the 1980s. That doesn't make them good, doesn't make them bad, it just means that they trace to the 1980s going forward. Um uh, reiki. As I practice, it looks fairly traditional, at least from the outside, um, and and that's what is meaningful and important to me, and therefore that is what I carry on.
Speaker 3:But you know, it's like when you go to the grocery store and you go down the ice cream aisle there are all these different flavors of ice cream. Maybe, maybe I'm reaching for the green tea flavored ice cream. I'm more than happy to sit down at the same table as you and you can have your Neapolitan or your Rocky Road or whatever you want, because at the end of the day it's still all ice cream. So that's kind of how I feel about the different systems and approaches to Reiki. We can have different elements, we can do things differently, but we're still connected to the same source and therefore you're welcome at my table always.
Speaker 2:Beautiful. Thank you for clarifying that. There seems to be. I don't want to say it's a trend, but those that have become masters feel their call to create their own system, and so for one who's beginning on a journey here, maybe a little bit overwhelming of where do I go, but just the focus of the energy, so to say.
Speaker 3:So thank you for that. Now you are also an animal Reiki practitioner of life. I love nature at large, and that extends to, let's say, all of its kingdoms animal, plant, mineral and so on and so forth.
Speaker 3:And some years ago I just kind of happened to befriend a couple of folks from the Let Animals Lead Method at a conference in Vermont. I was the keynote speaker one of two for the Vermont Reiki Association that year, and I had a wonderful time attending everybody else's panels and seeing what was going on. And the animal Reiki panel really, even though it wasn't a focus in my practice, it was something that really spoke to me and so over the years we just kind of got friendlier and I took the first degree in that tradition. I got to hang out and spend some time with the founder of the Lead Animals Lead Method, kathleen Persaud, and also Leah D'Ambrosio the two of them together co-founded the Shelter Animal Reiki Association and whenever they come here to Central Florida to teach at the CARE Foundation, which is an exotic animal rescue and sanctuary here in Central Florida, I get to go along either as a student or as a participant or observer and it's just amazing seeing how well animals respond to Reiki.
Speaker 3:The way we practice with the Let Animals Lead method is kind of approaching Reiki through the lens of its Japanese origins or its Japanese inflected origins. We might talk about the scholarship on that a little bit later and really frame what we do as a practice of mindfulness with animals rather than as energy medicine done to animals. So we view them as equal partners, equal teachers, participants, leaders in in the practice. Uh, we only ever initiate touch. We only ever practice touch when animals initiate it rather and um, it's.
Speaker 3:It's just this really affirming way to work with reiki and there are a lot of elements from this that I've been able to take into other places. When I had a friend, um uh nearing the end of her life, um uh from from a terminal cancer, uh, my, my animals, my animal reiki training was really pivotal in that moment, just because there's only so much you can do. Right, you can't give a full treatment when someone is hooked up to a million different machines and when you would just want to prioritize comfort. So it's learning to be really present and when we are that aware and that in the moment we become these beacons of Reiki. So it's not even necessarily what we do with our hands or our eyes or our breath. It's how and where we place our heart, our minds, in relationship to the animals, to our loved ones, to the earth at large, and it's really opened the door for me to experience Reiki as this numinous presence, rather than just as an energy of eternal Beautiful and what wonderful energy too.
Speaker 2:I have six Cavalier King Charles, and they're all underneath me here, so they're just sucking up all of this wonderful, beautiful energy. So they're just sucking up all of this wonderful, beautiful energy. So, as you've been out working with their energy since, 2006,.
Speaker 3:What are some of the common misconceptions you find that people think about Reiki? Well, actually, one that you mentioned right off the bat was one that got me early on, which is that we kind of assume as beginners that it all looks the same, that my reading looks like yours, because we don't know any better in the beginning probably, and that is a blessing and a curse. It can give us the blessing of assuming we can just fit in anywhere, and really we ought to. But human nature does some funny things from time to time. But you know, human nature does some funny things from time to time. I think some other ones that you know are really widespread can relate to facets of Reiki, history and the kind of developing scholarship. I know you recently interviewed Justin Stein. I'm such a big fan of his work and have been for a while, and you know his book is just so impressive Alternate Currents. I highly recommend that. But you know, one of the biggest myths that I see that we're kind of working hard to break down on a really widespread level is that myth of Japanese essentialism, that Reiki is essentially and purely a Japanese practice. I think it is uniquely Japanese in the way that Japanese culture synthesizes things from different places and puts its own spin on it and makes it unique from that point onwards. But you know, we've got really hard evidence of this transnational exchange of bringing in ideas and practices from Western so-called Western Europe and North America and we see this really interesting way of synthesizing that in Reiki. And currently a big part of my research that I'm working on right now is looking at the actual practices in Reiki and how they have evolved over time, the kind of ritual structure of things that we do in the system of Reiki, and absolutely there are roots that are inherently Japanese to a lot of these, but also there are some that very clearly come from publications written by American folks and European folks. So it's interesting to see how all of that kind of gets woven together in our broader tapestry.
Speaker 3:I think another like really big myth that I'd love to see kind of fizzle out one day is this idea that we place so much importance on the title of Reiki master. I seldom use that word for myself, except for when it's the word my audience is going to understand best, because at the end of the day, clear communication is the most important thing that we can kind of lean on. But I just remember my first teacher, patricia Williams, really focusing on practice, and practice came first, and she would identify as a Reiki practitioner first and foremost, or at least that's how it kind of struck out in my mind, and I remember being a relatively newly initiated Reiki master. Being a relatively newly initiated Reiki master, I was in Japan in 2009, and I received my first Reiki master initiation in Inaricho in a Buddhist temple in Tokyo, with an international Reiki group there, and that was Usui Shiki Ryoho, like Takata lineage Reiki, which I received the initiation for in Japan. And I received my very like conservative, unchanged, japanese style initiations in central Florida, because I do everything backwards, it seems. But having received that training and that initiation, and then, like the following month, doing the same thing with my teacher, patricia, and kind of going out into the world, and every time someone would say the word Reiki my ears would kind of perk up and I heard someone mention Reiki and and I turned to address him and I said, oh, you're a Reiki practitioner too, and he just he looked down at me and said, no, I'm a Reiki master, and without missing a beat, I said well, I'm so sorry, you don't practice anymore then and all of a sudden he figured out what he was saying, like what he was implying, and kind of the weight that had. You know, when we enter the third degree, no matter how our lineage kind of breaks it up I know sometimes we learn it over several parts but when we enter the third degree, we are still students of the first degree, we are still students of the second degree, we are still practitioners, first and foremost, of the second degree. We are still practitioners, first and foremost.
Speaker 3:Yamaguchi Chiyoko. She and her son co-founded the Jihiden Reiki Institute. Her teacher was Hayashi Sensei, whose teacher was Usui, the founder of Reiki. She used to say if you are a Reiki teacher and you don't practice, then what are you teaching your students? So we really have to come at things from this practical perspective and really think about how we engage with the system as a whole, rather than just we attended a class, we got a certificate, we have a title, and that makes us more important.
Speaker 3:By lineage alone, by certification alone, we are not a more or less effective Reiki practitioner. It was only by practice alone, and that's such a big thing that I'd love to see go out there more. And to that ends, if we look toward the language of origin, for a lot of these terms In Japan the equivalent of master would be shihan, which loosely translated we could say means instructor. But if we really look at the elements of it, it connotes the expression good example. So when I call myself a reiki shihan, I'm not saying I'm a master of anything. I just say that I'm aiming to be a good example of what the practice is like, and that really is something that I carry with me.
Speaker 2:Beautiful. Thank you for sharing that, yes.
Speaker 1:I want to just say quickly that I'm starting to move away from using that term as well, because I think I'm just a perpetual student. I'm here learning from you, from Tracy, from Justin, from everyone that I encounter, as well as my students, as well as my clients. You know, sometimes I even use the term more so Reiki mentor, because I tell my students I'm always here for you. I'm not a master, I'm more of like you're just. You could come to me whenever you need help, assistance, guidance. So I'm starting to use that more versus, and also teacher versus master, because we're never really truly masters.
Speaker 2:I've been using energy coordinator. Yeah, I love that too.
Speaker 1:Or I use energy alchemist as well. So it depends on what modality I mean. It's all energy work, right?
Speaker 2:Well, Nicholas, as you sit here today and looking back on your journey in Reiki, what has surprised you about the energy?
Speaker 3:You know, I think the most surprising thing is that the less we do, the more happens. The more we get out of our own way, the more there is space for healing. The more surrendered we are, the more likely we are to experience the miraculous, the numinous, the mystical, the ineffable, and that there's no limit to that, within reason, of course. If you undergo a horrific accident and you've lost an appendage, you don't say oh, I'm just going to send Reiki to this situation and it's going to get better.
Speaker 3:Obviously, we use all of the tools in our toolbox to support us, but you know, on that deep kind of soul level, reiki is alchemical. It is a synthesis that is greater than the sum of its parts, and that includes us. We are part of that equation, and when we really give ourselves to the experience of Reiki, whether it's through hands-on healing, whether it's through meditation, whether it's through the recitation of the precepts or any of the other practices that are in there, we recognize that we aren't so separate from Reiki, from the universe, from all other beings in it, and this sense of oneness, I think, is really the point of Reiki.
Speaker 2:Love that. Now, in your book, the Foundation of Reiki Rahiho, you write about the importance of the Reiki principles, how they should be central focus point to our practice. And why do you think that is? Why should we make this a focal point? To bring those in?
Speaker 3:says so. Um, he made it a very clear part of his practice and um, the the precepts are such beautiful and simple expression of the spirituality that is reiki. I often think of them as a roadmap and um, they, they aren't the end goal, but they take us to the end goal and I think all the different parts that fall under the Reiki umbrella can lead us to the same space. But the precepts do it so eloquently. The core of them as we know them in English. There's so many different iterations of them and I won't even call them all necessarily translations, because it's not just translating words from one language to another, it's translating cultural concepts as well. We see this in several of the versions that exist from Hawaii. Takata and her 23 or more Reiki masters that she trained that we do a little bit of substitution among some of the original to ones that kind of implant some new values in students. But I mentioned earlier, I'm a big old nerd and I love language. So I love engaging with the text in its original Japanese and I find there's so much depth to some of these words and some of these expressions, even just looking at the semantics of it, looking at their origin and how they actually come from, a very popular text that was published some years before Usui ever climbed the mountain, which itself was a kind of adaptation of the New Thought and Christian Science movement, and that there are other practices in Japan, other healing systems that use very similar poems to the Gokai, to the Five Precepts, that use very similar poems to the Gokai, to the Five Precepts. But there's magic in them and we see that. You know from top to bottom in the original version and Usui's own handwriting and his own brushmanship, if you will, his calligraphy.
Speaker 3:It opens with this double title Shofuku no Hiho, manbyo no Reaku, the secret art of inviting happiness, the spiritual medicine of all illness or the wondrous medicine of all that ails us Today. Only refrain from anger, refrain from worry, practice gratitude or show appreciation, devote yourself to what you do. This one's a hard one to render, render succinctly and be kind to people. And he actually gives us instructions, he tells us what to do with this. He says morning, evening, put our hands into gassho, hold these in our heart, mind and continue to chant them out loud. And and this is, you know, know, just really sage advice. And I think there's something hidden in this. There is an ahistoric rendering of this. That certainly isn't literally what Usui was saying, but I think the essence of it holds true If, instead of those first two words asa, you, morning, evening being two separate words there's a compound word we can make in Japanese, chūoseki, which means from the morning through the evening.
Speaker 3:In other words, don't just get up in the morning and say these things out loud, and before bed, say them out loud, but let your whole day be an expression of them. Live your whole life as if it were the ingashō. Live your whole life as if these words are in your heart. Let everything you say out loud be an approximation of these. And thinking of it in that way always reminds me of a quote from Saint Francis that I butcher frequently, but it's something to the effect of like go into the world and preach the gospel, but only if necessary use words. So go into the world and live the precepts, and only when necessary say them out loud. If you can manage that, you're doing pretty good.
Speaker 2:Beautiful. I know of all the different modalities and things I have studied just that simplicity of bringing hands to heart and just saying those precepts really helps me reset, recalibrate. And even if I have to pause in the middle of my day and just for today, and if I get to the end of my day and I realize, wow, I blew it, I'm worried. Today I just send a prayer out that tomorrow I'm 1% better than I was today.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love that and a lot of people always refer to the Four Noble Truths out there, but we really should start marketing these precepts a little bit more so that more of the world will recognize that there's other, you know things that we need to live by, other words, to live by our practices, to live by, or practices, yeah, and they're so simple that they're available to us.
Speaker 3:You know, kyuldake wa today only just invites us to do this for right here, right now. It's not forever and always. Never get angry again, never have another worry. If that was what the expression was in Reiki, I would have taken a look at the manual and said this isn't possible. So clearly this isn't for me. I may as well not bother because I'm going to fall short. But the inerrant humanness that we see embedded in Reiki, embodied in our practice, makes it available. Makes it accessible. It's not become this perfect, idealized version of a human and then you can achieve healing. It's. Let's just try. Let's just in this moment, look at what anger is telling us, look at what worry is telling us, look at where we can show appreciation, look at where maybe we're less committed to our life, our practice, our journey, and where can we be more kind. And if we can do that and it's incrementally better, we're succeeding.
Speaker 2:I love weaving the precepts into teaching yoga because it's in that moment exactly what you said how can we be in the awareness of the now and not thinking too far ahead or reminiscing of the past? Because when we're in that stillness, some people you know it's a challenge sometimes Our mind wonders. But we want to make friends with that ego, right? We want to make friends and not be triggered. So bringing those precepts in are really instrumental. And I know, when I began my journey, I studied Ricky Rahio and it was a 21 day. We had to do the precepts over 21 days and that 21 days I met back with my teacher to get my certificate and I thought, oh, I don't have to do this. And now, as I've gone through, I'm like, yeah, I really have to bring this, really make it a part of life. So, as you are out here, as you've, you know, interacted with so many individuals, what qualities do you look for in a Reiki practitioner?
Speaker 3:You know, I look for someone who lives their practice. Just plain and simple. What does Reiki mean to you and do you show that with what you do, not just in the treatment room but in life in general? Do you aim for reducing your anger and your worry? Do you aim for kindness and devotion to your work? Do you show appreciation? In other words, are you living by the precepts? Um, I look for someone who's also not not aiming for dogma.
Speaker 3:For a long time, we had a version of Reiki's history and development and that splintered. It didn't take long, but it did splinter and as it did, you start to see people who got one version of that story and are unwilling to hear any other version of any other story, that are not willing to look at evidence, that are not willing to move the benchmark as new data comes out and helps us establish maybe some new parameters, some new evidence that gives us insight into the founder and his story and other key players in Reiki history. I look for someone who's willing to admit that they're wrong or willing to admit that they don't know something. I think this applies not only to practitioners, but especially to teachers. That being said, I have this thing that I started a few years back where I intentionally once every year or so, uh enroll in a class that looks so different from my own Reiki practice and it causes me to do a few things.
Speaker 3:One, to suspend disbelief, because I want to be really present and get the most out of the class. I can't be going. Well, actually, we know better, or you know, such and such publication from 1928 actually says this. Like that's not useful. So I have to check my own baggage at the door and it gives me the opportunity to be a beginner again, and that kind of flexibility is super helpful. So, you know, I I do like to look for people who do things differently than me, because we can all learn from one another, we can all enrich one another's experience of Reiki, and because of that I will never stop training. Doesn't matter how long I've been teaching. I will remain a first degree student and a second degree student and a third degree student, and so on and so forth.
Speaker 1:So can I just ask a really quick question? It may not be a quick answer, but you studied in Japan. Not everyone does that, so that's a big. I mean you're saying you know you've studied with, you take different classes, but what encouraged you to do that? And if you said it earlier, I'm sorry I may have missed it, or maybe in the past, but what motivated you to go to Japan and learn there first?
Speaker 3:Yeah. So I would say Reiki was a big part of that. There were a lot of things, some of them very selfish and personal and some of them, we'll say, more noble. I definitely wanted to visit Reiki's birthplace. We spent a day in retreat on Kurama Mountain. If I could go back in time and spend all three weeks that I had on Kurama, I probably would have. I spent quite a lot of time at Saihoji, where Osu's memorial stone is, where his family grave is. So, part of the personal motivations, my then partner was teaching English in Japan and had moved over there to teach about nine months prior. So that's a long time to spend apart.
Speaker 3:And then I have always, I mean since a very early age, felt quite a strong connection to Japan and its culture, japan and its culture. When my father was about college age, his family took a massive trip through lots of East Asia, mostly in China and Japan, and so my grandparents' house was filled with memorabilia from this. You know, beautiful carved tables and chairs from china, and cast iron teapots, statues of buddhism, bodhisattvas although they were, you know, um, you know good catholics, I'd say maybe not the the most um regular at attending any kind of church, but you know they, they kind of had that, you know, catholic sensibility. Um, they still really loved the culture of East Asia at large, and so I grew up around these things with people who didn't know enough about them except to tell me where they found them or stories of this trip. And so I don't know if it was the aesthetics, I don't know if it was the beauty, I don't know what first drew me into loving Japan more than any other culture and nation represented in their collection.
Speaker 3:It was Japan specifically. And then, when the opportunity presented itself so I could go in 2009, I jumped at the chance and it was marvelous. We packed a lot into three weeks. I've had some Japanese people tell me that I have done more sightseeing in Japan in 21 days than some people do their whole lives, and that's what traveling with my friend Richard is like. You do a lot, so I'm grateful, but I'd love to go back, and I've just never quite made that happen yet. All right, well, you need to do a go back, and I've just never quite made that happen yet, all right.
Speaker 1:Well, you need to do a retreat and Tracy and I maybe will come along. You have a couple of retreats. I want to go on. I'm sure that you'll do them all, but anyway, thank you for answering that question, beautiful.
Speaker 2:So, as you're watching, Reiki change and shift. Social media has really changed it. It's become really very much mainstream. What are some red flags for someone who is like, yes, I want to start doing Reiki? What are some red flags to watch for when you're choosing a teacher? Do you have any advice or kind of things to like maybe do a little bit more research before you move ahead with someone who does that.
Speaker 3:You know a big one and I'm going to be repeating myself here but someone who doesn't practice. If someone's whole model in Reiki is teaching others and the only hands-on time they're getting is maybe in those classes, I would reconsider. It doesn't mean they have to be a professional Reiki practitioner who are seeing clients sunup to sundown. I am not that person. It's complicated to do that in the state where I live as well. But do they practice for themselves? Do they practice for loved ones? Do they practice as folk medicine? Do they have a long-distance practice? Do they have an in-person practice, whatever it can look like, just as long as they're doing that? Also, someone who doesn't offer any kind of ongoing community support, do you take the class and you never hear from them again? Because that's not really, I think, an effective teacher. I really love that. Rose said she identifies a lot with the term Reiki mentor and this reminds me of a talk that Phyllis Furumoto, the granddaughter of Hawaii Takata and former lineage bearer in the Suishiki Ryoho and the kind of Reiki Alliance lineage. She talked about these five facets of mastery and it includes a lot of different mantles that we wear, so student is one of them, lineage bearer and tradition keeper. These are facets of them, but also mentor is one of them, which shows us that what we do is more than just in the classroom setting, which is what the teaching part is, but extends to life in general. Maybe that is just by being available to answer a phone call or an email, maybe it's offering an in-person or remote Reiki share or Reiki circle, whether it's just for students or open to the public, finding ways that they make space for people to continue to develop and practice. And then, you know, my other red flag is it's basically when people are like it's my way or the highway, um, and and I mean that very respectfully, because there are certainly forms of practice that have, we'll say, rigid guardrails on them and to engage with that practice, that system, it's only within these guidelines to learn that lineage you have's only within these guidelines. To learn that lineage, you have to be within those guidelines. That's certainly fine. But someone who doesn't like if you go to study with other teachers, or someone who doesn't like that you have a background in other systems of Reiki, or someone who doesn't like that you already practice aromatherapy or any other elements, those are things that always make me go, hmm. And the flip side is also true, because everything's a spectrum. People who have no guardrails on anything, who don't disclose what is a Reiki practice and what is not.
Speaker 3:I have absolutely had the experience where I've given a Reiki session and someone has gotten off the table and we're checking in afterwards and you're like how are we feeling? Oh, it's really good. How was the session for you? It was nice, but I don't think you learned everything. And I go oh, that's interesting, tell me why you think that.
Speaker 3:I'm like well, you know my Reiki practitioner back home before I moved here. They always use the Singh bowls and the essential oils and all this other stuff. And you know, it's just, you didn't have any of that. So you must, you must not have gotten that in your training. So then then we have to have the awkward conversation about where Reiki begins and ends and how flexible and beautiful of a system it is to welcome in other things. So it's just just being able to disclose where elements of practice come from. I'm not saying don't teach them or don't use them. By all means, use all the tools in your toolbox that are meaningful to you, but represent Reiki in an ethical and meaningful way, and that just means being transparent.
Speaker 2:Beautiful and I like how you call it a spectrum, because when you really think about it you have those that have just the simplicity just of Reiki, then others that bring in the drums right and the aromas and all those things as well. So, yeah, it's a nice wide spectrum there. So what books do you recommend?
Speaker 3:Oh I, you can see behind me. I love books.
Speaker 1:You have a lot of books.
Speaker 3:What you see behind me. These are just my crystal books and there are more that don't fit. Um, so I um. So my reiki section is currently divided. Um, maybe, maybe two-thirds of it is in this room and it takes up four shelves, and a third of it is in my second desk, which is our dining room table, because I'm writing a reiki book right now. So every time I begin a new chapter I'm pulling books back and forth to shuffle for the primary research I'm doing.
Speaker 3:So I have a lot of books and it's really hard to give you a concise recommendation. I would say we'll do the shameless self-promotion first and just get it out of the way. If anyone wants a really solid kind of overview of Reiki, you can check out my book Foundations of Reiki Ryōho. It's a manual shown in an okuden. One little caveat new scholarship has come out since this was published, so of course books are a snapshot in time. Just take some of what's in there with a grain of salt and then go read some of the books I'm about to recommend to you, one of them being Women in Reiki by Amanda Jane and Silke Klemon. It's a really wonderful, beautiful, moving book, the first of its kind to really do these kind of very expressive monographs on important figures in Reiki history, some very well-known, like Hawaii Takada, and some much less well-known. Very well known, like hawaii takara, and some much less well known, like hayashi chie the, the wife of hayashi sensei, who took over his institute when he passed away. It's also got these beautiful interviews with nine women practitioners in the jikiden re Institute and just seeing how, as women, they carry so many different roles in their lives and seeing how that impacts Reiki and vice versa is I think it should be required reading for all people, all lineages, all styles. Of course I've already mentioned Alternate Currents by Justin Stein. It is such a great read.
Speaker 3:Unlike a lot of books that are published via the kind of academic publishing model, it is very readable. It is a beautiful narrative. It's so engaging. I'm on my third read-through of it and this time I'm kind of going through all of the footnotes and every time I find an interesting footnote then I'm referring back to the core text because there's a lot of stuff that's hidden in there. Olaf Bum's new book Reiki A Journey to Oneness with the Universe, which is this brilliant collection of early documents connected to Reiki, early publications of the Usui Rekiri Hougakkai Usui's original foundation, where we're looking at some texts that are in there, that are discussions of Reiki, of Usui, postcards and commemorative texts and other publications that came out in that era, and it's just, it's full of all these juicy little tidbits you have to like, really digest and come back to it to read between the lines because there's a lot of subtext in there.
Speaker 3:I also really love Frank Arjeva Petter's. This is Reiki. All of his books are really wonderful. I think that is the one I go back to over and over again. I've had the joy of studying with Arjava and that was quite a wonderful experience. It is not every day that you enroll in a first and second degree course that is 40 hours long and that's what it is like with Arjava and I think it's great.
Speaker 3:And then I think an underappreciated gem is a book originally published in 2014 in japanese called gendai dekiho um. It is a follow-up to hiroshi doi's first book, iyashino gendai dekiho, a modern reiki method of healing um. So this, this uh second book it's one of several that he's published in Japanese was recently translated by Rika Sarahashi, who is a Genderikiho teacher and she is multilingual, so she's translated this work from Japanese into English. I think she may have also produced a Spanish translation, if memory serves, and we just got a revised edition of it fairly recently. Also, I think, a really valuable text to us, still kind of a snapshot in time. I think there's a little bit of historical data in there that we can question just because we've got more stuff coming out. But I think it's a really good complement to his first book, iyashin no Genrei Rikihou.
Speaker 2:But I think it's a really good complement to his first book Iyashin no Genre Rikihou, which the ICRT produced a second revised and expanded edition, which is also a really valuable resource.
Speaker 1:Beautiful, Thank you for that, just seeing you light up when you talk about books.
Speaker 2:I love it. It's like so contagious, like I just want to go out and buy every single thing that you recommended. I wrote them all down. Every single thing that you recommended. I mean, I wrote them all down. I know it's like the energy. I love it. I love it. Thank you for that. Um, so, what other things do you offer? Do you offer classes, sessions?
Speaker 3:events, trainings, all of the above. Um, I do a lot. I wear a lot of hats in my life. Uh, some related to this, a lot of them not, so finding that balance can be a challenge. As far as community support goes, I offer a free online Reiki share each month. I have my next one coming up pretty soon, I think somewhere around mid-August, and, except for when I'm traveling, I try to keep that a constant so that it is always happening. Any money raised from it either supports just the cost of the platform and any overage goes to various uh, mostly reiki related causes. I've used some of that money to raise money for, um, uh, some medical reiki research and for animal reiki organizations and, um, you know, similar situations.
Speaker 3:I do offer Reiki training. I don't get to do it as much as I would like because I have a lot of things that I do with my life, but I do have one coming up pretty soon. In September, up in Massachusetts, I'm going to be doing a three-day intensive Reiki master teacher training or Shinkiden training at Circles of Wisdom, and I'll have more of those throughout the year. I'm also busy when it comes to teaching other things. I teach about crystals and flower essence, therapy and other esoteric topics. Quite regularly, I speak at conferences, both online and in person, and so I've got some more great things planned, particularly with the launch of my next book coming very soon. I'm I've got some more great things planned, particularly with the launch of my next book coming very soon. I'm going to have some special events coming up in tandem with that.
Speaker 2:So where can we find you Website, social media?
Speaker 3:Absolutely. Thank you for asking. So my website is theluminouspearlcom and my social media is the luminous pearl, so you can track me down in most places like that facebook, instagram. Instagram is definitely where I'm the most active. I do at least once a week on a good week I'll do live q a sessions where I might mix in some storytelling and some show and tell new rocks, new books, new other things, um, and know it's another way that I try to offer community support. But you know, if anyone is interested in what I do, everything that I do should be in one place on my website, at least after I get it updated each month. And then I also put out a newsletter once or twice a month which you can sign up for on the website.
Speaker 2:Beautiful. Well, thank you, and it was fascinating.
Speaker 1:And so I want to segue into a question around integrating crystals in a Reiki practice. And I know you know we talked about people doing sound bowls and drumming and integrating other things into the practice. But since I love crystals and I know you do too, nicholas, since you are a mineralist and have written many wonderful books on crystals how can someone maybe really simply integrate some crystals into their? It doesn't even have to be their Reiki practice, even their life. But since we are a Reiki podcast, we'll do that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, thank you. So you know, I like to start my orientation to the practice through the kind of historical lens, and we have some anecdotes I've never been able to find very firm evidence to confirm them, but they seem to come through reputable channels that tell us that Usui used to give reiju like initiations or attunements to clear quartz spheres that he could then send off to people who wanted to use them in lieu of visiting a practitioner regularly because they didn't have access to one. And you can lay this reiju-ified, reiki-ified crystal wherever you needed. That Hiroshi Doi also shares an anecdote of in Hayashi's research center. So before the Hayashi Reiki Institute there was the Hayashi Reiki Kenkyu Shou, which was a research center that was still affiliated with the original organization founded by Usui, and one of the experimental things that he did was add quartz crystals. We don't know that it necessarily lasted very long. I don't think there's any record of Takada having experienced this, and she certainly worked in that clinic quite a lot. But it is an anecdote that Doi-sensei shares in his writing, and so I see that there is at least a limited precedent for it, and that gives me permission to want to experiment a little bit more.
Speaker 3:But I will say that my average Reiki session is pretty basic. But if you come visit me you are also surrounded by crystal energy. I mean, right here on my desk I can lift up just a few rocks that keep me company at all times. If there's a horizontal surface in this office, there are rocks on it. You know, if I point over my shoulder to some of these bookshelves, they're filled with rocks. My kind of sacred space is in here. My crystal storage is in here. There are rocks around my neck, so there are always crystals supporting me in the work that I do. So if you want a very easy and non-invasive way to invite crystal energy into your Reiki practice, add them to your environment, wear them on your person, find something that helps you stay in the flow.
Speaker 3:Again, referring back to source material, usui tells us in this little question and answer booklet, originally published independently but now part of the manual that his organization still publishes today. It's called the Kokai Denju Setsume Shou, or the Explanation of Public Teachings. He tells us everything in the universe, without exception, possesses Reiki. We can look at a newly translated work that Justin Stein edited, translated work that um justin stein edited, um reiki, taijin jutsu, or reiki and the benevolent art of healing, um, written by tomita kaiji in 1933, um, and he tells us that, you know, reiki is something originally taught by nature itself and and the original text actually has that in bold. So that implies it's not just one facet or element or aspect of nature, but all of nature resonates with Reiki. So that extends, of course, to the mineral kingdom and it's not necessarily going to interfere with our Reiki practice. We can embrace whatever that's going to be, but just again, being transparent.
Speaker 3:You know, again being transparent. If we're inviting crystal healing by laying on of stones or making of grids or other things, just you know, let our clients know, let our students know, these are additional tools and that's all it takes. It's just as simple as here's an additional tool that I like to use in my practice. We don't have to go into long explanations about the philosophy of what. What makes a tradition a tradition. That's a big conversation we don't necessarily have to engage with. But you can have crystals in your space. You can make a grid in the room that you're in by putting crystals in the corners or around the walls or under the table. There's a lot of really clever ways we can let crystal energy be part of the backdrop so it doesn't take away from our hands-on time and our really intimate and deeply spiritual practice of hands-on Reiki.
Speaker 1:I love that, thank you. I know sometimes people find something tangible, comforting, you know. So I mean, I often talk about crystals, because I am surrounded by crystals in my room that I practice and people will start to ask. And when they do, I feel that Reiki has guided them to ask about a crystal so that they can maybe integrate it or incorporate it in their own personal healing practice. It's something they're like oh, I can carry this and when I rub this I feel good and I don't have to worry, or something like that, you know, like a worry stone, so. But thank you. So you do have an upcoming book called Reiki Rituals and I did you want to share something about that.
Speaker 3:I would love to. Usually, when I am writing a book, I try to keep it under wraps, and this book has been like seeping through the cracks at every opportunity. So now I'm just talking quite openly about it. I'm approaching the halfway point on this book, so I'm not entirely sure when it will come out, but the working title is Reiki Rituals, healing and Transformation Through Embodied Practice, and it's probably the most fun I've had writing a book in a while, and I say that on the tail end of having had a lot of fun on what will be my next book to come out.
Speaker 3:So this is an intersection of a lot of different things. It's, in some cases, almost a sociology or an anthropological look at how our hands-on practices in Reiki differ among different traditions, but how they often stand from similar sources or the same source. It is an exploration of the cultural and historical and sometimes spiritual influences on the elements in our practice and, at the end of the day, all of that is well and good, but it needs to be practical to be useful. So it explores how, when we engage with these separate practices, we really elevate what we do as humans, but also as Reiki practitioners. We really elevate what we do as humans, but also as Reiki practitioners.
Speaker 3:So the idea behind a Reiki ritual is that it is a practice that occurs with frequency and or regularity. Those two things don't always mean the same thing. If I, you know, if I wash the sheets on my bed once a week, that is regular. If I wash them once a month, that is regular. But one is more frequent than the other, right? So we might have rituals that we engage with frequently and others that are regular but less frequent. But the goal of it is they happen at this kind of recurring interval, whether that's once a day, once a week, once a class, whatever it might be. And there are thresholds that we cross into the numinous. When we experience ritual for the sake of ritual, not as a means to some other ends but as an ends unto itself, we have an opportunity to mark sacred points in time and space. We transcend ordinary consciousness and step into non-ordinary consciousness, the ritual consciousness, the kind of, we'll say stupor consciousness that we often experience in those really transcendent moments in our practice.
Speaker 3:And the ritual elements of our practice are also framework to develop this, almost like shortcut to achieving that altered state of being. So some of them are really simple. We don't think of it as a ritual itself and really embrace the depth, the symbolism, the tradition that comes with it. It becomes so magical, maybe hands-on healing becomes a ritual for us and the simple act of laying the hands and surrendering can change our lives. Of course there are some, shall we say, more obvious rituals in Reiki, like the ritual of initiation, called Neiju in Japanese. We might call it an attunement, empowerment, ignition or whatever it is in our variant traditions. This is a pretty obvious ritual, but reciting the five precepts is a ritual. The meditative practice is called Hatsudei Ho, the methods for cultivating Reiki energy. They become a ritual In non-traditional forms of Reiki.
Speaker 3:We also have some pretty interesting rituals that have emerged. Things like creating sacred space is something that I still do, that I learned in my first Reiki training with my teacher Patricia, where we might use the symbols or another tool to kind of clear and cleanse and bless and elevate the space that we practice in. And when we start to examine how these things evolve, how they might be related to one another, how different traditions might embrace the same concept but with different actions might embrace the same concept but with different actions, we also start to notice something else. So one of the ulterior motives I have for the book I'll be real transparent, I do have ulterior motives ultimately, it is to recognize that we have a lot more in common than we thought we did when it comes to interlineage conversations. Just because the external morphology, the shape of our rituals looks different at a distance, the heart and soul of them is one and the same. And when we recognize that innate oneness, when we see that we're all branches on one common tree fed by the same roots, then it's so much easier to want to build bridges, to want to exchange our practices, to learn from one another, to uplift one another.
Speaker 3:I don't believe in competition.
Speaker 3:In Reiki I celebrate cooperation and collaboration, and a big part of my platform in Reiki I term interlineage outreach, because I don't owe allegiance to only one school.
Speaker 3:There's not only one way I do things. I get to be a rebel and break some rules from time to time and have open conversations with people, and that's why I love to learn from folks whose practices look different to mine, because it helps keep that conversation going and even when I might disagree with the semantics of something, I can appreciate that Reiki is still guiding this process and one of the most inspiring things about doing the research for this book is, over and over again, I find examples of elements, ritual elements, in in the big, you know reiki umbrella um that evolved independently in different parts of the world in different time frames. There's no way these folks could have shared their practices with one another and yet they rely on similar symbolism or the ritual actions are almost identical or you know. Just so many things pop up and I really enjoy seeing the commonality and it's almost as if maybe the intelligence of Reiki is a real thing, because that's what's guiding all of this in the first place.
Speaker 1:Wow, that's beautiful, oh my gosh. And you do light up when you talk about this, and I just want to thank you for being the person who's doing all this work, because it takes a special person, someone with your passion and your motivation and just your talent, to bring all this information together and share it with the world. So, thank you, nicholas. I think this is a good time to hand it back over to Tracy.
Speaker 2:All right, Nicholas, as we've been talking. Is there anything else that you want to share or something you might have forgotten? The floor is yours, to all of the listeners.
Speaker 3:Thank you for spending your time with me as well. If anyone is interested in reaching out or learning more about my work, I definitely invite you to do so, and I look forward to sharing the Reiki space with any and all of you again soon.
Speaker 2:Thank, you and Rose, do you want to let listeners know where they can find you?
Speaker 1:Sure, you can find me at rosewippagecom. I'm also on Instagram at Rose Whippage and my podcast, chat Off the Mat, and I know Nicholas will be coming onto my podcast in the next several months to talk about his next book, the Witching Stones, which I'm really excited to read soon, and we'll talk more about crystal energy in that podcast. So thank you, thanks for having me, tracy. I always love being here with you. So thank you, thanks for having me, tracy. I always love being here with you.
Speaker 2:And thank you both for taking this journey with me. I appreciate it. All right, my wonderful listeners. If you would like your question featured on Ready Set Reiki, reach out wwwreadysetreikicom or check me out on social media. I'm Tracy Seawright and this has been Ready Set Go.
