Episode #219 Jon Pickell What If Healing Works Better Without Control

Reiki doesn’t need hype, fear, or perfect belief to be meaningful. I sit down with Reiki master teacher John Piquel to talk about what actually builds a strong Reiki practice: time, hands-on experience, integrity, and the willingness to step out of the way so the energy can do what it does. John shares how he stumbled into a Reiki share in Chicago, what it felt like to receive for the first time, and why short sessions can still be powerful when they’re offered with care. 

We get honest about Reiki misconceptions and the skepticism so many people carry into their first session. John explains why “you have to believe in it” misses the point, and we dig into what clients should look for before getting on a table. If you’ve ever wondered how to choose an ethical Reiki practitioner, we lay out the green flags like humility and a sense of service, along with the red flags like pressure sales, rigid “required” session counts, and fear-based claims about dark attachments. 

You’ll also hear how Reiki’s public perception has shifted over the last two decades, including its growth in hospitals and integrative medicine settings, plus a moving story about end-of-life Reiki support. John talks about the value of longer training formats, the importance of transparent lineage, and how experiences like space clearing and plant medicine ceremonies influenced his energy work without turning it into performance. 

Jon Pickell assisting in Peruvian plant medicine  ceremony has had a HUGE impact on my work outside of ceremony!   I generally have provided hands-on work on 8-15 participants during the ceremony - I am not a shaman, but several people have said my work "feels very shamanic" - 

If you like thoughtful conversations about Reiki, energy healing, and doing this work with real ethics, subscribe, share this with a friend who’s curious, and leave a review so more people can find the show.

Come Home to Yourself
Where healing becomes a holistic, embodied way of being via reflection, ritual and release

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Transcript

Welcome And Community Invite

SPEAKER_01 0:21

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, 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 host, as I too am traveling, learning, and supporting others on this Reiki journey as well. And with that said, I am your guide, Tracy Seawright, and this is Ready Set Reiki. Hello, everyone. Reiki blessings to you one and all, my beautiful, wonderful Reiki family. What an amazing journey we have ahead today. But before we begin, I always like to remind you that there is a safe and special place on Facebook. And that is the Reiki Business Collective. This is where you can share, support, and serve. And guess what? It costs zero dollars to be a part of this Facebook book. Now, no matter where you are in your journey, maybe you're not even thinking about the word business. You've just connected with this beautiful stress-reducing modality and you just want to check it out. Come on in, learn and grow, connect with others in a wonderful and beautiful and safe Reiki community. Christian Stone, who has the Reiki Business Podcast, is the leader here and he is here to support others. It is a great place to connect, to grow. And I want you to know in this journey, you are never alone. Don't ever feel that you are on an island. I know when I started my Reiki journey, I just had my computer and I was searching and I found a place. And it took me quite a long time to find a place where I really felt safe and among, dare I say, family and those that have really the same kind of uh heart and service. So check it out, Reiki Business Collective. Now, back to our journey.

Meeting Reiki Through A Share

SPEAKER_01 2:19

So, guest, John Piquel. He is a certified Reiki master teacher. Now, he was first introduced to Reiki in 1998. He completed a 14th month-long Reiki master program in 2000. In addition to his energy work, he also worked as an information specialist at several global management consultant firms, as well as staffed the reference desk at two academic research hospitals. In addition to private Reiki clients and various Reiki shares he attends from fall 2004 to spring 2009, he volunteered at a test positive aware network in Chicago, providing weekly Reiki sessions for the TPAN clients and staff and so forth. He has a lot of experience that he has gained, and he has this energy healing base that has influenced both by his near-death experience in Los Angeles in 1994, as well as continuing work assisting into these beautiful plant medicine ceremonies that he'll tell you about. So let's give a ready set Reiki. Welcome to John. Welcome, welcome to the journey. So glad that you are here. I love that you connected to the energy back in 1998 and your experience of not only, you know, we have now the modalities of a weekend, right? These instant masters, but you when did the Reiki come into your life? Uh, did you find Reiki or did it find you?

SPEAKER_00 3:55

Okay, that would have been um 1998, four years after my the near-death thing, when I was in Chicago, and I met someone who invited me to quote a group he facilitated, and he didn't tell me what it was, anything about it, and it met at a restaurant in Chicago. So I showed up and he wasn't there yet. And there were people sitting around in some massage tables, and I thought, well, I don't know what that I'm not gonna go into. So I went back downstairs to wait. When I went back up to check, the door was shut because he had come up the back staircase. I went, I'm not gonna just walk in because I don't know if they're dancing around in goathead masks or you know what's going on here. So I went back the next week and it turned out it was a Reiki share. And there were maybe they had about six massage tables. They did little 17-minute sessions. Uh, for anybody who wanted to come, there were practitioners, people who just wanted to experience Reiki. It was a very open group. And two women did a little 15-17 minute session on me, and I remember thinking, what was that? Um, it felt like my head was like a chest of drawers. My body was just like people were opening the drawers, and there was sort of stuff. Um, so I continued to go to this chair for some months, and Reiki 1 and 2 were usually like a weekend class, but I didn't really have the money at the time, even for that, and I ended up helping him move some furniture, so he gave me Reiki 1 as a payback. And that was sort of my introduction to the whole thing. Um I I initially didn't even work on people after that because you know he said, don't just sit there on your hands, it's like you know, start working now that you have Reiki one, and that's that's when it became addictive, I think.

SPEAKER_01 5:38

Wow, what a what a what a treat, right? Instead of payment, right? It gives you uh Reiki uh attunement. I love that. I love that. So when you connected and you uh had this experience, you went through the training, and I love that you had this 14-month uh kind of experience. When I did my Azui Rahiho, I had a one-year apprenticeship with my uh teacher, and I think the last few years has really shown like you have many of these individuals that are doing these kind of condensed trainings and then they're going right out. But I'm seeing now in the landscape of Reiki that there are more opportunities to kind of people to slow down a little bit and to perhaps do these next steps, or let's go a little bit in depth, let's start offering mentorships. Uh, because I just feel like there's not that we we have many out there, and it's great to have that variety, but I think there's a lot of inexperienced people out there, and um it's something that really needs to go into a little bit more depth because we have such a variety of different styles now. I mean, I feel like every day there's a new one popping up and many people creating their own that we're kind of really, really moving far away from the original uh the precepts, a lot of that's getting cut out, uh, a lot of the the BS and scanning and so forth. So,

The Biggest Reiki Misconception

SPEAKER_01 7:15

as you've been working with this energy for some time, cultivating uh the relationship with it, what are some of the misconceptions that you may hear people say about Reiki?

SPEAKER_00 7:27

I think one of my favorite ones, um, people who will come to the Reiki share, like a woman brought her boyfriend once and she said, Well, she doesn't really believe in any of this stuff. Like, you have to believe in it for it to work. And I said, Well, you know, that's okay. It's you don't have to believe in it. And I in my own mind, I say, you know, we you can tell me you don't believe in gravity too, and we can go up to the roof. But um and we did the session with him, and at the end it was 17 minutes, right? And at the end, I leaned down and I like to say, whenever you're ready, come back to the present. Because sometimes people are in a very relaxed state, and there's no response. So I said it a little louder, whenever you're ready, come back to the present. So still no response. So I kind of touched his shoulder and sort of jiggled him, and he his eyes opened, and he sat up and he looked around. And his girlfriend was helping him off the table, and she said, This is his first time here. What did you do to him? And like it was just funny to me because it's it's you know, everybody will re perceive it differently. It may be dramatic, it may not be, but it's not you believing in it or not believing in it does not negate it, I guess, is I think a really important thing about it.

SPEAKER_01 8:39

Beautiful. Yeah. When you think about it, when we take a sip of water, we're not like doubting it's going to hydrate us, right?

SPEAKER_03 8:46

Right, right.

SPEAKER_01 8:49

Right. Or, you know, like I have to really believe this vitamin, right, is going to give me, you know, the the what I need to it. So it's so fascinating. Oh, with that. Now I had heard you mention twice about 17 minutes. Is there uh a reason for the 17 minutes that you studied in your lineage?

SPEAKER_00 9:09

Or this was just for the the share. I mean, I've been to other ones where people do an hour or half an hour or but there would be sometimes um, I mean, sometimes it was a small group, seven or eight people. Other times there were up to 40 people there with maybe six massage tables. And we were using the banquet room at Ann Southern a restaurant in Chicago. Okay, so it's just a time constraint, like okay, we have how many people that want to receive, how many people are gonna work, and it just was like 15 minutes with about a two-minute warning for closing at the end. So usually got in about three or four sessions during the two-hour four, yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_01 9:44

I mean, even five minutes of Reiki is better than no Reiki at all. Yeah, I didn't know if there was something specifically in your lineage that said, you know, 17 minutes, you know, for uh your time. Because I'll you'll hear things like 30 minutes, 26 minutes that I read uh with different things as well. So

Self Doubt And Becoming A Channel

SPEAKER_01 10:04

working with this energy uh and deepening your practice. What has surprised you about working with this energy?

SPEAKER_00 10:12

I think what what surprised me a lot was at the very beginning when I wasn't working on people, it's like, well, I can't do this. Um, you know, it's like other people I would sort of in awe of, like people would do this, and if they'd work with me, I'd feel this, all this stuff. But I had this real self-doubt. Like I, you know, it's and Reiki is not real discriminatory. It's like, yes, you can do this, and the more you do it, I think the more comfortable you get. Um I think that was just that was like kind of a final turning. I was I'd say it was kind of coming to realize my own power in a way, like my own ability to be a clear channel was a huge, huge leap for me. Um, you know, not like I'm doing this to you, but I do have an ability to be a fairly clear channel without an attachment to the outcome, which you know I I basically never do. But right, right, because it's not my energy, but it it's uh it was like okay, I can't just step out of the way and be a clear channel, and it's like this is really fun.

SPEAKER_01 11:16

Yeah. I mean, it's just surprising that some people feel that they're this really critical piece in the puzzle of Reiki, but it's just the simplicity of letting it flow, and oftentimes it acknowledging that inner guidance that, like, let me step out of this for a second and just let it flow and let it let it handle it itself because I'm kind of like, right, let's see how it does without me. And it usually, you know, almost always works itself out in the way it's supposed to go. Right.

SPEAKER_00 11:47

I also I always like to tell clients too, Reiki is not something I do to you, it's something I do with you. Yeah, I like the concept that all healing is self-healing. I I'm not going to wheel or fix anyone, but my goal is to just be very clear and help hold the space for them to do that.

SPEAKER_01 12:06

Well, as you took this 14-month-long Reiki master program, I know when I did my apprenticeship, it really allowed me the opportunity to sit in and observe my master teacher teach, uh, looking at how she formed the classes, the reaction of the students, and uh really get to see things up close and personal, and it really helped form the way I taught my classes and how I put my classes together.

Green Flags And Red Flags

SPEAKER_01 12:35

So as you've experienced that, um, you know, what are some qualities that you look for in a Reiki practitioner or even a Reiki master? What are some things that you consider like green flags that said, yeah, this is the person or the individual that I want to work with?

SPEAKER_00 12:54

Yeah, I um I like that question. I I think some of the things that I even want to go to Reiki shares now, I I've become uh I used to just sort of hop on the table and like anybody could work on me. And I had a couple of very strange experiences with that. So I kind of like to know a little bit about them, their background, um, their integrity is really important, humility, um, a sense of service, as opposed to that, you know, oh, I am presto Megico, and here's all the stuff that I can do to you or for you. Yeah. Um, I think that's like a humbleness in a sense is something I kind of look for from somebody.

unknown 13:33

Right.

SPEAKER_01 13:34

It's just amazing because again, speaking about how many more of us are here, and there's such a huge variety of individuals. And, you know, it seems those that are standing up to say we are one of integrity, you know, to help. And it's important to let people know that like any other profession, you'll have a few bad apples, but to look for those qualities, you know, how do you feel with that person? Do you feel safe? Right. And it could be beyond the certificate. They may have 35 different certificates, but you know, if you feel safe and that resonates and you don't feel pressured. Um, one of the things that always kind of gets me is when someone comes to me and asks, like, well, how many sessions do you recommend? And it's like, how many do you feel? Like, I want to give you the tools. I'm kind of giving you the tools to put myself out of work. Right.

SPEAKER_00 14:34

Thank you. Thank you. Say the same thing when people say, How many times and I tell them I'm not going to make that decision. This is about you claiming your own power. How many times some people come to me you know once and I might not see them again ever, or it might be a year. I have one client who comes every week because it's really beneficial for her. But I and I tell them if somebody says to you, you need to come to me for 17 sessions, uh, you know, blah blah blah, run because yeah, you need to listen to your heart.

SPEAKER_01 15:04

Absolutely. Or if they come a few times, I'll say, Listen, we can have this conversation. Um, I had someone that she was reaching out to me numerous times, and I said, Listen, I can teach you how to do this yourself because then it makes you, you're the one doing the healing. You know, you have this power to do this where you don't have to keep coming to me. I can give you the tools. I want to teach you in a way to fit. And uh, so I never feel that to like, oh, you have to do this 22 times and you have to do this over so many months. Uh, so I never felt like comfortable. I felt that has to be an inner decision. Um, I also do like oracle readings and things like this. And I was at an event and some woman came up to me and she asked me, she said, Do you see anything dark or demonic on me? And you know, I looked at her and I'm like, Well, I don't feel anything. And she said, Well, this person here um in town told me that I had something attached to me and for $2,700, they would get rid of it. And I'm like, Where is this number coming from? Like, is that the credit card bill? I mean, what we're $2,700. And I said, I don't feel anything, and I'm really good at detecting if somebody has something dark. I said, I get like almost that feeling you get when you eat something bad. And I said, I don't feel it. And she's like, Well, I'll give you five dollars to give me a card reading. It's like, but it's just interesting. Again, a couple of bad apples, right? And I said, Listen, you already know the answer. You don't have to pay me the five dollars. And she says, Well, what if I do if I have something attached to me? I said, I'm gonna tell you what. I said, Go to a church and and just pray. I said, and and pray, light a candle. I said, You don't have to spend all this money for this. Um but yeah, you would do have people uh out there that um, and that's definitely you got green flags and you got some red flags, and those are the ones that give you this large amount, or that they contact you and say, I see something on the side of your head. And if I do see something, I never charge people. I said, You listen, I think you got something weird here. I I'm not gonna charge. And they try to give me money, and I'm like, no, thank you, because I came to, I don't want you to feel like I'm soliciting anything from you. So

Turning Reiki Into A Profession

SPEAKER_01 17:24

as you've had these experiences and these Reiki shares, and you've connected to other people and you're growing in your business. What advice would you give someone who you know decides, you know what, I'd like to step in from you know, um doing the Reiki into like a profession? So do you have any words of wisdom?

SPEAKER_00 17:47

I'm probably the right I'm probably not the right person to ask that because it took me from be becoming a Reiki master and then through all my years of volunteering and attending shares, it took about oh my god, it was in 2013, so like 13 years before I finally like uh put myself out officially, you know, with Reiki and Beyond and rented an office and everything. Just because uh it was almost like I didn't want to strip the fun out of it, and not the fun, but you know, like okay, now it's a business, now I have to be serious about it, or it's um so it took me a long time, and then that is also probably related to my self, still self-doubts about my own abilities. Like, even though I was becoming more comfortable with the fact that my work was pretty strong, it's just like you know, I didn't want to seem egoist uh egotistical or like oh, we don't hear so it was kind of wanting to remain retain that kind of humble sort of thing.

SPEAKER_01 18:45

But you know what? Your words are maybe something someone exactly needs to hear because they're not there yet. You have people that get their certificate and then they quit their $90,000 a year job and they move forward, and I'm going to do this. And so you took your time, you did the work, and not everybody moves at this kind of fast pace. It's okay to take your time, think about it, because it does do that shift now. When you have a place that you're renting and electric that you have to pay, and insurance that you have to pay, right? It does shift it in in a way, even though we try to work through that. So hearing about your experience can bring a lot of comfort to people that are just maybe thinking about it. I'm not sure. I'm like, oh, listen, it it took him time because everybody kind of sees this success. Oh, look at you doing this and you're doing that, and it seemed like it was a hot minute, but now they're realizing, oh, it took you years to get there. And I mean, my journey was it took some time. I used to teach, and then the death of my sister just she was the younger sister, knocked me into I didn't think I had the confidence to speak on things. And I really had to overcome that. And there were moments where I was giving myself Reiki at night, and I would be crying and saying, God, am I ever going to get over this hurdle? Like I just didn't think I was going to be there. And now I'm speaking and talking and teaching. And you know, myself from six years ago would have been like, wow, like I can't believe it. Because I was really stuck. And you know, Reiki was the W40 that got me out of my little stuck spots to get to where the purpose is so that like we can connect and like we can share your story in my journey. So this may be the exact thing that someone needs to hear saying, okay, I am right on time instead of running late.

SPEAKER_00 20:52

And so everything is exact, divine right order.

Book Recommendations That Ground Practice

SPEAKER_01 20:58

Very good. So, what books do you recommend? You know, you've been on this journey for some time. So has there been a book or books that have inspired you?

SPEAKER_00 21:09

Absolutely. I have uh I jotted down three. Well, one of them I think just for like a history of Usui Reiki, and Reiki has kind of become a more generic term now, but you know, there are many different branches and schools. But the book Essential, or not, um, I'm sorry, Reiki Fire by Frank Petter. I think it's just a kind of a really nice cornerstone about the origins of it. Another book that I really love a lot is Um Hands of Light by Barbara Brennan, which is not specifically Reiki, but it's working with the human energy field and healing and just lots of really information, uh useful information. And then my favorite cornerstone book for Reiki is uh Diane Stein's Essential Reiki, which when it came out was kind of controversial, and a lot of people were really angry because she reproduces the symbols in Roman Airbus are supposed to be sacred and secret. And I liked her point that people are sacred. You know, symbols, they're not useful, they're useless unless you are initiated to the energy.

unknown 22:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:07

And I kind of agree with her that um, you know, recording them I've seen so many variations on symbols, which it's right. It's like it's like the party game telephone operator where you keep whispering it around the circle, and by the time it gets back, it's totally changed. But Essential Reiki got way back in 2000 when I had a psychic reading by a woman up in Beaverdam, Wisconsin, over the phone. Never met her, she'd never been in my apartment. And we're she's talking, she's going, she says, Well, your guys are showing me a book that they said is you're getting a lot of information from. It's very she's got like a sepia brown cover with an orange symbol on it. And I looked to the table next to me, and it's Diane Stein's Essential Reiki is on the table, and I'm like looking around for the camera, like, okay, how does she know me? Which I just thought was really interesting because it was so specific, you know.

SPEAKER_01 22:59

Right, right. Don't you just find that so amazing, like when it's so specific with things, and like when these come through for me too, like my daughter was like, How did you know that? I'm like, I I don't know. Right. And then I remember I said it, and then I'll have a client come back and like you said this, I'm like, I did.

[Ad] Come Home to Yourself

SPEAKER_00 23:57

I I I had to have a little talk with my guides about that because if this Reiki share once this um guy was just

(Cont.) Book Recommendations That Ground Practice

SPEAKER_00 24:03

he was just sort of fidgety, and you know, and you kept moving. I said, Well, don't make me get the Reiki restraining devices. I don't know why I said that because I have a weird sense of humor. And he's eyes open, he looks at me, he goes, I used to really be into that. How did you know that? Okay, I didn't, and you know, I'm gonna talk to my guides later.

SPEAKER_01 24:23

Yeah, those guys get you three under the bucks there, right?

unknown 24:30

Right.

SPEAKER_01 24:32

So, what other services do you offer? Do you do classes or events?

SPEAKER_00 24:39

I have

Teaching Resistance And Space Clearing

SPEAKER_00 24:39

really resisted teaching classes, although I've I've done a few Reiki uh level one, despite again multiple readings telling me that I came to this incarnation to essentially to get to know who I was as a means to teach. Um, although another friend did a reading once and got that, you know, teaching can also be in the one-on-one encounter, the synchronistic event. But I just really resisted like a formal classroom teaching. But I started doing a few Reiki one classes.

unknown 25:07

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 25:07

Um I've been doing some space clearing, which is just interesting because the guy that I studied with something that we did. I mean, we did some clearings in a barn where there had been a lot of animal slaughtered. We were in cemeteries doing crossover work, we you know, uh entities and houses and stuff. So I've done some work with that, uh just clearing a space. Even my own office, the building itself has it's an older building, it has very weird energy. Yeah, 10 offices, but I've done a lot of clearing and protection on my space, which people have told me they could feel coming across the lobby, like which made me happy. It's like, okay, it's working. Right, right.

SPEAKER_01 25:46

Well, even with the Suey, you know, he would work with students one-on-one. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 25:50

So it doesn't have to be these like 20 people classes with that.

SPEAKER_01 25:55

It can be the simplicity of just that one-on-one. I mean, it's so meaningful. I've had the larger classes and then I've had one-on-ones, and I've had students that were in a class with me and then did one-on-one, and they're like, hey, I really like the one-on-one. It was because I could really go a little deeper with you. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:13

Right, right. And you can actually show them, you know, spend some time. Um I I had a woman who said she was already a Reiki master, she contacted me, but she said she had not received any training on how to actually do a session.

SPEAKER_03 26:26

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_00 26:27

How could you? I mean, so what you basically did is you bought a master initiation, you know, you didn't really Right.

SPEAKER_01 26:33

Well, it depends on where it is. And usually, if you kind of go back, you see it's something like on YouTube or some on demand or something, or if it's someone else's system that bypasses that, because there are a lot of other systems out there.

SPEAKER_00 26:50

Get as much hands-on work as you can, because that is absolutely crucial.

SPEAKER_01 26:54

Sure, sure. I mean, when you think about it, like my lineage originally, because I um have studied about 15 different systems for AT. The first one I did was Azui Rahijo prior to COVID. There there wasn't the distance. I mean, we have the distance symbol, but really with COVID, you're able to practice distance, you know, with another person and things on Zoom. Um, so it may have just been bypassed with that. Um, but good thing she found you, right? And you helped guide her. Yeah. So very good. So where can we find you if someone is interested in a session with you, whether in person or online?

SPEAKER_00 27:41

Oh, okay. Well, I'm located in Royal Oak, Michigan, which is just outside of Detroit, um, suburb of Detroit. I have a uh website, Reikiandbeyond.net, and also a Facebook page, uh Reiki and Beyond. And I love talking about this stuff. I'm not high pressure. I'm happy to answer questions if anybody just wants is curious about my opinion on anything or suggested resources. Um never an issue because I I absolutely love talking about this stuff.

SPEAKER_01 28:12

Beautiful, and that's another way to be a teacher. Reiki talks.

SPEAKER_00 28:16

Right, right.

SPEAKER_01 28:17

Sharing, sharing your wisdom with others. So all right. Well, that ends the first part of our journey. I'm gonna guide you into the second part, which are questions from social media and Reiki students. So here we

Reiki Acceptance In Medicine Today

SPEAKER_01 28:28

go. Number one, as the owner of Reiki and Beyond LLC, how has your public perception of energetic medicine changed in the Metro Detroit area over the last two decades?

SPEAKER_00 28:42

Well, I was over the last two decades, I was part of most of that I was in Chicago or half of it and half of it here. I would just say the the sheer explosion of acceptability. Like at one point when I was still in Chicago, I was talking to a um, so I was working at Rush Medical Center as a contract worker, and somebody was talking about this stuff like in the medical field there and said, Well, oh you know, that there's nothing, that stuff's just all baloney, there's nothing to it. Um, you know, it's all like it's uh smoke and mirrors. And now almost every major medical center, I mean, they all offer alternative uh call it whether they call it alternative medicine, energy medicine, um Reiki prominently. I mean, here in Michigan, uh Report Hospital, Beaumont, you know, two major research teaching hospitals both offer Reiki. And I think just the acceptance and the um explosion of that across across the world, really.

SPEAKER_01 29:41

Yeah, right. I mean, on social media as well. I mean, my kids all know what it is from social media. They're like, oh yeah, we know somebody that does that online. We gotcha. It's all good. But yeah, so it's a great complementary therapy, right? To walk alongside, you know, your doctor's care plan with that.

SPEAKER_00 30:03

Right.

SPEAKER_01 30:03

Number two.

SPEAKER_00 30:05

So I was just gonna say the interesting thing was my own personal physician in Chicago was actually a Reiki master, which I thought was very cool.

unknown 30:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 30:12

Oh, I love that. I love that. Yeah, you'll find like chiropractors, doctors very open to it. And um I had surgery a few weeks ago, and um I had an injury that happened about four years ago. And the reason for the surgery that I had had, but I was able to keep it at bay and I had some more things happen, like blood pressure was going goofy for the first time in my life. And um, we we kind of deduced it as being like white coat syndrome because it was only happening when I was at the doctor. And so my doctor, I said, I do this energy work. And he's like, Okay. And I said, and I'm gonna write an article for this. And he's like, Really? I said, Yeah, next time you see me, I will have an article published. And I wrote an article and it was in the Reiki News magazine on white coat syndrome. And he he saw me and it had been my whatever month checkup it was. And I said, I have a surprise for you. And I said, Look, and he's like, Oh my gosh, you did it. And I said, Yeah, he said, Can I keep this? And I said, Yeah. And he ever when I see him, he's like, I have it in my office still. So he was really open to it. Right. He's like, Wow. And you know, this was something that I used when I would come to get the blood pressure and would have the reading to come. And um, he was like, Wow, I'm gonna tell my patients about this. So, yeah, doctors are more open to that. Um it's kind of exciting to see things shifting and changing, and that we don't have to hide this and go underground like it was once upon a time.

SPEAKER_00 31:43

Yeah, you can't talk about it. I actually kind of throw a funny little story about the medical thing. Um, I looked into

Hospital Volunteering And End Of Life Reiki

SPEAKER_00 31:50

volunteering at a hospital here, local one that offers Reiki. Understandably, they want you to go through their Reiki one or two before they might ask you to volunteer because they want to know that you know you're familiar with their procedures and so forth. And at this point, I had already been a Reiki master for 20 years, had seen you know multiple pay people in like the T-PAN, the uh uh test positive aware and other situations. And I'm like, okay, you know, I'm not gonna pay you to take your two Reiki one and two, so that you might ask me to volunteer for you. But a week after this happened, I had a phone call from two women, two sisters, whose mother was actually in this hospital that I had spoken to. Um she was in a coma and they found me on an internet search and wanted to know if I would come to the hospital and do a Reiki session on their mother. And I said, Well, yeah, of course, you know, I would be on or two. I did an out call there, and she was in ICU. And then they called me the next day and said, We've decided as a family to take her off of life support. Would you come back and do another session while we do that? Which I did. Um, which was you know, profound honor. I mean, like literally, I mean, they you know, Google found me through Google. But the point to me was this is the same hospital that I looked at volunteering at. And it was kind of a lesson to me from spirit, the universe, whatever. Don't worry about that. You're gonna end up where you're supposed to be.

SPEAKER_01 33:15

Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Yeah, yeah. What a beautiful experience and what a blessing it is that you could be there during her last breath. Wow.

SPEAKER_03 33:26

Huge honor, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 33:28

Yeah. And I mean, it's something too to think about, you know, when people are volunteering their time, and then on top of it, you want them to spend money and more time. It should be enough having your certificates and your experience and references and all those things. That should be enough, you know, like submit your certificate and then have a few clients give you some references, do a background check and call it a day, you know, because what if you didn't resonate with that person that was teaching, you know?

SPEAKER_00 34:00

Right, right, right. I I kind of see their point though in the sense that I mean you literally can go into eBay and put in Reiki master initiation and you can get a remote, you know, certified. Sure. There's no really official overseen.

SPEAKER_01 34:13

Right. Well, I mean, there could be other ways around it, whether it's like an interview or a test or something, I don't know, or where you need to prove your lineage. And yeah, but I get what you're saying that there's on all kinds of different things.

SPEAKER_00 34:31

But yeah, I just thought it was very ironic that I ended up at the same hospital.

SPEAKER_01 34:36

But there you go, beautiful. So, number two. Now, the uh person that sent this in used the word rigorous, but we're gonna call it glorious. So you completed

Why Long Training Changes Everything

SPEAKER_01 34:45

a highly glorious 14-month master teacher program under Michael. Hopefully, I pronounced his last name, Soto.

SPEAKER_03 34:53

So beautiful.

SPEAKER_01 34:55

How did that extended month-by-month format deepen your connection to the practice compared to an accelerated um kind of class or some call them weekend workshops?

SPEAKER_00 35:06

Right, right. Well, interesting, about the same time I started his class, there was um a man who was part of a Wiccan group in Chicago that I knew, and he said, Oh, you're doing that class, you know, I can take you right through to master level in a weekend. And I thought, my goal is not to get there as fast as I can, my goal is to learn. And I'd been attending this the chairs with Michael for at this point over a year, uh year and a half. I knew how deep his work was. He, to be fair, he did call his class um like the name I've taken for my company, Reiki and Beyond, because it went into things he was he was doing past lives, parallel lives, um, entity attachments, vortex work. Uh, we were in cemeteries doing crossover work. It was way well beyond traditional Reiki, but it prepared me for all sorts of things that I run into. Um, and I think one of the most important things for me is I compare it to my degree as an art, which I feel like didn't make me an artist. It taught me ways of working with materials.

SPEAKER_02 36:09

Right.

SPEAKER_00 36:09

And I also feel like studying Reiki, I think, especially as a Scorpio, I've had stuff going on energetically all my life. Studying Reiki kind of gave me a framework for approaching it. Like, okay, here's a way in. And it's not like you learned this set of you know hand positions and now you're done. It's like, no, now it starts evolving, and then the serious work really comes in. You it keeps evolving after that. So I think that's one of the things from Michael's classes to just this keep this sense of wonder and this, you know, like there are no rules, like this is not what always happens in the situation or people's energy doesn't always do this. It's organic and it's changing.

SPEAKER_01 36:50

Right, right, right. And there's some good programs out there. You want to find that good ethical teacher, and it's a you can do a Saturday and a Sunday class with that particular teacher, whether it's live on Zoom or it's like a physical class and can learn a lot of things, and a lot of great teachers will continue to work and support well beyond the classroom. I know I have students from six years ago, they still ask me questions about things. So, you know, you're always accessible and learning. And if you don't know the answer, you know, you end up finding it because we don't know the answers all the time, right? So we're able to find out and ask those questions uh with those. So the things that kind of I think they're referring to as, you know, the on-demand things going on the internet and watching a video and calling it a day kind of thing. And um, yeah, you need you need to really, there's just so many things that come up that it's so important to be able to connect with someone to ask um those kind of questions. I remember, and this was after you know, learning with a live teacher and having many teachers and many mentors. I went on a certain site and thought, oh, well, this is interesting. Let me, as an extra resource, do this as a video so you have it for life. So I'm watching it. I watched it in a weekend, and then I was curious. And I there was an area on there that you could contact the person that created this. So I reached out to him and I asked, Well, do you have a date? Because I'm kind of interested in kind of maybe writing my own manual, putting like the puzzle pieces together with this. And he could not tell me the year of when this energy, because you usually have a date. You know, we know a Zooie 1922, right? Holy Fire, Azui Holy Fire 2014, Money Reiki was like 2009. He could not give me a date. He's like, I don't know. I didn't, my teacher never told me. And I guess it was never the thought to ask. So for me, that was important because I want to know where this came from. You know, what was the inspiration? Was this channeled? Was it a divine source, right? Was it in a dream? Like, tell me. And he could not.

SPEAKER_00 39:04

And I I agree there. There certainly other lineages, other types of energy healing. You know, Reiki is not the only one, but conversely, also a friend overheard a woman at a Reiki share say, Oh, I was in the shower and my cat initiated me to Reiki. Yeah, which is kind of the opposite end. It's like, okay, it doesn't have to be this, but I'm trying to master fluffy. There's a little cat in a turban.

SPEAKER_01 39:27

Right, right. And what kind of Reiki was it, right?

SPEAKER_00 39:29

You know, was it feline Reiki? Was it, you know, what?

SPEAKER_01 39:33

Yeah, yeah. Orange cat Reiki, right? So that's for people. And I've I've had it where they've said it's in a dream, and that's perfectly fine. You know, we have that connection of a Zooie that was supposedly on the mountain, right? And but just be honest. I tell people, just be honest about it. Like it's like, you know what? I decided to have my own system and build it and put it together. So when I teach money Reiki, I said this system is from uh Stephanie uh Braille, but I've modified it through my experiences, and I had like a whole year of a pilot class to put it together with it. So transparency is important as well with that. So all right. So number three, for someone who is highly skeptical, skeptical, but curious,

Advice For Skeptical First Timers

SPEAKER_01 40:15

what is the single most important piece of advice you offer before they experience a Reiki session?

SPEAKER_00 40:23

I I would again, it's I think it's just the um try to let go of any preconceived ideas, just be open to receiving whatever may come through. And sometimes it's dramatic, sometimes it's not, but you know, just try because I think sometimes people just hold on to this idea. Well, it's you know, it's not real, I won't experience it, I don't believe in it, so it's not effective. Well, okay. I mean, you can hold on to that, but set that aside for whatever duration that you're on the table and just see, you know, honestly let in whatever's coming through and see how you feel before you make that decision.

SPEAKER_01 40:58

Right, right. Always say open heart, open mind, right?

SPEAKER_00 41:02

Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_01 41:04

Yeah. My husband, um, because I have different abilities, my husband would always say, Okay, that's okay, but if you walk around here with a one, we're gonna have a talk, right? And so with the Riki, he would be like, I don't know. You know, when him and I, we we grew up uh a very uh close area in uh western Pennsylvania. So we we live maybe about like 20, 30 minutes apart growing up and we didn't meet till college. And um, you know, he was uh raised in a Lutheran church, I was raised in an episcopal church, and uh so as he has seen this grow and evolve and things like that, um, he had gotten, he was like hurting, and he was like, you gotta do this reiki rocky stuff that you do on me. And he was just to that point, like, I'll try anything at this point. Like, I'm ready, I'm not feeling good. And you know, gave him the Reiki. And I said, But you still need to follow up with the doctor, like even if you feel amazing at this. And you know, sure enough, he was feeling great. And then he was actually going in for um a colonoscopy, and the doctor didn't find that like site hernia. But the doctor said, Are you feeling any pain? He said, No, she did something. She did something. No, I didn't. I didn't do anything. And he said, Well, if you don't feel anything, then we're good. Let's just leave it, you know? And but there that shows you someone who is very skeptical. Now he's on this, and then something else came up. And I said, Darling, I didn't think you believed me. He said, You proved me wrong.

SPEAKER_03 42:42

Right?

SPEAKER_01 42:43

It comes in time, so very good. Well, that was our last question. As we've been talking, is there anything else you might have forgotten? Something that you want to share? I know we weren't able to touch a lot on the near-death experience, but whatever you feel called to do, the floor is yours.

SPEAKER_00 43:03

Oh, all right. Well, I don't, I don't really have anything in particular. I think one of the things, though, that has been really key with my work was about

Plant Medicine Influence And Closing CTA

SPEAKER_00 43:12

13 or 14 years ago, I met this man who facilitates Peruvian shamanic um plant medicine ceremonies. And that's a whole nother long story. But about two or three ceremonies into, I think I've done about 140 of them since then, in my assisting role, just supporting and also assisting, I would there's like a healing round during the ceremony, about two to three hours. And I'm specifically talking about ayahuasca, which you may or may not be familiar with, but um that to me was has been sort of like postgraduate work with for my energy work because I'm being in that field, that energy field of that shamanic ceremony, which is about a four to five hour experience, and working anywhere from like five to twenty people during the the four-hour ceremony is just an incredible experience that I I can't I'm not recommending it for everyone, but it's just it's been I'd be lying if I didn't say it was it was not a cornerstone of my practice in the way that and I've had a couple of people tell me I would never say I'm a shaman, because that's a really specific thing, but I've had a couple of people work tell me or tell me my work feels very shamanic, which is a huge honor. Yeah, but it's also it's very traditional Reiki. You know, I don't do I don't have rattles or bones or anything, but um so that's I think that's it's kind of a different aspect to my work.

SPEAKER_01 44:36

Right, right. And what system of Reiki that do you work with?

SPEAKER_00 44:40

Um I I'm in the Yusui lineage.

SPEAKER_01 44:48

From Azui, so it sounds like more towards Madame Takata. That that lineage there was very traditional.

SPEAKER_00 44:55

Absolutely. Which I'm not hyper.

SPEAKER_01 44:58

I know some there's certain groups that are very strict about oh, they're very strict, like and it just has to be hands-on, right? Nothing else, no tuning forks, no drums, right? No singing.

SPEAKER_00 45:10

Right. But that I can't actually, I as opposed to the woman who was initiated by her cat while she was in the shower, I do actually.

SPEAKER_02 45:18

I love that.

SPEAKER_00 45:19

I I it was one of my favorite stories. I mean, I actually got my Reiki master's Reiki master, and I can trace them back. So yeah, yeah. Which makes me it just makes me feel like okay, I know what I'm getting.

SPEAKER_01 45:30

Right, right. I love it. I mean, I'm just like trying to picture this reenactment of like you in the shower and the cat putting the little paw or you know, right. You're standing there in your towel and the cat's towel, the cat's paws up, you know. Right. I love it, I love it. So let us know again where we can find you. You offer online and in person.

SPEAKER_00 45:53

Um, I don't actually I've resisted doing distance work, although I have had three or four very intense experiences with that. I prefer one-on-one, hands-on. I have done work from across town in Chicago and from Michigan to Brazil um with results, but I I just like actual connecting with people. So my website again is just www.reikiandbeyond.net. And I have a Facebook page as well, Reiki and Beyond. Um, there are some other people that utilize that, so but my picture will be there, so you'll know you have the right one.

SPEAKER_01 46:29

All right, very good. Well, thank you, John, for taking time out of your very busy schedule to join me on this ready sitrey journey.

SPEAKER_00 46:37

It was a huge honor. I can't tell you, I'm absolutely thrilled to meet you, and I'm looking forward to our tails crossing again, I hope.

SPEAKER_01 46:44

All right, wonderful. All right, my beautiful listeners, if you want your question or questions featured on the podcast, reach out www.ready sitreeky.com

Where To Find John And Submit Questions

SPEAKER_01 46:52

or check me out on social media. I'm Teresa Sea Wright, and this has been Ready Set Reiki.