Reiki and Animals
Published in
the June 1998 issue of "The Messenger"
We have been asked recently by
a practitioner new to Reiki, if Reiki can be used on animals. This
tells me that there are some teachers out there either just attuning
people to the Reiki energy or not teaching enough information. Reiki
is safe to use for any living life-form. This includes all species....
.plants, animals, and humans. Since everything is composed of energy
molecules, and the joining of molecules make up all levels of matter,
then simply stated, Reiki is the energy that animates all living
things. When all life-forms are first "created", they have a maximum
amount of life-sustaining energy; but as they begin to age, there is a
cycle of deterioration that begins. The body is de-stablizing as an
object and there is an on-going loss of vital energy. So all of life
is a "temporary" experience in a solid, form-body; and as this cycle
plays itself out, all objects begin to loose their stability.... their
ability to hold a full charge of life-sustaining energy. By giving
any object a Reiki treatment(s), that object is filled with the
maximum quantity of energy that it is capable of holding, at its
present stage/cycle of reverting back to an energy-state. So you see
that anything that is in solid form can use a shot of energy; a Reiki
treatment. Depending on the state of balance of any object (i.e., loss
of life-giving energy), some objects can use more energy than other
objects. This is why some life-forms (plants, animals, humans) may
receive more energy than other similar life-forms. And this is why
some life-forms require more energy one treatment time than another.
Back to animals, because of the size of their bodies, small animals
do not need as much energy as do larger animals; and animals that are
imbalanced, need more than healthy animals (regardless of size). So if
you have a small animal (i.e., newborn, miniature, rodent, bird, etc.
) they can most often be held in the palm of one hand, and the other
hand held "loosely" above its body, and treatment time will usually be
short - less that 15 minutes. For moderate-sized animals (i.e., most
dogs, domestic cats, fowl, rodents, etc.), you would only place your
hands over most of their body. This may take more than one hand
placement, but it would not take too much to cover the entire body;
treatment usually lasts for 15 minutes to 1/2 hour. And for large
domesticated animals (large breed dogs, ponies, big-cats, monkeys,
etc.) you would place your hands over each area of their bodies;
similar to hands position of humans, but more closely related to their
organs and/or areas of malaise. Treatment may last from 15 minutes to
one hour or more. Lastly, for the very "large" animals (i.e., tame
zoo animals, livestock, work animals, etc.), you would want to gather
several of your Reiki friends to come over and place their hands
wherever they can, for as long as they can. Treatment usually lasts
for 15 minutes to an hour. For all other animals, mostly of wild
species, we only recommend "distance/absentee" treatments. For
un-tamed birds in a cage, fish in a tank, poisonous animals in
aquariums, etc., it is recommended to place the hands on either side
(or top and bottom) of their container/home; Reiki will just go
through the material and be received by the animals. One more point,
animals are usually much more sensitive than humans, and as such, they
may shy away from the energy at first. But they will grow accustomed
to the feeling of the Reiki, realizing that it is good for them, and
they will eventually allow much longer times of treatment, as time
goes on. It is perfectly fine and useful to attune your animals to
Reiki (teacher level technique), although it may be a bit of challenge
to get then to sit in a chair while you move around them waving your
hands in all manners of expression. So when they are lying down,
sleeping/resting, you might be lucky enough to complete the attunement
that way, or you could always do an "absentee attunement". It is our
experience with our own cat, and with our student's animals, that as
we do the initiatory attunements on their owners, many animals will
come around the attuning chair, sometimes sitting in the lap of the
attunee, or sitting under the chair. When the attunement is over, we
very often see the animal get up and walk away; they seem to sense the
energy and know when the energy has ceased to flow. Even when you are
doing treatments, on yourself or others, animals may climb up and sit
in the receiver's lap, or on the solar plexus, or somewhere nearby,
in the auric field. Here is an interesting experience that we and
other students/friends have had: when we/they are feeling "
out-of-sorts", animals will sometimes sense that something is wrong,
and want to be nearby, until the crisis is over. With Reiki-attuned
animals, there are many reports of animals, especially dogs and cats,
that will lie down with their "imbalanced" owners, and their paws will
actually become warm, as Reiki flows through their bodies.
Reiki
creates a deeper bonding between all species of life, when it is given
freely, and without any expectations. Happy 'Reiki'ing.
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