Reiki Healing for the Terminally Ill

My dearly beloved father passed into spirit two years ago from Ischemic Heart Disease. After a long battle (fought with dignity and drive) he slipped into the ether trailing love, peace and wisdom in his departure. Although I expected to hear the news of his death at any point, there is little on earth that can prepare a loved one for the moment of passing. The nanosecond my brother gave me news that dad had been taken into intensive care, I was stunned into disbelief. But I was given the gift of spending a week with him while he resisted leaving his body; in his heavily sedated state we connected energetically and soul journeyed together in his sacred state.

The Spirit Connection

The spiritual need at the end of life is of a special vibrational quality and reflects the special needs of a person near death. In supporting a dying loved one we wish to assist what we Reiki practitioners refer to as ‘transition,’ with the capacity to channel energy of a spiritual vibrational quality.

Barbara Ray began her book, The Reiki Factor (1983) "Every day of your life represents an opportunity for a new beginning. Every breath you take is a rebirth, drawing in a new round of air connecting you to the universal vibrations of that particular moment. Exhaling is a letting go or releasing of what has now become the past, and the new breath again keeps you in the 'here now' - the eternal present." Yet at the moment of death, or transition, there is no next heartbeat, no next breath.

In the Western World, Conventional Medicine is split from Spiritual Healing. Both are gifts from the same source and should be used in a complimentary way. Sogyal Rinpoche (The Tibetan Book of the Living and Dying) writes, for all it's technological achievements, modern society has little understanding of death or what happens in death or after death...people today are taught to deny death, and taught that it means annihilation and loss. That means that most of the world either lives in denial of death or in terror of it. It is in response to this reality, that we in Traditional Medicine who wish to Care when we cannot Cure, can become aware of the power of the attunement to Reiki and the assistance we can bring by channeling this specific vibrational energy.

Reiki supports Equanimity or 'calmness and composure through evenness of mind' - a concept I learned at a 10 day silent meditation (Vipassana) retreat. However, Reiki can encompass much more by assisting the near death transition by channelling Spiritual Energy that brings calm, and in the stressful time before the severing of the bond between the consciousness and the body, prepares the soul to evolve forward rather than to be held back by fear.

Near the end of life, the body is often failing and emaciated. With death, the heart ceases beating and respiration stops. Medical personnel perceive death as occurring at that moment however, as a final step, the spirit departs the body. The beautiful transition of the Spirit can be perceived by the attuned observer. In remaining grounded in prayer, with reverence and respect for the process, depending on the grounding and attunement of the observer, this can be an enlightening and strangely beautiful experience but it can, if faced with fear and without adequate grounding, leave perceptions of disorientation and fear.

In being energetically attuned, we are in effect holding that person's spiritual hand as they transition out of the body, manifesting peace and the spiritual energy of Equanimity.

My Next Endeavour

So is borne my next project ‘The Reiki Connection’ - bringing Reiki healing to the loved ones of the terminally ill.

'Touch,’ even holding a persons hand, creates an instant human connection and hands-on healing modalities such as Reiki is even more powerful. People who are ill may well feel that they are not touchable, not loveable. To me touch is an important non-verbal affirmation of humanity. Society molds us into the people we are, influencing us to think and behave the way we do. Society teaches us that death is bad, scary, unknown and final, but is it any of those things? To me, dying feels more like a birth but on the other end of life as we know it. The body dies but our Essence, our Soul, our Being (whatever you feel comfortable naming it) continues, shifting into another state of consciousness and energetic form. Death is not a separation from loved ones, in my experience it is quite the opposite. Once they leave the physical body they connect to loved ones in a more powerful way, to know their hopes and fears and guide them.

In Honour Of My Beloved Father

This poem was sent to me by a stranger from a cancer unit upon hearing of my father's passing. It keeps his spirit alive and with me, wherever I may be.

Do not stand at my grave and weep I am not there, I do not sleep. I am a thousand winds that blow I am the diamonds glint on snow I am sunlight on ripened grain I am the gentle autumn rain When you awaken in the morning's hush I am the swift, uplifting rush of quiet birds in circled flight, I am the soft stars that shine at night Do not stand at my grave and cry I am not there, I did not die.