Reiki Cleansing

Read my more current perspective on this subject.
Or, continue reading what I wrote in September, 2010:

After a Reiki attunement there is a cleansing process that happens. A Level I attunement provides the ability to send healing energy to anything in the physical realm through the hands. Therefore, the cleansing process associated with Level I has to do with the physical body.

After my level I attunement, I experienced a physical cleansing that kept me between the bed and bathroom for a day or two. It's strongly recommended to continue doing self-healing sessions for the first 21 days after the attunement—three days for each of the 7 chakras to cleanse. The 21-day cycle continues after the first 21 days, and it's important to maintain self healings very often. I however eventually drifted away from the physical self-healing sessions out of boredom. It really didn't hold my attention much.

If you've been following the Reiki posts on this blog, you may remember that I had always intended to get to level II. That's where I really wanted to be, and what fascinated me most about the idea of Reiki. So, it seems natural to me that level I didn't hold my attention.

Last November (2009), just before moving to Texas for the winter, and only 2 months after my level I attunement, I choose to get a remote attunement to level II to help with the journey south. I had the attunement done remotely by Alice Langholt. It was an interesting experience.

I had never received Reiki remotely, so I was unsure what to expect. I sat with my legs folded, and my hands on my legs with my palms up to receive the gift of Reiki. My body was tense and my mind was racing. I tried to maintain a simple focus of receiving the level II attunement from Alice, which I turned into a mantra of "receiving level II from Alice" and repeated over and over. It helped keep my mind from jumping all over the place.

I interpreted the tension in my body as a resistance to something. I investigated the resistance, and decided to accept whatever I was resisting, and just let things happen. Almost immediately, my hands then went into gassho, my body relaxed, and my mind opened.

I began to visualize and feel 3 sets of hands moving around me, as if they were rubbing my aura. It was very subtle, but it seemed very real at the same time. When my attention fixated on the hands, they faded into the background, but I was left with a warm, tingling sensation in my back.

It all seemed to happen very quickly, but it lasted about 15 minutes.

After I felt the energies subside I e-mailed Alice and told her of the experience. She explained the she called on Usui Sensei, Mrs. Tataka and my guides to help in the attunement process, and that perhaps they were the presences I was sensing. She had also drawn symbols onto my back, which perhaps I was feeling.

Alice had send me some information to begin practicing with the level II symbols. I learned the symbols and began using them when doing physical self-healings. A level II Usui Reiki attunement, with the use of sacred symbols, allows energy to flow into the emotional and mental bodies of the aura for healing, as well as through time and space.

I tried sending Reiki to my family members back home, and to myself in the future. But I never really *felt* anything. So I became discouraged that it wasn't working and did not maintain the self-healings. As time went on Reiki seemed more and more difficult to tap into and feel.

However, even though I didn't *feel* it, Reiki was hard at work healing my emotional and mental body. Throughout the winter I experienced some deep emotional cleansing. There were a lot of things about my psyche that were exposed to me—things I was in denial about and resisted seeing as truth. I saw things I couldn't believe, but knew to be true—though I resisted them. I spiraled into the worst self-loathing depression I had ever been in, totally unable to accept these aspects about myself. I was mentally and physically destructive to myself and my friends. I was isolated from my family and basically felt all alone to deal with what I was experiencing. I often tried to use Reiki to help me, but I didn't understand what was happening. I didn't want to understand nor want the help. I just wanted everything to go away. But the only way out is through. One night, as I basked in the emotional uncertainty, my ego shattered itself with judgement and delusion… Then, with help through unconditional love, understanding, and logic-based thinking of my boyfriend I was able to see things more clearly and not take things so personally. Self acceptance has been a continuing effort since then…

At the beginning of this September I decided to begin another 21-day self-healing cleanse using the level I and level II attunements and symbols I had obtained. When I began my chakras felt very blocked—especially my heart chakra. The first few days of healings were met with physical resistance, yet I proceeded anyway. I was confident that the energy was there, and working, even though I could not *feel* anything. As the days continued I became more sensitive and open.

I was then pulled very strongly toward attending a level II class with Starr—the Reiki master who attuned me to level I and who I always intended on having my level II attunement with.

I attended that attunement 1 week ago today. You can read some of the highlights of that day here. Since that day I've felt very different—like my body is floating in sparkles. My heart chakra has since been softened greatly, and my third eye seems to be more acute.

Each morning I awaken in a way that seems relatively normal—somewhat groggy and heavy. But I feel something pulling me up—something urging me to tap into it and awaken. Like the sparkles are calling to me—they want to be acknowledged. It's a very strong calling that I cannot deny for long before it becomes overwhelming. The calling is to meditate, and to do a self healing session.

I'm very thankful for this calling. It's inspiring me to continue healing myself and I'm feeling confident that I'm on the right path. After my morning meditation/healing, I feel light and more in-touch with life. I'm more aware of everything on a subtle level and able to sense the energies in and around my body in a more aware way than ever before. I'm often drawn to small meditations and healings throughout the day that slowly amplify the sparkles.

The sparkles… I suppose I should define them. They're like a tingly sensation all around my skin—like a carbonated layer of bubble-wrap surrounding me—an energetic protective/loving/healing layer. It seems to amplify the awareness around me so that it may align itself with what IS… It's hard to describe. It's loving and comforting and peaceful.

Since the level II attunement there have been spontaneous emotional break-downs. Unresolved emotional blockages are resurfacing to be looked at. I'm so thankful to have a boyfriend around with a logical understanding of the mystical side of life who I'm able to talk with to work through things that come up. Without his guidance I'm not sure I'd have as deep an understanding of what could be happening as I do. I'm such an emotional person—I feel things, then trust the feelings. He helps me bring those feelings into the mind helping both the left and right sides of my brain understand.

The other night, I had the urge to look through my journal—which is basically filled with sketches and questions asking for guidance… and an occasional answer from something beyond. I flipped through each page, and James and I discussed the things that were happening during that time. I got to one page that was drawn while I was learning how to live after my mom had been diagnosed with stage 4 ovarian cancer. Immediately upon seeing that page I burst into tears… there is something unresolved there. I witnessed myself resist the emotion and suppress it back to where it came from… then upon witnessing that I considered allowing it to resurface to look more closely at it… but I don't think it was something I'm entirely ready for just yet… or it's something I need to deal with privately. Even as I write this I can feel the emotion well up reminding me to look into this as soon as I have a private opportunity.

I'm loving the emotional cleansing. It's helping me to see clearly and openly. I really think the level II cleansing was necessary for me to do in 2 stages. There were some really deep, hard-to-accept aspects about myself that I needed to sift through over the winter in order to be ready for the level II attunement from Starr. Without the first remote attunement I don't think I would have been emotionally ready to handle the strength of what I experienced during Starr's attunement.

I'm thankful for all that Reiki has brought into my life. It's balancing me and helping me to clearly understand the path that I am on. It's quite a ride that I'm eager to continue experiencing.