Reiki Attunement
Can you be Self-Attuned or does a
Reiki Master Teacher Initiate or Attune you?
Has anyone ever asked you this question before?
Have you ever asked it yourself?
Chances are, on both counts, that you haven’t – and this is not at all surprising. Many Reiki Masters or Reiki Teachers haven’t given this much thought. It seems most just accept the history as ‘given’ by other Reiki Practitioners at every level. No matter which story of the origins of Reiki you have been taught or choose to believe in – you are asked to accept ‘that the ability to channel Reiki’ can only be passed on to you by an existing Reiki Master in person.
And, at least initially, this sounds plausible and quite acceptable…Until you look a little deeper…
Quick rundown on the origins of Reiki
There are presently two versions of how Reiki came into being, both of which have been circulating for quite some time.
The Western version goes something like this:
After years of searching through various religious and spiritual manuscripts in several countries for the ability to heal like Jesus, Usui (pronounced: you-soo-ee or Ooo-su-ee) was awakened in his third eye by a strong light – which came out of the darkness after a 21 day fasting meditation on Mount Kurama, giving him with the ability to heal.
The Eastern version goes like this…
After facing certain business failures; Usui went to Mount Kurama and experienced an awakening and understanding surrounding the ability to heal ones self at every level. During his days of meditating, with his experiences he founded the ‘Usui Reiki’; life force energy healing at every level. With a very brief history of the Reiki origins, it really doesn’t matter which version you find acceptable. Usui was on Mount Kurama alone.
Now, let’s look at this closer; do you believe that the only way to be attuned to the Reiki energy is to be initiated or attuned by an existing Reiki Master in person?
This is where we have to ask you, ‘Does this really make any sense’? It is no secret that Dr. Usui meditated and committed himself to the Reiki Energies.
Does it make any sense at all for you to accept that you can only be attuned to Reiki by someone else, when Reiki Teachers accepted the founder of Reiki- Dr. Usui – attuned himself to the energies and founded the Reiki practice.
In either version of the Reiki history does it mention anywhere that there was anyone else present to pass this energy on to him. Some will tell you that Usui was struck in the forehead by some kind of bright light which enlightened him to Reiki – well, I personally don’t think so, but even if that did happen- it’s still not another person is it?
So, the truth is –
Usui was totally alone when he attuned himself to Reiki!
Here is the Question: Do you have to be attuned by a Reiki Master?
You can be empowered with the Reiki Energy without an attunement from a physical person. Reiki is FREE and available to everyone who chooses to learn the discipline, initiate, respect, techniques and practice it. You pay for the tools and time from a Reiki Master to gain the knowledge, guidance and certification to practice.
Reiki Energy has been with us since the beginning of time, there is nothing new about it at all. There is no reason why you cannot be empowered the same way that the founder Usui was. Remember that Usui was a mortal man (the same as all of us) who was empowered during meditating; via; self-attuned. I only say this because I have also self-attuned after being attuned by a Master. I can honestly say that my self-attunement, commitment and sensitivity to the energies were very powerful, no doubt raised the vibrations for me. Those that I have guided through- The Secret of Reiki Home Study Course- ‘the self-attunement’- have said the same in sharing their personal experiences. You have a choice as to how you attune to the Reiki Energies; I have found great experiences in each attunement ritual I have participated in. Reiki is an intention, a commitment and personal relationship you develop through a process of knowledge, learning, attunement and practice. Some of my students, even several internationally; have requested a long distance attunement by me as well, along with their self-attunement; clearly it is a personal relationship with Reiki and a personal choice.
Learn more about Reiki and Self Attunements through
The Secret Of Reiki Home Study Course
Sharing with Love n Lite,
Kimberlee Cusumano
Reiki Master Teacher
Intuitive Communications
800-553-2669
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- 10 Comments... What's Your Take?
Hi Kimberlee,
What I love most about the idea of self-attuning is the sense of empowerment the comes from knowing on a visceral level that we already are divine light, that the ability to heal is and always has been our birthright. And yes, as far as we know, Usui was alone on Mt. Kurama. What I struggle with though is that Usui had spent most of his life up to that point preparing himself for that experience by his involvement in Tendai Buddhist, Shinto, Shugendo and martial arts practices and thus was already fairly “enlightened” so to speak. As much as I felt that I had “come home” when I found Reiki (or it found me) and had spent a good many years on personal development up to that point, I was (and am) nowhere near as spiritually evolved as Usui would appear to have been. Most of his students also didn’t progress past what we know as 1st degree and even at that were required to spend much time studying with him to even get that far.
I guess I’m just not sure what to make of it….and that’s okay, for now
ReplyNamaste Janet, you bring forward good comments, I understand Janet, we are all here with a different life path…. who is to say Usui’s students were not attuned past a level they were labeled with… or told that is the limited for them right now….
ReplyI have worked with 100s, many many many people over the years… and many of them very in-tune and aware in ways and vibrations then myself….? I don’t judge who should or shouldn’t attune, how, when, where etc…. Reiki is free to everyone, it is a Personal Commitment and Practice- you get out of it- what you put in…. that is a gift…..
I was taught by a group online and then I am told that it did not count. I went into a head spin and stopped doing any reiki, until I had this dream. I stood outside with a monk on my left and a monk behind me and the Dalai Lama was on my right side. In front of me bowing down with his hands streached out to me was Dr. Mikao Usui with my diploma and he said you are now a Reiki Master. I work for a site of William Lee Rand as a healer for 2 years now. I am in contact with Frank Arjava Petter, I have all of Bronwen and Frans Stienes books and have spoken though e-mails with this wonderful man. I have been a reiki master for 3 years now and will never stop. I believe everyone can be a Reiki Master on thier own. I have healed a cat and my son loves his daily treatments and a 15 year old girl lives today because of reiki and the doctors had given up on her living and where amazed that she walks and talks and laughs again. Thank you for letting me tell my story. Namaste` Phoenix
Reply@Phoenix:
ReplyNamaste’ Phoenix, THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU…… you bring forward the gift of healing to so many by sharing your story….. you are a true inspiration!
@Janet:
Janet —-
you make a very good point: that Usui had spent many years in various meditations and studies and practicing martial arts, working on his own spiritual awakening! and, what i see as the great improvement, in the method he ultimately gave us, is that it’s a method that doesn’t require the years of meditation and practice done by Usui himself. (at the same time, it’s not realistic to think that, after a reiki attunement, we suddenly have energetic capabilities comparable with someone who has been practicing reiki for a long time; the daily practice of reiki is an essential element in our Self-realization.)
exactly how Usui’s own reiki “empowerment” came about is not really clear. did he receive it during a fast on Mt. Kurama, as the story says? according to a Buddhist nun who claimed to have worked with Usui-sama almost every day from 1920-1926, she and Usui and his family were traveling from Kyoto to Tokyo during the very period of time (March 1922) when the legend says Usui was fasting and receiving his cosmic reiki attunement on Mt. Kurama! ( see http://home.versatel.nl/peters_vos/Vinnies%20site/Usui-do/stories.shtml.htm#lbl4 ) and, according to surviving students of Usui (who taught Chris Marsh), Usui was teaching his “method for achieving personal perfection” long before that date, anyway. those students have said that Usui did perform a fast and meditation, at least 5 times, on Mt. Kurama — so, apparently, it was not the unique and miraculous event that some later made it out to be….
i agree that every one of us, as a projection of Infinite Source, has the inherent ability to do anything — attune ourselves to reiki, levitate, transport our body to any location instantaneously (even multiple copies of our body to different locations), walk on water, walk through fire, take our nourishment directly from the atmosphere, materialize things at will…. all those abilities are inherent in us — but how many of us have been able to activate them for ourselves? apparently not many : ^ ).
when i was an adolescent, i suffered an abdominal hernia … and i healed it myself by spending lots of time with my hands on it. this was totally an instinctive action, decades before i ever heard of reiki. i spent lots of time with my hands on the hernia — with the most reverent desire to heal it through some connection to “God”– and it was healed, but it took me about a year to do it! maybe i was using reiki then, without knowing it. but i do know that, when i encountered reiki officially, years later, receiving a reiki attunement from another person made a huge difference in me energetically.
could i, at that time, have attuned myself to reiki just as well? no — because i was a little skeptical of being “attuned” even by someone else : ^ ). maybe, had i been free of skepticism, with total belief and confidence in my ability to “attune” myself to something i really knew nothing about … maybe i could have done it. but i think the effect would have been minimal. this is not to say that people don’t exist who can attune themselves strongly to reiki — maybe they do — but i can only speak from my own experience.
another thought: regardless of how Mikao Usui came to be attuned with reiki, the procedure he used with his own students was to give them reiju (energetic “empowerment”), not just once but regularly and often. i’ve never seen evidence or heard any suggestion that Usui told people they could attune themselves to reiki. (on the other hand, Dave King learned a version of “Usui-do” that included no energetic empowerment at all : ^ )
db
ReplyHi Kimberlee, I just wanted to take a moment to clarify that I meant absolutely no disrepect whatsoever to the wonderful work that you’re doing
As a new Reiki teacher who just doesn’t feel ready to teach yet, I refer people to your program if they are interested in self-attuning and one or two others if they are looking for a distant attunement, as well as more experienced teachers if they are looking for a local class - you’re listed on my “Resources” page, remember 
I guess what I was trying to convey was that, for me, as empowering (on so many different levels) as my own experiences with self and distant attunement to master level have been, the sharing of that connection and spiritual blessing with a teacher face-to-face was deeply moving and I’m so grateful to have had that experience. There is absolutely no question in my mind that self and/or distant attunements work - why wouldn’t they - in much the same way that distant healing works. We become one and we are one with all that is.
Namaste,
ReplyJanet
@Janet:
ReplySharing with love n lite Janet. we are all on the same page really… I am so thankful to have others like you share and teach….. Sending you Hugs my friend…. Namaste’
Hi Kimberlee: I too have questions about self-attunement.Your instruction on the home study video is easy to follow and I re-created my own self-attunement per your directions. I did feel my Reiki sessions become more powerful after the attunement. But I ask, did you pass this Reiki energy on to me through your video? Maybe not, since the video was ‘more instructional’ than intended or directed at me personally. Another question: I had a Reiki treatment some weeks before I did my own attunement. Does that mean the Reiki practitioner passed Reiki energy on to me during the treatment? I would think so, right? If intention is such a powerful key to this, then I suspect that your good Reiki intention, Kimberlee, comes directly through to your student during the attunement video. Do you think a video specifically intending Reiki attunement energy ‘directly’ at the student would be more effective or enhance the level of healing? /pc
ReplyNamaste’ Paula, great questions!!!! It is in the INTENTION, yes, and it is true, as practitioners we are benefiting from the Reiki energy during every session!!! I love your idea of another video specifically intending Reiki ‘attunement’ energy ‘directly’ to the student, simply for enhancing, direction and healing as well….
ReplyDebbie (student) says; I love the Reiki Circle tonight, It has been my experience after my self attunement to the symbols, my level of intention, practice and enhanced energy is very obvious. I am a massage therapist and practice Reiki now with each client, it has been an amazing journey, and so far everyone of my clients has noticed…. feels it. It is true that it heals at so many levels.
Reply