reiki-less

i'm kind of a cynic when it comes to eastern medicine. typically, i immediately think of some insane woman dangling a crystal in my face and humming. so when erin said she was taking me to our friend raina's house to get reiki-ed, i figured i'd have to smell a bunch of patchouli, burn some sage and hum in a circle. i was very wrong.

reiki is, essentially, the healing of psychic energy, which was developed in Japan in the 20th century. to me, that sounds like a bunch of buzz words strung together, so while raina started holding her hands above erin's head, i sat on the couch and read a book about using plants and herbs to cure colds, depression and genital warts. while i was reading, though, i noticed a weird heat started coming from raina and erin's part of the room. i looked up and erin's eyes were peacefully closed and raina was sweating bullets. it was a cool, sunny day, so i couldn't understand what i was feeling. i didn't want to disrupt the girls, so i just kept my head down. then raina offered to try reiki on me. the heat intrigued me so i sat down and she got to work.

she started off with her hands flat above my head, not touching me. but it felt as if all of my cells were moving up towards her hands, as if i were being pulled up somehow. it was really calming and neat. she did that for about ten minutes and then slid her hands down to the sides of my head. once that happened, i could feel this weird sensation of energy pingponging back and forth inside my head. then the sides of my face and my ears started to burn up from the heat. i also started to get a tingling sensation at the front of my forehead, between my eyebrows. it started to get very intense when raina moved her hands to the front of my throat and the back of my neck, and i could practically feel vibrations running up to my forehead at that point, and bright, colorful explosions were on the backs of my eyelids.

every once in awhile, i would get the same sensation in my forehead while waiting for the train or coming home from work, but i always chalked it up to sinuses or something. this time, the sensation between my eyebrows was really intense, and i wasn't sure what was happening but i didn't want to disrupt raina so i kept quiet. she finished my reiki and put a drop of flower essence onto my tongue.

it turns out that tingle i felt was in my sixth chakra, or the third eye. i've kind of been over the kundlandi and all of that tool-related bullshit, but the reiki experience was really overwhelming.

6th chakra: (Third Eye chakra, located in the center of the forehead) Abstract thought -- intellectual focus. This is the level of knowledge. When the 6th chakra is awakening, enormous pressures are felt in the head, particularly around the eyes and in the forehead area. These may cause excruciating headaches. There may be twitching and vibrating felt between the brows. The eyes may roll cross-eyed or up into the head. There may be dazzling visions seen with the eyes open or closed; sometimes a huge single eye is seen staring out. When the 6th chakra is pierced, one gains contact with spiritual guides, deities and one's guardian angel or guru. Astral travel and other out-of-body experiences may occur with this opening.

so is it bullshit? i don't know. i think it helped me, and made me think a little bit more about energy. i don't think i'll be running around with healing crystals in my pocket, but i guess i'm not as much of a skeptic as i was before. my only complaint was that i wish i could have smoked cigarettes during the process or at least met the spirit of Jimi Hendrix.

i'll give this five puffs ~~~~~