Reiki: Universal Life Energy

"The drawings in the book are beautiful and do convey the spirit of Reiki. The chapter on the possible emotional or metaphysical causes of a disease is speculative and suggestive, but it is not meant to be otherwise. I did find the allergy interpretation to be useful for me and it actually worked. Between Vitamin C, becoming vegan, and doing emotional processing with their idea of what the cause was, my allergies are 99 percent gone. The authors do align with the idea that Usui was in a Christian seminary for some time. This seems unverified by those who have tried to find out more about this, but it was a common interpretation that was given out by many Reiki teachers. My own sense is that he had more involvement with Shingon Buddhism but kept much of this to himself. All in all, it is a nice book that gives a feeling for the Reiki work. I have been an energy healer for about 25 years and a Reiki Master for over 10 years and would feel good about a person reading this book. I feel that the charcoal pencil drawings in the book are particularly beautiful and convey a lot about how Reiki feels and how it could be practiced."
~ Written on 2008-02-17

"This was the first book I had read on Reiki back in 1991 , not everything in the book is to my taste especially some of the medical explanation however this book sparked my wish to learn Reiki and I have been a Reiki Master now for 15 years.I recommend this book to beginners and just keep in mind you take from it what inspires you the most and run with it and the rest won't matter."
~ Written on 2007-12-15

"I was sad to read some of the negative comments about this book. I am a Reiki Master attuned to the Usui System of Natural Healing in accordance with the Usui Shiki Ryoho tradition. I was very happy with the contents of this book. The chapters are specific and to the point. Bodo and Shalila give an assortment of possible metaphysical reasons for physical manifestation of illness and dis ease. It is important to note, that this information should be used as a reference tool and not the absolute. I always recommend clients look within to connect with their emotional and physical struggles. We each have the ability to heal ourselves. But Reiki is a wonderful tool in guidance of obtaining health. I highly recommend this book along with Diane Stein's, Essential Reiki a complete guide to an ancient healing art.
~ in love and light"
~ Written on 2006-04-29

"It is perhaps a sign of things to come when the most interesting thing one ponders about a book is whether the authors' names are pseudonyms not so vaguely disguised and borrowed from J.R.R. Tolkien(think Frodo Baggins and Saruman). However, the spirit communicated by Reiki: Universal Life Energy is gentle, mild, and peaceful...and that is a real plus that can't be emphasized enough. The tenderness with which Baginski and Sharamon write about reiki speaks volumes about their sincerity both as reiki practitioners and as writers. However, there are perhaps three glaring and unfortunate flaws in their efforts.

The first problem in this work was the chapter regarding reiki history. The authors relay the well-known story of Usui as a Christian minister and scholar who studied in the US. More recent research into the life of Usui suggests that this might not be the case. More problematic however, is the author's complete failure to mention Usui's life-long practice of Buddhist meditation or his extensive studies in both Tendai and Zen Buddhist traditions. Of course, while it is possible in Buddhism to be both Buddhist and another faith, such as Christian; the authors have completely failed to mention the Buddhist aspects of Usui's life and practice.

The second flaw of Reiki: Universal Life Energy is found in the chapters that relate to reiki in a professional context, specifically the suggestions regarding medical and legal issues for the reiki practitioner. The reader should be forewarned to scrutinize these chapters carefully as some of the advice would appear to open liability issues

Finally, the authors adopt literalist concretisms in chapters regarding "the meaning of illness." In other words, the authors posit every illness with a well-defined meaning, such as "Deafness: Only people who have closed themselves off to their inner voice for a long time become deaf." Clearly then, one would have to assess responsibility, and therefore blame, for the illness on the patient. While one might successfully argue that karma and the extent to which a patient has generated that karma may result in their present illness, it is highly doubtful that anyone could accurately determine the specific karma that caused the illness, much less advocate a generalization such as quoted. In point of fact, such generalizations are more likely to be considered offensive.

These flaws overwhelm what would otherwise be a fine book. The chapters exploring the techniques of Reiki and their application are numerous and quite insightful. Nonetheless, this reader is unable to recommend this particular work, especially when there are so many up-to-date publications that reach the same fine points of Reiki:Universal Life Energy while avoiding it's pitfalls."
~ Written on 2003-12-11

"This book has one main point to make and makes that point ad nauseum! Basically, this book seems to say that there is absolutely nothing that can't be completely healed by Reiki, including cancer and problems with animals!

The writer's state that the effects of Down's Syndrome, which they call Mongoloidsm, can be healed with Reiki! The mere fact that they refer to Down's Syndrome as Mongoloidism is offenseive. This book was written in 1985 and by then that term wasn't used anymore.

Then there's the constant use of he, him, his, and mankind to refer to all humans male and female.

There is some valuable information in this book, but not a lot. They state that Reiki cannot be taught by reading a book. So I wonder why they wrote it. This is the first book I've read on the subject and I'll probably buy more books and videos since I'm interested in the subject."
~ Written on 2003-09-03