Attunements: Finding the light switch
An attunement is the one element that sets Reiki apart from any other therapy – as well as from most spiritual disciplines. It is a ritual (or initiation) that not only creates a connection to Reiki for each recipient, but also guarantees that this connection is always the same. It is the only indispensable element of Reiki. Everything else is a nonessential addition.
Reiki is often called light healing – and an attunement enables us to feel the light within. In essence this means Reiki starts with a moment of enlightenment. Always. For everyone. Guaranteed. No matter whether a student is aware of it or not.
Healing hands were the result of Mikao Usui’s moment of enlightenment. After three weeks of meditation on Mount Kurama, he literally ‘saw the light’. In his own words, it was ‘almost blindingly bright’. At that moment he felt complete oneness with the universe and directly connected to its divine source.
Going beyond the ego (something that the many semi-enlightened people around today still have to learn), he didn’t want to keep the light for himself. As we learned earlier, in his humility he was convinced that he couldn’t possibly be the only one – or one of only a few – to make this inner connection. What worked for him would surely work for others.
Luckily for us, he didn’t demand of his students the same rigid discipline he had gone through. He didn’t want to create any more suffering, he only wanted to share light and love – the light and love he could feel inside through his connection to Reiki.
He developed a technique to establish such a deep connection to his students that they could actually feel Reiki flowing through him. When he set his intention to share his Reiki connection with them, he found they were able to make that connection subsequently themselves.
This is exactly what we do today.
There are several attunement techniques, but they all seem to bring the same result. (Which confirms once again that the key to Reiki is never the technique. Reiki is always about the experience, about the connection.) Japanese traditions concentrate more on the idea of ‘bringing down energy from the universe’ and making it accessible, whereas Western techniques tend to utilize the Reiki symbols. Japanese versions are called Reiju (‘spiritual blessing’) and tend to be shorter but repeated more often; Western versions are called attunements (literally aligning to universal energy).
Both are merely concentration aids for the Reiki teacher, helping them to focus on the depth of Reiki and enable the student to feel it.
In both traditions, the students are asked to close their eyes (to concentrate better and ‘listen inside’) and, at some point, bring their hands together in Gassho, the prayer position. Moving around each student, the teacher then places their hands on or near the student’s body in several positions. At some stage they place their hands around those of the student to ‘open’ their palms for healing.
A good analogy is an old-fashioned radio: the technical essentials are all in place but the aerial needs to be adjusted to pick up the signal. Once this is done, we can hear the music more clearly, and after some fine-tuning, the connection is perfect.
As listed earlier, the Reiki 1 course normally has four attunements and Reiki 2 and the Master level have one each, although again there are variations. Technically, it isn’t necessary to give four attunements in Reiki 1, but the idea is gradually to open the channel in the student over the course of just two days. In the UK, the guidelines for Reiki teaching (agreed by all main Reiki Associations under the umbrella of the Reiki Council) list four Reiki 1 attunements as a general requirement.
When I had my first attunement I was pretty unaware of all this. I was definitely unaware of the idea of enlightenment.
But then, I wasn’t aware of anything: I felt absolutely nothing throughout the entire process. My first reaction was: ‘That’s typical! These things never work for me!’ Half an hour later I started to feel a strange tingling in my palms. Healing hands were arriving.
My experience (or rather non-experience) is one end of the spectrum. A student of mine summed up the other. Speechless for quite a while after her attunement, she eventually said, ‘I saw God.’ I still remember the expression on her face – a combination of complete happiness and utter disbelief.
She is not the only student who has felt a deep connection to their religious belief during an attunement. Some feel the presence of Jesus, others the Prophet Mohammed. Some encounter angels.
Many others experience the unexpected in less obvious terms: they see colours (often purple or green) through closed eyes, forming amorphous shapes that move like those in lava lamps. Others feel lightness in their body (like floating) or heaviness in their hands (like being given something), or localized sensations of heat, cold or energy movement.
Some even feel a slight temporary pain, others the easing of a physical problem. Many feel emotional and have a sense of peace, calm and belonging. The majority use terms like ‘weird’ or ‘strange’ to describe their experiences. They are different from anything they have come across before and often leave them rather puzzled.
An attunement is a very profound experience and I will therefore try to make some more sense of what we may perceive during one. The experiences tend to fall into three main categories:
Meridians and chakras are opened, blockages are cleared and energy flows more freely. In the body, this is felt as hot or cold sensations, sudden body movements and more sensitivity on one side of the body than on the other. Occasionally, slight headaches or pain in other areas are felt, the hands get heavy and the feet get warm. The experiences are often particularly localized.
Feelings of happiness or sadness come up, flashbacks occur and memories surface. We may feel rather overwhelmed and confused.
Experiences of floating or light-headedness are common. We may feel a presence (angels, guides, family members in the spirit world), sense light or colours and have an overall sense of love and gratitude. We feel a connection to something deeper and an inner vastness.
All these experiences have one thing in common: something is happening. They are neither anticipated nor imagined. To our surprise, they are just there. Reiki starts to flow, blockages to clear, and we begin to sense our connection to levels we may not have thought existed.
Many of these experiences will reappear when we give or receive Reiki treatments. (See Experiences and effects during a treatment for a long list of the potential experiences and effects that Reiki can bring.)
No matter exactly what we experience, and no matter how intense, subtle or even uneventful it might be, a Reiki attunement always works. The door to Reiki is always opened.
The effects of an attunement can also be summarized in three categories:
An inner connection to Reiki is opened – for the rest of our life. It will deepen with regular use. But don’t worry if you haven’t used Reiki for a while. Even if you haven’t practised it for many years and then suddenly feel that it might come in handy, just think of it and it will be there. It may lie dormant, but it can always be called upon.
Soon after the attunement, a sensation tends to arrive in our hands. For many, it is felt as unusual warmth; for others, tingling or pulsating. Some people feel little themselves and only become aware that they have healing hands through the feedback they get when they place them on another person.
Occasionally Reiki may ‘switch itself on’ after an attunement. You may be sitting on the underground and suddenly feel an intense heat where your hands are resting on your lap.
There’s nothing to worry about – just enjoy what’s going on. You obviously need Reiki at that moment.
Many students are surprised by how their intuitive abilities increase. They become more aware of other people’s feelings and may even sense future events. They are tapping into the interconnectedness of the universe.
An attunement starts an inner process of cleansing that is often most noticeable over the first three weeks (and hence called the 21-day clearing process). In some cases it may last as long as a few months, in many others just a week. It is a proper inner decluttering, but may vary in intensity. Many students need to use the toilet more often (flushing out toxins), others completely relive their lives, experiencing thoughts, behavioural patterns, dreams and memories that often are as toxic as chemicals. But they can now deal with them.
We might think of this as a process of physical, mental, emotional and spiritual transformation. I have had students who have given up smoking or drinking, changed partner or job, or found their attitude towards life has changed completely after an attunement. Others have felt little, if anything. The clearing process depends entirely on our individual needs.
Sometimes it may take a while to feel the results of an attunement. One student sent me this email the day after the course:
So I’m on the tube last night going home feeling very overwhelmed by the amount of knowledge received over the weekend; I connect to the underground WiFi and listen to some randomly selected music on Spotify. On comes on a song which makes me jump initially. It’s by a beautiful vocalist, Delta Goodrem, and it’s a song written by Prince called ‘Love, Thy Will Be Done’.
As I listen to the lyrics, the side of my face that has been hot all afternoon cools down and [the heat] goes into my palms as she sings about no longer resisting the guiding light and feeling peace inside.
I go home and book the Reiki 2 course.
I think this really sums up what an attunement is all about!
An attunement adds one more unique feature to Reiki: it gives every student a Reiki lineage. Similar to a family tree, this grows bigger with every generation of Reiki Masters, but the trunk remains the same: Mikao Usui.
Put simply, a lineage means: I was attuned by Mr A., who was attuned by Ms B., who was attuned by Ms C. and so on, until someone was attuned by Mikao Usui. There must be an unbroken lineage going all the way back to him. If not, it is an entirely different system. Today, the lineage that involves Hawayo Takata (see Appendix) is often called the ‘Western lineage’ as it went through some changes after it left Japan. The lineages that exclusively stayed in Japan until recently are called ‘Japanese or Eastern lineages’. A few Reiki teachers trained in both, and therefore have two or more lineages.
To give an example, this is my personal lineage:
Your Reiki lineage is the only way to identify if you have learned traditional Reiki – and is therefore required as proof if you want to join a Reiki association.