'Reiki' gains popularity as healing therapy

David Kennedy, Contributor, Jakarta, david_t_kennedy@yahoo.co.uk

Eryca was in a lot of pain when she went to the hospital in October 1999 and was diagnosed with a tumor near her uterus. After a year-long treatment, the 49-year-old was faced with the prospect of a major operation.

Instead she decided to stop receiving medical treatment and tried all kinds of alternative therapies. Then her sister suggested reiki, a healing system which claims to use divine energy. After five months of therapy, she says that all traces of her tumor disappeared.

This is just one of many cases on the files at Sanjiwani holistic health center near Central Jakarta's Cikini station. Tucked away in a leafy residential street, the center offers a variety of spiritual healing therapies and caters for patients suffering from long-term illness to those who are simply curious or have minor complaints. The reiki "masters" at the center are keen to not be seen as witch doctors.

"It's healing using natural energy. We don't use magic and it's nothing to do with religion. We lay our hands on the head and body. The healer is not using inner power. We call it a channel, like an electric cable," says Jeanny Sugandi, laughing at her own analogy.

Reiki therapists believe that 80 percent of illness originates in the mind. By focusing on the energy centers or chakras of the patient they claim to able to unblock the pent up frustration, anger and bitterness that makes a person sick.

"It works like psychotherapy, things come out automatically," says Jeanny's colleague Sumarsono Wuryadi. "We use the energy to solve the trauma and to address the primary cause of the illness. It's simple!"

Sumarsono belongs to the Jakarta based Yayasan Reiki Indonesia (Indonesian Reiki Foundation) which has trained about 5000 practitioners. Ismail Ishaq, head of the foundation, regrets that the practice has developed a mystical reputation.

"Often the public is more interested in `power' aspects and they are attracted to groups that claim to be the most powerful," he says.

He is worried about this as he says the main aim of reiki, based on ancient Buddhist texts interpreted by a Japanese spiritualist in the late 19th Century, is enlightenment.

Born in the Philippines but half Sumatran, Ismail is currently holding reiki workshops around Indonesia with his teacher from the United States, Dolores George. He says this is the first time masters from both America and Indonesia have taught together in this country.

George discovered reiki in a chance meeting at a business seminar in California in the mid 1990s. At that time she was managing a wholesale plant and shrub nursery. She began talking to a woman who offered to teach her reiki in return for some plants. After six months of training she was teaching other people.

The core principles of reiki, explained by George, would be familiar to readers of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, the bestselling self-help book on personal change and management. She uses terms like "intention, integrity and impeccability" which sound more like practical guidelines for management and living than the basis of a highly spiritual healing practice.

Describing herself as a maverick who wants to bring people toward an awareness of themselves, George is critical of those who treat reiki as a moneymaking scheme. "Their purpose is to teach someone how to do reiki so that they can heal or teach others and make money. And they are charging a lot."

But how can we tell if someone is a fraud? With much difficulty, says George.

"It's very hard unless you are someone who can feel energy," she says, adding the worst that can happen is that the patient is not healed and goes elsewhere for a cure. She believes people should take responsibility for themselves when it comes to health care.

"You go to a medical doctor and turn your life over to him without even questioning. And he can give you the wrong operation."

Ismail argues reiki should be officially recognized by the government as an alternative or complimentary therapy like acupuncture.

"All metaphysicians are seen as dukun (shamans) here but many hospitals in the U.S. recognize and use reiki. We have been looking to the West and particularly the U.S as our guru for medicine and there is more and more recognition of reiki there. How come we can't accept it in the hospitals?" he says.

The medical community is not convinced of the merits of reiki and practitioners like Ismail admit there is a lack of scientific proof.

"It's considered to be supernatural. We cannot explain the effect from that activity," says Dr. Eka Putra, Medical Director at the Metropolitan Medical Center in South Jakarta, adding that despite the lack of medical evidence some doctors are studying it.

"The Indonesian Medical Association says that it's not a branch of medical studies so we do not have any information."

This has little effect on the growing interest among the public and the mushrooming of alternative health centers offering reiki.

Some even try it without being fully convinced. Achmad has been getting reiki for a few months as a complimentary treatment for a liver complaint.

"It seems to be going well but I am also going to a medical doctor in Singapore. My blood tests show good results but I cannot say it's because of reiki. Physically I don't feel anything but it gives me a psychological boost."

At the Sanjiwani center, reiki master Sumarsono scurries out of his room as another patient drifts into a deep sleep after a treatment. This is a common occurrence in cases where a person has a lot of stress or lingering illness.

"Our soul," he says, gesturing to the man snoring on the bench, "knows how to heal itself". The man, obviously fast asleep, is moving his arms slowly around his body drawing an oval shape in the air.