Wednesday, 06 May 2015 11:00

Reiki: Reduce Stress, Prevent Disease & Heal Your Body

When your body is unbalanced, it can result in various forms of disease. Reiki can be used to heal the body: physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually.
Reiki, a form of energy healing, has grown in popularity over the last few decades, even though it's been around for hundreds of years.

What exactly is Reiki?

Scott Yaphe, an actor-turned-energy healer, describes it as a Japanese technique that promotes stress reduction and relaxation, and also brings the body into balance by using "therapeutic touch" methods. The "rei" in Reiki stands for higher intelligence, and the "ki" stands for universal life force energy (the same as "chi" in Tai Chi).

The practice involves laying hands on the body or just above the body. Yaphe says that the practitioner is just a vessel. The energy comes from the higher life force, travels through the practitioner and then works to get you to your healthiest self, whether it's your physical, mental, emotional or spiritual body (or a combination of all).

Ultimately, the goal is to bring back the balance that is upset by the imbalances of everyday life, which are caused by stress, anger, fear... all of which block the flow of that powerful life force energy. If you get extremely "blocked up" in this energy sense, it can lead some rather serious disease.

Listen in as Yaphe discusses the concept of energy healing, specifically Usui Ryoho Reiki and Angelic Reiki, and what it does to your four different bodies.

Additional Info

  • Segment Number: 1
  • Audio File: naturally_savvy/1519ns3a.mp3
  • Featured Speaker: Scott Yaphe
  • Guest Twitter Account: @timeforspirit
  • Guest Bio: Born and raised in Montreal and now living in Toronto, Scott Yaphe may be best known for his work as an actor. Having filmed and recorded alongside talents like Jennifer love Hewitt, Will Arnett, Liam Neeson, Maya Rudolph,  Howie Mandel, Bob Balaban and many others, Scott actually enjoyed a successful 'working' career as an actor and voice over artist. But when he was introduced to the world of energy healing and metaphysics back in 2003 it changed his life forever. His introduction and following experiences with Usui Ryoho Reiki and most recently with Angelic Reiki have not only changed the way Scott saw the world but the direction in which he chose to live his life and serve. Now with his own practice,  Scott shares his healing abilities with clients across North America. He also offers spiritual guidance for people who are seeking meaning, clarity and purpose in their lives and for those who wish to go deeper to explore the very essence of who they are. Scott can be found at timeforspirit.com.
  • Transcription: RadioMD Presents: Naturally Savvy | Original Air Date: May 6, 2015
    Hosts: Andrea Donsky, RHN & Lisa Davis, MPH
    Guest: Scott Yaphe

    Your organic search is over. Here’s Naturally Savvy with health expert Andrea Donsky and Lisa Davis.

    ANDREA: I've known today's guest since I was eleven years old. Yes, grade five. How crazy is that? And he's best known for his work as an actor and voiceover artist. But when he was introduced to the world of energy healing, specifically, Reiki back in 2003, it forever changed his world and today we're going to talk to Scott Yaphe. I am so happy to have you on the show today, Scott.

    SCOTT: So happy to be here and nice to meet you as well, Lisa for the first time. So, thanks for having me on.

    LISA: Yes! You, too, Scott. This is exciting. I can’t believe you’ve been friends for so long.

    SCOTT: I know. It's crazy. Crazy. So, I mean, we went to the same elementary school and, yes. We’ve been best…I mean, not best friends. Of course, we been friends ever since we were you know eleven years old and we've followed each other, at least we’ve been following each other's past, keeping in touch with Facebook and, lo and behold, you know, we're finding ourselves in the same world of health and energy and, you know, all of the good stuff that, hopefully, people who are getting a little more enlightened into the world are coming to as well but we find ourselves in that spot again, so it's great.

    ANDREA: Exactly. Well said, Scott. Tell us a little bit about your passion. Tell us a little bit. I mean I'm very familiar with Reiki and energy healing and I actually had a session from you a couple weeks ago.

    SCOTT: Yes.

    ANDREA: And, it was awesome. So, just tell everybody a little bit about what it means, what it is and how it can benefit them.

    SCOTT: Okay. Absolutely. Now, I'm going to assume, just for the sake of assuming, that some people have heard of it but most people haven't, so Reiki is a form of energy healing and what is energy healing? Well, Reiki is a Japanese technique. The actual word “Reiki” for stress reduction and relaxation and to promote healing. Now, it's administered by laying on of the hands. Other, you’ve heard, possibly of therapeutic touch or other healing modalities on the planet that use energy to bring the body into balance and Reiki was brought into the world in 1800, at least from Mikao Usui and Reiki, “Rei” stands for higher intelligence and “ki” stands for universal life force energy and I'm sure that one sort of tai chi?

    ANDREA: Right.

    SCOTT: “Chi” is the same sort of thing as “ki” and in India, “soprana”. There are many different words for the same universal life force energy. So, what happens is, when we do a treatment with energy healing, I love the analogy that I am just the vessel. I'm not doing the work. It's really coming from this higher intelligent life force energy that's coming through me and giving you what you need for your highest good to your physical, mental, emotional or spiritual body. We actually have four different bodies, mostly are aware of just the physical but there are different layers of bodies that you can go into it and before we actually get sick sometimes, sometimes you get these psychics where you’ll just see in your aura, in your field, before it even comes in to your physical body that, “Oh, I see a potential for you getting sick.” Well, they're reading it in the emotional body and into different bodies so this healing system goes in and starts to bring into balance the imbalances that we create as humans every single day. We get stressed at work or your child pushes your buttons, like we all know kids can do, and we block our own flow of chi or ki when we withhold certain things in our body. What things get angry or fearful of certain things and you block the flow of chi. If you block the flow of chi or ki, as in Reiki, if you block it long enough, it will start to create major imbalances in your body and that's when it starts to come into disease or as we like to call it in the industry, dis ease. And so then, Reiki goes in and starts to unblock these blockages and gets you into balance again. Now, ideally we’d love to be doing Reiki and I try to do it on myself every day. But, of course, everyone unless they're attuned to Reiki themselves to go home because you can do it on yourself you can do tai chi and different forms of energy healing for yourself to do these unblocking methods to keep yourself as much in balance as possible and, basically, live a happy, joyful and peaceful life.

    LISA: You know my husband's been doing tai chi for several months now and he absolutely loves it and I really want to take it.

    SCOTT: That’s wonderful.

    LISA: I didn't realize that that was sort of like doing Reiki on yourself. That's fascinating.

    SCOTT: It is. It really is and, in fact, when I see clients who come to me and I do it by a distance as well because time and space only exist on the on the third dimensional plane that we live in.

    ANDREA: Called Earth.

    SCOTT: And when…Called Earth? Exactly. When we talk about prayer, well, prayer has no bounds. Prayer can reach anyone and so can the intentions behind Reiki and when I practice it, so when I've been talking to my clients about this and they say, “Oh, you do Reiki on yourself?” They seem surprised that you could actually do it for yourself but truly I'm just the glass holding the water and the water does the hydration, not the glass so the Reiki is doing the balancing. Not me I'm strictly the vessel but it comes through because it is a higher intelligent life force energy. It knows where to go and what to do.

    LISA: Can you describe what it's like? I mean, I've seen somebody on a table and people--the Reiki practitioner has their hands sort of above them and there's no touching and it's sort of shifting around is that…Am I picturing that correctly?

    SCOTT: You are, actually, and the benefits of Reiki, whether you're long distance or actually on a table are the same but the energy circuit is slightly different. So, if you're on the table, if you aura or your energetic field, it extends beyond just the body by about six to eight feet or eight to ten feet. I don’t know the exact number but it's quite large but it’s enough where if your hands are in that field, you're getting that energy circuit of being present with that healer. So, you can have the laying of the hands on the body; you can have it just above the body because, of course, me being a male and me having a female on a table, if you have certain…If I’m tuning…if I'm working on the heart chakra, for example, my hands may not be on the person's heart because it's too close to their breast area, so you go above or if you're in a root chakra, you'd be above their genital area, not on them, of course, and there are also other people who are sensitive to their necks. Their neck chakra for communication issues. So, I've had a client before where my hands were on their neck and they felt really chokey and stifled, even if I'm just laying it gently on the neck, so there, of course, you can raise your hands and go above that that area.

    So, what is it like feeling it on the table? Everybody, it's different because Reiki gives you, specifically, what you need for your highest good because you've come down here with your own soul path and your own contracts, it's going to go in and give you what you need, so you may have a release of some kind on the table that makes you cry or that makes you giggle like crazy or makes you totally fall asleep or as you may feel tingling in the shoulder that was hurting you and then it goes down the right side and, literally, all I have is my hands on you and it's flowing through me into you.

    ANDREA: Scott, so, do you feel it? So, I had, Lisa, as I mentioned in the intro, I had a session from Scott and for me, the minute I walked in I felt very relaxed and I am very receptive to energy healing. I quite love it. My body loves it. And I felt very relaxed, very calm. Do you sometimes feel things, being that vessel, do you feel things when someone’s had a release or someone's kind of, I guess, had something shifted. Is that something that a practitioner would feel themselves or that something more the person lying on the table or someone that, you know, you're working with, you know, not necessarily in front of.

    SCOTT: Of course and that's a great question because we, as energy healers, as the delivery method of energy healing to somebody. We also have our life path. I've heard of healers who, they take on the energy of their clients and they don't know how to block it properly and so one of them who’s had cancer on their table and they're trying to heal, at least certain aspects of, the pain they're going through or they start feeling the pain in their body as healers. They have to experience that as healers to deal with their own issues on their life. Me, personally as a healer, I've experienced the same thing for the most part with every client and that's the residual, blissful feeling of the energy coming through me and going to the client. So, again, and if the water is going into the glass, I’ll have the droplets and a little bit of the wetness on me from the water but the water really has left the glass and gone to heal the client but I get it was residual sensation of it. Sometimes on the client, my hands on certain parts of their body will get very, very hot and that indicates to me that there's a little bit of attention needed in that area, a little bit extra healing and sometimes if they go very cold, there's like a full on block in that area. So, I know to either stay there or move on from that point.

    ANDREA: Scott, I going to have to cut you off, unfortunately. We’re out of time. Oh, my gosh. Well, learn more about Scott at TimeforSpirit.com. He is an awesome healer. I'm Andrea along with Lisa. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook and Naturally Savvy and at RadioMD.

    Stay Well.
  • Length (mins): 10
  • Waiver Received: Yes
  • Host: Andrea Donsky, RHN and Lisa Davis, MPH