Reiki can be used in a myriad of circumstances to bring health and well-being to the client, but what about those who are terminally ill? Isn’t it too late for them to have reiki?

I had a discussion around this with my reiki master, and a friend who is also a reiki master. My friend was treating a client with cancer at the time, who had been told that her prognosis was poor. My friend told us how, through having reiki, her client’s quality of life was much improved during her last few months, and she was able to go on a trip that she thought she was going to have to cancel. Her passing a couple of months later was a peaceful event.

This situation really made me think about someone I knew, whom I shall call Harry, whose health was deteriorating through heart disease. Things came to a crunch recently when Harry became unable to walk to the shop without getting severe chest pain and shortness of breath. Being so incapacitated had made Harry very frightened. It wasn’t the thought of dying that caused the fear, but the process, so I decided to broach the idea of my giving him some reiki. To my surprise Harry agreed (he had previously shown no real interest in alternative therapies, and seemed really skeptical), and so he allowed me to do his first treatment.

After the treatment, Harry was more relaxed than I had seen him for years. He described it as like having a warm blanket wrapped around him with the sun shining on him. We have continued the treatments and Harry is much less stressed and sleeping much more soundly.

I am under no illusion that reiki is going to magically make Harry completely well again, but what I do know is that it will make his time left here more peaceful, and less fearful, so his quality of life will be much improved as he nears the end of his life on earth.

In my many years of nursing I often saw patients die in fear and pain, despite our best efforts. Now, by using reiki as a means to facilitate the process of dying, I have found a way to bring peace to a life event, which is a natural progression of our journey.