Scientific Studies Regarding Reiki

There is both experiential and scientific evidence that Reiki works. Clients and practitioners who have received and provided Reiki treatments consistently report positive results. I have included several scientific studies about Reiki treatments with the complete understanding that there are very few high-quality studies available to date. However, the completed studies have opened the door to further research into the efficacy of Reiki treatments and do reveal the positive effects of Reiki on physical, mental, and emotional health. Some of these studies are as follows:

Harvard Medical School / Center for Reiki Research

The Reiki study conducted at Harvard Medical School by members of the Center for Reiki Research (Dr. Natalie Dyer, Dr. Ann Baldwin, and William Rand) in 2015 and 2016 was accepted and published on-line in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, Volume 25, Issue 12, on December 16, 2019.” The study is titled: A Large-Scale Effectiveness Study of Reiki for Physical and Psychological Health. This is the largest Reiki study to date.

According to the Center for Reiki Research: “A total of 1411 Reiki sessions were conducted and included in the analysis. Statistically significant improvements were observed for all outcomes of psychological and physical health, including pain, drowsiness, tiredness, nausea, appetite, shortness of breath, anxiety, depression, mood, and overall wellbeing, with moderate to large effect sizes (all p values < 0.001). The results from this large-scale multi-site effectiveness trial suggest that a single session of Reiki improves physical and psychological health.” The study can be found by following these links:

Forbes Health

The following research results are posted on the Forbes Health website.

Additional research suggests Reiki treatments help with depression and insomnia. A 2012 study in the “Indian Journal of Positive Psychology” looked at 40 women who suffered from depression and anxiety. Half of the group received a Reiki treatment twice a week for 10 weeks and the other half received no treatment. The women who received Reiki saw significant improvements in both their depression symptoms and sleep quality.
The most well-documented benefits of Reiki revolve around the relaxation response, which practitioners say invokes the body’s natural healing process. Dr. Rachel Lampert, M.D., a professor of medicine at Yale School of Medicine, and her colleagues studied 37 patients after having a heart attack. The patients were randomized into three groups: patients who simply rested, those who received a single session of reiki treatment from a nurse trained in Reiki and those who listened to relaxing music. The researchers measured activity of the autonomic nervous system (ANS), which regulates heart rate, breathing, blood pressure and digestion. Lampert’s team zoomed in on heart rate variability (HRV), a measure of the pattern of heartbeats that’s controlled by the ANS. The higher the HRV after a heart attack, the better the outlook for the patient, explains Lampert. In the Yale study, patients who received reiki had a higher HRV and improved emotional state. “Our study was a very nice demonstration that doing things that are relaxing has benefits. We showed increased activity of the healthy arm of the nervous system,” says Lampert.

Cleveland Clinic

I felt compelled to include the information found on the Cleveland Clinic website due to the fact that the Cleveland Clinic is a leader in research and in the application of alternative healing therapies. There is a focus on treating the whole person – body, mind, and spirit. The Reflections Wellness Program at the Cleveland Clinic offers Reiki treatments to cancer patients to reduce anxiety and to promote healing. The Wellness and Preventative Medicine page is found at https://my.clevelandclinic.org/departments/wellness/integrative/treatments-services/reiki#overview-tab and all that follows is directly from this website.

What conditions can be treated by Reiki?

Reiki is not specific to any particular type of disease or condition. Because it works on the entire self, mind, body, and emotions – it may be successful in all types of physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual healing. Reiki practitioners in our Center for Integrative and Lifestyle Medicine help patients to prepare for surgery, which may help boost recovery afterward.

Our reiki practitioners see patients for the following conditions, among others:

Cancer
Chronic pain
Infertility
Digestive problems
Parkinson’s disease
Stress-related diseases
Psychological illnesses

What are the benefits of receiving a Reiki Treatment?

According to the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, people use Reiki for relaxation, stress reduction and symptom relief, in efforts to improve overall health and well-being. A Reiki treatment may do the following:

Bring about a peaceful, deep state of relaxation
Dissolve energy blockages and tension
Detoxify the body
Support the well-being of a person receiving traditional medical treatment that is debilitating (e.g., chemotherapy, radiation, surgery, kidney dialysis)
Supply universal life force energy to the body
Stimulate the body’s immune system
Help to relieve pain
Stimulate tissue and bone healing after injury or surgery
Increase the vibrational frequency on physical, mental emotional and spiritual levels

Reiki, which is used all over the world including in many hospitals and hospices, aids in healing by helping people become more balanced physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually.

US National Library for Medicine

The US National Library of Medicine (NLM), an agency of the National Institute of Health, publishes numerous studies and I have included two below, noting NLM also published the studies previously discussed. “The National Library of Medicine, on the campus of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, has been a center of information innovation since its founding in 1836. The world’s largest biomedical library, NLM maintains and makes available a vast print collection and produces electronic information resources on a wide range of topics that are searched billions of times each year by millions of people around the globe.” About the National Library of Medicine (nih.gov)

Holistic Nursing Practice – The Science of Health and Healing
- The Holistic Nursing Practice published a blind control study in March / April of 2017 for those undergoing knee surgery, as provided on the US National Library for Medicine website.
  - Effects of Reiki on Pain, Anxiety, and Blood Pressure in Patients Undergoing Knee Replacement: A Pilot Study – PubMed (nih.gov)
- The results are as follows: This blind controlled pilot study investigated the effects of Reiki on 46 patients undergoing knee replacement surgery. Of the 3 groups, Reiki, Sham Reiki, and Standard of Care, only the Reiki group showed significant reductions in pain, blood pressure, respiration rate, and state anxiety, which provides evidence for a full-scale clinical study.
Effect of Reiki Therapy on Pain and Anxiety in Adults
- A study was published in February 2014 that calculated the effect of Reiki therapy for pain and anxiety in randomized clinical trials.
  - Effect of Reiki Therapy on Pain and Anxiety in Adults: An In-Depth Literature Review of Randomized Trials with Effect Size Calculations (nih.gov)
- According to the study, 49 articles were examined, and 12 articles received full review. Seven studies met the inclusion criteria as follows: four articles studied cancer patients; one examined post-surgical patients; and two analyzed community dwelling older adults. The results found that Reiki reduces pain and anxiety in all groups.
  The same study discusses Reiki in relation to quantum physics, since Reiki works with energy and matter. The study states that The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) identifies Reiki therapy in the category of biofield energy. “Biofield energy is any electrical or magnetic field produced by a biological organism, e.g., a human. Every cell in the human body produces measurable electrical and magnetic fields.”
- “The similarities between human-generated bio magnetic energy such as Reiki therapy and device-generated electromagnetic fields for healing seem clear. The measurement of human biofield energy demonstrates the existence of human-generated bio magnetic energy. The similarities in the behavior of quantum particles and Reiki energy require more study, however repeated physics experiments with thought-driven particles united with the measurement of human biofield energy suggests that Reiki energy may consist of quantum particles that may lead to a validated theory of Reiki therapy.”

From The National Library of Medicine’s website: Human biofield as it extends outside the body. Reprinted from Energy Medicine: The Scientific Basis, Oschman, J. L Polarity, therapeutic touch, magnet therapy, and related methods, p. 77, Copyright Elsevier Limited (2000), with permission from Elsevier “The theory of quantum physics may hold promise in the future explanation of the mechanisms of Reiki. Although no verified theory exists that explains how Reiki therapy (or any biofield energy therapy) works, there may be a scientific explanation for Reiki therapy to be found in quantum physics, a branch of physics that was first discovered in the 1800’s and studies extremely small particles (electrons, photons, and the like) that do not behave in a predictable way. Quantum physics studies these particles and attempts to describe the interactions of energy and matter.”

I have been a Reiki practitioner since 1999 and have witnessed many positive results for myself and my clients from a single Reiki session to multiple Reiki sessions. While some in Western medicine may try to minimize the positive impact of Reiki, the studies mentioned above provide increasing evidence that Reiki provides numerous health benefits.

As far as I am concerned, it is exciting to be able to share Reiki, a complete energy system of natural healing, in an increasingly stressful world. It is gentle, non-invasive, and non-manipulative and can do no harm. Reiki is a complementary treatment that supports all allopathic treatments and interventions and should never be substituted for medical care as provided by a medical professional.

Scientific Studies Regarding Reiki