The embodiment of reiki-energy as a resource for creative healing

This study explores how reiki-energy transforms the sense of self and movement, conceptualising reiki as a self-expanding, ki-energy based practice from indigenous Eastern traditions. It engages participants in a first-person, reiki-informed, movement-based, embodied exploration of their "body as energy" within creative movement. This study contrasts linear Western scientific approaches with a spiral, Eastern-inspired paradigm focused on achieving mind-body oneness. It is the first study considering reiki-energy as a resource for creative healing – the felt sense of oneness between self, body, and environment – positioning the work within a proposed "dance, eco-somatics, and spiritualities" subbranch. It advocates for a respectful transcross-cultural engagement and cultural re-attribution of indigenous knowledge. It addresses the limitation of dualistic thinking in apprehending kienergy's subtlety and power, which is considered real and useable in Eastern traditions.
This research, with a practice-research methodology integrating somatic creative enquiry, comparative philosophy, art-based exploration, and workshops, investigates reiki-energy as facilitating an embodied path towards integration and self-transformation. Specific research questions addressed introducing creative practitioners to their energetic body via reiki within somatic explorations; differentiating reiki's application in therapeutic versus creative contexts; its influence on perceptions of self and body; and its impact on creative practices through energetic integration. I gathered data though my somatic art-based journey and workshops with creative practitioners involving reiki, journalling, and creative reflections; I analysed the findings through thematic analysis informed by frameworks including Interpersonal Neurobiology, Somatic Internal Family System, Focusing, and Somatic Movement Dance Therapy.
This study revealed the potential of a reiki-informed movement-based creative practice to support transformations and change in self-perception, facilitating the growth of a state of wellbeing and unlocking creative attitudes. The findings suggest that by attuning to reikienergy, it is possible to access a state of calmness, clarity, connection, and an expanded sense of self integrated with the surrounding world. This is an active process of cultivating awareness, allowing movement, and effortless action that can manifest as both inner transformation and outer creative expression. Participants' experiences corroborate these findings, suggesting that the practice's accessibility is irrespective of prior beliefs, and noting the challenge of articulating subtle energetic sensation. Furthermore, results support a distinction between vigorous ki-training favouring physical wellbeing, and meditative reiki fostering mind-body integration. Reiki's application differs between therapeutic and creative contexts, with a focus on self-cultivation and creative healing in the latter.
This study proposes a new theoretical conceptualisation of living organisms as "mind-bodyenvironment dynamic integrated systems as ki-energy", bridging Eastern philosophies and Western somatic/neurobiological perspectives. I have developed a practice grounded in somatic awareness, informed by reiki-energy, and expressed through movement and creativity, which offers a heuristic protocol, a way, towards healing and self-discovery for an embodied, and interconnected existence.
The Covid-19 pandemic deepened the personal somatic art-based focus while limiting the group workshops. Further research should focus on developing the practice in group settings, intertwining vigorous ki with softer reiki, guiding individuals through their personal development. Furthermore, it should investigate the potential application of this protocol with participants suffering with specific, but not severe, health challenges such as anxiety or chronic pain in both group and one-to-one settings.