I’ve been a Reiki Master for what feels like eons but really it is just 14-ish years. I’ve never been able to find the words to describe the indescribable so haven’t offered much publicly until this year. Seriously though the more we learn about quantum physics and develop instruments to measure energy work I’m guessing we’ll be better able to define and measure what Reiki does. We used aspirin for 70 years before we knew how it worked and I still don’t understand radio signals so why not try it out!

You can read all about my Reiki services here.

When I started in 2011 working with the feral cat community in our area I really started focusing on using Reiki in a more deliberate way. It made a world of difference in the response I was able to get in building relationships. To my eyes it sped up the process of gaining trust although be careful, before I knew it we had a yard full of cats and 2 moved right indoors! I’m working on a book now about those years and it’s still fascinating how things all came together.

I say 2 cats moved right in but really it was a long painstaking process and I offered Reiki daily to all the cats who showed up. One in particular that we called Old Man would show up in my dreams at night which I hadn’t experienced before with any regularity other than with my dog Scarlett. Old Man would pop into my mind at different points during the day and Reiki would just start flowing to him. He is the first case where I experienced some serious heat in my hands. I’d heard other Reiki practitioners describe this but I’d never felt more than a little warmth. The level of heat is really irrelevant anyway it’s working all the same but it was interesting and over time Old Man’s fur was cleaner and his eyes brighter.

The frequency of my Reiki work was really intensifying so in exploring Google for other people’s experiences with animals I found Ingrid King at The Conscious Cat who offers incredible resources for cats and their health as well as Reiki for Pets and People. I then found Kathleen Prasad at Animal Reiki Source. Kathleen was offering some animal classes and although I’d been using Reiki for years on animals her articles and philosophy inspired me to take a class and see.

I learned a lot more about the non-directional nature of Reiki which is so important with people and animals. We’re a channel not a director which means Reiki is never draining to the person doing the offering or the person receiving. It is life giving and only the receiver’s body knows best how to use the energy coming in so it’s not directed to any one place on a person or animal. I highly recommend both women as great sources of information and services!

The critical thing with cats, that the ferals taught me most clearly, is that Reiki has to be truly offered and not directed. The second I would slip into trying to direct anything at all they’d disappear. I learned to better become like a lightning rod, drawing in and spreading the energy throughout my whole body not just m hands and radiating it, creating a space of healing for them to come and go as they pleased. Whoever showed up physically in the yard or mentally in my mind took what they needed and all was well.

In general what I almost always observe during a session is a lot of yawning as the relaxation sets in, followed by falling asleep very deeply. I noticed that some cats will come in and receive, walk away, come back in and the stay. It’s almost like they are testing it out first. Dogs like to sniff my hands a lot before settling down and dogs are really alert to when Reiki starts. I’ve had them literally jump up and run to sniff my hands, it’s really cute.

3 of my 4 cats will come from wherever they are when the true Reiki hog Junah (picture below) is having a session. Junah will draw the energy for long periods of time long enough that the other cats come and get their fix, go away to curl up and sleep and he is still drawing his! Junah has remained somewhat wild and has strongly bonded to me as I’ve heard from feral cats will do. Reiki helps his fearful tendencies, regular sessions have over time meant that he is out in the open more often and runs away less when someone else enters the room.

There are benefits to Reiki from a distance aside from the obvious ones of no travel and staying in your jammies! Our conscious minds can interfere with processes both on ourselves and while we watch our animals receiving treatments of any kind. Distance Reiki calms that down, you don’t have to do anything although it’s nice if you can take time to be still and receive for yourself. It’s great if you can observe your animal during the time they are being offered Reiki from a distance but again, not required. If again you consider quantum physics, the concepts of the collective unconscious or even the Great Whatever we are all connected at the very root of it all anyway so where we are in space and time is meaningless.

Try some Reiki with me, or Ingrid King or Kathleen Prasad for your own benefit or for your animals and if you have time and means to take one of Kathleen’s classes do, you’ll learn so much!