Andrea Thiel Connell

So often when I introduce Reiki to someone new who’s never heard of it before, particularily men (it’s the whole left brain thing) they inform me they don’t believe in faith healing. So I tell them the facts. I tell them why Reiki doesn’t require ‘faith’ in order to work and also what the scientific world is now starting to understand about energy and the human body. Then they get on the table.

Having said that I have tremendous faith in my Reiki treatments; I trust them to work 100% of the time. I have faith that there will be change in the client’s life – even if they don’t recognize it right away. Sometimes the changes that come after a treatment are different than what the client expected or wanted to happen, but again I have faith that Reiki – Universal Life Force energy knows best. I also have faith that Reiki will continue to work for our highest good always whether we believe in it or not. And as much as all this faith sounds a bit airy fairy – my faith is based on 15 years of facts, success stories and ‘miracles’.

You see I really am a skeptical person, I have put my Reiki through the paces. It has never made sense to me to blindly trust something that could affect someone else. Further more, since I have no religious conditioning I’ve never had to have blind faith in anything in my life. Everything I’ve ever held faith in had to be proven at some point, before or later makes no difference. If I’m going to believe in something it has to hold water. So I tend to look for the leaks in theories, ideas, people, friendships, stories etc. of course this also extends to my Reiki/Healing/ teaching work. Some leaks can be easily fixed and are worth the effort, other leaks require a complete tear down and start over.

All the work that I do is prone to superstitious undertones. Reiki, tarot cards, meditation, metaphysics, positive thinking etc. Superstitious ideas like ‘healer’s can’t work on themselves’, or ‘ Reiki is witchcraft?’, ‘don’t ask for healing/abundance for yourself’ are taking decades to work their way out of human consciousness. And the new age has also brought a few strange ideas to the table for instance, the other day I met a lady who almost did a backflip trying to erase the word ‘fear’ out of the energy field around us when I suggested that our freedom is governed by our fears, She felt that just saying ‘fear’ would attract fear to her. Very bizarre. She had fear for the word fear…hmm, what’s wrong with this picture. I systematically avoid all superstitious belief systems and rituals based in superstition. My work is for the real world, grounded in facts, with real results.

I have a couple things though I am superstitious about. 1. I always pick up pennies, and if I sweep one up off the floor at home I don’t throw it out with the rest of the dirt. Because superstitiously I believe if I don’t pick it up I am throwing away good fortune.  2. I never throw out any cards, notes, or letters that have been signed with Love; again I don’t want to throw wishes of love away. 3. I have never thrown a book out in my entire life; I won’t throw knowledge or words away. Hmmm… maybe I’m just a packrat?….nah!