There are several sets of hand positions. It has been found that Dr. Usui used 5 hand positions and then used Reiji (sensing) and Byosen (scanning) to know where to place the hands. Hayashi seems to have had 7 hands positions originally. In his clinic, there was the 12 position set that several reiki practitioners would use at once on the person receiving. Takata standardized these into the system of hand positions that is common in the west.

A reiki treatment involves giving reiki using the hands. The hand positions are sets that some of the early masters of reiki found worked well in treating the majority of the meridian and important areas of the body. The sets, whether you use Takata's 12, Hayashi's 7, or another set are a good general all over treatment.

The hand positions were designed for people that have not developed Reiji and Byosen. They cover the majority of the meridians and treat most of the major and minor organs. As your intimacy with the Reiki energy develops with practice, Reiji will develop naturally and you will intuit more where your hands should go. Byosen is taught in many level II Reiki classes.

Remember Reiki is in the DOing and BEing. You will learn far more by Doing reiki than reading a book. My suggestion is learn and use the hand positions and use them. You will notice over time that you will develop a sense of when to move your hands and how long to hold them in any location.

The Reiki hand positions are relatively simple to do and generally correspond to the seven basic chakras. Each position is held for 3 to 5 minutes, more or less. Trust your intuition. At times you might feel led to place your hands on a certain area, and in this case trust your intuition and do that. Reiki sessions are conducted with the client fully clothed. When working around private areas you may want to hold your hands about 3 to 5 inches above the area instead of directly on the person.

After your Reiki I attunement it is nice to practice Reiki as much as you can. Self treatments help to teach you the hand positions and the experience of giving Reiki. The most difficult part of giving treatments at first will be self-consciousness at doing Reiki on others and being a clear channel. Many people feel self-conscious doing Reiki on others at first. Touching another person is an intimate and trusting act. You may wonder what in the world you are doing, if you are doing it correctly, or worry that they might think you some flake, or even hopeful that the Reiki will work. In all these cases simply be free of expectations and keep the ego in check. The Reiki will work, even if you do not believe in it. There is no wrong way to do it. The self-consciousness in touching others and in the process of doing Reiki will decrease in time as you get more practice in doing Reiki on others. Nothing breeds self confidence like practice.

The hand positions for self treatment are the same as for treating others. You will learn far more about reiki by doing treatments to yourself (and others) than you will ever learn in any class or book.

Self healing is wonderful thing to do. You can give self treatments at any time. You can do them in meetings, on a bus, in traffic, or in the park. If you are not free to do the traditional hand positions, place your hands where you can in an unobtrusive manner and let the reiki flow!

Rather that recreate the wheel (until i get my pictures scanned), here are links to Sets of Hand positions that others have graciously posted on the Web.

Hand positions

Hand positions for treatment

Drawings of Hand Positions

Traditional Japanese Reiki Hand Positions

Usui, Hayashi, and Takata all taught that certain hand position (or series of them) is related to treating certain illnesses. In actual practice, Usui originally used 5 hand positions and then used Reiji (intuitive knowing) and Byosen (scanning of the person's energy body or field to guide hand placement) to know what areas needed treating. This implies that they knew what needed treating and would place the hands there to guide the energy to where it was needed. It shows a specific level of skill. In the Usui Reiki Ryoho Gakkai in Japan you would not be allowed to study the second teachings until you had developed Reiji.

In starting to do Reiki use the hand positions. These were developed by Usui, Hayashi, and Takata as a general overall guide for those that had not yet developed Reiji or Byosen. A copy of Dr. Hayashi's manual is on this site giving a guide to treating many different specific illnesses. For general treatments my preference is to use the Traditional Japanese Reiki 7 positions.

Section 12 - Reiki Treatments A Reiki healing session takes about an hour. There hand positions placed at various points of the body. The hands are either gently placed directly on the body or about 3 inches above, and the energy flows from the Reiki practitioner into the recipient. A Reiki treatment is generally a very relaxing and stress reducing experience. It can also be an emotional release for people. Both treatments and the attunements can cause the release of held emotions. Reiki can release this blocked energy which allows the body's energy to flow freely. Treatment Preparation prior to treating yourself or others is a meaningful way to prepare to do reiki. It is not technically necessary, but it pleasant to do and helps separate everyday consciousness with proper mindfulness and a setting of the sacred. What follows are some guidelines that I use when treating self and others. These are not "required" or necessary to do reiki. Some of these are in the Hayashi tradition and will add to your expereince, the recipient's experience and understanding the spiritual mystery that is reiki. My recommendation is to have glasses of water easily accessible for both Reiki practitioner and the recipient. People get thirsty when doing reiki. The water helps ground and flush out the system of anything that was released. Likewise after an attunement, drink plenty of water to help keep the system balanced and to flush out the released impurities. Treatment can be done on a table, the floor, a bed, a chair or other arrangements as needed. A massage table is ideal, but they are expensive, particularly since most people do not see Reiki as a business but use it on their family and friends. Some considerations to take into account are your comfort and the recipient's comfort. It can be distracting to be giving reiki standing in an awkward position that strains the back. A. Mindfulness Preparation Do Gassho. Place the hands in prayer position in front of the heart. Wait to feel the connection with reiki. Allow yourself to be mindful of the energy. Let go of all conscious desire of what the energy should do, what it needs to do. Let go and let reiki. Reiki works best when ego works least and so my formulaic cutesy little pneumonic is "when ego goes, reiki flows". This is right mindfulness. We let go of expectations, desires of what Reiki should do and other controlling aspects of our ego and instead let reiki work. Some schools teach that it is important to ground and center themselves in preparation prior to treatment. To ground is simple, feel the connection to the earth, or visualize roots from your feet flowing into the earth. B. Beginning Reiki - Touching the other Move the hands from Gassho and let the palms be face up, towards the ceiling as if you were holding precious water in them or a delicate butterfly rested on them. Your hands are the sacred holding this loving gift. You have connected to reiki, feel the energy in them. Turn them over gently and lay them on yourself or the person you are treating. The pressure is loving and gentle. Do not press. If there are reasons not to touch the other person (i.e., sensitivity to touch due to abuse, burns, wounds, risk of infection) then simply hold the hands above the area to be treated. C. Treating Keep the hands on that position for 3 to 5 minutes. This is not a hard and fast rule but a simple guideline. Some experience that the energy begins to flow after laying the hand down. The energy will seem to increase for a time, and then ebb. You might feel this as tingles, or heat. When it ebbs, move to the next position. There are times you feel nothing and in these cases follow the 3 to 5 minute guideline. D. Moving between Positions Pick up the hands. Place them again in Gassho. Again feel the connection for a moment and then place them on the next position. This practice helps us keep the proper mindfulness. It also helps keep us centered. Lastly, it helps protect us legally. It is sad to say but we live in a legally contentious time. Some massage boards wish to regulate reiki because they see it as a business that falls under their auspices. Even if you do not follow the Gassho between positions, never slide the hands between positions. This might be misconstrued as "massage". E. Finishing When you are done again place hands in gassho. Some schools of Reiki suggest: that you rinse your hands and arms in cold water to break energetic contact with the person. This is generally good advice and helps break the energetic connection. When you are done with treatment, simply intend that the Reiki session is complete and that you are not connected to the person. Some teachers also suggest that you break the energetic connection to your client, by "karate chopping" the astral cords that collect at your solar plexus. A practice that was used in Japan was called Kenyoku or "Dry Bathing". This was part of Usui's Reiki Ryoho that was developed from Shinto practices to cleanse and purify the body and spirit. To Do Kenyoku (Dry bathing), do the following steps. Kenyoku is done either in the aura or energy field several inches above the body, or with the hand on the body. To begin, put your fingers from your right hand near the top of the left shoulder. Your hand is flat, with the fingertips where the collar bone meets the shoulder. Draw the flat hand down across the chest in a straight line down to the right hip. Exhale as you go. People who come from martial art schools will recognize this as an open handed down block. Repeat this procedure on the right side, reversing the directions (i.e., using your left hand from the right shoulder to the left hip.) Repeat the procedure again on the left side. Now, place the right hand on the edge of the left shoulder at the top of the arm. The fingertips that are on the edge of the shoulder are pointing outwards. Bring the right hand down the outside of the arm all the way to the tips of the fingers. The hand is flat to the arm the entire length of travel. You can keep the left arm straight and at your side, or hold it up slightly. Again exhale as you go. Martial artists will recognize this as a shirk which would be to remove the hand of someone that has grabbed your wrist or arm. Do this again on the right side, with the left hand on the shoulder and bringing it down the right arm to the fingertips. Do this again on the left side. Section 13 - Group Healing In Dr. Hayashi's clinic in Japan, the practitioners worked in teams. Group sessions involve several Reiki practitioners working on one client all at the same time. This has the benefit of allowing many people to be treated more rapidly. It is also a blissful and pleasant experience. Groups generally consist of 2 to 4 practitioners. (any more than that and it gets crowded!!!). To organize a group, designate someone the leader. That person does the head positions. Divide up evenly the remaining positions with the other practitioners. Have people change positions at the same time as instructed by the leader. This way everyone starts and finishes about the same time. Reiki "Shares" are times when a group of Reiki practitioners get together and share Reiki group healing sessions together. Section 14 - The Attunement The Reiki system is one that awakens this energy from teacher to student with an initiation. This initiation is often referred to as an empowerment or an attunement. An attunement is a ritual action performed by the reiki teacher to awaken in the student this energy. There is a tremendous amount of speculation regarding how attunements work and why, and while all interesting theories and beliefs, all fall short of the mark. I will share with you that you are, and always were this Universal life energy. The attunement gives you nothing you already were not. This "energy" is in everything, flowing everywhere. To paraphrase wise Solomon, "it shines on the wicked and the just". It is intangible, amorphous and everywhere. You breath it in on everybreath, you express it in every thought, and every movement. The teacher does not give you reiki, nor does the attunement. What it does it bring back into awareness that which you already had and were. It is like having something so familiar around you that you forget it is there, and the attunement just brings it back into consciousness. Once you see it, then you can express it in your being. Then you are reiki. Attunement styles and systems vary greatly from style to style and even from reiki teacher to teacher. Some people have elaborate rituals that they believe must be performed exactly. Others are less structured. Some add from other rituals to the process by burning colored candles, using incense, playing music, saying prayers, calling "guides", using power animals, etc. These things do nothing to add to the process but may provide additional meaning for those that have the beliefs associated with them. During the attunement there are some things that are common to all the reiki styles. You will generally be asked to sit in a chair, with the back straight. Most teachers ask for a period of quiet, contemplation or meditation for a few minutes before doing the process. Most teachers will place their hands on your head, forehead and on your hands during the attunement. Some may include tapping movements, and others may use a gentle breath empowerment technique. The touching is generally light and not over personal areas.   --------------------------------------------------------------------------------   This concludes the "Reiki Plain and Simple - Level One Manual". It is my hope that this material was of benefit. May your journey be blessed. Be Well, Be Mindful, Be happy Vinny Amador Reiki Plain and Simple Ó A comprehensive Guide to Usui Shiki Ryoho The Reiki Plain and Simple On-line Book, this site and all its contents are Copyright 1998-2001 Ó by Vincent Amador. The author of said material allows it to be used For Free Use only. It is to be shared freely, without cost. You may print copies of this work for personal use or to be shared with students, provided that it is given in its entirety, and this copyright message remains intact with the work. This material is not to be republished on other webservers, websites, translated, altered or in any other way used without the express written permission of the author. This notice supersedes any previous notices. All rights reserved.