For most, if not all, of the Reiki practitioners I have met, there is always a story — not of how they found Reiki, but of how Reiki found them. As clichéd as it may sound after hearing it over and over, it resonates so true to my own experience as well. I believe that those who are meant to travel the healing path of Reiki, and perhaps of other energy healing modalities, are found in extraordinary, idiosyncratic and perfect-for-the-individual ways. Something along the lines of the ever-popular and profound synchronicities and “meant-to-be’s.” For me, it was to be a major part of my Saturn Return, and although I hadn’t expected it, it just felt so right once it happened. Call it love at first experience, or coming home to the “I” I hadn’t quite remembered (but which, thankfully, my Soul did!).
Flashback to a couple Springs ago, when a friend of mine received a phone call unexpectedly from Patrizia, a former colleague of his, with whom he had not spoken in about five years. He later told me that when she had contacted him, primarily to say hello and catch up, he kept thinking that the call was really meant to be a connector for me. You see, Patrizia had become a Reiki practitioner since they had last spoken, and my friend, knowing my inclinations toward transformation and personal growth, listened to his intuition and conveyed to me his inner urge that I contact her for a session. Which, being intrigued and open to the universe’s little nudges and suggestions, I did, of course.
I called Patrizia and scheduled a session for the upcoming Saturday. I awoke early that Saturday morning, intent to make it to a blood donation appointment I had so optimistically scheduled earlier that week, for something ridiculous like 9:30 am and 45 minutes away from my apartment. Upping the ante, I was hungover from my previous night of Lower East Side fun. I realized this as I jumped out of bed and juiced a garlic-y elixir of kale and collards, lemons, grapefruit and cucumbers, but being pretty much still drunk on the previous night’s wine and stunted sleep, my brain didn’t fully kick in until I was waiting at the blood center to start the donation process to realize that my blood might not be 100% kosher. I canceled and walked out into the streets of Midtown Manhattan that were sprinkled with a few early-bird shoppers, an empty cab here and there, drizzle and not much else. I bought another vegetable juice in hopes of detoxing my body and mind, window shopped for a few hours and then ate lunch before catching a train to the Upper East Side to meet Patrizia at 3 pm (at which point my equilibrium was approaching closer to center).
Patrizia was lovely, open, informative, and like most Reiki practitioners I have since met, so enthusiastic about how her life had changed since Reiki had found her. Before starting the table portion of the session, she answered all of my questions about Reiki and referred me to additional resources, including her teacher, should I want to pursue my own Reiki training. She told me that it had originated with a Japanese monk, and that it involved channeling energy from the universal life force energy to re-balance the body’s energy systems. At this point, all I knew about Reiki was that, based on my prior studies in and of Japan, the word sounded Japanese, and that it was some form of energy healing. Whatever that meant. It sounded wonderful nonetheless. I really would not have been able to tell you at that point, and I had researched nothing — I had simply trusted and followed a lead. I didn’t know what to expect from the session, so I was open to anything. I really had no idea, though, that what was to happen could have possibly happened, and when it did, I was so incredulous and mind-blown. (Of course, in retrospect, I’m sure the hangover — that irreverent, surreal hangover, at this time neutralized yet not completely released, with its after-effects still lingering to open my senses to those energies behind the veil that I often rush over or fail to notice when sober — called for much more re-balancing, and affected the particular forms in which I would receive the Reiki energy. What’s done is done — no apologies at this stage in the game for the hows!)
Patrizia asked me if I had any specific intentions I would like to make for my session — on what would I like the Reiki energy to focus? I believe I mentioned something to the effect of coming into my Saturn Return with more clarity about my life path. (I was a bit embarrassed about confessing to the hangover, so I kept it a secret from her — although not from the Reiki energy!) She then prompted me to lie with my back on the table, and supported my head with a small pillow and under my knees with a bolster. She asked if I would like a blanket, which I accepted gladly. So there I was, lying on my back, snug and secure under the blanket, at peace with just being, and enjoying the soft afternoon light filtering through her windows. She guided me to close my eyes if I wanted. Sure, why not. At first I kept my awareness alert to her movements. She stood at the end of the table, hands on my feet, which warmed and then radiated heat at the touch. I sensed hands above my face, hovering. Then she was around the table, but I wasn’t sure where. At one point, I remember consciously thinking about how odd it was that she was at my legs at the same time as she was at my shoulders (what I later would learn is commonly called ghost hands). It wasn’t long before I slipped down into a less focused state of mind. I was aware that my hands were tingling, even when she was not touching them, and they felt heavy yet weightless at the same time — like they wanted to float up, but were heavy to my will’s direction. I felt energy run down my arms and legs now and then. I felt her hands on my head, and I thought my head must have lit up, it felt so ablaze with heat and pulsation. Then I was under. My body sunk into the table, and my mind drifted into swirling colors and visual images, on its own mini-journey. This was not the crazy part.
I awakened (I had been out — not sleeping necessarily, but focusing more from the subconscious) to Patrizia softly asking me to roll over. I felt so relaxed at this point, as if I had just slept such a gratifying afternoon nap, and with the rest of the day still open and full of possibilities. And there was more! I sleepily rolled over, and she guided me to rest my face in the face cradle, which she had lined with tissue. I happily complied, and closed my eyes again. I shifted the rest of my body into a comfortable position, arms at my sides, and gladly sunk back into the table. My third eye was pulsating and my head was still quite on fire. My hands and feet, too, kept tingling and pulsing with energy. She sat at the head of the table, hands on my head. I slipped back under, driftily aware when she moved to a different place on my body — to my shoulders, my upper and then lower back, my legs. I don’t recall at what point it started, but fairly soon after Patrizia spent time on the back of my head, I felt a rush of energy center there — at my temples, my crown, and primarily at the center of my brows — at my third eye. The energy pulsated intensely, and didn’t stop. My awareness returned from its “sleep” and was now sharply focused on my visual sense, very much in the present moment. And then the visions started. Not some dream-like watery image that flitted from one stream of consciousness to the next, but instead very specific and consistent images. And very real. At first there was just one eye — a human-like eye, singular and cyclopic and not un-kind, without a face or body. An eye suspended in a sepia-toned space, staring right back at me. Then more appeared, and the sepia backdrop was full of eyes, completely covering my line of vision, a wallpaper of blinking staggered singular eyes. I blinked my own eyes open, which had been closed. My face rested in the cradle, and I could see through the tissues and down to the floor; the eyes remained even with my eyes open. I kept blinking, alarmed and cognizant that this was not normal dream state/meditation. The eyes remained, and blinked themselves. OK, I thought, still spooked, let’s just go with it. I closed my own eyes again, and kept staring very intently into the sepia screen of my third eye. And then the eyes made room for singular mouths to join them. The mouths had fleshy, deep dusty-rose pink lips, and even tongues, that moved very articulately. They were saying something, forming vowels and consonants, shaping into words. I strained to read the lips, yet to no avail — they were talking too quickly. I thought, maybe I can hear what they are saying, but that didn’t work either. Eyes and mouths, on sepia tone, blinking and forming words so rapidly. My third eye throbbed and my crown burned. What is going on here?
Patrizia brought the table work to a close, sat me up slowly, and brought me a glass of water. I wondered if she had felt and seen what I had, and asked her such. “Every person’s experience is their own,” she replied. I sat in a bit of awe — What had just happened? I was no longer alarmed — just amazed at the experience. The pulsating feeling ended with the session, as did the vision. And I felt relaxed, centered, and much more balanced than when I had entered. And I felt at peace, even if I didn’t understand the experience. Later, after much reflection, I thought that perhaps the eyes and mouths had indicated an opening to a new (to me, at least) awareness of a higher reality, with me able to perceive bits and pieces at that stage, but by no means yet able to understand the higher frequency, which was why I could not read, hear or understand what was so rapidly being said. (The other somewhat-related, if-slightly-more-cynical hypothesis was that, yes, I had tapped into another level of reality — directly related to the chaos of the alcohol-induced, cell-rearranging hangover!) Either way, though, what I had seen was vivid and real, and I was a believer. I enrolled into the next Reiki I class held by Patrizia’s teacher, Margaret Ann Case, which, as synchronicity would have it, was to be held two weeks from that Saturday. (Thank you, Universe, for guiding me onto this path!)
