My Experiences with Reiki Attunements (Levels One and Two)

 

I first sort out attunement to help myself and my loved ones, I never intended to become a practitioner. I just wanted another tool to help my mental health and to help those around me.

I had dropped out of university after spending most of my life pursuing wildlife conservation as a career, my mental health was in decline and I felt entirely lost. Reiki seemed like a great tool to guide me and keep my head above water.

The First Level

I found my first master via google maps, I opened it up and typed ‘reiki teacher’ or something to that effect, there were more than I expected! I narrowed it down to five practitioners based on how well they came across in their websites and then I let the energy guide me.

She was a good distance away but I made it to her just fine! A very welcoming lady who had a way of making you comfortable as soon as you stepped through the door.

My first attunement was a deeply spiritual experience unlike anything I’ve encountered, I had a minor out of body experience where I felt myself slide of my body to the left and then back into my body during one part of the process.

She talked about Chakras, energy and how energy blocks could lead to certain problems.

Unfortunately when it came to the history of reiki she told me a long since disproved history of reiki which had been invented by Miss Takata, the woman who brought exposed the west to reiki at a time when she felt she needed to disguise reiki as a christian practice for fear it would die out.

She told me of a Christian Usui Sensai searching to find out how Jesus healed the sick with his hands, far from the truth that we know today (Usui Sensai was a Buddhist monk who had no connection to Christianity, but that’s another story)

This is not to say she didn’t know her way around reiki, she did, I suspect this was a history that her own master taught her and she hasn’t questioned herself.

She explained one of the effects of the first attunement is a powerful cleansing to make you a channel for reiki to travel through.

‘Think of yourself a pipe and reiki as water, it’ll flow strong and clear through you if you are not blocked. So if there is stagnant energy in the way it needs to be cleared before you can do effective reiki’.

This clearing of energy blocks comes with certain side effects like unpleasant sensations in the days after the attunement.

I felt this in the form of severe stomach upset for 2 days, I also felt overcome with random periods of calm for the following two weeks.

Once this had passed I felt great being able to give reiki to my loved ones, I had a gift that I could share and really make a difference to their well being.

 

The Second Level

It was two years after that I decided to get serious and go for the second attunement, there wasn’t a specific moment that caused me to go for it, it was more of a gradual pull. I decided to go for another teacher this time because of the history of reiki incident. I once again let the energy guide me to a new master, she was a very interesting person, full of knowledge and experience.

We went through the symbols, how to perform a distance session as well as how to use a pendulum in chakra work.

My second attunement was not as profound as the first, I didn’t slide out of myself or anything to that effect. I am told it is common for the second attunement to have less noticeable effects than the first.

After my second attunement I was hit again by sudden feelings of calm randomly in the weeks following attunement, however these were different to the first attunement as the calmness was far more sudden and intense.

I have found I’m able to know what to do during each session more now, I feel drawn to certain areas that require treatment in that moment during the session.

I also sometimes mirror clients symptoms during sessions, for example I have felt aching in my legs while treating a client with leg pain or pressure in my head when treating a headache.

I have also experienced mirror sensations from clients relating to things they haven't told me as well such as when I felt pressure in my lower left lip and found out afterwards the client had been chewing on it recently.

Interestingly I also started seeing purple waves during distance sessions and when I am doing in person sessions I sometimes get images of different hand positions to perform.

Overall I have gained more intuition that I am able to use to improve the flow of energy,

reiki is a personal journey as well as a practice. It helps connect us to the wider universe and opens our eyes to possibilities unknown and I look forward to where it guides me from here.

Olievah - Open Reiki