In Good Hands
Reiki practitioners harness energy to heal physical, emotional and spiritual ailments
Photo: Emily Jourdan
In late December 1995, Terry Rogers had a dream in which he was laying on a table and three unknown people were touching different areas of his body.
“Their hands were incredibly warm and the feeling was very soothing and nurturing,” he says. “I remember thinking, ‘Wow!What is this?’”
Rogers’ experience lasted upon awakening and continued throughout the day. That night, he saw a flyer that read ‘Your hands can be healing hands’and decided to call the number listed.Barbi Lazonby, owner of the Reiki Center of Gainesville, answered the phone.
That weekend, Rogers, now owner and director of the Gainesville Center for Reiki Training, received Reiki for the first time. He made an appointment with Lazonby to learn more.
“The moment that Barbi placed her hands on me, I was taken back into that dream,” Rogers says.
“The energy and general experience was the same. It was then that I knew that I had to pursue this training.”
Reiki, a system of enlightenment and hands-on healing art developed in the early 1900’s by Mikao Usui in Japan, means universal life energy. Used to regain harmony and wholeness, it is passed from Master to student, addressing the whole person’s physical, emotional, mental and spiritual well-being.
However, Reiki is intended to be a substitute for traditional medicine.
“Healing always happens when you receive a treatment, but it’s not always the right kind of healing,” says Rogers, who practices Usui Shiki Ryoho Reiki.
Sometimes, people are ill and may not even know it. Yet their body or subconscious leads them to Reiki for self-healing. Others learn Reiki so they can support and assist the healing process of loved ones.
“It is not a cure-all, but a supportive complementary therapy that tends to bring one’s energy into balance, helping the body to naturally restore itself back to health,” Rogers says.