According to Wikipedia: "Reiki (霊気,) is a Japanese form of alternative medicine called energy healing. Reiki practitioners use palm healing""through which a "universal energy" is said to be transferred through the palms of the practitioner to the patient in order to encourage emotional or physical healing. Which is a pretty good analytical descriptions, good summary Wiki!
Reiki is described as a pseudoscience and it is based on qi ("chi") or Ki in Jap is a universal life force" (the same Ki that we also perceive and interact with in Shiatsu and Acupuncture).
Wiki states: "Although there is no empirical evidence that such a life force exists" Well... how can you effectively measure a concept like life potential? The information, the spark behind all life, the all pervading ocean of energy we bathe in and are made of? Good luck with that Wiki!
Due to my analytical mind, I was a skeptic as well regarding Reiki and these form of healing that were closer to magic than actually therapies (see old picture of me imagining Reiki).
But than I decided to cross that bridge and try it, and the experience changed completely my view on the matter. The experience of feeling the relaxed state that I entered, by someone just gently placing their hands on my body was surpassed only by the feeling of Ki flowing through my hands while doing it! (Westernmindblowing!)
Wiki goes on: "There is no proof of the effectiveness of Reiki therapy compared to #placebo." Fair enough. I always laugh at how placebo is regarded as something of a hindrance in the way of a study, instead of a powerful proof of the deep connection of body and mind and how the mind has powers and capacity that go beyond the understandable cause/effect phenomenon.
I always wonder: if placebo has real effects on the body and symptoms, is it really placebo? Is it not a triggered healing effect that works according to the uniqueness of the case, of the moment in life, of the state of the mind and of the personal situation of a patient that cannot fit and measured into standardized analysis and statistics? Can't it be regarded as healing tool that holistically works together with body, supporting therapies and keeping the body at its best and strongest to get the best response to external change and illness?
I don't know about placebo but that's definitely how I see Reiki!