Positive Health Online

I shall never forget my feelings on the day when I was asked if I would visit a hospital to give Reiki healing to someone whose leg had been amputated following a car accident. I had first met Ros the previous December at a Christmas dinner for alternative health practitioners, this being a new venture for me as a newly qualified Reiki therapist. Over dinner we discussed how our respective treatments had been and how treatment could be combined to be more effective.

In March 1998, Ros telephoned me, and explained in her usual bubbly manner "I am in Oldchurch hospital, and I have had my leg amputated following a car accident. Can you visit me and give me some Reiki healing? I immediately agreed and arranged a date for the following Tuesday. After I had put the telephone down, my fears welled up inside me.

How do you treat a person who still feels their leg is attached to their body? As I had only recently qualified, could I help her? It's amazing how inadequate you can feel when confronted with a real test!

Prior to qualifying I was a very squeamish person, but one thing Reiki has given me is trust. People are only sent to you for treatment through fate, a chance encounter, a recommendation, therefore you are only asked to deal with a situation that you can handle. Reiki has its own intelligence and works in the best possible way for the individual.

When I arrived at the hospital, I nervously located the ward that Ros was in, and spotted her surrounded by flowers and get well cards and after a brief chat, I "tuned in" so that I could commence the treatment.

Whatever your personal beliefs are, I feel we all have a "Guardian Angel", and when you start administering Reiki you have that feeling that someone is there helping you, and this time was no exception. I put myself completely in the hands of my healing guide, silently saying "look I haven't a clue how to deal with this, over to you".

What followed was amazing. My hands were virtually taken to different parts of Ros' head and body. She felt tremendous heat through my hands and a huge wave of emotion swept through her, releasing the emotional pain that was still locked inside her. When treating the area where her leg should have been, she could feel it being taken away (when doing healing on amputations you have to go into the subconscious and alter the blueprint of the body so that the mind accepts the loss of the limb).

Reiki is one of the simplest, yet most effective methods of healing, working on the physical body, the mind, the emotions and the spirit. Like all forms of healing, recovery takes time and patience, and so this first treatment began a long process of healing that would eventually heal the four aspects that Reiki treats, releasing all the emotions that the accident created.

I continued visiting Ros weekly until July, when she felt that Reiki had helped her reach a full emotional recovery. By then she had had her 'new leg' fitted and was back to swimming, cycling and playing tennis.

We can all overcome sickness or accidents if we have a positive approach, and the correct kind of help. A miracle happens every day which is beyond human understanding, but only because it is outside known physical laws. Everyone has a choice to stay where they are or to grow as a person. Reiki gently dissolves the inner obstacles that can block the ability to get well, love, and respect each other.

* Ros' view of her treatment follows

The Patient's View

by Roslyn Aston

I am a practising homeopath, who after a recent traumatic accident, discovered the benefits of Reiki healing.

During a road accident in March, I had my right leg severely crushed between a stationary car and a moving car. My right leg had to be amputated above the knee.

After my recovery from intensive care, I began treating myself with homoeopathic remedies for shock and trauma, grief for the loss of the limb, both bone pain and severe phantom pains, muscle twitching and infections.

The skin at the back of my residual limb was so damaged that skin grafts were necessary. To heal the skin and to prevent scarring, I used Vitamin E and the homoeopathic remedy Silica. This approach proved very successful.

After the first week in hospital, I was still experiencing phantom pains. These pains would shoot down the length of my right leg and felt like knives cutting through the foot. I had met Graham Christie recently and felt a need to ask if he would give me some Reiki healing. During the first session of healing I felt an immense release of emotions which I interpreted as grief. Then, within a few minutes, I felt happiness and found myself grinning.

As the healing continued, I felt a great heat wherever it was focused. As it continued further down my body, I felt at one point that my right leg – or the ghost of it – was slightly lifting off the bed and my right hand then made several thrusts as if to say 'goodbye' to it. I then felt my left leg moving and twitching as if it was telling me that it wanted to 'move on'.

Finally, at the end of the session, Graham moved to about twelve inches away from the end of my stump, when I felt a violent jerking as if repeatedly lifting off the bed.

Immediately, at the end of the treatment, I felt relaxed but exhausted. But within 30 minutes I felt that my 'batteries had been recharged'. I also felt that the phantom pain had reduced by around 80%. With further sessions of Reiki, I felt a mixture of emotions rising up to the surface, particularly grief, acceptance and frustration, and have always felt better for this.

I went on to take a Reiki I course, both to find out more about Reiki and to make use of it myself. Self-healing has so far been successful.