[Question:]{.underline} Is it permissible for Catholics to use Reiki therapy?
[Answer:]{.underline} Reiki therapy has become popular amongst some Catholics interested in alternative medicine. The practitioner pretends to bring about healing by placing his hands on certain parts of a person’s body in a special position and manner, in order to facilitate the flow of what is called a “universal life energy” or “Reiki”. It has the attraction of being natural and having no known side effects.
It has attracted such attention that the US bishops’ conference felt obliged to study the question, and to determine whether or not it could be used in Catholic health care facilities. The negative answer is well explained in the “Guidelines for Evaluating Reiki as an Alternative Therapy” on March 28, 2009 (usccb.org/dpp/doctrine.htm). The pagan origin of this practice is clear by the statement that this technique of healing “was invented in Japan in the late 1800s by Mikao Usui, who was studying Buddhist texts.” Likewise this form of therapy is presented somewhat as a religion, being “described as a spiritual kind of healing” and “a way of life”.
The statement goes on to point out that there are only two kinds of healing, the miraculous healing which is divine in its origin and the healing by the powers of nature that is the object of science. Reiki is neither: it cannot be supernatural, for it is based upon a false spiritualist theory, nor can it be considered as healing by the powers of nature, for “reputable scientific studies attesting to the efficacy of Reiki are lacking, as is a plausible scientific explanation as to how it could possibly be efficacious”.
Consequently, medically this method can only be considered as a placebo, having its effect entirely through the confidence of the person who receives the therapy, psychologically convinced by the practitioner. From the perspective of the Faith, though, such a spiritualist therapy that has no scientific basis must be considered as superstition. This is the conclusion of the above-mentioned guidelines:
“To use Reiki one would have to accept at least in an implicit way central elements of the world view that undergirds Reiki theory, elements that belong neither to Christian faith nor to natural science. Without justification either from Christian faith or natural science, however, a Catholic who puts his or her trust in Reiki would be operating in the realm of superstition, the no-man’s-land that is neither faith nor science. Superstition corrupts one’s worship of God by turning one’s religious feeling and practice in a false direction. While sometimes people fall into superstition through ignorance, it is the responsibility of all who teach in the name of the Church to eliminate such ignorance as much as is possible.” (Zenit.org, April 1, 2009)
It is a pleasant surprise to find such a clear analysis from the US Conference of bishops, and credit must be given for it. The consequence is that the practice of Reiki is at least objectively a grave sin against the Faith, and that likewise the use of this therapy is a sin of superstition, which could be a grievous sin if serious confidence were placed in it in important questions of health.
Answered by Father Peter Scott, SSPX.