Which Reiki is right for you?

pic by Kevin H

From time to time, a Reiki student of mine asks me: “What is the difference between the seven levels of Reiki and the three levels of Reiki?” or “Why do some Reiki Masters offer four Reiki attunements at level one and others offer only one attunement?”

Both of these are excellent questions and I commend these students for seeking answers. I would like to take the time to address both of these questions. Many Reiki websites spend a long time defending their particular practice and trying to convince you why their method is ‘the best’ and ‘the purest’. I’m not interested in that. So here are my personal beliefs on the answers to these questions.

To begin with, let me start by saying that ALL healing, whether it is Reiki, Western medicine, Pranic healing, yoga therapy, theta healing, homeopathy and so on and so on… all comes from the same Source of life (whatever you imagine that to be).

And all energy healing (Reiki, Pranic, Pelowah etc.) all comes from the same Source and all offer benefits and healing. From my personal experience, the difference is that they all have a slightly different vibration or tone. For example, I am attuned to both Usui Reiki and Kundalini Reiki. While they both offer energy healing, Usui Reiki offers a higher vibration (like a higher note on a scale) and Kundalini Reiki offers a lower ‘note’. Neither is necessarily better than the other; they just offer something different and they feel different.

Seven Levels or Three Levels?

With regards to seven levels versus three, from my perspective, they offer a similar experience, just different I have not completed seven levels, but from what I have read, a lot of the content in the seven levels is focused on developing a person’s spirituality, rather than offering different Reiki content/skills. As these healing methods were developed so very long ago, I can see how this practice arose. People tended not to travel very far, they didn’t have the internet (!), and they spent a long time under the guidance of one teacher. These days, people have access to spiritual development all over the place and will often benefit from many teachers, and will also spend their life ‘studying’ spirituality, but taking it from across many places, many therapies, many teachers and friends, books, CDs, workshops, internet and so on. So, from that perspective, I feel a three-level system may be more suited to many people’s modern lifestyle and ways of learning.

Number of Attunements

In regards to the different number of attunements (4 versus 1), there are basically two schools of thought on this. One is the older method of four attunements and the newer method is the single attunement.

The idea of the four attunements is that each attunement clears away old ‘stuff’ and makes the channel clearer each time it is done. You do not receive any additional symbols or ‘extras’ in this way, it is merely done four times.

Before I began teaching Reiki, I spent a lot of time talking to other Reiki teachers about this and the philosophies behind it. The reason that people have moved towards the one attunement process, and the reason I have decided to go with it this way, is based on the following:

1. Reiki began a very long time ago in a time and place when people took a lot longer to accept new ways of doing things. Today, people are developing (ascending) faster and faster and simply do not need as long to accept new information and energy into their lives. In this sense, most people are already so open to receiving the energy that they only need the one attunement. As one Reiki Master I know says, “How many times to you need to walk through a door?” Her meaning is that if the door is open and the intention is set then you only need to pass through once.
2. I always feel that people are drawn to certain things at certain times and it is always for the right reason. I feel that if someone was at a point in their life when they needed four attunements, then they would probably be drawn to a teacher that offers that kind of attunement. If you end up studying with me then there is no mistake! Your higher self always guides you to exactly what you need, when you need it.
3. Lastly, the more you use Reiki the more it will open and clear channels anyway. So just by practising your Reiki you are allowing the energy to do the same work that extra attunements would do.

At the end of the day, my advice to anyone who is wondering which course to do, or which teacher to learn with, is always ‘trust your instincts’. You will be guided to do whatever is right for you. There is no right or wrong and no absolutes. Everything is valid for someone, somewhere.