1 Reiki in London

Reiki in London: The Vibrant Individual Jessica Laura Jennings UCL Thesis submitted for the degree of PhD in Anthropology I, Jessica Jennings, confirm that the work presented in this thesis is my own. Where information has been derived from other sources, I confirm that this has been indicated in the thesis. 1 Acknowledgements I would like to thank Dr Joanna Cook for supervising me through the fieldwork and write up of this thesis, particularly for her candour and guidance at crucial moments. I would also like to thank Dr Roland Littlewood and Prof Eileen Barker for examining the thesis and providing their feedback. Of course, family and friends, old and new, have been invaluable for their support. It is particularly important to acknowledge my debt to my informants, however, who permitted me into their Reiki spaces and lives, even if temporarily, in acts of generosity, enthusiasm and trust which will endure far beyond the limits of this project. I hope to convey at least a fraction of their humour, their seriousness, their intellect and professionalism, their kindness and acceptance in these pages, and am unendingly grateful for the time that they gave me. 2 Abstract Reiki healing has become increasingly popular in the UK since the 1980s. The ‘community’ of Reiki in London is unbounded, both geographically spread and demographically diverse. Some practitioners gather with others to perform Reiki in ‘shares’, but these shares are frequently attended by different people, who disperse afterwards and have little to no contact with each other. While Reiki healers might either place their hands on the client or keep them suspended just above the body, any intimacy is contained within the episode of healing. In the episodic engagement of self-practice, Reiki practitioners ‘check-in’ with themselves ‘in the moment’. Focusing on practitioners, this anthropological study explores the commitment to Reiki practice given its non- native, unfixed and fragmented identity in London. Noting that the incentive for practitioners to self-practice links well-being with being good, the principle exploration in this thesis is of the meaningfulness of Reiki as a practice of experience. Analysing ethnographic data from two years of participant observation and semi-structured interviews amongst Reiki practitioners in London, this study presents vital materialism, in which there is a perceived kinship between human and non-human agent-objects. In Reiki distance healing, prophetic interpretation and regression healing, practitioners are presented as expanding the present-moment, in spatial and temporal play, to curate the ‘self’. While there is an aesthetic preoccupation in ‘cleansing’, the practice is also ethical. Individually stylised rituals of Reiki identify paradoxically arbitrary actions as arbiters of meaningfulness, orienting ‘authenticity’ around the individual. Individualistic authenticity revolutionises the social imagination, as practitioners transform the legitimising terms of the city, science and bureaucracy. Privileging the senses as ‘intuitive’ knowledge internalises the judgment of truth, exemplified by conspiracy theories. In the perception of ‘energy’, they seek to transform contemporary metropolitan life into an ascent of the individual. 3 Impact Statement The surprise and enthusiasm shown by the informants for this thesis suggest that a primary impact of conducting this project is on the Reiki community itself. In a community infrequently studied, practitioners who had become key informants expressed their pleasure at the idea that a cultural record of their practice and the meaningfulness of Reiki in London would be produced, and that, as a result of publication, a wider population might be encouraged to understand better the lives and intentions of alternative practitioners. While this study is by no means a proposal for the integration of Reiki into the NHS, nor does it provide an account of its clinical efficacy, it contributes to an assessment of integration efforts. Arguing that Reiki practitioners in London can be understood for their own values, it points to a discriminatory aspect of Randomised Clinical Trials in qualifying wellbeing benefits of regular Reiki practitioners as a result of lifestyle. This research could dispel the more aggressive assumptions of some non-practitioners and promote a more inclusive and empathetic understanding of Reiki. In turn, this change of attitude could open up public discourse on alternative health to more useful discussions on how to assess preventative and lifestyle-related therapeutic options. It is important to emphasise that practitioners were enthusiastic about ensuring safe practice and improving the reputation of alternative practitioners, but predominantly reported a lack of opportunity for them to contribute to the necessary bureaucratic processes. This study could, therefore, provide insight to influence an increase in user services research for Public Liability insurance providers dealing with alternative health practitioners, to allow practitioners greater engagement in safeguarding policies and insurance requirements. It should be seen as encouraging a broader spectrum of research avenues into alternative healing, acknowledging the decentralisation typical of Reiki. As an anthropological study conducted in London, the reflections on methodology in this thesis are informative to models of ethnography in 4 contemporary metropolitan areas – emphasising, indeed, the benefit of ethnographic research methods in capturing the emergent quality of the contemporary. In addressing the fragmented, splintered, and heterogeneous ‘community’ of Reiki practitioners as a cumulation of individualism in the practice of Reiki and in the Metropolis of London, the analyses in this thesis can contribute meaningfully to the study of contemporary thought. Presenting ‘vibrancy’ as an expression of individualism in contemporary metropolitan spiritual healing practices, this study is a development away from arguments of intersubjectivity and the practice of community, accommodating the simultaneously atomised and globalised contemporary metropolitan individual. This challenges those cultural attitudes to individualism which fear ‘narcissism’ as a progression away from ethical living. The ethnographic examination of ‘authenticity’ amongst Reiki practitioners demonstrates that individualism must be recognised and approached intellectually and practically for the values within it. This study provides a framework for addressing individualism ethnographically in the analysis of ‘meaningful arbitrariness’ in the ritual actions of Reiki. It thus promotes further anthropological scholarship on contemporary individualism, in all of its aspects as well as spiritual healing practices. 5 Contents Glossary of Reiki ............................................................................................. 8 Character List: Key Informants ..................................................................... 15 Prologue: The Experience of Reiki ............................................................... 27 Introduction: Reiki and The Vibrant Individual .............................................. 31 Reiki in London .......................................................................................... 31 The Anthropology of Extraordinary Experience and Energy ..................... 43 Ethnography in London ............................................................................. 56 Reflections on Methodology ...................................................................... 66 Vibrancy and Anti-Rationality in Contemporary Reiki Practice ................. 76 Chapter 1: The Reiki Source and Experience .............................................. 91 Individual and Collective Experience ........................................................ 91 Vibrating Matters ....................................................................................... 97 Synchronous Selves and the Source ...................................................... 101 The Vibrant Individual .............................................................................. 106 Self-Practice and Attentiveness to Vibrancy ........................................... 112 Chapter 2: Playful Potency within Reiki Time and Space ........................... 123 Metaphysical Possibilities ........................................................................ 123 Distance: Folding Space-Time ................................................................ 129 Prophecy: Playing with Potentials ........................................................... 135 Future-Scaping in the Expansive Present ............................................... 145 Chapter 3: Curating the Self in Reiki Cleansing ......................................... 151 The Cleansing Motif ................................................................................ 151 6 Reiki Memory .......................................................................................... 156 Self-Artistry .............................................................................................. 167 Recognition of the Authentic Self ............................................................ 177 Chapter 4: Meaningful Arbitrariness as Authenticity in Reiki Ritual ............ 190 Ritual Action and the Expression of Authenticity ..................................... 190 The Reiki Symbols and their Meaning ..................................................... 196 Meaningful

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