Just for today, I will not be angry.
Just for today, I will not worry.
Just for today, I will be grateful.
Just for today, I will do my work honestly.
Just for today, I will be kind to every living thing.
– Mikao Usui
The year is 1922. A young Japanese Buddhist, frustrated in his quest to discover the meaning of life through Zen, takes the somewhat drastic decision to instead court death. For 21 days he stood beneath the thunderous waters of a mystic waterfall on Mount Kurama until his body could take it no more and he slid into unconsciousness. Far from waking with the mother of all migraines, this young monk sprang to his feet believing his mind had been penetrated by the high-frequency ‘intelligent’ energy that flows through the universe – energy that can serve as the catalyst for self-healing and existential equilibrium. Mumbo jumbo? Not according to devotees of Mikao Usui, known today as Usui Sensei by reiki students the world over. The Advisor meets reiki master Jane Morrissey to talk intelligent energy, healing highs and why that weight loitering on your hips shouldn’t be considered ‘fat’.
How did you discover reiki healing, or did it discover you?
When I was about 18, I was suffering from depression. I’d lost three grandparents; was suicidal, had no idea what was going on and felt really, really lost. I went to see a psychologist and they just said: ‘Here are some pills.’ They had lots of side effects and I just felt numb. I gained a lot of weight and, because of that, ended up with an eating disorder. I was fortunate to find a massage therapist who specialised in reiki. I started to realise there’s only so much you can talk about things, which can help release it but it becomes a cycle. I struggled because I was around people who were very conventional, very traditional. ‘Why are you crying? What’s wrong with you?’ I was a very sensitive child; I’ve always picked up on spirits and energy. From a young age, I was told: ‘That’s not OK. I’m going to beat that out of you.’ You’re not allowed to feel emotion; to express emotion. By the time I was 18 it wasn’t just grief I was dealing with; it was so many repressed emotions: frustration, hatred. I was adopted as a very young child: by the time I got to my family I was three months old and had been through three sets of hands. I’d never formed a bond with anyone. Eventually I found this girl that I worked with and started doing massage therapy and immediately felt things starting to flow better, but certain things had got stuck. What is this? Why won’t it go away? ‘Would you like to try reiki?’ What, you put your hands on me and it just goes away?! It was through working with her that I was able to stop taking antidepressants and could start to feel again. I saw results I’d never seen before: my body started to function differently, my posture had changed.
I became really passionate about natural healing and energy. I started learning the set hand positions, but over time have developed my own style and now work intuitively. When someone comes to see me it’s about finding out first what’s happening with them and trusting my own intuition. I can actually feel what the other person is feeling, which sometimes is very difficult because with a lot of people there’s a lot of sadness, grief, anger. I’ll see different colours, too; I work a lot with colour therapy. People underestimate the power of colour. The way I was taught was based on tradition: ‘Place hands here, place hands here, place hands here…’ It was very structured. When it came to developing my own method, I found that very frustrating because I felt I had my own natural style, but the teacher kept saying: ‘Jane, what are you doing?! You can’t do this…’ I understand that traditionally things were taught in a certain way, but I also understand people have the intuition to know what their style is and how they’re meant to work with it. My way of teaching is to empower people and get them to learn what’s happening in their body.
Have you had the chance to work with many Cambodians yet? If ever there was a population in need of healing…
Long term, I want to work with more Khmers. My preferred plan is to work with Westerners as well. People come here and, although it’s a much slower pace, they still adopt the same lifestyle: it’s like they’re still in America or the UK. ‘I’m going to work and I’m not going to have any balance.’ Interestingly, the other day, I read an article saying that Cambodia is one of the Earth’s energy centres. That’s why people are so drawn here – and it works very well with reiki being about natural healing. People have said to me: ‘It’s interesting that I’ve actually had to come to Cambodia to heal.’ Longer term, I would love to go into the provinces, work on a volunteer basis and just give to the people who can’t come to the city. Getting them to relax and feel there’s a different way of doing things. There’s so much black magic here, so much darkness. I feel my purpose here is to increase the light.
Is reiki healing a skill anyone can acquire or are certain people more attuned to it than others?
I believe anyone can tap into it – we all have the gift – but it depends on intention and practice. When you’re trained, you get attuned to certain levels of energy. What it really comes down to is how much you practice. I practice self-reiki at least one or two hours a day and the more I practice, the more I can attune to others. It’s about discipline. And one of the interesting things about reiki is that you find the people who come to you are dealing with exactly the same things you’ve dealt with. Every time a new client walks in, they’ll mention something and it just resonates because I’ve been there. I’m very open, because I’m proud of the journey I’ve been on and sharing that journey with people makes them realise it’s OK. ‘My God, she really understands. I’m not alone. If she got better, I can get better too.’
How do you train someone?
We start with meditation: helping people get in touch with their own body and feeling what’s happening. Before you can feel what’s happening in someone else, you need to feel what’s happening in your own body. That’s what level one of reiki is about: feeling the energy; doing exercises, learning the different hand positions and practising on yourself. Everyone’s going to feel something different: reiki is a very individual experience. I have my own level of protection. In terms of the body, there are several layers: your physical body, energetic body and your auric body. I’ve built mine up to a level of strength where I can’t really absorb anything from anyone else. I can feel it, but it never actually attaches to me. I have my own practices in terms of managing that energy. One of those is to have my own space.
What do you feel during a session?
Lots of heat; lots of tingling: I can literally feel the energy flowing into my body. I can feel where there’s an imbalance. There’s a tight bit, like a block, that you can feel. A lot of people who start reiki have a lot of weight on them but it isn’t fat, it’s emotion.
I like that: ‘I’m not fat, I’m emotional!’
[Laughs] You can keep that one! Our stomach is our emotional core and all of our energy is attached to that core. Sneezing is another really common one: that’s very much a release. Same with tears – and you might not even know why you’re crying. The best one I ever had was when someone was practising on me and I was in hysterics. He had his foot on my forearm and I was rolling around on the floor in hysterics for a good ten minutes – we both were! It was this beautiful release. There are so many ways the energy can come out: some people giggle, some people twitch… Someone I worked with recently, when they first came in they were very depressed; they didn’t want to go out or do anything. They hated the world. After one session – this is how powerful it can be – I got an email the next day saying: ‘I have never felt so calm and peaceful in all of my life.’ I had another client who’d realised they were in a job they didn’t want to be in. Now she’s going for an interview for a job that she has no experience in but intuitively knows she can do. I’ve even given reiki to someone in a coma. I like to call them miracles, but some people would say: ‘You’re crazy!’ But I actually believe in miracles, so…
Are you religious?
I prefer ‘spiritual’. People often associate religion with reiki, which is unfortunate because people are so tied up in religion. I offered my services to someone in Cambodia with cancer, because reiki can help regenerate the cells in the body, but I was told that what I was doing was ‘demonic’, to which I said: ‘Thank you for your candidness!’ [Laughs] I believe in a higher level of consciousness, a higher being, a spiritual energy. I wouldn’t necessarily say ‘God’.
What should someone new to reiki expect of their first session?
Preparation is key and tells me a lot about what I’m going to be facing. Colour is important, so I have a variety of different colours in my space. Before someone even gets here, by intuitively laying out the colours I know what I’m going to be working with. When they arrive, it’s about making them comfortable and whatever they want to share with me is whatever they want to share. Some people just come and lie down, without talking. Sessions are normally an hour but the first is 90 minutes because I want to get a feel for them and it’s important they get a feel for me. I can pick up what’s happening from a person’s body shape, their language and also the colours they’re wearing. In the first session, I focus exclusively on the head. A lot of things happening in the body actually stem from what’s going on in the mind. After a session, I feel energised because the energy flows through me: it’s a natural high.
WHO: Jane Morrissey
WHAT: Reiki master
WHERE: Phnom Penh (contact holistichealingcambodia@nullgmail.com)
WHEN: Now
WHY: “We are not human beings having a spiritual experience, but spiritual beings having a human experience.” – Pierre Teilhard de Chardin