A student recently asked me a question about why the eastern healing arts are not offered for free in the US like they are in China and India. You could tell by the emotion in her voice that it’s the type of question that really seriously bothered her.
She asked, “How can these Reiki people charge $150 per hour for their healing? I mean, how do you know it will work? Isn’t it supposed to be free?”
Now, for those of you who have no experience with Reiki, it is a Japanified version of Chinese external Qi healing (also called medical Qigong or energy healing.) It is an esoteric medical system. The Chinese call it Bu Qi, or giving Qi. In the ancient Taoist tradition which these methods are based upon, there is much more than just Qi involved, but most of what has been disseminated works on the level of Qi.
If you have never experienced these types of healing modalities, you might be tempted to dismiss them altogether. Before you do so, consider that westernized version of these systems such as Hands on Healing and Healing Touch are being widely used at major hospitals in the US.
Although there is a tendency by some to view Reiki as being watered down medical Qigong, it is not really fair to judge the whole system by just a few practitioners. It’s sort of like concluding that Tai Chi is not a martial art because the only people you’ve seen doing it are retirees in the park.
Nevertheless, the fact that Reiki uses something of a mass-production training system does tend to produce some practitioners with only rudimentary skill. Their lack of an internal alchemy (Nei Dan) system to support their healing practice means that their general level of effectiveness will likely decline over time.
Back to my student’s question…
I said “Reiki people have to eat. They need a place to live just like you do.”
“But I thought healing was supposed to be free?”
“Is it free to go into a doctor’s office and get treated?”
“No, but how do you know it will work?”
“The price set is not based on whether it will work or not, it is based on the value of their time.”
“Yes, but $150 dollars an hour!”
“We live in DC. It’s a very expensive city. How much does a junior attorney charge for their time?”
“About $300 per hour.”
“Are they worth it? How do you know you’ll get the outcome you want?”
“No! You don’t, and you probably won’t”
‘That’s right. You are not buying a product, you are buying their time.”
“Look at it this way.” I continued, “Most of the people that I know who do this sort of stuff are well educated. Many of them are professionals with master’s degrees and higher. They can earn a lot more money by doing other things. They don’t have to do esoteric healing to eat. They do it because they have a certain passion for the art. But they still have to live in this world. In the US this means they have to charge you for their time.”
When I put it like that, it seems obvious that even esoteric healers have to charge for their services. But my student is not alone in her thinking. For some reason, people think that eastern forms of healing are supposed to be free. This notion probably arouse out of a miss-interpretation of certain eastern cultural concepts.
You see, “free” healing in Asia is not really free. First, most people who can do it charge for it. The Taoist adepts typically would charge. Second, those who didn’t charge for it knew that you would pay whatever you could afford because it was part of their cultural norms!
To put it another way, in China it is an “unwritten rule” (a management consulting term referring to social norms that govern behavior) that you reciprocate to the best of your ability in order to show your appreciation for the effort someone makes on your behalf. Failure to do so generates retribution (Bao Ying) either from the same social circle or from Heaven, or both!
But that concept doesn’t translate directly in the west. Here people, understandably, think free means free. That is the way our culture works. It is a prime example why, when studying a foreign culture, you have to have at least two levels of interpretation. The first is to get the actual meaning correct. The second is to understand the cultural context. Only then can you adapt it to your culture.
Sean,
I didn’t say “for free” nor would I ever expect that. Nor do I differentiate between Eastern and Western medicine, or see this as a cultural issue. In the U.S. alone, a trained, knowledgeable well-educated health professional from an accredited school program (chiropractor, massage therapist, optometrist or dentist) might charge, say, $70 for an hour or a visit. I don’t see why healing touch therapies, with more subjective, less verifiable qualifications (and probably fewer educational hours)would charge more. (It also means that the practitioner avails such care only to the relatively wealthy, which is in conformance with the crueler, less enlightened aspects of corporate America.)
are there any other good internet links about Reiki? i am really interested about it.”;
reiki is a very interesting stuff, i would like to know more about it~”,