The Radiance Technique International Association, Inc.

TRTIA -- Celebrating our 45th Year !!!

Clarification about Things called "reiki"

This letter was sent on March 23, 2012 to the editor of "Consumer Reports on Health" in response to an article in their April 2012 issue about "reiki".

We have the utmost respect for what Consumer Reports has accomplished over the years. The standard of accuracy is very high and what is printed can be trusted to be well-researched and informative.

However, in the April 2012 issue of "Consumer Reports on Health," there is a very misleading article on page 10 called "Balancing Reiki's claims." The word "reiki" is a generic term which can and does mean any number of a variety of things. Even a quick search online brings up at least 300 kinds of "reiki things" offered by a wide assortment of people.

Real Reiki^® and Authentic Reiki^® are service marks which were registered decades ago to denote and distinguish the intact science of energy from a plethora of personal methods being called "reiki." The service marks are a consumer protection, guaranteeing the student or recipient of Authentic Reiki^®, Real Reiki^® is in fact receiving the application of transcendental, harmless, whole energy. Given Consumer Reports' mission of empowering consumers to protect themselves, we are providing more information about "reiki" to help you educate consumers.

Authentic Reiki^®, Real Reiki^®, is the science and art of accessing, directing and applying Radiant, universal life energy to promote energy balancing and wholeness. This science is not a medical technique. There is something called "laying-on-of-hands." Authentic Reiki^® is not a "laying-on-of-hands." In fact, Authentic Reiki^® can be applied without physical touch or, after advanced study, without being physically present. There is also a natural physiological response when a person touches someone else. Again, Authentic Reiki^®, Real Reiki^® is not a physical, physiological, or medical technique and physiological response is not part of the science. Authentic Reiki^® is a powerful tool for positive wellness and balance in all aspects of life and can be used safely and effectively in conjunction with any medical techniques. Authentic Reiki^®, Real Reiki^® itself is not a medical or alternative technique.

In the article, it was also misleading to state "Hawayo Takata brought the Japanese practice to America in the late 1930's." It sounds as if "reiki" were available in this country since that time. While Hawayo Takata learned what she called "reiki" in Japan in the late 1930's and then returned to her home in Hawaii, she rarely taught anyone else or spoke about the science until the 1970's. At that time she began to look for a single person to whom to give all the information she had. In 1978, Takata chose Dr. Barbara Ray as the person to whom she would teach everything she knew about the science. In 1980, Dr. Ray and Mrs. Takata together founded The American Reiki Association, Inc. to be the nonprofit center for information and training about Takata's "reiki" system. However, Takata did not choose to protect her system with service marks, and after her death, when "reiki" began to become very popular, a number of people decided to offer things they called "reiki" which were not what Takata herself had offered. The result was that many people claim to do something they call "reiki," and there is no consumer protection or clarity around that word.

The American Reiki Association is now The Radiance Technique International Association, Inc. (TRTIA) and is still, 32 years later, the center for accurate information about the intact science of Authentic Reiki^® as originally taught by Hawayo Takata. TRTIA holds a number of service marks, all of which are used to denote the intact science as a protection for the public. Other things called "reiki" are not that science. For much more detail about the history, please read Dr. Barbara Ray's 1995 article "The Radiance Technique^®, Authentic Reiki^®: Historical Perspectives".

We read the Consumer Reports magazine regularly and know it is an excellent resource for consumers. We request you print a correction to the "reiki" article. Consumers need to know whether the "reiki" being offered to them - whether as a patient in a hospital or a student wanting to learn something for personal use - is intact and authentic. The word "reiki" does not guarantee that at all. Consumers looking for a science of harmless, whole, universal energy should look for the service marks which denote the intact science of Authentic Reiki^®, Real Reiki^®. For more information, please see www.trtia.org or www.AuthenticReiki.org and a list of registered service marks at www.trtia.org/svcmarks.htm.

Thank you for the outstanding work of Consumer Reports and Consumers Union! We appreciate the effort and care taken with research and testing through the years, and offer the above information to help correct the misinformation that was printed in this instance. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact us.

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