Hi Becky, I've heard of experimentation where Reiki actually retarded the flow of healing energy rather than accelerated it. But personally I wouldn't go as far as to say it was at all negative. I know there are many healers with loving intent - I do get a positive feeling about the practice in general in terms of intent.

I'd say we're being invited to evolve how we look at and consider healing.

It's all a question of how the energy wants to flow. To me, it's not a question of healing, because there will always be a limit on our ability if we approach any engagement (any moment) with an idea of "this is how it should be", "this is what would be a 'good' outcome here". Rather, there is an invitation to always align with "Right Action" what ever that is. To give you an example, a 'client' once asked me to conduct some distance healing on a close relative who was seriously ill in hospital with cancer. I wasn't sure about it at the time, I was still finding my alignment to what healing is really all about. I felt compassion for the person and for the plight of their relative. So I agreed to work on it and spent the next hour meditating and holding energy around that person. A couple of days later, I heard back from my 'client'. Their relative had come out of their pain, sat up in bed and shared some fond exchanges. And a couple of hours after that she passed on. Fortunately my client was evolved enough to see that this was "Right Outcome" and that the person had been helped to move on in the most comfortable way. From that moment on - which was a very powerful teaching for me - my perspective on healing changed (evolved). I see my role as that of facilitating Right Action. The key being not to judge the outcome by some kind of idea of what we think should happen. However I've found that there always tends to be some kind of synchronistic affirmation when we are in the flow. I know that certain practices - like Reiki - can bring you into a state where you are in the flow. My concern though is that if this becomes a dogma of "we have to act like this in order to achieve that". Frequently I observe there is this kind of intent. And I'd say that's what we must evolve beyond to be truly effective.