Healing with feeling

Shirl Evans is a Reiki practitioner with a passion
for healing. Gemma Buxton asked Shirl to explain
the principles of Reiki and its relevance to modern day life.

Gemma fearlessly booked in for a session to be
able to bring us the client's point of view.

Some people think that Reiki is supernatural, but it isn't, it's very, very real and it isn't at all spooky or mystical. Reiki is universal energy and I'm a channel for it. People like me go to a Reiki master to have our crowns opened so we can channel universal energy. It comes through me, to the person I'm treating and it does the most amazing things.

What sort of conditions or ailments can you treat with Reiki?
Anything from an sore eye, an in-grown toenail, heart disease, cancer, arthritis, varicose veins, Ross River - I'm helping a lot of people in town with Ross River. Anything you can name, obesity, it's right across the board, there is nothing that Reiki can't fix. It can fix emotional and mental problems including stress. It's for your total well-being. I've had huge responses for asthma too, it's great.

About how many clients do you see in town?
I'm a practitioner so I would see and treat probably minimum, 20 people in town. Reiki speaks for itself, it's not me that does the healing, it's the energy, I'm merely a channel for it.
Reiki has been around since first man, because it's universal energy, it's always been here, otherwise nothing would be living. It has been channelled for many thousands of years - it originates from Japan.
I've been doing Reiki for about six years. I'm doing my Masters Degree at the end of the year so then I can teach first and second degree Reiki, so my clients can Reik themselves and their families. It is not necessary to depend on me, people can help themselves if need be and then if they want treatment, or a more powerful treatment, they can come to me. With every degree that you do, you are given symbols, you're attuned to symbols which makes it more powerful. So if for instance I opened your crown and you did first degree Reiki, that would be fine, but if you needed a more powerful treatment then you would come to me.
If people have never had a Reiki treatment before, it's better to have three treatments consecutively. Each treatment takes one hour.
I have a healing room in my home and I have a massage table. So what you do is you come to my home. There's absolutely no disrobing and there's nothing horrible to expect! You simply lie down on the massage table - I have dull lights in the room, you listen to lovely music and smell lovely aromatherapy scents. It's literally hands on healing. You feel me touch you very, very lightly. You're on your back for half and hour and I start from your head and work through to your feet. There's no manipulation involved, there's no concentration required. There doesn't have to be silence. You can talk to me and tell jokes for the hour if you so wish! Most people sleep, it's very relaxing. So you're on your back for half and hour and then I ground you. This is just massaging your feet basically and you sit up and have a drink and then you're on your tummy for half an hour and again I start from your head and move through to your feet. That's all it involves, you don't have to disrobe, like I said. The only thing you take off are your shoes for your own comfort!
I treat a whole range of people, you don't have to be a new age person to receive Reiki treatment. I have little, frail old ladies to great big strapping truckies, and everybody in between. Not one person who has come to me for treatment has failed to come back. Reiki speaks for itself, it's just wonderful energy.
It goes to where it's needed, the energy travels to wherever it's needed, so if you do have a problem but you're not aware of it, it'll eradicate it before it becomes anything. Yeah it's a clever little energy - it's amazing.
Your chakra system consists of seven disks if you like and they start from your crown and go through to the root chakra which is based at the end of your spine. If your chakra system is out of balance, then you're not going to be well. It doesn't matter what you do, it doesn't matter what your diet is or how much exercise you have, if your chakra system is out, you are going to be unwell. The first and foremost thing that Reiki does is re-align your chakra system - get everything spinning in the same direction. It re-balances you and gets everything working and if you have any problems it brings everything to the surface. It works it all out for you and makes you come to decisions. Gets rid of the bad stuff and hangs onto the good stuff. Any physical problems that you have, it really does heal them and it does it all by itself.
I heal intuitively because I've always been a healer and so I feel things through my hands, even though I touch you very, very lightly, I feel heat or I feel cold spots or tingling sensations. I'll stay there until those sensations go. I'm just giving that area of your system a powerful hit of energy. I give myself Reiki everyday and I also Reik plants, animals, food, drinks, absolutely - everything. Reiki is just an amazing energy and it can penetrate through steel. So if I was treating someone in a wheelchair for instance and obviously they can't stand, I can put my hand on their stomach and on the back of the chair and it will go through steel.
I also send energy, for fifteen minutes a day I send energy to people - energy sent is as good as an hour treatment with me. I can send energy to up to 50 people at any one given time, all I need is a photo. It doesn't matter whether it's an old or recent photograph of someone, I just need to see their forehead in the photo and I send energy by using symbols. It just takes fifteen minutes a day and it's helped a lot of people who haven't been able to come to me. I send energy to them and it's done amazing things, it's very, very powerful. I can send energy to another country and everyday I give energy to mother-earth, because she gives us so much, I give some back.
Universal energy is all around us. It's around the globe and everything breathes and works because of this universal energy. When you channel it, it becomes powerful because it is absolutely pure and strong, you receive it, you channel it and you send it. It's just such a simple thing to receive and it is such a lovely experience to receive Reiki. Everybody who does receive it says they wished they had known about it years ago when they were having different problems. To be a channel for God's energy, which is universal light, is a miracle.
I'm making varicose veins disappear, I'm enabling people to live quite comfortably without asthma puffers, people aren't needing to take their medication, not that I would ever tell people to not take their medication, that's not up to me, I don't give prognoses, nor do I give diagnosis. But God's energy does amazing things. Yes, I am finding that everyday, people are not taking their medication because they feel they don't need to. It's purely up to them.
Too often people go along to the doctor's and sit in a room full of sick people and wait and wait and wait and finally get to see the practitioner, who is very tired because this is what they are doing all day, every day _ seeing sick people. It's very tempting for them to just write out a prescription.
Why not look in another direction? Look for a more natural treatment that can help you as opposed to taking drugs. By taking drugs you're merely blocking a problem that you have, you're not fixing it, you're merely relieving it - you're making your system even worse. Why not give holistic medicine a go. It's cheaper and it's much better and you will feel a hundred percent better. It clears your mind, gives you better view points and thoughts and much better energy.
People feel after a Reiki treatment they have so much energy and their head is clearer and they look forward to doing things - nothing is a drag anymore. Doctors don't have that claim to fame. But having said that, doctors are very necessary and there are things that doctors do very, very well but it's too easy for people to go along to the doctor and get a pill for the flu and get a puffer for asthma and get a tablet for high blood pressure. You know, why not look at the problem, see what's causing it and heal your body and your system so it doesn't have these problems and not through way of medication.

Here is what one client had to say...

I arrived at Shirl's feeling happy and rearing to go, extremely curious of what awaited me in the healing room. After brief chit chat with the client who had been in before me (who confidently assured me that the rope burns do fade with time!), I moved on into the healing room. My heart was racing at this point, as I had never received anything like a Reiki treatment before and the whole "healing" process was a little daunting to me! When I lay on the massage table and Shirl positioned her hands on my head, the healing process had begun and I found the healing room to be very warm and relaxing, not at all scary anymore.
There is no massage involved in the treatment, just touch. After the first half hour on my back, I had a drink of water and then turned onto my stomach for the last half an hour of the treatment. I was determined not to fall asleep, worried that I might be swept into another world and see all sorts of strange things in my head! But I found the half hour of treatment on my back to be the most relaxing and in the end I couldn't help but fall asleep.
Of the whole healing process, the part which I most liked was the 'grounding', whereby Shirl massages the feet. During the grounding was when I could feel the energy at its strongest, actually being passed through Shirl's hands. Throughout the whole treatment I could feel the warmth and receiving of the energy, but it was my feet that were the most sensitive to it.
Shirl is right when she says "You'll just love it!" and anyone who has a Reiki treatment with Shirl will definitely be returning for another, Shirl makes you feel very relaxed and at ease.
Reiki does work, it makes you feel more relaxed, your mind is so much more clearer and you are filled with a greater sense of well being.