Shoden – Reiki Level I
Take the first step on an amazing and fulfilling journey. The course materials consist of a comprehensive manual, audio files, and detailed course instruction handouts. With these comprehensive instructions, manual and files, and support, we are happy that the course gives you as much as you would have had, had you attended one of our ‘live’ courses, and more. We think that distributed learning courses have some definite advantages, in fact: instead of having the time available to you limited by the length of a live course, you will have the opportunity to spend a lot longer working with the various exercises, really understanding and assimilating each stage before you move on at your own pace. This approach comes a lot closer to the way that Reiki’s founder – Mikao Usui – taught, with students working with him one-to-one and developing themselves over an extended period.
The Course itself
The course will take approx. 6-8 weeks to complete, and is based on carrying out a series of graded ‘energy projects’ totaling 30+ hours of practical energy work, which constitutes far more energy work than students carry out in live Reiki training courses. You will be doing something with energy most days, and you will be working regularly on other people. We will provide you with a series of distant empowerments.
What we do is to break the course down into a series of stages, or ‘projects’, where for each stage the student does some reading, listens to the audio commentary, watches some video, carries out practical energy exercises and then sends us feedback by to let us know what they have done and what they have experienced. We can then gear our support to what the student has done and what they need.
Tune in to the Reiki energy
During your distributed learning course you will receive a flurry of distant ‘Reiju’ empowerments during the early stages of your course. These traditional Japanese empowerments open up the channels through which Reiki flows; they help you to recognize something that is already within you. They are equivalent to Western-style Reiki ‘attunements’ and enable you to use Reiki for your own benefit and for the benefit of the people around you – your family and friends. This ability will stay with you for life, you will never lose it, and Reiki works for everyone!
During the later stages of your course, you will ‘tune in’ to distant Reiju empowerments which we send out every day, on Sundays. Your Reiki potential will not lessen over time, so tuning into these empowerments is not essential, but doing so will make a difference to you and your Reiki practice and echoes the practice of Reiki’s founder, Mikao Usui, who empowered his students on a regular basis.
Learn to work with energy
Reiki is all about working with energy, so some of the first practical exercises that you carry out during the course involve learning to experience your own energy and that of other people, plants and animals. You will practice on a group of friends and/or relatives who will act as ‘guinea pigs’ for you.
You will also be introduced to and practice some Japanese energy exercises that you can use every day to balance your energy system and to make you a stronger and clearer channel for Reiki. These energy exercises come from Japanese Reiki, in its original and later forms, and have been missing from Western Reiki for 50 years.
You will also learn some of the esoteric “mikkyo” meditations that Usui-Sensei practiced as an initiate of the Japanese Tendai system, and while not an essential component of Reiki, you’ll quickly see why Usui-Sensei practiced them and notice how they enhance your very connection to the energy of Reiki itself!
Learn how to treat yourself Japanese style and Western style
Reiki in its original form is much more about working on your self than it is about working on other people, so you will learn several approaches that you can use to work on yourself, and the ‘Reiki Meditations’ audio talks you through a traditional Japanese self-treatment ‘meditation’. You will find out how relaxing an experience this is and you will be carrying out this self-treatment for several weeks during your course. We will also explain the Western approach to carrying out self-treatments and you have the opportunity to experiment with these different methods.
Give treatments to other people
Reiki is presented in the West as a sort of hands-on treatment technique, a form of complementary therapy, and you will be thoroughly trained in this aspect of the system.
Your distributed learning course will deal thoroughly with the giving of treatments to other people, and the course materials are comprehensive. We will demonstrate some ‘standard’ hand positions that you can use to begin with, for although it is good practice to work intuitively, and that will come with time, it is reassuring to begin with to have some basic guidelines to follow!
With time and practice, you should be able to leave the standard hand positions behind you and let the energy guide you (we cover this on the Second Degree – ‘Okuden’ – course). We will also talk about balancing and energizing the aura, and ‘scanning’ with your hands.
You will practice these techniques on a group of friends and/or relatives who will act as ‘guinea pigs’ for you. Reiki is a hands-on, practical subject, so you need to make sure that you practice treating other people in different ways. The course guides you through the giving of ‘head and shoulders’ and ‘full’ Reiki treatments. You provide us with detailed feedback about your experiences – what you did and what you noticed, and any questions that you have – and we give you feedback on what you have done and noticed.
You will carry out more Reiki treatments, and gain more practical experience of treating people, than is possible in ‘live’ Reiki training courses.
The Audio files
Our Reiki First Degree distributed learning course is accompanied by many instructional audio files, covering commentary which summarizes the main themes of your course, and guided meditations that you will use at Shoden, and Okuden levels. By having on audio files the main things that are said to you during a live course, you really receive a version of ‘live’ training, but in the comfort of your living room, or your car, or on a walk or wherever you choose to listen. You can, in effect, ‘replay’ your teacher repeatedly!
The guided meditations take you through Hatsu Rei Ho (Japanese energy exercises) and a self-treatment meditation that Reiki’s founder taught. So instead of fumbling around trying to read the instructions in your manual while trying to keep in the flow of it, you can simply close your eyes, and follow the instructions. Your meditation will flow all the more easily because of this!
The Course Manual
Each course is accompanied by a comprehensive manual that covers everything we teach during your course, and more besides. Our ‘Shoden’ manual provides you with a permanent record of your training and is a useful reference volume.
The Certificate
The First Degree Shoden distributed learning course is accompanied by an attractive certificate written in Japanese kanji and Western text, displaying the seal of the Gozan Reiki Kyokai and signed by your teacher. In this case your certificate confirms that you have received instruction and Reiju empowerments and have satisfied the requirements of the “First Degree” of Reiki.
Course overview
Here is an overview of the way the distributed learning course will work, showing in general terms what you will be doing during each of the stages of the course.
- Stage 1: At this stage is all about familiarizing yourself with the course and doing some background reading and listening. Your first project will be to explore the meditative practice of mindfulness and to consider the Reiki precepts.
- Stage 2: At this stage you will receive repeated distant empowerments, start to carry out some simple Japanese energy exercises, and start to play with energy.
- Stage 3: At this stage you will extend your Japanese energy exercises into a longer sequence, carry on playing with the energy by starting to practice ‘scanning,’ and you will receive a further distant empowerment.
- Stage 4: At this stage you will add a powerful self-treatment meditation to your basic daily energy exercises; you will experiment with various approaches to self-treatment, and receive a further distant empowerment. You will also practice feeling the energy field around plants and animals, and begin the first of the esoteric mikkyo meditations.
- Stage 5: At this stage, as well as maintaining your daily energy practices and receiving a distant empowerment, you will learn different approaches to treating people and you will start to treat some other people, in a simple fashion, for 20-30 minutes.
- Stage 6: At this stage, as well as maintaining your daily energy practices and receiving a distant empowerment, you will carry out at least two ‘full’ Reiki treatments.
Once you’ve been through your First Degree distributed learning course we want you to know that your teachers and senior students will be on hand to deal with any questions you might have and to help and support you in your practice of Reiki. We have tried to set up various ways that we can support you, and our students can support each other.
Shoden – Reiki Level I – $100.00 USD