Also known as: Usui Reiki, Reiki therapy
Japanese hands-on biofield therapy developed by Mikao Usui in the 1920s. The practitioner places hands lightly on or just above the body in specific positions for 60 to 90 minutes, with the aim of supporting autonomic regulation and symptom relief.
Reiki is the most studied biofield therapy. Mikao Usui developed the system in 1920s Japan. The protocol involves the practitioner placing hands lightly on or just above the recipient's body in a sequence of standard positions for 60 to 90 minutes. The recipient typically lies fully clothed on a treatment table.
The 2025 scoping review of biofield therapies in the Journal of Integrative and Complementary Medicine identified 353 studies, with Reiki representing the largest sub-corpus. The 2017 McManus systematic review concluded Reiki produces effects beyond placebo on pain, anxiety, depression, and self-esteem outcomes. The 2024 BMC Palliative Care meta-analysis covered 13 Reiki studies and 824 patients, finding significant impact on anxiety, particularly for short-term protocols of 1 to 3 sessions.
Major hospitals including Cleveland Clinic, OHSU, Yale, Memorial Sloan Kettering, and Johns Hopkins offer Reiki through integrative medicine programmes. Clinical adoption sits ahead of definitive proof, reflecting moderate reliable benefit at low cost and minimal risk.
Mechanism: the autonomic regulation hypothesis. Reiki sessions produce measurable cortisol reduction, decreased respiration rate, and lower systolic blood pressure. The 2017 Baldwin pilot at Cleveland Clinic showed real-Reiki recipients had respiration drop that sham-Reiki controls did not match.
Best evidence-based fit: pre-procedural anxiety, post-surgical recovery, fibromyalgia, chronic-condition anxiety, cancer-related fatigue. Weakest fit: severe mental illness as primary treatment, structural disease.
A 2025 scoping review covered 353 biofield therapy studies, including 255 randomised controlled trials. The honest answer is more interesting than yes or no. Effects are real, moderate, and smaller than first-line treatment for most conditions.
The placebo effect is real, measurable, and accounts for part of what energy healing does. The 2017 Baldwin Reiki RCT and the 2017 McManus review found effects above sham conditions. The honest answer is "partly placebo, partly mechanism, partly relationship."
EFT tapping has 56 randomised controlled trials with moderate-to-large effect sizes for anxiety. Reiki shows significant impact on anxiety in a 2024 meta-analysis covering 824 patients across 13 studies.
Glossary31 terms covering modalities, mechanisms, and conditions