When I first started practicing Reiki, I didn't believe that I was intuitive. In fact, I thought that I might only be able to become intuitive after years of dedicated practice, if then. I thought that maybe intuition was only for the gifted few, or if it did arrive for me then it would flash into my head, gone in an instant, and I would not know how to get it back again.

I now realize that intuition is available for everyone, right from the word go, and that by doing just a few simple things we can all amaze ourselves with what we can become aware of. Partly I have come to this conclusion through trial and error, and partly through practicing an intuitive technique called 'Reiji' that is used in the original form of Reiki, a technique that allows your hands to be moved 'by invisible magnets' to the right places to treat. I have a long way to go with intuition: it is a lifelong journey, but I thought some people might find my experiences and experimentation interesting to read about.

I would dangle the pendulum over each chakra in turn and ask 'show me the state of the crown chakra' and so on. Some people ask if each chakra in turn is balanced, others dangle the pendulum and watch its direction of rotation and size of circle traced out, showing how the chakra spins and how open it is. I found after a while that I did not need to hold the pendulum over the chakra; I could just hold the pendulum at my side and ask it as the client lay in front of me. Then I discovered that I did not need to have the client in front of me either, and that I could balance their chakras before they  arrived for a treatment! I was starting to realize that there were not too many limits to this technique.

On occasion I forgot to bring my pendulum with me, and I could not find anything to use as a substitute, so I started using an 'imaginary pendulum' which I 'held'. My arm made the same muscle movements as before, without the need to suspend a crystal from a thread. Some people use a pendulum that swings 'in their imagination'. They watch to see how its spin changes in response to their questions. I don't get on very well with that: I never seem to be able to look at the pendulum from the right angle to tell exactly what it is doing!

I tried to move on from this to see if I could dispense with a pendulum altogether, whether real or imaginary. I started 'looking' at someone's chakras by imagining a series of seven circles one above another, and looking at each circle in turn to see whether it was small and closed, or open and large. I did not trust this to begin with, of course, because I thought 'this is just my imagination. I am making this up', so I went back to my trusted imaginary pendulum, and was amazed to find that the pendulum  agreed with my 'imagination'.

On a recent update day for my Reiki Masters we practiced visualizing each other's chakras, and there was a whole variety of presentations. One person saw traffic lights with lights at different intensities. One saw a string of seven beads. Another could not see anything until she 'peered' over the edge of the chakra, to look down on a lotus flower; some of the flowers had petals that were folded in, others had their petals fully open.

Now I have moved on from the pendulum and use an imaginary 'mixing desk', rather like you might see in a recording studio: a series of seven vertical 'sliders' with a central point that represents 'balance'. I look at each chakra slider in turn and if it slides downwards then the chakra is closed/spinning sluggishly, and if it moves upwards then the chakra is spinning too fast. I also now use a set of five sliders to look at a person's elements.

The Japanese connection to all this comes in the form of an intuitive 'technique' called "Reiji Ho" which means something like 'indication of the spirit technique'. Details of this method have come to us through Frank Arjava Petter, Hiroshi Doi, and through contacts with Usui's surviving students. This method involves allowing the energy to guide your hands, so rather than following the Western system of 'standard hand positions' you allow Reiki to put your hands in the right place for each person you treat.

You are then gearing your treatment to the individual's energy needs, rather than applying a 'rubber stamp' treatment to everyone. People who I have treated using both approaches have found that intuitive treatments seem to penetrate more deeply, seem more relevant to them and more profound. Once this technique is mastered then every treatment is different: the hand positions change from one person to another and from one treatment to another with the same client, based on their individual needs. Intuitive treatments are liberating; you just merge with the energy and let it happen!

This was the basis for Usui's original method: letting the energy guide you.

I have described Reiji Ho as a technique, yet in fact there is no method. The 'technique' involves not doing, not thinking, in fact it works best if you can simply get your mind out of the way completely. You feel your connection with the energy, feel the energy flowing through you, and as you do so feel yourself joining with the energy, merging with the energy, becoming one with the energy. and you simply allow the energy to guide your hands.

What is so exciting for me is that this technique works for almost everyone within a few minutes, so of the 260+ people who have been taught this technique on my 'Japanese' course, more than 95% have found that it works for them almost immediately. I teach this technique routinely on my Reiki 2 courses and it works incredibly well. The Japanese 'Reiju' empowerments seem to have the effect of giving people greater intuitive potential, so the combination of Reiju and Reiji, as well as the energy exercises called Hatsu Rei Ho, work very well together, fitting like the pieces of a simple and elegant jigsaw. What is also exciting is that if you make it a basic part of your Reiki practice to open yourself to intuition, then you will develop additional intuitive abilities, so moving your hands is only the starting  point!

It is liberating and exciting to realize that intuition is there from the start, and that all you have to do to access that inner knowledge is to suspend your disbelief, trust that it will work for you, and have a go.  Don't try hard, don't force it, and don't think about it. just merge with the energy, empty your head, and let it happen!

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Taggart King is a Reiki Master/Teacher from England who runs specialist courses for Reiki people in 'Original Usui Reiki' (passing on techniques from Mikao Usui's surviving students), and 'Five Element Healing'. He can be contacted on taggart@reiki-evolution.co.uk, www.reiki-evolution.co.uk.