Reiki is a pseudoscience?

 

I created a Vicipéid (Irish-language Wikipedia) page about Reiki yesterday or Réicí as it is called as Gaeilge.

A moderator on Vicipéid added a category of "Pseudoscience" at the bottom of the page and currently there are only 2 articles in the category including my one!

Anyway this got me thinking more and I have thought about it before so I posted the below post on a Reiki forum on Facebook. The forum has over 40,000 members!! :)

Update - the replies to my thread on Facebook can be read here

I don't practice Reiki often (and when I do I usually just do it on myself trying to go to sleep) so I don't think about this much - but I occasionally find it annoying the way Reiki can be described and sometimes defined by people who don't believe in it as a "pseudoscience".

Reiki is not a science so saying that is a "false science" should not be part of the lexicon I believe. I mean the word "science" should not come into it at all, whether from people who don't believe in Reiki and by people who do.

I have heard a couple of Reiki practitioners over the years making what sound like scientific claims but these claims do a disservice to the practice and fuel the "pseudoscience" arguments.

Reiki is a spirituality complementary therapy or in other words can I think be described as faith based. I for one believe it is real and not just because of faith but I think references to "science" / "pseudoscience" should be gotten rid of. There may be not be allegations of Reiki being a "pseudoscience" made if some practitioners of Reiki did not make what are not widely proven scientific (mostly medical) claims.

I for one have not heard any Reiki practitioners use the word science itself to describe the practice but making allegedly scientific / medical claims is the same thing.

My interest in Reiki is mainly spiritual. I do believe personally that Reiki can help with physical problems but I think this comes back to faith and that people generally who are willing to receive Reiki energy either have faith or are not generally totally closed to it. As Jesus said (not that I am saying again that Reiki can often work wonders):

"For truly I tell you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you."

 (Matthew 17:20-21).