A Randomised Controlled Single-Blind Trial of the Efficacy of Reiki at Benefitting Mood and Well-Being

Lorna Goddard,Deborah Bowden,John Gruzelier

doi:10.1155/2011/381862

Lorna Goddard, Deborah Bowden + Show 1 more

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https://doi.org/10.1155/2011/381862

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Abstract

This is a constructive replication of a previous trial conducted by Bowden et al. (2010), where students who had received Reiki demonstrated greater health and mood benefits than those who received no Reiki. The current study examined impact on anxiety/depression. 40 university students—half with high depression and/or anxiety and half with low depression and/or anxiety—were randomly assigned to receive Reiki or to a non-Reiki control group. Participants experienced six 30-minute sessions over a period of two to eight weeks, where they were blind to whether noncontact Reiki was administered as their attention was absorbed in a guided relaxation. The efficacy of the intervention was assessed pre-post intervention and at five-week follow-up by self-report measures of mood, illness symptoms, and sleep. The participants with high anxiety and/or depression who received Reiki showed a progressive improvement in overall mood, which was significantly better at five-week follow-up, while no change was seen in the controls. While the Reiki group did not demonstrate the comparatively greater reduction in symptoms of illness seen in our earlier study, the findings of both studies suggest that Reiki may benefit mood.

Highlights

Reiki is a system involving the laying on of hands developed in Japan in the early 20th century [1] and is believed to have the capacity to heal the physical body and mind and bring emotional and spiritual balance
The outlying data of two participants were excluded from the DASS analysis—one Reiki participant had a Pre-Total DASS score that was 2.256 SDs above the sample mean and one Control participant had a Pre-Total DASS score that was 2.168 SDs above the sample mean
Posttreatment the total DASS score had improved with Reiki, and this was sustained over five weeks at follow-up

Summary

Introduction

Reiki is a system involving the laying on of hands developed in Japan in the early 20th century [1] and is believed to have the capacity to heal the physical body and mind and bring emotional and spiritual balance. The present study employed a similar design to a previous study by the authors [4], where 35 first year undergraduates were randomly assigned to ten 20-minute sessions of Reiki or no-Reiki in conjunction with self-hypnosis/guided relaxation over a period of two and half to twelve weeks. There was a trend for the Reiki group to have a greater improvement in overall mood than the no-Reiki group, accompanied by a near-significant comparative reduction in stress. The Reiki group had significantly higher baseline illness symptoms and mood scores than the noReiki group. The current study sought to replicate the comparatively greater mood and health benefits of the Reiki group in the previous study, while employing a design that ensured that the mean scores of the groups did not differ at baseline. The inclusion of participants with high depression and/or anxiety permitted the possibility that a greater degree of improvement could occur than was the case with the normally healthy participants of the first study

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