The word Reiki is composed of two Japanese words, Rei which means the Wisdom of God or the Divine or the Higher Power and Ki which is life force energy (i.e., Chi or Prana). It is a gentle form of energy healing where the client lies on a massage table (fully clothed) while the practitioner places their hands on or above the body in certain positions. The practitioner acts as a channel for Divine energy in order to activate, guide, and shift the client’s own energy. Reiki cannot harm an individual, and it is only offered by the client’s consent with the highest intentions and integrity.
Reiki History
According to Diane Stein’s book, Essential Reiki: A Complete Guide to an Ancient Healing Art, Reiki energy healing has been practiced for centuries, beginning in ancient India. The hands-on healing or “laying on of hands” practiced by Jesus Christ is a form of Reiki. The modern Reiki story begins in Japan in the late 1800’s when Mikao Usui found the ancient Sanskrit texts describing the healing “formula” in a Zen Buddhist monastery (pp. 10-12). He spread this healing throughout Japan, training 16-18 Reiki masters, including Chujiro Hayashi. Hayashi became Usui’s successor in 1930 and trained as many as 16 masters in his lifetime. The Reiki healing methods where later brought to the West by Hawaya Takata of Hawaii. She received her Reiki training in 1936 as a student of Chujiro Hayashi and became his successor in 1941. Mrs. Takata trained hundreds of students and initiated 22 Reiki masters, traveling from Hawaii to the US mainland, Canada and Europe. Now Reiki is widely accepted as a healing practice by many health professionals and even embraced by Western medical institutions.
About Your Practitioner
A Reiki II practitioner in the Usui lineage, Eileen Mielenhausen has been a channel for healing energy, light, and love all of her life. She became most aware of these gifts when she experienced the power of hands-on healing and sound healing about 25 years ago at the Maine Healing Arts Festival. She has been a student of yoga and chanting since the late ‘90’s and has participated in many workshops and retreats, including programs led by teachers Jonathan Goldman, Sarah Benson, James Ballard, David Hykes, Layne Redmond, Pat & Norm Heitmann, Yogi P and the Funky Shanti (Patrick McAndrew and Heidi Champney), and Kripalu’s Bhavani Lorraine Nelson. In 2003, Eileen started coordinating retreats and workshop programs in her free time as Healing & Expressive Arts Retreats of Maine.
Eileen has offered Reiki energy healing sessions all across the country, from Maine to Florida, and from the Midwest to the Southwest. On her 2015 trip to Santa Fe, she studied sound healing with James Ballard and also worked with sound healers Kate Marks and Kathleen Nagy. She enjoys singing with Women With Wings (Bangor, ME) and the Misty Mountain Singers (Blue Hill, ME) and has performed in public many times as a singer, drummer, poet, and speaker.
Honoring the power of the drum for healing, she has coordinated numerous 8,000 Sacred Drums ceremonies on the coast of Maine since 2008. Eileen has also led drum workshops/sound circles for addiction recovery groups in Maine and Florida, for churches and libraries, for adult ed programs, at women’s wellness events and holistic fairs, for cancer survivors, for incarcerated women at Kennebec County Correctional Facility, for Hancock County hospice caregivers, for gradeschool children in Castine, for UU Youth in Bangor, and for seniors in nursing homes and independent living facilities, among others.
Eileen has worked for many nonprofits, is a former English teacher and librarian, and has an M.A. in Literature. Please contact her at BeamingLight Reiki, (207) 441-2785 or eileen.mielenhausen@gmail.com.
“In a single session, Eileen connected with my own energy, realigning my neck, relieving pain and filling me with peace. Even a week later, I’m still feeling the relief. Thank you.” –Brenda Bywater, Spiritual Director-Energy Healer-Reiki Master, Brewer, ME
