The mindful word

My father’s father was an evangelical Pentecostal minister. He believed every word in the Bible was true. He believed in miracles. He also believed he could make them happen.

I heard stories about my grandfather bringing the dead back to life (a dead chicken, to be specific, but impressive nonetheless) and healing human injuries others might have deemed permanently disabling. A child’s leg was run over by a car, and I’ve been told that my grandfather healed it without the aid of a doctor. In both cases, the seemingly impossible was achieved through the laying on of hands—a religious practice connected to my relatives’ belief in “faith healing.”

It occurred to me recently that there is a strong parallel between the Christian approach to healing delivered through the hands and the practice of Reiki. The understanding of the source, the process and the expected results may differ, but the common belief seems to be that there is healing power in the hands when one has faith and the intention to help.