I Got Long-Distance Reiki From Someone Across The World — Here's What Happened

It took about four to five times of receiving Reiki before I actually felt anything. The first time my body responded to its effects was at a group session with mbg class instructor and Reiki master Kelsey Patel. She led a meditation that was very much like a yoga nidra—deeply relaxing for the body and active for the mind. I felt rushes of warm and cool, tingles, and what felt like many hands touching me at the same time even though Kelsey used hers on an isolated spot, and it was brief.

I met Michelle Baker at a yoga teacher training last fall. She's a Reiki master, mentor, self-worth adviser, and breathwork expert from Sweden who travels quite a bit to bring her teachings and trainings to different populations. After experiencing an intense need to rest more and feeling blocked creatively, I booked a Reiki session with her. I assumed we'd be on Skype—me lying in a bed, camera on, and Baker somehow transmitting her magic through her laptop, through space, through the zeroes and ones, through my computer, and somehow onto me. But that was definitely not how it went.

When the clock struck 8:30 a.m., I hugged my partner goodbye for the day and assumed a horizontal position on the bed—no covers or snuggles, because I was already tired and didn't want to fall asleep. I felt her working immediately—my hands and wrists were tingly the entire time, images arose both abstract and concrete, and my throat felt completely blocked and inaccessible to receive any of the energy Baker was trying to move. I jotted these and other notes down afterward, like a dream I didn't want to forget, and sent them to Baker.

As soon as I hit the send button, I saw a message appear in my inbox from Baker about what she was experiencing. Bullet for bullet, her description of our session aligned almost exactly with my notes! Part of me was astounded—I'm a believer, but often my skeptical, journalistic, inquisitive tendencies kick in, especially with healing work. But this was too close to call it a cosmic accident. She even recognized a "masculine presence in the very beginning but it didn't linger for long, or at least it didn't make me aware that it was lingering." That was my husband hugging me goodbye.

A single session with Baker was so informative, and moderately intense, I don't feel the need to do remote Reiki all the time. But for people who are looking to unblock, to feel inspired, to better listen to their bodies, to understand what's going on energetically, I highly recommend it.