As it happens, I'm a "Reiki Master" as well, I have a certificate to prove it and everything! The "Master Initiation" class was actually one of my formative sceptical experiences. After a morning of learning to draw the "Master Symbol" (three Japanese kanji, took all of 30 seconds to learn and was mistranslated and miswritten badly by the instructor), we then spent a while meditating on it, learned how to make a crystal grid and a reiki wand, then got into "Psychic Surgery". That was the killer, requiring one to "lengthen" their fingers with Reiki, then thrust them into the body of the client and "pull out" the negative energy, with as much drama and grunting as possible. It was embarrassing, humiliating even, and it was at this point that I started to seriously think, "but this is bollocks, isn't it?"

Christopher

Sorry to hear you gave up on t'ai chi - although the whole chi thing is bobbins, the benefits to balance, flexibility and relaxation are well researched and documented (by proper scientists, not t'ai chi practitioners!). Sounds like some good came of it though. One of the reasons I find alternative therapies so interesting is the amount of extraneous BS that gets added - it's not enough to have a system of movements that help to relax the body, you have to back it up with psychowaffle about meridians, ancient sites of power, angelic influences or whatever. Otherwise, the woos just won't think it's plausible enough.

Some years ago my ex wife (Wiccan, may have mentioned this elsewhere)decided to become a Reiki "therapist". Out of interest I went on the course with her and went along with the BS the Reiki Master spouted and oddly I too could feel the "energy" flowing, such is the power of suggestion. It does not surprise me that less sceptical people feel they are really getting genuine instruction and benefit from such "educational" programs. [sic]

Reminds me of my mom and I. She's also some sort of Pagan/Wiccan and is a reiki "master" -- she even teaches it. I decided to follow along on one of her group sessions and "felt" the "energy" and what not as well. I could even "feel" the "aura" around trees... but I eventually realized that I couldn't "feel" it if I didn't see the tree first! Needless to say, I don't believe in any of that stuff any more.

I've been tempted several times to ask my mom if she'd be willing to be brought in to a forest blindfolded and walk around avoiding trees by "feeling" their "auras"... Unfortunately, I'm not assertive (confident?) enough to do that and just avoid the subject whenever it's brought up (same with the conspiracy theories...).

Maybe I need to find my own calling and teach a class on how to spot woo-woo!

DKrap you have a point! Critical Thinking 101 anybody?

Even though I eventually quit Tai Chi upon realizing that its effects were just a placebo

I did the Tai Chi thing for a while, gave it up through lack of commitment rather than anything else. Not sure the benefits are all placebo though; good exercise, meditation and focus seems a perfectly rational excuse for doing it.

when it came to ki (chi in my particular brand of esoteric-speak, but same difference). I could physically feel it,

Some years ago my ex wife (Wiccan, may have mentioned this elsewhere)decided to become a Reiki "therapist". Out of interest I went on the course with her and went along with the BS the Reiki Master spouted and oddly I too could feel the "energy" flowing, such is the power of suggestion. It does not surprise me that less sceptical people feel they are really getting genuine instruction and benefit from such "educational" programs.

I have always thought that prisons and penitentiaries would be the hot bed for 'out of body' practitioners but no, not a single known advocate.

You think? Those screws have no idea what I'm up to. Sleeping? Yeah right!

Even though I eventually quit Tai Chi upon realizing that its effects were just a placebo, it was through that quackery that I found a means to question my estblished worldview (which was that of a fire-breathing Charismatic Christian) and acted as a starting point for me to move away from supernatural thinking entirely - so I'd say that it was a positive experience for me overall.

In years past, before Hay House publishers started promoting Browne's lectures, many of them were Learning Annex classes.